News spread that the Suit Pirates had formed a pirate alliance and were preparing to jointly attack Rose Island. Martha immediately contacted Vane, hoping he could help defend Rose Island.
This pirate alliance would gather at least more than five hundred vicious pirates, and they also had the Suit Pirates' captain, Jane Erkoya, with a bounty of 70 million Belly.
A captain worth 70 million, plus a subordinate with a 30 million bounty—powerful individual strength combined with a sufficient number of brutal pirates. Relying on the Rose Kingdom's army alone, it was absolutely impossible to withstand this wave of the pirate alliance.
"The Rose Island royal army has eight hundred men. This battle isn't completely impossible to fight."
Ordinary pirates posed little threat to Vane. Even if he went alone to face them, he had enough confidence to slaughter a pirate alliance of fewer than a thousand until they collapsed in disarray.
Having overwhelming individual strength really did allow one to be this arrogant.
The only one who truly interested him was the Suit Pirates' captain, Erkoya. With such an outstanding bounty, his strength had to be formidable—he might even be a Devil Fruit user.
As long as the opponent was a Devil Fruit user, Vane was very interested in clashing with them, maybe farming some Pokémon or items.
The Articuno feather pendant on his chest had already consumed more than half its energy. The most direct effect was that the increase in his physical strength during this period was visible to the naked eye. Coupled with ice-type energy and Frost Breathing, his current self was roughly on par with a low-tier ability user.
He wondered whether this world had a Paramecia-type Chilly-Chilly Fruit—the opposite of the Heat-Heat Fruit.
The owner of the Heat-Heat Fruit was a future Yonko family member, from the current Charlotte Family: Big Mom Charlotte Linlin's fourth son, Charlotte Oven.
Since the Heat-Heat Fruit existed, then the Chilly-Chilly Fruit should logically exist as well. Maybe someday someone would even mistake him for a Chilly-Chilly Fruit user.
But the Chilly-Chilly Fruit was clearly a relatively lower-tier fruit. Although abilities shouldn't be discriminated against and development was extremely important, if most people were given a choice among fruits of the same tier—
The Logia Ice-Ice Fruit and the Logia Snow-Snow Fruit.
No one would refuse the Ice-Ice Fruit, or even the Snow-Snow Fruit. Logia-type abilities were simply far too tempting.
"Boss, a pirate ship has been spotted ahead."
"Bring us alongside! Let's deal with part of the pirates first—otherwise there'll be too many pirates on Rose Island later."
Today, Vane was going to play the role of the boarding king. Come to think of it, the boarding king should be even younger than him right now.
The ship bearing a Meowth emblem quickly changed course and moved to close in on the unknown pirate ship.
"This is bad, Captain—we've been targeted by the pirate killer's ship!"
That terrifying Meowth emblem—yes. In the eyes of others, the Meowth emblem looked very cute, but to pirates, it was nothing less than a dreadful hellish Meowth.
In the Thorn Rose sea region, anyone who encountered the marked ship of Hell Meowth basically met their end.
It was just unclear where the news that "everyone met their end" had spread from.
These pirates didn't know, but Vane did. After understanding the rough relationship between gangs and pirates, it was highly likely that his actions had been leaked by the underworld.
That pirate ship's power was inferior to the Black Panther under Vane's feet. After being chased for some distance, they began trying to shake pursuit with cannon fire.
"Watch the cannonballs! Watch the cannonballs!"
An ordinary pirate ship usually only had two or three cannons at most. With that level of barrage density, dodging wasn't particularly difficult.
However, as long as they maneuvered to evade, the pursuit speed would inevitably slow down.
The enemy's goal was to force Vane and his crew to dodge and reduce speed—but how could Vane let their plan succeed?
"Don't worry about the cannons. Keep moving forward."
Vane walked straight to the bow and drew his blade. Which cannonballs would hit the pursuing Black Panther was something he quickly predicted.
In his vision, the cannonballs grew from tiny black dots into full-sized projectiles. Vane swung his sword decisively.
Frost Breathing—Northern Wind Howl.
A blue-white flying slash surged forward. The cannonball was split cleanly in half midair, and a thick layer of white frost instantly covered both halves.
Not only was it cut in two, even the possibility of an explosion was severed.
A flying slash—an attack that only a swordsman at the swordmaster realm could unleash.
Vane's physique and his control over ice-type energy had both been enhanced after absorbing the Articuno feather's power. Cutting out a flying slash came naturally.
From this point on, his original sword techniques began a complete transformation. Adding Frost Breathing before each strike had become a habit. In reality, his swordsmanship had already abandoned much of its technical finesse, charging headlong down the path of overwhelming power.
The pirate ship ahead was still struggling desperately, firing all its cannonballs in one go. But no matter how many shots they fired, either they missed, or just as they were about to hit, they were struck down by some unseen attack without even making a sound.
Boom!
Under the pirates' frequent firing, the old cannons overheated and finally couldn't hold out—they exploded.
The pirate ship's speed dropped sharply. Some of the pirates had to split off to put out the fire, scrambling in chaos.
"Hurry, hurry—use buckets to put out the fire!"
"The ship behind us is catching up!"
If they were caught, they'd die. But if the ship burned, they'd die as well.
In the end, the Black Panther successfully latched onto the pirate ship. Vane very considerately helped them put out the fire—one slash sent a surge of cold air spreading out, and the burning flames instantly went out, as if they'd lost all oxygen.
This captain's bounty was only 8 million—just like the "Bandit King" who once fought Yonko Red-Haired Shanks and trampled the future Pirate King—his ship was worth more than he was.
This pirate ship didn't look like a purpose-built pirate vessel either. It was probably a captured merchant ship, no wonder its speed was lacking.
With equal shipbuilding technology, pirate ships were essentially attack vessels, usually prioritizing speed. Merchant ships had larger holds and were correspondingly slower.
Of course, once technology reached a higher level—like Navy warships—they balanced both speed and carrying capacity.
Naturally, what they carried were Marines and various firearms and ammunition, and they also functioned as mobile artillery fortresses. Large Navy warships had terrifying firepower suppression; ordinary pirates would be torn apart with ease.
They tied up everyone in the small pirate crew. Aside from special professions like navigators, shipwrights, and doctors—who could be kept—the rest were all money bags.
After going to sea and striking down so many pirates, the number of Rocket Team grunts under Vane had increased slightly. This newly added group all consisted of special professions.
This caused special professions to occupy a significant proportion within Vane's team.
Moreover, special professions themselves were also a form of combat power. Take ship doctors as an example—whether it was the Roger Pirates' doctor or the Straw Hat Pirates' doctor, which one couldn't fight? Even the Heart Pirates under the Surgeon of Death had medical personnel making up a high proportion.
He didn't expect these special professionals to be monstrous like Trafalgar Law, the Op-Op Fruit user. He only needed them to do their jobs well—and be able to fire a gun at the same time.
"Boss, where are we heading next?"
"Back to Shell Town. Bring everyone along to Rose Island."
The powerhouses of this sea region would gather on Rose Island. Continuing to hunt down these small pirate crews here had no meaning anymore—it was time to head to a bigger stage and join the excitement.