Author Note:
The original Chapter 34 was accidentally missed during upload.
Please read the inserted Chapter 34 before continuing with this chapter.
Sorry for the confusion, and thank you for your patience.
Chapter 34: Breaking Through
"Have Warship Eighteen turn broadside and keep firing to hinder The Lucky's movement. We'll go in directly and capture Ren!"
"Vice Admiral Beart, if we do that, won't the Red-Haired Pirates escape?"
"It doesn't matter. Our primary target this time is the Myriad Worlds Pirates. Fleet Admiral Kong has given the order—Ren and his crew must be taken in."
"Yes, sir..."
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Facing the Marines' concentrated barrage, Ren told Martha not to evade and instead keep sailing in a straight line at full speed, doing everything possible to break out of the encirclement.
Because Ren had already seen what was happening—of the Marine ships from the other two directions, only a few remained behind to keep Shanks and his crew occupied. The rest were all converging on him.
The Lucky had the protection of a ship spirit, yes, but Ren still had no intention of dragging this out any longer.
"What is going on? Why can't we sink the Myriad Worlds Pirates' ship? Tell the artillery crews that if they miss again, I'll personally show them what hell looks like!"
"Vice Admiral Beart, we don't know either. The gunners say they're clearly on target, but their shells just can't hit the enemy."
Hearing that report, Beart calmed down from his earlier rage.
As a Marine Vice Admiral, he knew very well that the soldiers aboard his flagship were elite.
Yes, the Myriad Worlds Pirates' ship was small and much faster than an ordinary vessel, but the distance between the two sides was only a few hundred meters. After so many volleys, not a single shell had landed. That was far too strange.
"Gather every Marine from Warships Eighteen, Nineteen, and this ship who can use Moonwalk. We'll board the Myriad Worlds Pirates directly."
"Yes, sir!"
"Move!"
Just as Ren was about to break through the Marine blockade, seven Marines landed on The Lucky using Moonwalk.
At the front was a Marine Vice Admiral. Behind him were two Rear Admirals and four officers of field rank.
The Vice Admiral's face was covered in scars. With his appearance alone, he didn't even need to put on an expression—just standing there was enough to make a child burst into tears.
Shing!
Beart drew both of his swords and said coldly, "Lucky Ren, I come in the name of Marine justice to arrest you. Surrender."
Ren pointed a flip-flop at him and replied, "If you want me to surrender, that's not happening."
"In that case, enough talk. Move in. Arrest the Myriad Worlds Pirates."
"Yes, sir!"
"Be careful. Don't damage the ship."
After tossing out that order, Ren immediately charged Beart head-on.
Clang! Clang!
The crisp ringing of flip-flops and twin blades clashing echoed across the deck.
At the same time, Martha transformed into a tentacled monstrosity once again and threw herself into battle against the Marine officers.
Beart was a Marine Vice Admiral.
The scars on his face had come from his days undercover in a pirate crew. Back then, he had been suspected of being a spy and captured by the pirates, who subjected him to inhuman torture.
But Beart never confessed.
In the end, after enduring all that without breaking, the pirates concluded he couldn't possibly be a spy.
Not only that, the captain had even decided he was talented enough to promote him to vice captain.
And not long after earning their trust, Beart led that pirate crew straight into a Marine trap, where they were annihilated.
That achievement earned him his promotion to Rear Admiral.
Though he had won great merit, his face had been left covered in scars.
With such a distinctive appearance, he could no longer serve as an infiltrator, but after becoming a Rear Admiral, he rose again through pure combat merit. In just two years, his dual-sword style had earned him another promotion to Vice Admiral.
Among pirates, he had become known as the Ogre Vice Admiral.
As for today's target, he had originally looked down on it completely.
A newly risen pirate with a mere fifty-thousand-beli bounty, and Marine Headquarters had mobilized three Vice Admirals and nine warships?
Ridiculous.
But after only a brief exchange, all of that contempt vanished.
For Ren to block his twin swords with nothing but a pair of flip-flops meant one thing clearly—his swordsmanship was strong, and his Armament Haki was anything but weak.
Realizing his opponent was far stronger than the original reports suggested, Beart immediately began using Armament Haki in earnest.
The next moment, Ren and Beart clashed in a true close-quarters duel. Both of them had Armament and Observation Haki, and both were no slouches in weapon combat. For a time, the two sides were evenly matched.
Meanwhile, Martha was fighting five Marine officers alone.
Thanks to the properties of her liquid metal body, all of their attacks were practically useless against her, while Martha's strikes could injure them with ease.
Though the Marines had the advantage in speed, Martha was a machine. Her ultra-dense alloy skeleton meant she simply didn't care about their attacks. Whether it was sword strikes, bullets, punches, or kicks, at most they distorted her liquid metal outer layer. They couldn't even reach the internal metal frame beneath.
And even if an attack did manage to reach that frame, it still couldn't actually damage it.
For a time, Martha alone suppressed five Marine officers.
As for the last Marine, he had set his sights on Xu Nian—
but unfortunately for him, Xu Nian was no easy prey either.
If this had been a week ago, he might still have had a chance.
But now?
Xu Nian had already fully mastered both Observation Haki and Armament Haki.
She could dodge every attack aimed at her, and when dodging wasn't possible, she simply hardened herself with Armament Haki and took it head-on.
At the same time, she returned fire with bullets coated in Armament Haki.
At first, the Marine officer had tried to endure them with Iron Body.
But with Armament Haki enhancing their power, Xu Nian's bullets hit vastly harder than before.
After only two shots, he was finished.
The other five Marines, still tangled up with Martha, hadn't even noticed that Xu Nian had already dealt with her opponent. In their minds, one Marine colonel was more than enough to handle a sniper.
Once her own enemy was down, Xu Nian drew two pistols and unleashed a rapid barrage at the Marines fighting Martha.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Dozens of bullets caught them completely off guard.
None of them had imagined that the first one to fall would be from their own side.
Facing that torrent of shots while Martha's liquid-metal tentacles held them in place, the Marines instinctively used Iron Body, preparing to take Xu Nian's fire head-on.
At the same time, two others who had been quietly lurking nearby without drawing Marine attention—the husky and the Devourer—finally joined the battle.
The husky saw one Marine lock himself into Iron Body and become unable to move, then lunged from behind and knocked him flat.
Martha's liquid metal instantly wrapped around him and pinned him down.
The Devourer, meanwhile, was much more direct.
Using its size advantage, it slapped one Marine clean off the deck with a single blow.
Then it swung its thick tail and swept two more Marines into the sea.
Just like that, what had once been a five-against-one situation for the Marines turned into one man against four enemies.
Looking at Xu Nian, who had just reloaded, the husky baring its teeth at him, the Devourer flashing a horrifying grin, and Martha with both hands transformed into blades, the last Marine officer swallowed hard.
Then he turned around and jumped into the sea on his own.
At that moment, Beart himself was already being beaten around by Ren's flip-flops.
The reason was simple—during their exchange, Ren had smashed both of Beart's swords apart.
That left him unarmed.
Beart was not purely a swordsman. Even without weapons, his hand-to-hand combat wasn't weak. But Ren still had weapons, and that made all the difference.
So Beart could only use his bare hands to block the incoming flip-flops.
Before long, he could no longer feel his arms.
Then he saw Ren jump up and bring both flip-flops down in a double overhead strike.
Beart crossed his arms and prepared to block—
when suddenly he noticed a silver-white tentacle hurtling straight toward his chest.
There was no time to pull his arms back to defend.
The only thing he could do was grit his teeth and shout,
"Iron Body!"
Bang!
Iron Body kept Beart from being pierced, but Martha's strike still sent him flying off the ship.
Splash!
Beart was blown clear off The Lucky and plunged into the sea.
By this point, The Lucky's speed had already carried it far enough ahead that the remaining Marine warships were falling behind.
___________________________
Chapter 35: Escape
Watching The Lucky pulling farther and farther away, a Marine Vice Admiral in a red uniform aboard Warship Twenty-Five gave a cold order.
"Fire."
"Vice Admiral Sakazuki, Vice Admiral Beart is still in that section of the sea. Firing now could easily cause friendly casualties."
Sakazuki's face remained expressionless as he replied, "If the Myriad Worlds Pirates escape our encirclement, then the justice of the Marines will be utterly disgraced. Fire."
Faced with Sakazuki's command, the Marines aboard the ship had no choice but to obey.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Huge columns of water erupted across the sea.
"Ah!"
Inside the wall of exploding spray, Beart watched one of his own subordinates take a direct hit from a cannon shell.
He stared blankly at the red-stained seawater.
As a Marine Vice Admiral, he had long since grown used to death.
But he had never imagined that one day, he might die at the hands of his own side.
He turned toward the warship that had opened fire, and when he saw the number painted on its hull, a low growl escaped his throat.
"Sakazuki..."
"What's going on? Why is Vice Admiral Sakazuki firing? Vice Admiral Beart is still in that area!"
"No idea!"
"Report! Vice Admiral Sakazuki has sent an order for all ships to open fire and sink the Myriad Worlds Pirates' ship at all costs!"
"What? Then what about Vice Admiral Beart?"
"Vice Admiral Sakazuki gave no further instructions."
"No. Tell Vice Admiral Sakazuki that I cannot obey that order."
"I will not open fire on my own comrades."
...
There were four Marine warships pursuing Ren's crew.
In the end, only Sakazuki's ship ignored the Marines still stranded in the sea and continued bombarding Ren.
The other three all refused to fire.
"Martha, steer left."
"Captain, the Marine warships are directly behind us. If we turn left, we will remain within their artillery range for more than five minutes."
"If we continue straight, we can break free of their firing range in less than one minute."
"I know," Ren said. "But follow the order."
"Yes, Captain."
Under Ren's command, The Lucky veered sharply to the left.
"Vice Admiral Sakazuki, the Myriad Worlds Pirates' ship has changed course. They're turning left."
Sakazuki stared at the vessel cutting sideways across the water and said coldly, "Increase the bombardment."
Boom! Boom! Boom!
As The Lucky turned, the Marine fire became even denser.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Even with the ship spirit's protection, Xu Nian still had to shoot down some of the incoming shells herself.
Those shells might not hit The Lucky directly, but their near misses created massive water columns, and for such a small ship, that was enough to disrupt its stability and course.
Floating among the waves, Beart watched The Lucky complete its turn and pull away.
A complicated feeling rose in his chest.
With that speed, the ship could easily have continued straight and escaped.
But once it turned sideways, it only prolonged the time it spent under fire.
No normal pirate would make that choice.
No—even an ordinary man wouldn't.
There was only one explanation.
The reason The Lucky had changed direction...
was to keep the Marine cannon fire from continuing to fall around him and the others in the water.
He had never expected that one day, a pirate would be the one to save his life.
"Move aside."
Watching the prolonged bombardment produce no results, Sakazuki finally decided to act personally.
He stepped onto the bow of his ship and raised both hands.
"Meteor Volcano."
Chunks of magma shot into the sky.
The moment Ren saw the molten projectiles, he knew something was very wrong.
He knew that technique far too well.
That was Akainu's signature move.
"Martha, faster!"
Unfortunately, he shouted a little too late.
By then, a rain of magma was already crashing down.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Every falling chunk that struck the sea sent up a huge column of water, while the intense heat instantly vaporized enormous amounts of seawater.
In moments, thick steam blanketed the entire area.
Then Ren saw one massive chunk of magma falling directly toward The Lucky.
Looking at its size, two words flashed through his mind.
We're done for.
But just as it was about to smash into the ship, a Sea King suddenly rose from the water beneath it.
The magma chunk landed right on its head.
The Sea King was dumbfounded.
It had only surfaced for a little fresh air.
How had it gotten hit the second it came up?
Not only did the thing hurt, it was hot. It even burned off one of its beautiful tendrils.
How was it supposed to court the Sea King living nearby now?
"ROOOAAAR!"
With an enraged howl, the Sea King glared at Sakazuki, who was still hurling magma, then dove back under the sea.
When it surfaced again, it was right in the middle of the Marine formation.
Its enormous body made the warships look like toys.
With the Sea King creating chaos, Ren and the others finally succeeded in shaking off the Marines.
Once they were far enough away, The Lucky slowed down.
At this point, the Marines were too busy keeping themselves alive against the Sea King to worry about pursuing pirates.
Even from a distance, Ren could still hear the Sea King's furious roars, the endless thunder of cannon fire, and the hiss of rising steam.
"Tch. Marine luck really is terrible."
"Captain, do you realize that your earlier order could have gotten us killed?"
Now that the danger had passed, Xu Nian finally turned and confronted him.
Ren looked at her and asked, "Do you know why I usually avoid killing Marines?"
Xu Nian said nothing.
Ren continued, "Because once, when I was drifting at sea and almost died, it was the Marines who saved me. Even though I'm a pirate now, I still don't want to slaughter Marines."
"And besides, most Marines really are decent people. They protect civilians, maintain order, and hunt criminals. This world could survive without pirates—but not without Marines."
After hearing that, Xu Nian nodded.
"I understand."
"Oh? Ren, are you alright?"
At that moment, Ren heard Shanks's voice from behind him.
He turned around and saw the Red Force following them.
But the ship had changed dramatically.
Its once-red dragon figurehead had turned black, one of its horns was completely gone, and out of all its sails, only one remained intact.
Worse still, the ship's starboard side had a massive hole in it, causing the entire vessel to tilt heavily to the right.
When the Red Force drew closer, Ren realized the damage was even worse than he had thought.
The hull was riddled with shell marks and burn scars, and the breach in its side was enormous.
Looking at the wrecked state of the Red Force, Ren silently thought to himself—
Yukikaze's ship spirit really is terrifying.
Of course, he would never tell Shanks the true nature of his ship spirit's special ability.
If Shanks ever found out, Ren was absolutely certain that even Beckman would gladly join the group beating him to death.
After all, for pirates, their ship was basically their home.
And if your home got wrecked because your ally's ship spirit shifted the damage that should've hit them onto you...
what would you do?
Staring at The Lucky, which looked almost completely untouched, Shanks asked, "Ren, most of the Marine fire was aimed at you. So why is your ship still in perfect condition?"
"Hahaha..."
Ren forced out an awkward laugh.
"Well... I used my ability on my ship. It has the trait of good luck now, so it's very hard to hit in naval battles."
"What the hell? That kind of trait exists too?"
The entire Red-Haired crew stared at him in disbelief.
Ren immediately changed the subject before he said too much.
"So, Shanks, what are you planning to do now?"
Shanks glanced back at the battered Red Force and sighed.
"We'll have to find a place to repair the ship first. After that... I'm going to look for a sniper."
The moment Ren heard that, he immediately realized one thing.
He hadn't seen Yasopp yet.
Which meant Yasopp hadn't joined the Red-Haired Pirates at this point.
Feeling a little guilty about the condition of Shanks's ship, Ren said, "I know of an extremely talented sniper in the East Blue. As for where exactly he is, that's something you'll have to find yourself."
"And Shanks... in the East Blue, you're going to meet someone special. He'll inherit your straw hat, and you'll wager something important on him."
Shanks stared at Ren.
He had never once told Ren anything about the straw hat.
And yet Ren had just mentioned it.
Seeing that look in Shanks's eyes, Ren smiled faintly.
"I know you have a lot of questions. Next time we meet, after you've found that person... I'll tell you."
"Fine," Shanks said casually.
Soon after, the two crews exchanged farewells and parted ways.
Each headed for their own road.