"Air Curtain!"
As Rorschach locked his fingers onto the sky and pulled downward—
The air within several hundred meters around him compressed in layers, forming a massive curtain. Gripping it with both hands, he slammed it down onto the sea below.
As the howling wind whipped up, stirring the dark blue seawater into rising waves in all directions, a thunderous boom exploded in every pirate's ears.
Then, under the horrified gazes of thousands upon thousands of pirates scattered across the surrounding sea—
The pirate ships beneath Rorschach—more than a dozen charging ahead at full speed—were shattered like flies swatted by an invisible giant hand, instantly breaking apart.
Amid the sounds of cracking timber and exploding cannons—
One ship after another was crushed by the unseen force, splintering into drifting debris.
Alongside the broken ships, the pirates aboard were reduced to pulp and blasted into the churning waters below, their bodies scattering with the crashing waves.
In an instant, the stench of blood and death spread rapidly in all directions with the roaring wind.
The sudden catastrophe froze every pirate aboard the speeding ships nearby. All their excitement turned to stunned silence as they blankly stared at Rorschach.
It had all happened too fast. Too violently.
They still hadn't recovered from the shock of that devastating moment.
Until—
That white figure hovering in the sky rose again, shooting toward another cluster of dozens of pirate ships on the flank, repeating the same motion with both hands.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
Shrill cries rang out across the pirate ships.
"It's the Marines! That bastard Marine is in the sky! Cannons! Snipers! Shoot him down!"
The pirates screamed in panic, frantically grabbing their flintlocks and firing wildly at Rorschach above.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In an instant, bullets and cannonballs rained through the air like a storm, tearing through the waves and sky, aiming for Rorschach.
Invisible gales swirled around Rorschach's body, lifting his tall figure aloft.
But the pirates' aim was abysmal.
Most bullets and shells missed entirely.
A few lucky shots that did reach him were blocked by an invisible wall of air.
Whoooosh!
With his fingers clawing the air once more and pulling down hard, Rorschach summoned a raging storm that engulfed heaven and earth.
The ultra-compressed air, like a formless shield, pressed downward from dozens of meters above, slamming onto the sea.
BOOM!
Under the pirates' terrified eyes, Rorschach's body rapidly expanded, transforming in an instant into a seven-meter-tall Qilin beast-man, extending two massive scaly arms to press down the very sky.
"Command the Wind! Overwhelm the Sea!"
In the next moment—
The sea within a radius of two to three hundred meters caved in, forming a huge depression over ten meters deep under the weight of explosive force.
Every pirate ship within that zone suffered the same fate as before—shattered in an instant, without resistance—reduced to splinters and dragged into the depths by the invisible air wall.
It happened again and again.
The enormous cavity in the sea pushed massive amounts of water outward in crashing waves, forming tsunami-like surges ten meters high that slammed toward the surrounding pirate fleet.
"Damn it! What the hell is that monster?! Hard to starboard! Get away from it!"
"A tsunami's coming! Run! We're going to be swept away!"
The pirates screamed in terror.
But inside the sunken basin of sea water, an even more terrifying change was brewing.
"ROAR!!"
A thunderous, dragon-like roar tore through the sky.
The humanoid beast-man was gone. In its place was a towering, sixty-meter-long cerulean Qilin.
With a dragon's head, a horse's body, and a crocodile's tail, this mythical beast's body was covered in brilliant blue, starry scales. It stepped forward with four pillar-like legs, rising from the sunken sea in a surge.
Invisible gales surged across the sky and sea, swirling around the divine creature's body and forming a rapidly spinning and growing tornado pillar.
Water was swept upward into the sky in crashing torrents.
A massive whirlpool, hundreds of meters in diameter, was forming at terrifying speed beneath the spinning wind vortex.
And the pirates—staring at the center of the sea—could only tremble as they looked upon the sacred and fearsome figure of the Qilin beast.
Looking at the towering, ever-growing tornado pillar below him—And the rapidly expanding, massive ocean whirlpool—
Everyone at that moment felt only boundless fear.
Absalom rushed to the ship's railing, staring blankly at this apocalyptic scene. His lion-like mouth trembled uncontrollably:"What kind of joke is this?! How can a human do something like that?! That Marine... that Marine who can turn into a giant beast... has summoned a storm!"
"Run!"
All at once—
At that very instant, every pirate near the sky-piercing tornado and massive whirlpool let out hysterical screams.
On the chaotic sea, one pirate ship after another scrambled to flee in the opposite direction.
"ROAR!"
Another thunderous roar like explosive thunder rang out from the sky.
Then, under the changing expressions of Glievor and Chinjao, a black-red energy orb swelled from the massive Qilin beast in the sky, rapidly expanding and surging toward the fleeing pirate ships below.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!Rumble!Thunder roared across the sky with a deep, shattering sound.
In an instant, the black-red orb expanded to several kilometers, engulfing over a hundred unfortunate pirate ships.
In the next second—
On those ships caught in the black-red light, the pirates who had been filled with terror suddenly froze as if struck by lightning.
Then their eyes rolled back.
Foam began to spill from their mouths.
Thud! Thud! Thud!Amid heavy crashing sounds, pirate after pirate collapsed like wheat being harvested, falling flat across their ships.
"That's... Conqueror's Haki!"
Glievor's expression darkened dramatically as he stared fixedly at the beast striding through the sky on the wind.
He had already held this young Marine in high regard.
He had even gone so far as to bring Chinjao in.
But he hadn't expected this.
This apocalyptic storm and the sudden burst of Conqueror's Haki made one thing abundantly clear:This young Marine officer's strength had reached a level so terrifying that even he felt the pressure.
Boom! Boom! Boom!With no one left to steer them, the pirate ships fleeing the massive whirlpool quickly lost control and began colliding across the waves.
The ever-expanding whirlpool now resembled the gaping maw of a colossal Sea King, sucking in all nearby escaping pirate ships.
Amid the roaring torrents of water, ship after ship spun helplessly, sucked into the bottomless, dark ocean—Carrying entire crews with them, sinking forever into the abyss.
"Head to land! Everyone, make for Queen of Spring Castle, now!"
Glievor suddenly shouted.
In the form of a giant resembling Dorry, his roar rolled across the sea like thunder.
But the scattered pirates on the water were so terror-stricken by Rorschach, they couldn't hear him.They frantically fled in all directions.
Rorschach's single wave of Conqueror's Haki, combined with the whirlpool's pull, had already knocked out five to six thousand pirates.
In other words, in just a few dozen seconds, he had single-handedly taken out a third of the pirates, sinking over a hundred pirate ships into the deep sea!
These pirates of Paradise had never seen such a terrifying, inhuman monster.
If it weren't for the sheer number of ships and their wide spread—Half the pirate fleet could've been wiped out right then and there.
Run!To hell with the pay!To hell with the Bounty Hunter Guild!
To hell with Glievor!
Right now, there was only one thought in every pirate's mind: escape!
"These idiots! If we don't force that Marine brat to fight within the capital where he's restricted, he'll just keep swallowing us up with that ability of his!"
Glievor's face was ashen as he watched the pirate ships scatter. He turned sharply to Chinjao and roared:"Chinjao! That Marine brat's power is far beyond expectations. We can't fight him here on the sea—head to land!"
Chinjao clenched his fists, his eyes burning with fury.
Among the ten pirate ships he'd brought from the West Blue, two had already been swallowed by the whirlpool.
"Everyone! Full speed ahead! Landfall now!"
(End of Chapter)
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