"As for these Marines, in the eyes of your captain, me!"
"They're nothing special!"
Step by step, Rojen walked forward. Around him, an invisible aura surged upward, domineering, overwhelming, the kind of presence that could erode human will. It was impossible to describe with words alone.
"If you can't even take this one step before you…"
"Then how could you ever talk about surpassing that dead old man?"
At this moment, Rojen stood alone, his back against the towering, thick walls of the Marine Headquarters. In front of him, no fewer than three thousand elite Marines were charging toward him, their speed astonishing.
This was a battle, one man against several thousand powerhouses. The pressure was immense, the momentum overwhelming, shocking to behold.
Rojen hadn't chosen to leave with his companions. Doing so would only cause endless waves of pursuers. Although Jason and the other two weren't weak, they didn't possess the trump card he did, the System. If anything unexpected happened, that was something Rojen refused to allow.
As captain, in a moment like this, he had to make a decision, and he did.
He chose to face everything alone.
"Disguising yourselves as Marines, sneaking into Marine Headquarters, what exactly are you planning?"
The Marines were now less than thirty meters from Rojen, shouting accusations with fierce expressions.
"What are we planning?"
A smile appeared on Rojen's lips. He walked forward slowly, not retreating, but instead choosing to meet them head-on.
"Beat me, and I'll tell you!"
Both sides advanced quickly. In the blink of an eye, only ten meters remained between them. At that instant, the Marines drew their guns, gripped their sabers, clenched their fists, ready to attack. To them, ten meters was nothing, an instant to cross.
But at that same moment, Rojen closed his eyes.
Then, suddenly, he opened them.
"Wumm!!"
A tyrannical aura burst outward, expanding like a savage shockwave. Behind him, the surface of the solid wall seemed to be slashed by some razor-sharp weapon, leaving a long scar. On the buildings to both sides, countless new marks appeared all at once.
The aura rose like a dragon tearing up the earth, roaring its dominance for all to see. He was domineering, overlooking all existence, within his eyes, there was no such thing as a powerhouse!
"Boom!!"
It was as if an invisible bomb exploded among the Marines. Countless Marines instantly rolled their eyes upward, bodies halting mid-charge, heads tilting back, swaying as if about to collapse. Even those with firm willpower felt their pupils shrink, foreheads beading with sweat, as though they had just lived through something unimaginably terrifying.
The footsteps of all three thousand Marines stopped abruptly. They froze in place, eyes filled with shock.
And when the Marines who remained standing looked around and saw only a sparse few comrades, they felt bewildered.
Why… were there suddenly so few of them left?
At this moment, the Marines still conscious numbered fewer than one hundred.
In other words, more than 90% of them had been knocked unconscious by Rojen's aura alone, completely losing their ability to fight.
"Sorry, but there were a bit too many of you. I got scared."
Ahead, Rojen shrugged his shoulders lightly as he continued walking forward. He reached a hand behind his back, seemingly about to draw that pitch-black long sword.
"Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki)!"
At the very center of the battlefield, Kong's expression suddenly hardened as he turned toward Rojen's position.
"Sengoku, what's going on over there?"
The sudden eruption of Conqueror's Haki had drawn the full attention of the Fleet Admiral of HQ himself. On a battlefield like this, even the smallest unexpected variable could cause disastrous consequences. Kong absolutely did not want anything slipping beyond his control.
Sengoku's expression was equally grim. He quickly called for the communications officer.
"It's Rojen! They broke through the Marine Headquarters' southeast wall. Their target is most likely the Celestial Dragons' palace!"
This result didn't surprise Sengoku at all. Even earlier, from scattered clues, he had already guessed their true objective.
That the enemy would act at this critical moment was entirely within his expectations.
If it were him making the choice, he would also have let the Golden Lion act as a diversion while he slipped in quietly.
"Rojen…"
A sharp light flashed in Kong's eyes.
"Right now, the only ones capable of matching an Admiral-level combatant… are you and me. No one else."
When it came to someone like Rojen, someone who could erupt with terrifying power unpredictably, the Marine Headquarters' top brass never underestimated him. In fact, they treated him as a top-priority threat.
"Kizaru will arrive soon."
Sengoku nodded.
Outside the southeastern wall of Marine Headquarters, fierce winds howled. Jason's group of three stood frozen in front of the bottomless chasm ahead.
"…So how exactly are we supposed to cross this?" Crocodile asked.
"Trens, does the captain's gourd have any special use?" Jason looked at the Jasper Gourd in Trens's hand.
The gourd was nowhere near as immense as when they had ridden on it earlier. Now it looked like something one could lift with a single hand.
Trens was just about to speak when an elderly voice echoed from inside the gourd.
"Don't waste your effort. You have no idea of the Marine Headquarters' power. Your captain, even with Admiral-grade strength, even if he defeats me, he'll be captured shortly after!"
"And once he's captured… it'll be your turn!"
It was Zephyr's voice, dripping with ridicule.
"You're Zephyr! So captain actually sealed you inside the gourd!" Trens exclaimed.
"Hmph!"
Mentioning this humiliating topic made Zephyr snort coldly and fall silent.
"This gourd must have something special about it, otherwise the captain wouldn't have given it to us." Trens said.
"Try making it move."
Crocodile suggested.
"Mm!"
The three began experimenting. They had previously seen Rojen smack the gourd lightly and make it expand on its own. So they tried that.
But after slapping it a dozen times, until their palms stung, they gave up.
There was obviously something unique at work here, not something that would respond to random attempts.
"I'll try using True Energy."
After thinking for a moment, Trens pressed his right hand against the gourd.
This time, when his True Energy flowed into the gourd, its surface began to glow with a faint green light.
"It's working! Increase the True Energy!"
The three instantly brightened. This method had to be the right one.
Five breaths later, the Jasper Gourd released a bright green radiance. It rapidly expanded, floating a meter above the ground, growing large enough for all three to sit on.
"Success! Get on!"
Trens cheered and jumped on first.
"Captain's treasure is really something else!"
Jason praised, running his hand repeatedly over the warm, glowing surface of the Jasper Gourd.
Suspended in the air, the gourd didn't sink even slightly under their combined weight, completely stable.
"Try making it move!"
Crocodile urged.
Trens inhaled, then continued channeling True Energy.
The Jasper Gourd shuddered, then slowly drifted forward, soon hovering directly above the bottomless gorge.
"There we go! We can make it across!"
(End Of This Chapter)
You can read ahead up to 15 chapters on my Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/darkshadow6395