Ars smiled but commented.
"Don't look down on them, while they are here now, they did survive the first part of the grandline."
Ars then finalized the information gathering by saying.
"And keep your guard up, we don't know what they are doing in the north blue, they could be here hiding, but they can also be here to recruit new members."
They all nodded. The information that was gathered on this group of pirates did not refer to what they had come to do, so no matter what they would prepare themselves for the worst.
Because it's better to be prepared for some unexpected situation and not need it, than needing it and not having it.
The next morning, by dawn they departed to hunt down their prey.
It didn't take long to localize the pirates when they reached the area where they were reported to be by the newspaper.
They were very confident that even if the marines came they would be able to win.
Ars and his crew started the party by firing a few cannons at their ships. And that did kick off a reaction, on the pirates, they all quickly tried to move to their ships, but it was too late, their ships were already in flames by the time they gathered.
Unlike what the pirates expected once the ships were destroyed, Ars signaled to stop firing the canons.
Ars then looked at his men and ordered.
"Get ready to fight, and make sure no survivors escape."
The soldiers cheered loudly.
"Hooo!! Yes Sir!"
The moment they hit land, the fight quickly transformed into a large battle.
Ars quickly located the captain and went to fight him. There were a few enemies that tried to stand on his path, but Ars quickly dispatched them.
Ars using his observation haki realized the captain was also coming for him, and showed a smile.
The moment the captain arrived he made fun of Ars thinking his logia made him invincible.
"You are strong but how will you win against someone who you can't even touch? Are you going to beg me to spare your life like all those worms previously?"
The captain laughed and Ars smiled back at him and calmly answered.
"By worms, you mean civilians and some marines?"
Then paused before poking fun at the enemy captain with exaggerated moves.
"Ho no! Look at me, I managed to take care of a few weak civilians and a few low ranking marines, I'm so awsome…So scary… I'm basically invincible…"
Ars then smiled once more before asking.
"You never made it past paradise did you?"
The captain looked confused, so he loudly questioned Ars.
"What are you talking about? What paradise?"
Ars went in for a light attack while explaining.
"I will be kind and I will let you die, knowing the truth of this world, and a bit more information for your next life, if you have one…"
The captain dismissed Ars threats.
"Baah!! Like you can kill me. No matter how strong you are, you can't hit the wind."
Ars then started explaining while trading blows with the captain, who, while dismissing Ars claims, decided to hear what he had to say, so he didn't use his logia abilities straight away.
"First, the grand line is divided in 2 areas by the red line. The first part of the grand line is nicknamed, paradise, because of how easy it is to survive there in comparison to the second part of it, the new world."
Ars started attacking harder and faster, causing the enemy captain to start being pushed back. And suddenly the enemy captain started using his logia ability, much to Ars amusement. So Ars started explaining the rest of the information.
"In the first part of the grand line, only 2 methods are well known to deal damage to or stop to logias. Kairoseki and other akuma no mi that counter that specific logia!"
Ars made a break and added.
"Well there is also the possibility of using something that counters them, like liquids on a sand logia, stopping its elementalization. But in the second part of the grand line, there is also a different known method, and this one method, is one method that anyone who is considered strong in the new world can use."
Ars suddenly started using his armament haki, it wasn't overwhelmingly strong, but it was enough to hit the foolish enemy captain.
The pirates captain decided to ignore Ars attack, thinking that even if Ars was telling the truth, there was no way that Ars was able to use this thing. But much to his horror, the attack landed on him, nearly cleaving him in two.
Suddenly the pirates all went silent, they saw their captain's body falling on the ground, and unlike what Ars expected, the pirates went on a frenzy, desperately trying to kill their enemies so they could escape.
Ars looked around and checked on everyone. Rook was doing well, even though he was against the vice-captain, who also had an akuma no mi.
Everyone was doing fine until now. When the pirates started fighting desperately, some soldiers of Ars side started being pushed back, but with no imminent danger.
The only ones in imminent danger were Kuina and Fierzy, who were fighting the same opponent at the same time, but were still getting overwhelmed.
The opponent was going easy on them until the pirate captain died, now he started getting serious and they were about to be killed.
Ars got insanely angry, and suddenly he felt something emerging from the depths of himself. And a huge wave of conquerors haki was emitted from him, knocking pretty much everyone in the area, with a few exceptions.
The exceptions were Rook, the pirates vice-captain, Kuina, Fierzy, Kina and sadly for Ars the man that was fighting Kuina and Fierzy.
Kina had been going wild, with the smile of a demon on a slaughter party, she looked so evil and so twisted that if they didn't know better they would have mistaken her for a demon from hell.
Seeing her targets faint, she locked on the nearest awake enemy, the one fighting Kuina and Fierzy, and quickly attacked him, forcing him back. Which led to the salvation of Kuina and Fierzy.
Forced back and now vs 3, with Ars approaching the man suddenly got his hands up and said quickly.
"I surrender! Let's all calm down, I meant no harm to them."
Ars, seeing the man surrendering, ordered everyone to stop fighting.
"Let's stop fighting, kill all the pirates that are unconscious or that are still fighting, in other words… Let me help you Rook."
Rook wanted to complain, but knew that Ars was angry about Kuina and Fierzy almost meeting their demise and knew better, besides while he did not manage to kill the enemy he did break through on some of his fighting techniques making him more skillful with them.
With one attack infused with haki and a lot of anger the enemy got split in 2 along with his armour and mace.
Shortly after all pirates with the exception of the one that surrendered were dead. Ars looked at Rook and ordered him.
"Wake our sleeping beauties… and then order them to group the pirates' bodies and burn them."
Rook nodded, and Ars looked at the pirate who had surrendered, and said coldly.
"You better have a good idea to survive this… Or a damn good reason for me not to kill you! "
The man awkwardly laughed and explained.
"First I think you also noticed that I wasn't going all out from the beginning…"
Ars nodded, he did notice that. That was the only reason that the man wasn't dead yet. Then he let the man continue.
"I am a spy… Well I was a spy on this crew, and I am actually a marine, who was trying to discover this crew's intentions, and if they were related to any other group."
Ars looked angrily at him and demanded proof of what he was saying.
"Any way to prove it?"
The man very slowly took a den den mushi hidden on his clothes, and started calling someone.
After a few seconds, someone on the other side picked up and asked while sounding worried.
"Is everything alright?"
It was a female voice, it sounded somewhat old. Ars didn't recognize the voice but he did remember an old female marine, an old female marine but she was quite up in ladder.
Ars wasn't sure if it was her.
The man that called showed a strange face before starting to explain what was happening.
"Vice admiral Tsuru, something unexpected happened… The pirates that I was ordered to infiltrate got annihilated, and now their annihilators are now looking at me like they want to shred me to pieces."
The name had indeed confirmed that the old female marine was indeed Tsuru. Tsuru questioned the marine spy.
"Were they annihilated by another group of pirates?"
The marine looked around, and then answered nervously.
"I don't think soo…"
He did want to investigate who these people were… But every single one of their faces showed quite a bit of anger, and there were 2 who he didn't even dare to look at, to be precise he was afraid of looking… The killing intent was so strong that he was getting heart palpitations.
Ars soldiers were mostly lightly wounded with one or two exceptions. being quite injured, but those were already being taken care of by the medical apprentices and the doctors they had brought along for his exact situation.
Rook was the one who answered the marine inner question.
"No, we are not pirates. The reason we are here is that the pirate crew picked a fight with us, so we decided to erase them."
When Tsuru spoke again, she sounded relieved.
"Hum, I will send someone to pick you up."
Then she turned the call off.
Ars looked at Rook and said, still pissed off.
"Keep an eye on this bastard."
Rook just stood there with a, i already expected this. He sighed and looked at the marine, before commenting.
"Please, don't do anything stupid…"
The marine nodded, and then asked a little bit pale.
"I'm sorry if this is a complicated topic but… why is everyone here so hostile to me?"
Rook scratched his head, thinking it should be fine to explain.
"Well, first they are beautiful female soldiers, so every male here, even knowing that they most likely don't have a chance, still wishes to protect them."
He took a look at the marine, who was nodding. Then he added.
"I believe you understand, since the marines must have similar situations…"
Then he looked at Kina, and explained her case.
"In her case… She just hates pirates, really, really hates. And she also dislikes the marines, the world government, the revolutionaries, and a few other smaller groups, don't let it bother you…."
Rook then looked at Ars who was glaring at the marine, before stating the biggest reason.
"And probably the biggest reason why everyone dislikes you right now, and especially that guy there, is…"
Then he looked at the marine, and finished.
"The fact, that one of the females you chose to attack is one of our queens, that came along to train, and the guy glaring daggers at you, like he wants to murder you, by beating the crap out of you with your own severed limbs is none other than the King of our small kingdom…"
The marine who was already pale, was now starting to change color to blue, and could only mutter.
"... Well I'm really glad that I didn't intend to harm them… But shouldn't your kingdom keep your queen safe and away from any fights or battlefields??"
Rook smiled and explained.
"She is the queen in charge of the military and is also a swordsman, though this was her first actual fight, we simply didn't expect someone as strong as you, other than the captain or vice captain. And a lot of the soldiers, came here just to sharpen their fangs, by order of our king."
The marine finally realized that the queen was only supposed to fight the normal crewmates, and him being a marine that trained for years was not exactly being counted in their plans.
The marine pointed at Fierzy and commented lightly.
"That one was covering for the other one, so I'm assuming the other one was the queen."
Rook smiled and nodded and finally added one more thing.
"And don't worry about our king, he is more angry at himself than you, it's just you remind him of what could have happened… And he is not happy about it!"