In the end, the slave gladiators failed to stop the pirates from seizing the terminal station of the bubble lift pods. As more and more pirates poured onto Mary Geoise, they quickly gained the upper hand.
Although the slave gladiators, driven by their longing for freedom, unleashed astonishing combat strength, they were ultimately no match for the pirate army of the First Division.
That said, these battle-hardened gladiators still inflicted extremely heavy losses on the pirates. The giant slaves in particular, with their massive bodies and astonishing vitality, could easily crush dozens—sometimes hundreds—of pirates like bugs, even in their dying moments.
Total casualties exceeding twelve thousand dealt the First Division a brutal wake-up call. Perhaps Mary Geoise was not the easily plundered treasure they had imagined.
To be precise, along the unavoidable path to this enormous treasure, there were still an unknown number of guardians—and even "evil dragons"—waiting for them.
If they wanted to claim ownership of this treasure, they would first have to find a way to eliminate those "evil dragons" guarding it.
Realizing this, the pirates' morale dipped noticeably. After securing control of the bubble lift terminal, Esdeath was forced to immediately dispatch several waves of pirates to act as scouts and conduct reconnaissance.
Although these pirates had worse discipline than freshly enlisted Imperial recruits, their individual strength was still enough to earn Esdeath's approval.
Even the weakest among the New World pirates could rely on their personal combat power to become lower- to mid-ranking officers within the Empire.
Sending such people out as scouts was undeniably overkill. Unfortunately, their lack of brains meant Esdeath had no choice but to send out multiple additional teams just to ensure the intelligence she received was accurate enough.
"Lady Esdeath! Enemy walls and a large concentration of hostile forces have been discovered ahead!"
Somewhat unexpectedly, just after Esdeath finished dispatching her forces, the pirate scouts who had set out earliest returned with their report.
As successive waves of scouts came back, Esdeath quickly gained a clear picture of the situation they were facing.
Centered on the bubble lift terminal, a pre-constructed arc-shaped defensive line encircled the pirates of the First Division. To enter Mary Geoise, they would have to break through this line.
Unlike the barricades and small fortifications at Red Port that were primarily designed for delaying actions, the defenses of Mary Geoise were a genuine "wall of brass and iron."
The arc-shaped wall stretched for more than twenty kilometers, with its left and right flanks extending all the way to the sheer cliffs of the Red Line. No matter where an attack was launched, it would be met by intersecting fields of fire from multiple directions, forming a deadly crossfire.
In theory, the weakest points of the fortifications—the far left and right ends of the wall—were instead crowned atop sheer cliffs with two fortresses that could truly be described as armed to the teeth. It was obvious that they had long anticipated the pirates attempting a breakthrough from the flanks.
The city wall, standing over twenty-five meters tall, was something even giants would find difficult to cross. Its interior was constructed from incomparably solid granite, while the exterior was wrapped in an unknown alloy nearly half a meter thick—enough to drive anyone attempting to destroy the wall into despair.
Compared to the terrifying firepower of the gun emplacements placed every few dozen meters along the wall, the wall's own astonishing defensive strength was almost secondary.
Even the soldiers stationed atop the wall were all first-rate elites. Despite having already spotted pirate scouts approaching, none of them launched attacks on their own initiative. In terms of discipline alone, they completely outclassed the pirates, who were little more than a rabble by comparison.
The only gate allowing entry or exit was located at the center of the wall. The massive alloy gate weighed over ten thousand tons, making it virtually impossible to force open through brute strength alone.
Even with the manpower and resources at the World Government's disposal, constructing such an impregnable fortress in little more than half a month was no easy feat.
Fortunately, at a critical moment, King Wapol—who had eaten the Munch-Munch Fruit—"stepped forward." After injecting himself with who knew how many stimulants and working nonstop for more than ten days and nights, he finally managed to produce enough alloy to build the wall before the Universe Dark Matter Pirate Crew arrived at Red Harbor.
The price, of course, was that Wapol was squeezed to the brink of death, left with barely half a breath. If not for the Drum Kingdom's superb medical skills keeping him alive, the user of the Munch-Munch Fruit would probably have had to be replaced several times over by now.
"Tch… these bastards really did give me quite a surprise…"
Esdeath arrived at the very front line. After casting just a single glance at the defenders standing in strict formation atop the wall, a faintly excited smile appeared on her exquisitely beautiful face.
While tormenting the weak was certainly one of her hobbies, compared to soldiers of allied nations who were little different from rabble in her eyes, or slaves who had barely received any training, clashes between proper, regular armies were far more capable of satisfying her thirst for battle.
"Lady Esdeath, the World Government's preparations are very thorough. With firepower this dense, even if we charge in, our losses would likely be severe…"
A high-ranking combatant standing beside Esdeath spoke with a worried expression. In truth, he was already phrasing things as gently as possible.
Pirates were notorious for fighting only when the odds were in their favor. Expecting them to charge headlong into such overwhelming artillery fire was asking too much.
More than worrying about the casualties among their subordinates, the high-ranking combatant was actually reminding Esdeath not to place overly high expectations on the pirates of the First Division.
Perhaps, under Esdeath's pressure, the pirates could muster the courage to charge once. But after tasting the full force of concentrated bombardment, driving them to their deaths a second time would be far from easy.
In a sense, Esdeath only had one chance to order a charge. If the first assault failed, all they could do was pin their hopes on reinforcements arriving later to work a miracle.
"Hmph. It's just a wall—let me go say hello to them first!"
---
From the time she was a child, Esdeath had hunted Class-One Danger Beasts on her own. How could someone like her ever understand what it meant to "back down in the face of difficulty"?
Even though she could clearly see the densely packed cannon barrels on the city walls all trained on her, she still walked toward the city gates at an unhurried pace.
At that moment, commanding operations atop the walls was not only a candidate for Army General, but also a group of masked CP0 agents who had arrived as reinforcements.
"Tch… that woman! Hey! Do you see her?!"
A burly giant of a man—so massive that even his already oversized CP0 robe was stretched tight over his body—couldn't help but cry out the instant he spotted Esdeath.
Several months had passed, but every battle from the Summit War was still vividly etched in their memories.
That man who had constantly shouted about fulfilling his ambition—replacing Whitebeard as the strongest in the world and becoming Pirate King—had been hunted down by this woman and the Empress of Amazon Lily, and in the end died at the hands of the current Fleet Admiral of the Marines, Kizaru.
To be honest, they had never planned on avenging Blackbeard. Otherwise, they wouldn't have seized the chance to defect to the World Government and become lapdogs for the Celestial Dragons.
But who could have imagined that, even if they didn't go looking for revenge, the "enemy" would come knocking on their door herself?
What was even more depressing was that they probably couldn't beat Esdeath.
°°°
If you want to read ahead and access 20 advanced chapters, check the patreon
Link: Patreon/Moziel
Subscription should be made thru the web and never the ios app, it helps you and me.