It was Rosinante.
He just couldn't hold it in—the freezing rain had gotten him sick.
"Who?!" Searchlights on the fortress wall whipped around at once, beams like blades slicing across the open ground.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!!!
To make it worse, Rosinante jumped at his own sneeze, jerked sideways, and slammed into a crude alarm rig—tin cans and scrap metal strung up on a rope.
"Enemy attack!!!"
The shrill alarm blared across the entire fortress.
Buzz—!
Blinding white spotlights locked onto Rain's position, exposing the entire squad in a cone of light.
"Damn it!!" Commander Dal's eyes went red with fury. He whipped around, glaring at Rosinante like he wanted to skin him alive on the spot.
"We're burned! Full assault!!"
Stealth was meaningless now. Dal made the call instantly and was the first to draw his blade and charge.
"First and Second Squads, with me! Target the armory and command center!"
"Third Squad! Blow their ships in the harbor!"
"Yes, sir!"
The elite Marines moved as one, surging forward like unsheathed blades, roaring as they charged the blazing fortress.
The battle erupted in an instant.
Inside the fortress, the raucous party music cut off abruptly.
Drunken Blood Axe pirates, still not fully understanding what was happening, staggered out with weapons in hand, swearing as they came from every direction.
At first it was chaos and confusion.
But the moment they saw the Marines storming in, their bandit blood ignited.
"It's the Marines! Kill 'em!"
"Slaughter those bastards!!"
The pirates surged like a wave, swinging blades and guns as they crashed into the well-drilled Marines.
Gunshots, clashing steel, explosions, screams—they melded into one.
The entire fortress turned into a bloody meat grinder in seconds. Rain mixed with blood, forming filthy streams along the ground.
Commander Dal was in the lead, sword sweeping in wide, precise arcs. He cut down several pirates in the front rank like they were nothing, carving a path straight toward the inner fortress and the pirate officers.
Rain played his role as a "proper Elite recruit."
Long before they'd landed, his Observation Haki had swept over the island.
The so-called Blood Axe crew was a joke. Aside from the captain and vice-captain, the rest were barely worth mentioning.
If he went all out, he could clear the place in under five minutes, never mind ten.
He drew the sword at his waist and moved along the flank of the squad instead of charging ahead.
When a few reeking, drunk pirates came at him waving curved blades, Rain handled them "smoothly."
His form was textbook, his cuts efficient. Every swing deflected an attack, every counter thrust pierced a heart or throat.
He never showed anything beyond what you'd expect from a top recruit—but his kill rate was anything but ordinary.
Within moments, several "Judgment complete" prompts flickered through his system.
Tch. As expected from Grand Line pirates—not a single N-rank among them.
Rain slipped past a slashing axe, thinking, Still… this is about it. Even if they're all R-rank, they don't move the needle for me anymore.
He skimmed their profiles for anything interesting—skills, talents, anything rare. One pirate named Jimmy did give him an [Intermediate Fishing] skill, which he claimed without hesitation.
At the same time, he kept an eye on Rosinante.
The big blond was frozen up, too scared to even pull the trigger properly. Rain couldn't help feeling a bit exasperated.
"Rosinante! Don't just stand there—shoot!" Rain cut down an enemy in front of him and shouted at the recruit beside him, who was firing wildly in panic.
"Huh? O-oh!" Rosinante jolted back to reality and lifted his gun, but his hands shook so badly that the bullets bang, bang, bang all smacked into the ground at Rain's feet, throwing up sparks and narrowly missing friendly fire.
Idiot, Rain swore silently, stepping neatly out of the line of fire.
Just then, a pirate clutching his arm stumbled to the ground near Rosinante, groaning in pain.
Seeing him, Rosinante's cursed kindness flared up again. He instinctively went to check on the man—actually lowering his gun.
"Watch it!"
Rain's Observation Haki had already picked up every detail.
The hand pressed to the pirate's arm was hiding a poisoned dagger. Those "pain-filled" eyes were full of calculated malice.
Just as that murderous glint flashed in the pirate's eyes and he tensed to strike—
Fwip!
Rain's wrist flicked. A throwing knife streaked through the darkness like a bolt of lightning.
Shnk!
The blade punched cleanly through the pirate's wrist, pinning his knife hand to the ground.
"AAAGH—!!!"
The pirate let out a piercing scream.
"Rain!" Rosinante jolted in shock, finally seeing the dagger in the man's hand and the twisted hatred on his face.
"Don't freeze! He was going to kill you!" Rain growled, voice like ice. "Your kindness will get you killed. This is a battlefield, not a playground!"
Rosinante's face went chalk-white. His fists clenched, eyes filling with turmoil.
And then—
BOOOOOM—!!!
A stronger explosion tore through the air at the flank of their formation. The pirates had clearly gone desperate and detonated a powder keg near the wall.
The blast wave crashed over them like a tidal wave, sending stone and fire flying in all directions.
Rain's eyes narrowed. In a single instant, he calculated the blast's origin and force, then dropped his center of gravity and took the brunt of the shock head-on.
At the same time, he grabbed Rosinante by the collar and yanked him in behind himself.
BOOM!! Smoke and debris filled the air. The battlefield devolved into chaos.
Rain stood firm, the dust and shockwaves glancing off the Armament Haki coating his body.
He took a quick look around and realized the explosion had blown him and Rosinante completely away from the main unit. Nearby Marines and pirates alike were lying dazed or unconscious.
Dal's voice echoed faintly from the other side of the blast, growing more distant.
They were separated.
"Cough—cough… Rain… you okay?" Rosinante pushed himself up from behind Rain, sputtering, face smeared with grime.
"I'm fine." Rain brushed invisible dust off himself and looked calmly down the alleyway.
Silhouettes emerged from the far end—tall figures approaching slowly, blocking the path. Rain watched rainwater wash the blood off their bodies, leaving only a more savage aura.
At the front was a giant nearly four meters tall, hefting a massive blood-red battle axe.
He radiated a brutal, violent presence.
The captain of the Blood Axe Pirates—"Blood Axe" Barton.
Bounty: 80 million Berries.
~~~
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