"You bunch of useless trash, move faster!"
Jack roared impatiently.
His voice was like muffled thunder, making the deck beneath his feet tremble.
"Yes! Captain Jack!"
The nearby Gifters trembled in fear, desperately urging the slaves in the hold to row.
Just then.
A sharp-eyed pirate pointed ahead and shouted.
"Captain Jack! There's a small boat blocking the way!"
Jack didn't even lift an eyelid.
In those bloodshot eyes, there was only pure indifference.
"Crush them."
Two simple words.
Exuding a coldness that treated life as mere grass.
"Yes!"
The Mammoth didn't slow down; instead, it accelerated again.
A massive shadow instantly loomed over the tattered Spade.
The two ships passed each other on the sea.
At their closest point, they were less than ten meters apart.
The pirates on the Spade looked up at the ship's side, which loomed like a city wall.
Every one of them was so scared that their legs were shaking.
On the deck of the Mammoth.
A group of underlings from the Beasts Pirates poked their heads out.
Looking down at the small, broken boat full of holes with its mainmast half-broken.
They burst into a fit of unscrupulous laughter.
"Hahahaha! Look at that ship!"
"Is that even a ship? That's more like a coffin lid, isn't it?"
"They dare to go to sea with such trash? Are these brats playing house?"
The massive shadow, like a collapsing mountain.
Completely swallowed the faint campfire on the Spade.
The Mammoth's barbed metal ram flickered with a heart-palpitating cold light under the moonlight.
The distance was less than fifty meters!
For a giant ship of this magnitude, this distance was but a single breath away.
"It's over..."
"We can't avoid it!"
"We're going to be smashed to pieces!!!"
The pirates on the Spade let out screams of despair.
Some even closed their eyes, waiting for the moment death arrived.
Musk hugged his medicine chest tightly, curling himself into a ball.
Even the usually calm First Mate Deuce felt his hands and feet go cold, his mind blank.
In the face of such an absolute difference in size.
Any scheme seemed pale and weak.
However.
In the midst of this suffocating despair.
A clear laugh suddenly echoed through the night sky.
"Hahahaha!"
"Don't give up so early, boys!"
A figure, like an arrow released from a bow, suddenly lunged from the center of the deck.
Orange-red firelight instantly illuminated Ace's arrogant face.
He didn't charge toward the behemoth that was about to collide with them.
Instead, he did a backflip and landed steadily on the Spade's stern railing.
The sea breeze blew his hair into a wild dance.
The string of red beads around his neck rattled.
Ace had his back to the Mammoth.
He faced the front of the Spade.
His knees were slightly bent, and his fists were clenched at his waist.
"Since we can't avoid it..."
"Then wouldn't it work if we just ran faster than it?!"
BOOM—!!!
Two bursts of blazing flames suddenly erupted from his fists.
The surrounding air was instantly distorted by the high temperature.
The rolling heat waves made the originally cold sea breeze turn scorching.
"Hold on tight, everyone!"
"The Spade Express is about to depart!"
Ace grinned, revealing a row of pearly white teeth.
The next second.
His fists slammed backward!
The target—the sea!
"Fire Fist: Jet!!!"
ROAR—!!!
A massive pillar of fire, like two violent fire dragons, slammed heavily onto the sea surface behind the stern.
The terrifying heat instantly vaporized the seawater.
White steam rose into the sky.
At the same time.
An unimaginable counterforce was transmitted through Ace's arms to the entire Spade.
CREAK—!
The pirate ship, already tattered, let out a groan of being overwhelmed.
Immediately after.
The entire ship was like a stray dog that had been kicked.
The bow tilted up sharply.
Then, under everyone's terrified gaze.
SWISH!
It directly "flew" across the surface of the sea!
The acceleration at this moment was simply absurd.
Many pirates who didn't hold on tight were pinned to the deck by inertia, their faces deformed by the wind.
"Waaaaah!"
"Slow down! Slow down, Captain!"
"The ship is going to fall apart!!!"
Zero point zero one seconds after the Spade lunged forward.
RUMBLE—!!!
The Mammoth's massive metal ram slammed heavily into the position where the Spade had originally been.
Giant waves surged!
The terrifying shockwave kicked up the surrounding seawater over ten meters high.
If it had been just a blink of an eye later.
The Spade would definitely have turned into a pile of wood chips floating on the sea by now.
Even so.
The giant wave that was kicked up still slammed hard against the stern of the Spade.
Pushing this poor little broken ship even further away.
Like it was surfing.
The Spade rode on the crest of the wave, charging out several hundred meters while leaving a trail of sparks and lightning.
It wasn't until Ace retracted his flames.
The ship's hull slammed back onto the sea surface, splashing water everywhere.
"Phew..."
Ace shook his slightly hot wrists.
Looking at the behemoth in the distance that seemed a bit clumsy under the moonlight.
A triumphant curve curled at the corner of his mouth.
"Looks like we won."
The entire ship was dead silent.
After a few seconds.
The sound of gasps from surviving the disaster finally rang out.
Deuce slumped on the deck, feeling his heart about to jump out of his throat.
He looked at the high-spirited back standing at the stern.
He couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh.
"What a... madman."
On the Mammoth.
The members of the Beasts Pirates, who had been waiting for a good show, now had their eyes wide open.
Their mouths were open wide enough to fit a fist.
"They... they avoided it?!"
"What's with that broken ship? Did it just spray fire from its rear?"
"That must be a Devil Fruit user!"
Amidst the noisy discussions.
The man standing like an iron tower at the bow finally moved slightly.
Jack's bloodshot eyes stared fixedly at the small boat receding in the distance.
The firelight that had erupted just a moment ago.
Even in this pitch-black night, it was exceptionally dazzling.
"A Logia... the Mera Mera no Mi?"
Jack's voice was low and raspy.
No emotional fluctuations could be heard.
A Headliner next to him immediately approached.
His face wore a fawning yet fierce expression.
"Captain Jack!"
"That's a Logia user! They're a rare find even in the New World!"
"Should we turn around and give chase?"
"If we capture that ability user, Governor-General Kaido will surely be pleased!"
Greed flickered in this Headliner's eyes.
In his view.
Although that broken ship ran fast, as long as the Mammoth chased at full speed, they would catch up sooner or later.
However.
Jack only gave him a cold glance.
That look.
Was like looking at a dead man.
"Idiot."
Jack snorted a puff of air from his nostrils.
"What is our mission?"
The Headliner shuddered at that terrifying gaze, and cold sweat instantly broke out.
"It's... it's to capture that scientist named Bruce Banner..."
"As long as you know."
Jack retracted his gaze.
He looked ahead again at the increasingly close Calebari Island.
His eyes held a heart-palpitating stubbornness and brutality.
"Big Brother Queen said so."
"That scientist is related to the research of 'Living Weapons'."
"He is ten thousand times more important than some Logia brat."