Rayleigh was moved once again seeing their determination, but why did it feel like he was being protected? His fiery temper flared up instantly!
He quickly entered the cabin, found a long box in the corner, flipped it open, and rushed out with a sword in hand!
"Who wants to be protected by two idiots like you! I'm not half bad myself, you bastards!"
Rayleigh charged into battle with his sword, heading towards the stern where Roger was surrounded by the most people.
The ship was abandoned as everyone rushed out to brawl with the Marines; if the world saw this scene, they truly couldn't imagine what kind of lunatics these people were.
"Roger! I've spent all these years suppressing your crimes just so that one day you'd join the Marines and carry out justice with me!"
Garp's deep, powerful voice echoed across the sea, trying in his own way to make his enemy—who was like a best friend—change his mind.
"I'm making my debut, Garp! This world is calling to me, but definitely not through the Marines!" Roger replied to Garp.
"Then I'll just have to give you all a beating and lock you in prison!" Garp and Roger began clashing on the warship.
Seeing this, Sengoku rushed towards Rayleigh, whom he had never met, and instructed Tsuru:
"Tsuru, go help Zephyr! That kid can't beat Rune. Use your ability to capture him; Roger and this newcomer will be handled by us!"
"Understood." Tsuru immediately followed Sengoku's arrangement and ordered the warship to sail towards Zephyr's vessel.
After all, Sengoku's mind remained clear and calm no matter the situation.
Years of analysis and confrontation had long since allowed Sengoku to understand Rune and Roger inside and out.
"Six King Gun!!!"
Boom! On Zephyr's warship, the battle between Zephyr and Rune reached a fever pitch the moment it began.
They fought for their lives, holding nothing back!
Even across hundreds of meters of ocean, everyone could feel the shockwaves emanating from Zephyr's warship on their skin.
Rune funneled all his muscular strength into his right fist, releasing it instantly as it collided violently with Zephyr's fists. The warship's deck beneath them cracked from the terrifying force.
"Surrender now, Rune! For years you've unrepentantly caused trouble in the East Blue. Now, we will catch you and Roger in one fell swoop!"
Zephyr shouted loudly, brimming with righteous indignation.
"Your Rokushiki has improved quite a bit, Zephyr, you brat!" Rune completely dismissed his words.
Surrender? That wasn't his style.
"Argh!" Hearing Rune call him a brat, the power in Zephyr's arms intensified as he poured in even more strength, roaring:
"You're only three years older than me, who are you calling a brat!"
"Hahaha!" Rune felt Zephyr's provocation and rising fighting spirit; the blood in his body surged instantly. He couldn't help but reveal a ferocious smile as he exerted sudden force!
The power of his entire body burst from his right fist, completely shattering Zephyr's ultimate Rokushiki technique, the 'Six King Gun'.
Zephyr's arms lost their resistance, his soaring fighting spirit was instantly extinguished, and his expression froze. He watched as Rune's fist broke through his hands and slammed into his face.
Boom! The impact spread outward from Zephyr's face. He lost his balance in an instant, crashing into the warship's mast behind him. His entire body became embedded in the mast, kicking up dust and smoke on the deck.
"You still need more practice, kid!" Rune glanced at the shocked Marine Soldiers around him. The veins on his neck were throbbing; clearly, he had used a great deal of power.
In this kind of close-quarters combat, the Marine Soldiers' strength was nowhere near enough to intervene; they could only watch from the sidelines.
"Lieutenant Commander Zephyr!"
"What is going on? They clearly don't have bounties, so why are they... even stronger than those wanted criminals with bounties!"
Some recruits, unfamiliar with the situation, couldn't believe that the most outstanding genius in the Navy was actually repelled.
"Damn it!" The dust cleared, and Zephyr stepped out. Blood flowed from his temple and nose as he clutched his dizzy head and glared at Rune:
"Rune, you monster...!"
"You're still far from it, Zephyr! To fight me, you'd need Garp or Sengoku to come personally!"
Rune was enjoying the thrill of battle when his gaze suddenly sharpened. He felt a presence rapidly approaching from behind.
Tsuru was running towards him through the air using the 'Moonwalk' technique of the Rokushiki.
"Then what about me, Rune?" Tsuru approached Rune from behind, removing her glove as she swung a palm toward him:
"Don't you dare dodge!"
"Only a fool wouldn't dodge!" Seeing Tsuru closing in, Rune's face turned pale, and cold sweat broke out on his forehead. Gritting his teeth, he quickly predicted the trajectory of Tsuru's attack and dodged her palm with a swift side-step.
"Curse you!" Tsuru's palm hit nothing but air. Her momentum carried her past Rune toward the mast behind Zephyr. She dug her five fingers into the mast, hanging in mid-air, looking down at Rune with a solemn expression:
"Is all you can do hide from me?"
"What kind of talk is that? Am I supposed to just stand here and watch you wash me and hang me out to dry?" Rune immediately retorted.
Tsuru's fruit ability was the last thing he wanted to face; once touched, it would be game over.
It was comparable to a 'Rule-based' power among Devil Fruit abilities.
Pulling her fingers from the mast, Tsuru landed beside Zephyr and stared seriously at Rune:
"In the end, you're still avoiding me, afraid even to touch me."
"Provocation won't work!" Rune snorted. "Tsuru, if any enemy isn't afraid of you, then there's something wrong with their head!"
Rune's heart was in his throat as he stayed alert for Tsuru. Zephyr alone was manageable, but with Tsuru beside him, the battle would become much more troublesome.
"Why are you here, Miss Tsuru? I can handle him alone!"
Zephyr turned his head and spoke to Tsuru, who had come to support him.
"If you could handle him..." Tsuru's sharp gaze remained on Rune. As she spoke, she suddenly brought her gun forward from behind her at a speed that was hard to react to:
"...then he would have been the one sent flying just now!"
Bang! Before Tsuru's voice even faded, she pulled the trigger. The bullet burst from the barrel, heading straight for Rune's head.
Rune noticed instantly and quickly tilted his head to dodge; the bullet flew off into the distance over the sea.
"All you do is sneak attack!" After dodging the bullet, the veins on Rune's forehead bulged in annoyance:
"You're a truly terrifying woman!"
From leaving Loguetown until now, Tsuru had already tried to sneak attack him three times, though none had succeeded.
"Hehe." Seeing Rune's annoyed look, a slight smile finally appeared on Tsuru's serious face as she teased:
"If you surrendered quietly, perhaps you'd get to see my gentle side."
"Ho, you have a gentle side? I'll have to see that sometime, but surrendering is absolutely impossible!" Rune refused on the spot. From several meters away, he swung his right fist violently. The force compressed the air in front of his fist, creating a blast of pressure that surged toward Tsuru.
However, Zephyr stepped forward to block it in the next second, and they resumed their clash.
"You guys are truly beyond saving! Garp has been defending you to the higher-ups all this time. This is your last chance, Rune, don't you understand?!" Tsuru suddenly set aside her mission and spoke to Rune with emotional intensity.
"Perfect!" Rune wouldn't listen to a word of it and replied: "We're making our debut as pirates now!"
Hearing this news, Tsuru's heart grew cold. Roger and Rune becoming pirates meant they would be enemies forever, with no way back.
"Stop wasting words on him, Miss Tsuru!" Zephyr interrupted their conversation:
"Let's just defeat them and lock them in Impel Down for the rest of their lives!"
Facing Zephyr's close-range engagement and Tsuru's sneak attacks from the side, Rune was forced to fight on two fronts.
Most importantly, he had to keep part of his attention on Tsuru; if he were touched even once, it would be all over.
Under their coordinated assault, Rune briefly fell into a disadvantage.
As Tsuru's palm came within inches of touching him, Rune's pupils suddenly contracted.
Those touched by the Wash-Wash Fruit user lose their original form, and living beings lose their strength.
After being washed and hung to dry, the person's heart is slightly purified.
This wasn't just the Devil Fruit ability Rune feared most; it was a power that everyone dreaded!
"Then let me... wash away some things..." Tsuru seized the gap while Zephyr occupied Rune, reaching out to touch his body.
Just as Tsuru was about to make contact, a sudden aura erupted from Rune's body, his heartbeat audible.
"Muscle Release!!!" Rune roared. A scorching heat burst from his body as his strength skyrocketed, causing cracks to appear across the entire upper deck.
Rune emitted high-temperature steam from his entire body. Through sheer aura alone, he instantly forced Zephyr and Tsuru back.
His entire muscle group bulged and tightened as if inflated, stretching his tight black undershirt to its limit.
It wasn't the balanced look of a bodybuilder, but rather muscles that had expanded and then been rapidly compressed—tight blocks filled with explosive power and a sense of oppression.
"Damn it, he's using that move!"
"I was so close to touching him!"
Zephyr and Tsuru, pushed back by the aura, held their arms in front of them to resist the shockwave, forced to watch the changes occurring in Rune's body.
Thick, bluish-purple veins bulged and throbbed like dragons beneath his skin, especially prominent on his forehead, neck, and arms.
High-temperature white steam radiated from his body, a byproduct of the high-speed metabolism of energy and heat within him.
The steam billowed with his breathing and movements.
Rune's skin also turned a deep red due to the congestion and high temperature.
He looked like an overloaded machine, venting steam, a humanoid monster that seemed ready to explode at any moment.
He was filled with the most primitive and savage sense of power.
Looking at that form, Zephyr instinctively felt a desire to retreat, but his belief in justice sustained him.
Zephyr also let out a roar, using a technique that accelerated his blood flow and pushed his bodily functions beyond their limits—essentially the future Luffy's 'Gear Second'—as he charged at Rune:
"I am the hero of justice! Z!!!"
At this moment, he didn't care about embarrassment. He gave it his all, shouting his childhood catchphrase for justice as he clashed once more with the empowered Rune.
The fierce battle at sea lasted for a full day and night. All four warships were destroyed by Roger, Rune, and Rayleigh.
The group fought until they were covered in blood. Finally, they managed to escape on a small boat, heading straight for the turbulent currents of Reverse Mountain!
In the early hours of the following morning, inside Rayleigh's cramped little cabin.
Several of Roger and Rune's teeth had been knocked out. They lay half-dead and motionless on the cabin floor.
"Ugh... I'm hungry..." Rune let out a pained groan. "That damn Zephyr and Tsuru... they have so many tricks..."
Having used 'Muscle Release', his body had paid a massive price in exhaustion. At this moment, he was so weak he couldn't even lift a finger.
"The pirate crew will be called..." Roger opened his mouth, missing several teeth, and mumbled:
"The Roger Pirates! The Roger Pirates are formed!"
With blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, Rayleigh stood by the cabin door, leaning against the frame as he stared at the two men lying on the floor. His breathing was ragged, and his face was full of disbelief.
He never expected to encounter two fellows like this—monsters whose strength was even greater than his own.