“Damn it, how could the Marines be here?”
“Damn it, why are there pirates here?”
These thoughts appeared simultaneously in both sides’ minds. The pirates were naturally members of the Beasts Pirates who just arrived here, while these Marines were sent here by the World Government to capture Bullet.
They were members of the second batch of new recruits led by Zephyr.
The duration of the new recruits’ training led by Zephyr himself is one year, since it would be impossible for Zephyr to oversee the basic training of every Marine.
Those who came here are either members who have completed basic training and are about to enter the army, or members who have come to further their training after having achieved meritorious performance. It’s similar to a cram school for last-minute preparation before an exam, but before coming here they had already gone through multiple rounds of screening.
Basic physical training can be done by anyone, and there is no need to waste his energy. Those tasks are done by subordinate assistants and other instructors.
Sakazuki and Borsalino were graduates of the first batch, and at this time, Zephyr had already started leading the second batch of students, and capturing Bullet was their graduation internship.
Gray had described Bullet’s strength, so the Marines believed that the new recruits led by Zephyr were enough to complete this task.
Although Zephyr has resigned from his position as Admiral and only retains his military rank, his strength remains. Moreover, he was not only responsible for leading new recruits, but also often tasked with leading new recruits’ graduation assessment while out on missions.
Moreover, in the training camp, in addition to ordinary Marines, there are also elite officers as well as newly recruited monsters from around the world who are brought in for intensive training.
Whether it’s the three Admirals of Aokiji’s generation or the elite vice admirals of later periods, almost all of them were early students of Zephyr’s training camp.
Overall, the strength of the training camp was not weak.
However, they still underestimated Bullet’s strength. Faced with the besieging team led by Zephyr, Bullet successfully escaped, and the mission of these people changed from capturing Bullet to rescuing local civilians.
Even though it was not an allied-country, and the Marines had no obligation to rescue them, the Marine officer who goes out has the authority to order their subordinates to do such things, so a rescue operation was launched.
The Marines had arrived earlier and had already gone deep into the country, while Beasts Pirates arrived late, which led to their meeting from both sides.
The pirates did not expect the Marines to be here, so they directly called their comrades to come and help, while the Marines did not expect pirates to be here rescuing people, so they also went over when they heard the shout.
Both sides pointed guns at each other, and neither side made any reckless move. At this moment, if a shot is fired, both sides will suffer.
But the small-scale confrontation ended with the cries of children in the ruins. A medic from the Marines chose to go over to treat the wounded.
Seeing that the pirates didn’t interfere, they began to back off gradually, and eventually the distance between the two sides grew farther and farther until they each took cover behind something.
“What’s going on with these pirates? They’re helping people?”
“Perhaps their conscience was pricked. Inform Instructor Zephyr and prepare to apprehend them.”
“Is that a good idea? They’re also saving people.”
“You only see them saving people, but you can’t see how many people they’ve killed. We can ignore this one time, but we cannot ignore these pirates.”
Regardless of whether it is the previous Zephyr, who adhered to the principle of non-killing, or the present Zephyr, he will not choose to ignore the pirates, and under his guidance, the students naturally follow suit. Perhaps they are good people, but once they become wanted pirates, it is reason enough for Marines to arrest them.
The new Marine recruits went to inform Zephyr of what had happened, and the pirates made the same move.
“Boss King, we have a problem. There are Marines on this island and it looks like there are quite a lot of them.”
“Okay, you guys retreat near the ship first.”
King, who was facing Den Den Mushi, was not surprised because there were already several Marines lying around him. He had been following Arceus closely and they were much more deeper in the country than the ordinary members, so they naturally encountered these Marines.
“Lord Sacred Beast, have you found anything new?”
“No, it seems that it’s not on this island. We should leave.”
“Please go ahead first, I’ll catch up after dealing with them.”
“Don’t be ridiculous, you’re not that guy’s match.”
An average Marine of the training camp wasn’t King’s match, and there is no future Marine Admiral here either. But Zephyr was here, and King wasn’t currently a match for Zephyr. If he tried to stop Zephyr, it would be unlikely for him to come back.
“Let’s go. He won’t be able to catch up.”
Saying that, Arceus turned around and left. He wasn’t afraid of a Marine Admiral, but there was no need to fight. Since he didn’t find what he was looking for here, any fighting would be meaningless.
Besides wasting time, it would achieve nothing. Even wild beasts do not engage in meaningless fights, let alone him.
King believed Arceus’ words wholeheartedly. If he said Zephyr couldn’t catch up, then he definitely couldn’t. So he immediately followed Arceus and left.
As he watched the pirates in front of him leave without paying any attention to them, and with several Marines lying on the ground whose fate was uncertain, Zephyr immediately thought of chasing after them. However, as soon as he took a step forward, a sense of danger appeared in his mind.
He took a step back, and in that instant, towering flames burst from the ground, enveloping Zephyr and the Marines next to him in a massive tornado of fire.
The flames soared into the sky, and even King, being a Lunarian, felt a burning sensation. When he turned around to look, all he saw was the towering flames.
“What’s wrong? It’s just Fire Spin. Shayna can use it too. Haven’t you seen it before?”
Although Fire Spin’s destructive power is not high, it could last for a long time and has excellent effectiveness in trapping enemies. King had witnessed Shayna’s Fire Spin, but it was only big enough to burn Queen.
But the Fire Spin released by Arceus was already at the level of a natural disaster. The huge flame tornado was able to trap Zephyr, and caused the surrounding land to become dry and cracked as a result.
Although it was clearly flames, there was an extremely strange force within the flames. Not only did it make the flames have a higher temperature, but it also had a strange resilience. His fist hitting it was like a clay oxen entering the sea, and all of his strength was absorbed, disappearing completely.
When his students arrived nearby, all they saw was the enormous Fire Spin and Zephyr, who had just come out of the ground by digging.
Those flames seemed to have their own foundation. He had to dig deep to find a place without flames, and used his bare hands to create a tunnel.
And the price he paid was his hair. The hair on his head, eyelashes, eyebrows, beard; not a single one of them were unscathed by the high temperature, turning him into a bald egghead.
“Teacher Zephyr, what do we do now?”
“Continue to rescue people and help the wounded.”
King and the others had long disappeared. Whether to waste time chasing after them or continue to rescue the residents here, Zephyr chose the latter.