“Take Tiger and charge out from here.”
After Mandrell left, Jack tacitly assumed command himself. Although Tiger was a great hero among the Fish-Men, Jack didn’t grow up on Fishman Island; what he admired was Kaido’s strength, not Tiger’s.
In his view, these older, weaklings had no rights to command him.
Arceus had transferred the command to Mandrell, so naturally, he had to follow Mandrell’s orders to retreat.
A huge elephant trunk swept across the ground, instantly clearing a large area of the Marine forces surrounding Tiger, creating a gap in their encirclement.
Without any skills or finesse, it was just the brute force of the elephant trunk swinging, but coupled with the strange bronze composition of its body, the massive weight brought by its huge body made this advantage even more pronounced.
Adult Giants stood over twelve meters tall. While Jack’s transformed Copperajah form was only ten meters tall, it was not just about height. Combined with his exaggerated beast body, Jack had become a terrifying war beast.
For top-tier fighters, this difference in size might not mean much, but for the Marines surrounding Tiger with their numerical advantage, Jack represented crushing strength.
The massive body accelerated, an unstoppable tank crashing into the Marine ranks.
Boom, boom, boom!
With each step, the giant elephant produced a muffled sound, even causing minor tremors in the surrounding ground.
“Open…Open…Open Fire! Quickly, open fire!”
Physical size was a step that humans couldn’t bridge. Although there were Giant Vice Admirals among the Marines, the intimidation of beasts towards humans far exceeds that of other humanoid races.
The leading officer, overcoming the fear in his heart, issued new orders, providing direction to the confused soldiers.
Facing the charging Jack, they didn’t scatter, which already showed their difference from the run-of-the-mill soldiers of the Four Seas.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Boom!
With orders in place, the Marines found their target. The concentrated bullets immediately turned towards Jack, and several cannons pushed forward, unleashing their firepower in Jack’s direction.
Though futile, this was the only thing they could do; their weapons were their last resort.
But Jack wasn’t Tiger. Trained under Kaido’s devilish training, he had already mastered dual-color Haki at the age of sixteen. Although in this situation, he didn’t even need to use Haki.
The explosions from the shells created a lot of gunpowder smoke, but the sounds from within were peculiar.
No screams, no muffled sounds of bullets hitting flesh, just clear metallic noises.
From within the smoke caused by the explosions, Jack emerged unscathed, bullets hitting him merely making a sound before powerlessly falling to the ground.
“Moo!”
Swinging his trunk, stamping his hooves, under Jack’s onslaught, the encirclement trapping Tiger was as fragile as paper.
“Brother Jinbe…”
The members of the Sun Pirates following behind were dumbfounded. In their three years of sailing, they had seen a lot, but seeing a Fish-Men easily break through the Marines defense line on land like this was a first.
“Don’t worry about that, keep up and rescue Boss Tai first!”
Jack was clearly a Devil Fruit user. Jinbe didn’t know why he could swim, but it was probably the same principle as Mandrell’s. The most important thing now was to rescue Tiger first; everything else could wait.
Following Jack’s breach of the defense line, Jinbe and other Fish-Men immediately charged forward. With Jack’s massive form blocking in front, the Marine’s guns and cannons couldn’t harm them. Though they hadn’t practiced this before, a unique form of infantry-tank cooperation appeared on this island.
“Bas*ard, don’t get too cocky!”
Watching Jack charging recklessly, Strawberry used Geppo to leap into the sky and swung his fist towards Jack’s eyes.
Graduating from Zephyr’s rookie camp, Rokushiki and Haki were mandatory courses. To be able to become a Rear Admiral indicated he was among the top students. If all goes well, he could be promoted to Vice Admiral in a few more years.
But at the moment, he wasn’t at that level yet. Facing Strawberry’s attack, Jack didn’t attempt to dodge. He knew he couldn’t evade the attack, so instead of wasting energy, he decided to do something more meaningful.
A silver-white metallic glow flashed on his originally bronze skin, followed by his large elephant trunk being covered in Haki. After years of training, his trunk had become more agile than his arms.
With Iron Defense enhancing his metallic elephant trunk’s defense and Haki adding a layer of even harder armor, Jack blocked Strawberry’s attack with his trunk. The feedback from the impact made Jack smirk in disdain.
“Is this the power of a Marine Rear Admiral? Pathetic!”
The trunk swung towards Strawberry, but it only hit the ground. Thanks to his footwork, Strawberry managed to dodge the attack, though his hat, perched atop his hair, flew off as a result.
Using Rokushiki’s techniques, Strawberry landed several hits on Jack, but they were completely ineffective. While Jack didn’t land a hit on him, hindering Jack’s charge also became extremely difficult.
The crucial point was that apart from him, there were no other Marine officers of Vice-Admiral rank here, but Jack had Jinbe backing him up.
In the original timeline, after Tiger’s death, Jinbe took over the Sun Pirates and was hailed as Knight of the Sea. He had earned that title due to his somewhat righteous actions, but when it came to rescuing Tiger, he wouldn’t care about any righteousness.
“I’ll help you!”
Other Marines couldn’t even stop Jack’s advance; the only one who could fight him was Strawberry. It could be said that once he was dealt with, Tiger would be safe.
For Jack, Strawberry was too agile, but for Jinbe, it was different.
“Fish-Man Karate • Shark Brick Fist!”
Jinbe leaped into the air and appeared behind Strawberry. With all his strength accumulated, he landed a powerful punch on Strawberry’s back. Completely focused on dodging Jack’s attacks, Strawberry failed to notice Jinbe until it was too late.
Even though he managed to defend in time, Jinbe’s punch still sent him flying.
He was never a match for Jinbe; in the original timeline, Jinbe had severely injured him, and now he fell right into Jack’s trunk.
“Heh, got you now.”
The muscles on Jack’s trunk exerted force, and Strawberry felt immense pressure as Jack lifted his trunk high, and a powerful whip slammed him into the ground.
Then, as Jack raised his forelimbs, preparing to finish off Strawberry, a laser beam from afar forced him to halt his attack.
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