At the eastern port of Ashen Port, a pirate ship was moored, and the flag of the Blood Spear Pirates fluttered in the wind.
The design on the flag was a bleeding spear piercing a skull, and the crimson background seemed to be stained with fresh blood.
In the open space of the port, the pirates sat around a bonfire, with unknown meat roasting on a grill, grease dripping into the fire with a sizzling sound.
A strange mixture of char and blood permeated the air.
"Captain, we had a good haul this time!" a pirate grinned, meat scraps clinging to his teeth.
"Those Marines are probably on their way, let's pull off one more big score!"
"Hmph, the Marines of West Blue…" a tall, thin figure, like an iron tower, sat on a reef, old scars on his pale skin looking particularly gruesome in the firelight.
He slowly raised his hand, stroking the blood beak, a detachable and reassemblable spear beside him, its barbed tip gleaming coldly.
"However, they're just a bunch of useless trash."
Logot, the Captain of the Blood Spear Pirates, wore a cape pieced together from plundered Marine officer uniforms, the deliberately preserved rank insignia glinting in the firelight.
A cruel arc formed on his lips: "When they arrive, I'll hang the leader's head on 'blood beak' to let the Marines of West Blue know that I, your old man, am back, hahahaha…"
Suddenly, the laughter ceased.
The sea breeze abruptly stilled for a moment.
The pirates by the bonfire noticed the anomaly and looked up.
At the entrance of the port, a figure was slowly approaching.
It was a young Marine wearing a uniform, with a long blade wrapped in white bandages slung across his back.
.....
And when Logot, the Captain of the Blood Spear Pirates, saw the Marine approaching from a distance, a ferocious smile spread across his lips.
"Heh… Finally here!" However, when his gaze fell on Gern's epaulets, his smile instantly froze.
"War, Warrant Officer?! And from a branch office?!"
Looking at Gern's rank, Logot's eyes instantly darkened, and veins bulged on his forehead.
"What a joke?!" He stomped his foot, and the reef beneath him cracked with a 'crunch'.
"I am Logot, the Captain of the Blood Spear Pirates, who fought his way back from the Grand Line!
A great pirate with a bounty of sixty-nine million Berries! The Marine sent a mere Warrant Officer to deal with me?!"
He laughed in extreme anger, pointing his spear fiercely at Gern, his voice filled with humiliation and rage.
"Are you Marines so short-handed?! Or are you saying…" His single eye narrowed, murderous intent boiling, "You think I'm not even as good as a Warrant Officer?!"
Hearing their Captain's self-mockery, the pirates also burst into laughter, taunts rising one after another.
"Hahahaha! Captain, it seems the Marine looks down on you!"
"A mere Warrant Officer isn't even enough to stick in our teeth!"
"Hey, Marine kid, did you come to the wrong place? This isn't a new recruit training camp!"
Gern didn't respond, he just kept walking forward.
As Gern approached, just then, a lanky pirate suddenly widened his eyes, staring intently at Gern's face, then abruptly grabbed his companion's arm, his voice trembling.
"Wait… that guy… that's a white-bandaged blade on his back!"
Logot glanced at him impatiently: "What's wrong? Scared stiff?"
The pirate swallowed, his voice shaking: "Captain! Th-that guy is Gern, the Marine Hunter!!"
"What?! What the hell is a Marine Hunter?" Logot frowned.
The lanky pirate quickly leaned in, lowering his voice to explain: "Captain, although this guy's rank is low, in the past year, sixteen pirate crews in West Blue have been completely wiped out by him alone! He's a complete Marine monster!"
"Last month, 'Gold Tooth' Hawke of the Golden Blade Pirates, with a bounty of twenty-three million Berries, was wiped out by him!"
"Also… I heard he actually received special training at Marineford, but his rank was suppressed because of his 'excessive methods'!"
After hearing his subordinate's explanation, Logot narrowed his eyes slightly, re-evaluating Gern.
"Oh? A little interesting…" His lips curved again, but this time the smile was no longer disdainful, but carried a hint of bloodthirsty excitement.
"Gern, the Marine Hunter?" Logot narrowed his eyes, his gaze falling on the Warrant Officer rank on the young man's shoulder, then he revealed a mocking smile.
In the first half of the Grand Line, there were countless famous guys like Gern!
He wasn't afraid at all.
So Logot stood up, his tall figure casting a shadow.
"Kid, although you have some fame, are you Marines so short-handed? Sending a greenhorn like you to die?"
Gern didn't answer.
His gaze swept over the pirates by the bonfire, then over the still-wet bloodstains on the port ground, finally resting on Logot.
"You are Logot, the Captain of the Blood Spear Pirates?" His voice was calm, yet sharp like an ice blade.
Logot sneered, raising blood beak, its tip pointed at Gern: "What, you've heard my name?"
"It seems it's not that the Marine looks down on me…" He slowly raised his spear, the tip rotating, his voice low, "It's that they think you alone are enough to kill me?"
Facing their Captain's fearless demeanor, the pirates burst into laughter, some even whistling.
....
Facing the mockery of the Blood Spear Pirates, Gern remained expressionless, slowly raising his hand, fingers splayed, palm facing upward.
"You massacred Ashen Port." His voice was very light, as if stating an insignificant fact.
Logot was stunned for a moment, then burst into wild laughter, the blood beak spear drawing a crimson arc in the air.
"Hahahaha! Do those commoners even deserve to be called a massacre?" He bared his teeth, revealing their stark white, and his single eye gleamed with a morbid excitement.
"I'm teaching them…" The spear suddenly stopped, its tip pointing directly at Gern.
"On the great sea, the lives of the weak… are worthless!"
In Gern's eyes, coldness instantly condensed.
"Then your life…" In his palm, the air suddenly distorted.
"Boom!!!" A ball of pure white vibrating particles pulsed, collapsed, and condensed in Gern's palm.
The surface of the light ball erupted with dazzling light, like a star compressed to its extreme.
Logot's laughter abruptly ceased.
"How much is it worth?!" With that, Gern's arm muscles suddenly tensed, and the next second, he slammed it into the air beside him!
Boom!!!!!
Crack! Space shattered.
Centered on his fist, the air fractured like a mirror, and spiderweb-like cracks instantly spread, a terrifying shockwave erupting in a fan shape, wherever it passed—
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The Blood Spear Pirate ship moored beside the shore was vibrated into countless fragments within a thousandth of a second!
Planks, masts, nails, sails, all were pulverized, even the seawater beneath the hull was vibrated into a huge vacuum crater!
"Splash!" The seawater surged back, raising monstrous waves, and the shattered ship wreckage was sucked into the vortex, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
The pirates' clamor instantly vanished.
The entire eastern port was terrifyingly silent.
Logot's pupils contracted to pinpricks.
His ship and all his treasures… were obliterated with one strike.
Gern slowly looked up, his black hair stirred by the air current, revealing those chillingly cold eyes.
"And…" His voice was very light, yet like a heavy hammer, it struck hard at Logot's heart.
"What you just said was wrong." Gern raised his hand and for the first time gripped the hilt of black blade eight desolations behind him.
"It should be…" In an instant, the blade vibrated, high-frequency vibrations tearing through the air, emitting a piercing hum.
The bandages on the black blade eight desolations automatically unraveled spirally from the hilt to the tip, transforming into grayish-white fragments suspended in the air, the edges of the fragments flickering with arc-like high-frequency shockwaves.
After being fully unleashed, the blade was completely exposed, dark red cracks erupting with dazzling light, the entire blade resembling a "兇 beast awakening."
"It's that I think you alone are not enough for me to kill."
