Chapter 80: Death And Revenge (part 1)
Now, speaking of the Navy side, they were also having a tough time with this sudden encounter battle.
Of the two warships that had just been repaired, one was directly scrapped, and the other was barely floating on the sea surface, where even a slightly larger wave could smash it to pieces.
Zephyr and Garp were sitting on wooden crates on the deck, with medical soldiers bandaging their wounds.
In the rear, other medical soldiers could be seen running back and forth, and some soldiers with minor injuries were also pulled to help transport the critically wounded.
For a moment, footsteps, groans, and shouts filled the entire deck.
“Bogard, how are our casualties?”
Garp had lost his usual smile at this point, sent away the medical soldier who had finished treating his wound, and asked his deputy officer about the current situation.
“Report to Vice Admiral Garp, we have a total of forty-two killed or missing this time, including two officers. Seventy-five seriously wounded, one hundred twenty lightly wounded.”
“Sigh~ Nearly one-fifth lost… These are all elites from Navy Headquarters.”
Zephyr let out a long sigh, his words carrying obvious sadness, but he forced himself to perk up.
“It’s impossible to return to headquarters on our own now; we need to quickly contact the nearby G5 branch and have them send warships and ship doctors.”
“Otherwise, I’m afraid those seriously wounded soldiers won’t last much longer.”
“Hmph! Who knows what that Golden Lion guy is crazy about.”
“He used to fly off like a fly after a couple of brushes, but this time he turned into a mad dog that bites and won’t let go.”
Garp’s expression was equally grim; this was almost the Navy’s most severe loss since the God Valley Incident.
“That’s indeed suspicious.”
Although it was just Garp venting, Zephyr had no intention of overlooking Golden Lion’s unusual behavior this time.
“That Golden Lion guy is arrogant, but he rarely leads the entire Flying Pirates into direct combat with us like today.
And this time, he surprisingly had no affiliated pirate crews with him…”
Garp picked up a bag of rice crackers bought on the island, opened it, and responded while eating, his tone still laced with anger.
“Who knows what got into him; maybe he suffered a big loss on Hachinosu Island and is in a bad mood.”
“Pah~ Pfft! Damn it, these rice crackers got soaked too!”
At this moment, Bogard, who had been standing by, suddenly spoke up:
“Could their goal not be us at all, but that unknown pirate ship?”
“Hm?”
“Unknown pirate ship…”
“You mean the one we saw back then?” Reminded of this, Zephyr also recalled it.
“Yeah, judging by the direction Golden Lion was heading at the time, their target seemed to be that pirate ship.”
Following Bogard’s words, Zephyr began to recall the scene at the time.
They had been sailing normally when suddenly Golden Lion’s fleet descended from the clouds ahead.
The opponent seemed very surprised to see them, but with little hesitation, Golden Lion’s flagship led all the warships in an immediate turn and charged toward them.
Then came a brutal slaughter…
『Wait!』
『Not all!』
Zephyr suddenly remembered a small detail before the two sides engaged.
『At the time, it seemed two ships at the tail of Golden Lion’s fleet had been detached.』
Because they were blocked by the numerous ships of the Flying Pirates ahead, Zephyr hadn’t seen clearly where those two ships had gone.
Now it seemed they were pursuing that unknown pirate ship.
“Garp, what do you think was on that ship to make that Golden Lion guy go all out like this?”
“Who knows, maybe some precious Devil Fruit.”
“That old captain of his liked collecting Devil Fruits too.”
Back then, the Rocks Pirates had indeed frantically collected Devil Fruits on the sea, later even targeting ability users, causing widespread panic at the time.
“But Shiki shouldn’t have that habit…”
“Hey! What if it’s related to Rocks’ treasure?
Didn’t he just go attack Hachinosu Island? Now suddenly chasing that strange pirate ship—maybe there’s a clue to the treasure on board?”
Zephyr suddenly stood up, as if he had discovered the truth.
“Probably, who knows.”
“Maybe John ran onto that ship.”
Garp made a joke upon hearing this.
“Right, where’s that ship?”
“Don’t know.” Bogard replied.
“Don’t know?!” *2
“Yeah, because of Golden Lion’s sudden attack, we stopped paying attention to that ship.
By the time Golden Lion retreated later, we could no longer find any trace of that ship.”
“Damn it!”
Zephyr was somewhat unwilling.
“Alright, Zephyr.”
“In that situation back then, we had no time to care about anything else, and even if we could find that ship now, we couldn’t pursue it.”
“Report this to headquarters first and let them handle it.”
“Fine… I hope that guy’s treasure doesn’t end up in Golden Lion’s hands in the end.
That guy isn’t one to obediently hole up in the New World for life.”
“Hope so~”
Garp nodded in agreement.
“Have you contacted the G5 branch? Is the Den Den Mushi still unconscious?”
“Report, the Den Den Mushi has woken up and is currently calling…”
……
Edge of the Calm Belt, Albrif Island—
“Captain John! What are you doing!”
A pirate shouted, completely unable to accept the scene before his eyes.
John didn’t answer, instead drawing his saber from Foll’s chest, then slashing off the head of the pirate who had just spoken.
The surrounding pirates, seeing this, were filled with rage; some tried to rush forward but were held back tightly by those beside them.
“J-John… Captain, why… why…”
Foll on the ground asked weakly.
He wasn’t dead yet, but he was barely breathing out.
“Fufufu~ Foll, you led Shiki here, didn’t you.”
John wiped the blood from his blade with a silk handkerchief and asked in return.
“I… I didn’t…”
Hearing this, Foll’s eyes widened as he desperately tried to say something.
“Denying it won’t help~ Yesterday, that Shiki guy was clearly coming for me.”
“Hey~ Foll, how did he know I was alive, and find my location so quickly?
Hehe~ The only ones who know I’m alive are you and Babu; who do you think betrayed me?”
“No… not me…”
Foll used his last breath to try to prove his innocence.
“Is that so? What a regret~”
Cold words came from John’s mouth.
He let go of his hand, and the handkerchief stained with glaring blood fell onto Foll’s face, covering his line of sight.
“But no matter, Foll, I never trusted you anyway.”
Under the snow-white handkerchief, Foll could no longer hear John’s voice; his pupils gradually dilated, and his consciousness slowly faded…
