Chapter 178: The Navy’s Futile Efforts
The Revolutionary Army’s surprise attack was beyond Elus’s expectations, and also beyond the Navy’s predictions. Be it Zephyr or Borsalino, neither had anticipated that the Revolutionary Army would have such audacity.
When the Navy Headquarters was formulating action plans, they had not considered the possibility of the Revolutionary Army striking first. This was not due to the Navy Staff Officers’ lack of foresight; it could only be said that habitual thinking was deadly.
Don’t be fooled by the Revolutionary Army’s current considerable influence, with members spread across the Four Seas and the Grand Line.
However,
to this day, the Revolutionary Army rarely engages in direct confrontations with the Navy.
Apart from the last operation to abduct Nico Robin, whenever the Revolutionary Army encountered large Navy forces attacking, they always chose to retreat.
After so many instances, it inevitably led people to misunderstand, thinking that the Revolutionary Army lacked the confidence to clash head-on with the Navy. During the last abduction of Nico Robin, the Revolutionary Army had gone nearly all out, with even their Leader personally taking action.
Learning from Sakazuki’s defeat, this time the Navy spared no expense, deploying one active Admiral and one former Admiral, and also summoning most members of the Seven Warlords······ such a lineup could absolutely be called luxurious. The Navy Headquarters Staff Officers were all focused on planning how to prevent the Revolutionary Army from escaping.
Even more so,
considering the possibility of intelligence leaking in advance, they had put on such a grand show precisely to deter the Revolutionary Army as much as possible.
Who would have thought the Revolutionary Army would show such astonishing boldness.
The Navy, on the other hand, was caught completely off guard.
“Dragon······ impressive!” Zephyr punched to shatter the incoming Light Cannon, praising his former student aloud. “To think······ you’d be so bold. Truly underestimated you.” As he spoke, the old man shifted his gaze, looking through the wind and rain at another warship nearby.
Even this thick curtain of rain could not obscure that shining golden light.
“Borsalino.”
Zephyr shouted with full vigor.
“Ah! Don’t rush me, old man.”
Borsalino sighed leisurely, tilting his head to gaze at the flock of dragons flying in the distant sky. He instructed his sword-wielding adjutant guarding beside him, then stepped forward, his body turning into golden light that shot toward the distance. The brilliant, dazzling glow was strikingly conspicuous amid the overcast Storm weather.
The Navy personnel and Seven Warlords on the warships saw the trajectory of that golden light, and the Revolutionary Army warriors on the dragons’ backs also spotted the golden light speeding toward them.
“It’s Kizaru.”
“Navy Admiral Kizaru.”
“Fire the cannons, fire!”
The Revolutionary Army small leaders on the dragons’ backs shouted desperately. Cerberus Type-1 laser cannons mounted on the dragons’ backs fired one after another, green laser beams weaving a net in the air, attempting to block Borsalino’s approach. But such efforts were doomed to be futile.
Borsalino, transformed into light, showed no fear of the laser attacks.
“Borsalino, this ends here.”
The ever-changing wind successfully halted the light’s advance. Borsalino sensed a threat from this endlessly varying gale—unlike the cannon laser fire, this wind······ could bypass his elementalization and directly damage his body.
Thus,
The light converged in the air, and Borsalino, reverting to human form, stared at Monkey D. Dragon, who rode the wind to block his path.
“How scary! Revolutionary Army Leader, the world’s most dangerous criminal, Monkey D. Dragon. You really gave us quite a scare.”
Borsalino quipped habitually, but his face lacked its usual playfulness and laziness. Beneath his sunglasses, his eyes were filled with gravity and caution.
“You’re still the same as ever, Borsalino.”
Dragon chuckled softly.
The two men of similar age were old acquaintances, both rising stars in the Navy and students taught by Teacher Zephyr······ but from the first day they met, they had gotten along poorly due to differences in personality and ideology.
Years later, reunited on opposing sides, the two were still the same as before—unable to agree on even half a sentence.
The great battle,
erupted in the next second.
The raging storm and shining light clashed repeatedly beneath the dark clouds, shattering even the cloud sea at the horizon with their combat.
Victory or defeat between the two would not be decided in a short time. At their level, in a one-on-one fight, it would take days and nights without rest to quickly determine a winner. Though short-term dominance like east wind overwhelming west wind was not yet visible.
But from the situation, it was clear that Dragon held the advantage.
This did not mean Borsalino was inferior in skill; it was just that Dragon, lying in wait, had preemptively created a heavenly advantage. The typhoon and storm spanning sea and sky amplified Dragon’s power several times over.
While intercepting Borsalino from targeting Revolutionary Army cadres, he even had spare capacity to multitask. Without expending much effort, just a slight flick of his fingers to guide the typhoon’s path, he could effortlessly bring great trouble to the Navy fleet below.
Coupled with the laser cannons mounted on the dragons’ backs.
This caused the Navy, which held the upper hand in martial power, to fall into a disadvantage in this sudden battle.
······
“Fufufufufu, the Revolutionary Army guys sure have some tricks!”
Doflamingo stood on the ship’s bow deck, laughing loudly against the Storm. Threads dancing in the heavy rain were as sharp as swords, slicing through raindrops, cleaving Light Cannons, and forming an airtight net that firmly protected the warship they were on.
The chaos-loving Heavenly Yaksha naturally did not care about the lives of the Navy on this ship.
The reason he was vigorously protecting the Navy on board was to avoid engaging the Revolutionary Army. He had no desire to be ordered to attack them, and to prevent that, the safety of this ship’s Navy was his best excuse.
From the corner of his eye, he glanced around; the other Seven Warlords were doing the exact same thing.
Hancock used her crisp, dance-like kicking techniques to defend against cannon fire from the distant sky.
Kuma continuously fired Pressure Cannons with his fruit ability, exchanging fire with the Revolutionary Army’s bombardment.
Cavendish wielded his beloved sword Durandal, crisscrossing Sword Qi forming an impenetrable iron wall.
Actively defending,
Poor at attacking.
Everyone’s slacking off in such similar fashion.
No one would go all out for the Navy. If it were fighting with the wind at their backs, they would not hesitate to use their power, but turning the tide against the wind······ don’t expect much contribution from these pirates. Not turning coat was already a good situation.
“Pirates are pirates after all; utterly unreliable.” Vice Admiral Strawberry, with his astonishingly long skull and handsome long mustache, snorted coldly.
Many in the Navy despised the Seven Warlords, and Vice Admiral Strawberry was one of them. Though he was a confidant personally promoted by Borsalino, unlike his superior Borsalino, his beliefs aligned more closely with Sakazuki.
Pirates cannot be trusted; all pirates should go to hell.
“This isn’t the time for that. The priority is to quickly reverse the current situation. If we continue in this passive state, we’ll be crushed by the Revolutionary Army.” Gion’s voice came through the Den Den Mushi.
“I can hold out here, but Melci and the others probably won’t last much longer.”
Vice Admiral Dalmatian’s voice rang out.
The Navy was holding an emergency meeting via Den Den Mushi equipped with special devices. Thanks to Doctor Vegapunk, Den Den Mushi originally meant for one-on-one communication could, with special equipment, connect multiple units within a certain range for group calls.
By the way, “Melci and them” referred to the nine Navy Rear Admirals participating in this operation.
Rear Admirals and Vice Admirals are different after all. Even three Rear Admirals teaming up could match a Vice Admiral for a time, but in the long run, it was unsustainable.
“Teacher Zephyr, how’s the situation on your end?”
Gion asked.
“No means of flight!” Zephyr’s tone was utterly frustrated.
Hearing this response, the Vice Admirals standing on different warship decks all showed similar helplessness. Flight······ this was a major dilemma. Humans without wings could not fly into the sky without external aid.
Even a strong person like Zephyr was no exception.
Flight capability has little to do with fist strength. Though most Navy elites mastered Rokushiki, with Geppo for aerial movement, it was ultimately just a technique, not sustainable. Against enemies skilled in flight, it was useful only if the battle could be ended quickly.
But if victory could not be secured in a short time,
Heh,
It became rather useless.
And Monkey D. Dragon, the world’s most dangerous criminal, was clearly no easy opponent. Even Zephyr and Borsalino together dared not guarantee they could kill or capture Dragon if he was determined to escape. Otherwise, during the Summit War, the Navy would not have gone to such extremes to deal with a Pirate Emperor.
After all,
Simply winning was something two Navy Admirals teaming up could basically secure against a Pirate Emperor.
Unfortunately, Pirate Emperors are Pirate Emperors not just because of their personal superior martial power, but also due to the vast influence under them, stronger than ordinary kingdoms. A strong person without territory or subjects has no qualification to be called a Pirate Emperor.
The Revolutionary Army was no less than the Four Emperors; in terms of influence, it even slightly surpassed a single Pirate Emperor.
Especially in the past year, the Revolutionary Army had developed explosively like injected with chicken blood. Total manpower hadn’t changed much, but equipment had advanced by leaps and bounds. The deployment of Artificial Dragons truly gave the Revolutionary Army wings.
When fighting kings’ armies or the Navy of various countries, they took full advantage of the Artificial Dragons’ existence.
Yet the World Government, with Doctor Vegapunk, still had not granted Artificial Dragon Technology to the Navy. Lacking flight means, the Navy could only stand on decks gazing up at the fierce battle in the sky.
“No, the longer this drags on, the worse for us. We must find a way to break the current deadlock.” Gion’s fine brows furrowed tightly. This situation was unexpectedly dire; before departure, no one had imagined it turning into such an embarrassing predicament, and there was no reliable contingency plan in mind.
No choice,
In this haste, no possibilities for breaking the deadlock came to mind.
The Revolutionary Army’s advantage was too great. The Navy, having lost air superiority, was completely on the receiving end. The Navy warships lacked anti-air cannons—or rather, the scarcity of flight means meant anti-air weapons had not been prioritized for development, remaining a barren field to this day.
“Retreat.”
Zephyr’s order reached the general officers’ ears via the connected Den Den Mushi.
“Teacher Zephyr, you mean······ retreat?”
“Instructor?”
“Are you joking?”
Retreat?
The Navy had come aggressively this time. Even if eradicating the Revolutionary Army cancer in one battle was impossible, they at least needed to snatch back the target person Nico Robin. Now, not only had they failed to grab her, they hadn’t even glimpsed the target person’s shadow, and yet retreat······
“Instructor, if the Black Prince aids Admiral Borsalino, defeating the Revolutionary Army isn’t impossible!”
Vice Admiral Stiles was unwilling to return empty-handed.
“You’re right.”
“If the Black Prince goes all out······ there’s indeed a high chance of crushing the Revolutionary Army. But the problem is we can’t command him at all! I said from the start that the Seven Warlords are untrustworthy. Better to rely on a dog than them—at least a dog trained well will obey. The Seven Warlords scum are just a pack of undisciplined dogs!!!”
Zephyr cursed freely.
He didn’t care even if it dragged Elus in. Leaving aside his agreement and trade with Elus, from the current situation, Elus was slacking off just like the other pirate-originated Seven Warlords, showing no sign of fighting for the Navy.
Hoping the Seven Warlords would be the key to breaking the deadlock at this point was nothing but wishful thinking.
The last shred of unrealistic fantasy shattered, and the Vice Admirals all fell silent.
“Execute the order.”
Zephyr issued the command with unusually firm resolve.
“I’ll bear all responsibility. Your job is to protect the fleet and retreat, away from this storm-shrouded sea area······ if we drag this on, we might not even be able to retreat later.”
Heavy rain poured, cold wind cut like knives.
Gion’s pent-up frustration was about to explode. She took a deep breath, barely suppressing her frustration, swung her Konpira, and her indignant Sword Qi cleaved the green Light Cannon shooting down from the sky—yet still failed to fell the dragons flying overhead.
“Pass the order: we······ retreat!”
Gion gave the command with a taut face.
Her ship was crewed entirely by female soldiers, all her loyal confidants who had followed her on campaigns. Truth be told, the retreat order frustrated her, but it also relieved her. She didn’t want any of her shipmates to die here. Thinking this way, retreat······ wasn’t so unacceptable after all.
In the end, charging headlong while getting thrashed by the enemy······ was just suicide!
Meaningless sacrifice was the most unacceptable.
She somewhat understood Teacher Zephyr’s belief now.
The Navy fleet suddenly turned their ship’s bow, beginning to retreat in the direction they came. Without knowing the extent of the Storm’s coverage, retreating along the original route was the wisest choice.
