Chapter 50: Seeking Readership! Dragon's Last-Minute Sharpening!
Two large Sea Ships, four Decks high with two Gun Decks, one black and one white, flying Skull Flags that were almost identical except for the Cat Ear color, braved the Cannonball barrage raining down from the sky, desperately fleeing northwest amidst rising Water Spouts.
Behind them, a dozen Navy Warships from the Branch were in hot pursuit, relentlessly pouring Cannon Fire towards them.
"Damn it, why? Why have these Navy suddenly become Mad Dogs, only thinking about biting us, meow?" On the White Cat Pirates' Ship, 'Fishing Cat' angrily glared at the distant Fleet and cursed. Just then, the Telephone Bug perched on his palm spoke.
"Calm down, White Cat. I guess it's the nobles from various Kingdoms in the South Sea playing tricks. You know how many Noble Ships we've robbed over the years, meow."
"Plus, three months ago, we broke into the Royal Palace of the Lenna Kingdom and emptied the Treasure Vault. I guess that incident completely enraged the nobles, so they spent a lot of money to get these Navy to catch us, meow." On the other Black Cat Pirates' Ship, 'Three-Legged Cat', who looked almost identical to 'Fishing Cat' except for his black clothes, calmly speculated.
However, he also felt something was strange. Could the nobles of these Kingdoms really have such great power?
You know, ever since they were discovered by two Warships yesterday, they had been like they were being tracked. No matter where they went, groups of Warships would always appear to chase them. At the most outrageous time, there were almost Warships surrounding them from three directions!
And there was another strange thing. These Warships always gave him a feeling of deliberately keeping their distance.
"What exactly does the Navy want to do, meow?" 'Three-Legged Cat' ignored the surrounding Cannon Fire and booming sounds, scanning the nearby Sea Area and thinking.
"Ugh, who cares what they want to do? I'm furious now. Let's find a target and fight them first. Maybe if we beat them up, they won't chase us anymore, meow!" 'Fishing Cat' shouted fiercely at the Telephone Bug.
At the same time, walnut-shaped pale yellow Cat Eyes appeared in his Eyesight, his ten fingers flashed sharp Fingernails, a pair of Ears stood up long, and his whole body exuded the dangerous aura of a hunter.
"It's here, White Cat Boss's Zoan Cat Fruit Lion Cat (Africa) Form!" Crew Members wearing white fur coats and white Cat Ears on their heads nearby shouted excitedly one after another.
For these South Sea Pirates who hadn't seen much of the world, the Devil Fruit Ability had a considerable long-term novelty because it represented Strength.
"No, meow!" But Black Cat 'Three-Legged Cat' decisively stopped him.
"There are too many Warships. With the Strength of our two Ships, we can at most fight against the Navy of three Warships at the same time. But now there are more than twenty Warships around. Do you want to go to Prison with me, meow?"
"If you say you're willing, then I'd be happy to go in with you, meow!" Hearing this, White Cat 'Fishing Cat' hesitated, and the murderous intent in his Eyesight gradually faded. Although his Personality was more impulsive and lively, he was not an idiot, and he didn't want to implicate the other party because of himself. Therefore, he could only suppress the Rage in his heart.
"Then what should we do, meow?"
Black Cat 'Three-Legged Cat' said, "Continue to escape. Judging from the Route, I strongly suspect that these Navy want to force us into the Grand Line, meow!"
These words were originally just an offhand remark, but after saying them and thinking about them carefully, he felt they made more and more sense, which made his Eyesight light up.
"Right, that should be it. These South Sea Navy accepted the Commission from the nobles, but they are also afraid of our Strength and don't want to pay too many Wounds, so they want to let us enter the Grand Line. This way, it can be considered as achieving the Purpose of eliminating Evil for the nobles, meow!"
"So that's how it is, meow..." White Cat 'Fishing Cat' also felt that Black Cat 'Three-Legged Cat's' speculation was correct, and asked, "Then are we just going to follow their wishes, meow?"
"What else can we do? It seems that our actions over the years have completely angered the nobles of the South Sea. There is no place for us here anymore, meow." The latter sighed helplessly.
The former sneered. "Hmph, the Grand Line, so be it. Let's go. With our brothers working together, where can't we make a name for ourselves? Let's also see if the nobles on the Grand Line are rich or not, meow!"
On the other side, five huge Warships, several times larger than the Navy Branch Warships of the South Sea, were riding the waves in a triangular Formation.
In this South Sea Sea Area, they stood at the top of the food chain.
"Rear Admiral Dorag, news from the South Sea 175th Branch, the Black Cat Pirates and White Cat Pirates are currently heading towards us under their encirclement, ten Sea miles away!" A Colonel ran over and reported loudly.
"I know, pass down the order, prepare for battle." Dragon nodded expressionlessly. Rear Admiral Evan chuckled beside him.
"These South Sea Navy are really enthusiastic!"
In fact, Dragon hadn't expected things to develop like this before.
He originally just wanted to use the name of capturing 'Black Cat' and 'White Cat' to make a small detour and then go to the Tutmose Kingdom, and then notify the three nearby Navy Branches to come and cooperate on the day of arrival, to catch the other party off guard.
But who knew that the various Branches of the South Sea would be as if they had been injected with chicken blood, desperately wanting to send these two 'Cats' to him. It is said that they had also prepared to provide support as soon as possible if his Battle Situation was urgent.
What does this mean?
It means that even if Dragon was a useless showpiece, they would find a way to let him eat this Cat Meat and comfortably brush up his War Merit!
It can be seen how ignorant these South Sea Navy are, and Rear Admiral Evan had been laughing non-stop at their level of provincialism these past two days.
"Since that's the case, let's take them along the Route. Two Zoan Pirates with bounties of nearly 50 million are indeed a considerable threat in this South Sea. Let's consider it eliminating Evil for the people." Dragon said calmly, looking at the Sea Surface ahead.
"Pirates with bounties below 50 million, and from the Four Seas, presumably don't have Haki. It should be enough to send a few Officers." Rear Admiral Evan shrugged, not taking it seriously.
"No, I'll take action myself, quickly end the battle, and then immediately turn around and launch a surprise attack on the Tutmose Kingdom!"
Still that sentence, Dragon firmly believes that speed is essential in war. Detouring is only for 'surprise', and the speed of the 'attack' later is the most important thing.
Rear Admiral Evan volunteered, "If that's the case, it's not good for you as the commanding Officer to take action, right? I can do it for you, and guarantee a quick battle."
He was also the Deputy of this operation, and felt that he should show something at this time, and it was also a good thing to build a good relationship with Dragon.
"Thank you, but I want to do it myself and try out my Devil Fruit Ability." Dragon politely declined the other party.
"Okay then~" Rear Admiral Evan didn't mind, feeling that his commanding Officer wanted to show off in front of him and all the Navy.
After all, it was the Logia Type Hurricane Fruit, and he indeed had the capital to show off, and he also really wanted to see the battle scene of a Logia Type.
But in fact, Dragon didn't think about these messy things.
It was just because he hadn't been an Ability User for long, and in addition, in order to cover up the fact of his defection, the opportunities to use his Ability to fight were even fewer. So his development was indeed somewhat insufficient, and he had only fought CP0 once before.
So he planned to take this opportunity to come up with a few useful moves on those two 'Cats'. After all, the 'Slave King' he was going to face later was described in the Intelligence as being very strong, at least he had been immersed in Haki for more than ten years, plus a Paramecia Type Devil Fruit Ability for a longer time.
It can also be considered a last-minute sharpening!
[Author's Notes about data, collections, recommendations, rankings, and reader comments]
[Author's Notes about character origins from reader IDs]
(End of Chapter)