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Whoosh!
Rojen's figure was a mere afterimage, flickering as he surged forward. In the blink of an eye, he was upon the three Vice Admirals.
Yet, strangely, the three high-ranking officers showed no reaction whatsoever. They stood frozen, like statues carved from ice.
"Vice Admiral, sir!" Marines behind them shouted, but the three remained utterly unresponsive.
Rojen arrived, his sword already drawn and moving.
Swish!
A streak of light flashed. The blade swept across the necks of all three Vice Admirals in one swift movement.
Thump!
Without even a twitch of resistance, the three figures collapsed limply to the ground. The entire Marine force was frozen in disbelief.
"W-What just happened?!"
Some of the keenest-eyed officers finally saw Rojen's blood-red eyes.
"Ah! His eyes!" they cried out, but in the very next instant, they found themselves in a different place.
They stood within a vast, blood-red void. Eerily, each of them was bound tightly to a cross-shaped rack.
"W-Where is this place?!" they screamed, panic seizing their minds.
There was no answer. After a single, agonizing breath, a man holding a short, dark blade walked toward them. Under their horrified, mental gaze, he began to slice into their bodies, one meticulous cut at a time.
"It hurts! Aaaahhh!"
In this spiritual realm, the Marines shrieked in terror.
In the physical world, Rojen simply walked forward, step by step. Every Marine his gaze swept across instantly dropped to the ground, utterly defeated. In mere seconds, more than a dozen officers standing at the front fell.
"Don't look into his eyes!"
A sharp, authoritative shout cut through the fear. The elite Marines, though unsure of the command's meaning, instinctively slammed their eyes shut.
"Oh? They figured out the danger quickly." Rojen showed a flicker of surprise that they had grasped the threat so fast.
But closed eyes would not stop him.
He took a step, and his Conqueror's Haki erupted once more.
Boooom!
The air itself seemed to shudder. Within a kilometer radius, any Marine whose willpower was not absolute rolled their eyes back and fell unconscious.
This sight made the surviving Marine officers, watching from the periphery, turn sickly pale.
Just one man, Rojen, had instantly neutralized nearly five thousand soldiers. Such a devastating blow was intolerable.
"Who can stop him?!"
Rear Admirals lacked the strength. Vice Admirals were defeated with a single glance and then executed.
What kind of monster was this man?
"Come on, Marines. Round Two begins now!"
Rojen held Seven Stars casually, the black windmill pattern in his crimson eyes rotating slowly as he smiled.
Seeing him advance, even the most resolute of the elite Marines couldn't help but tremble. For a dangerous moment, fear paralyzed them.
Moments ago, their blood had been boiling, death was nothing. But now, Rojen had clearly undergone a terrifying transformation, he was impossibly stronger.
"We… we can't match him!"
Sweat soaked the Marines' faces. They dared not advance, but the code of a soldier forbade them from retreating.
On the battlefield, hesitation before a powerful enemy was a fatal flaw. A single person's retreat could trigger a catastrophic rout.
Retreat was an option a soldier would sooner die than take.
Finally, when Rojen had taken three more advancing steps, some Marines could no longer endure the crushing psychological pressure. With a guttural shout, one officer charged forward, instantly leading a dozen others right behind him.
Pff!
But within five breaths, Rojen had moved, swung his sword, and sheathed it. All the charging figures collapsed to the ground, shocked and incapacitated.
"Not fighting anymore?"
"Then I'll be going."
Rojen smiled faintly as he spoke.
He could clearly see that the remaining Marines were genuinely terrified of being killed by him. And that was precisely his goal. Marine high-level combat power was at its nadir; this was the perfect time to apply overwhelming pressure and then escape.
By crushing them with such absolute force, he instilled a fear strong enough to ensure they would hesitate before pursuing him.
The Marines remained silent, staring fixedly at Rojen, their faces grim and defeated.
The man before them was too powerful, too baffling. To charge him recklessly now would simply be throwing their lives away. They were elite soldiers, but not martyrs.
Rojen understood their calculated silence. He waved his hand, tossing Seven Stars into the air, and formed a hand seal. The blade rapidly expanded in size. With a light jump, he landed steadily atop the now-massive Seven Stars.
"Time to go."
His latent focus circulated. Rojen let out a quiet breath. Seven Stars shimmered with light as it ascended into the sky.
In truth, during that intense, close-quarters fighting, Rojen hadn't been physically injured, but his energy consumption was massive. He had been fighting Marine elites constantly. After the non-stop battles, his reserves were diminished, and his mental strength was halved.
If the Marines had managed to sustain their attack, his remaining strength might not have held out.
The terrifying core of swarm tactics is attrition, rapidly draining an enemy's stamina and will until they reach the point of collapse.
On the high command platform, Kong received the frontline reports, and his face instantly hardened to iron.
Marine casualties had reached five thousand, including multiple Vice Admirals and Rear Admirals. The toll twisted his gut and fueled his rage.
Bang!
He slammed his fist onto the armrest of his chair and snarled:
"Where is Kizaru? Where is Sakazuki? Where is Kuzan?! And where in the hell is Garp!?"
His voice was thick with fury. The Fleet Admiral of the Marines was completely enraged. In this crucial, defining war, so many key Marine leaders were absent.
Disregarding command, acting lawlessly, they were utterly tarnishing the prestige of the Marines!
Sengoku was equally frantic. Across the battlefield, Golden Lion Shiki stood patiently atop his floating island, observing the chaos. Rojen had single-handedly shut down the entire southeastern region, and the Marines were helpless.
Was there truly nothing they could do? Were they really so lacking in strong fighters?
No. That was false. The truth was that those strong fighters were simply not at Marine Headquarters when they were needed most.
"What in the world is happening? How could this alignment be so utterly perfect?"
Sengoku knew, with chilling certainty, that this was no mere coincidence.
Sakazuki and Kizaru had been deliberately lured away by that young pirate. Like slowly boiling a frog, the boy had systematically forced the Marines to pull away their powerful resources, luring the tiger from the mountain. And at this critical juncture, Marine Headquarters had been exposed and hollowed out.
In the southeastern skies, Rojen slowly ascended, a faint, satisfied smile playing on his lips.
"Kizaru and Sakazuki are still trapped near the Sabaody Archipelago. Even if reinforcements arrive swiftly, only Kizaru could make up the distance in time."
"As for Garp…"
Rojen stopped the thought. He knew Garp was likely racing toward the Headquarters now.
But even this slight, engineered delay had caused the Marine battle line to lose catastrophically against Golden Lion's Flying Pirates at the start of the war.
And because of that, the Marines were set to suffer devastating losses. Once Golden Lion's highest-level combatants made their move, the consequences for the Marine establishment would be immeasurably severe.
(End Of This Chapter)
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New Novels- 1. One Piece- Maxed Out Conqueror's Haki!
2. One Piece- Master Of Devil Fruits
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