Before Rain's warning had even fully left his mouth, several strangely shaped pirate speedboats burst out of the fog from all directions—silent and sudden—right before the stunned Marines' eyes.
They had used currents and mist to hide perfectly, striking only at the last moment.
These pirate boats were long and narrow, with sharp ramming spikes along both sides. Their prows jutted up like spider fangs. On each sail was a vicious white spider emblem.
"It's the Maelstrom Spider Pirates! Open fire!!" Commander Dal was the first to react, roaring an order.
But it was already too late.
On the lead ship—the largest—stood a black-haired man with a spider tattoo on his forehead. He licked his lips with a long tongue and cackled nastily.
Two samurai blades hung at his waist, one long and one short. His face looked sly and cruel.
It was "Maelstrom Spider" Squard.
"Keh-hahaha! Stupid Marine scum—another bunch delivering yourselves to death!" Squard sneered, pointing his long katana at the Marine cutter.
"Perfect. We're not full yet! Boys—tear them apart!!"
"OHHHHH!!!"
The pirates answered with bloodthirsty howls.
The next second, a storm of attacks fell like rain.
The pirate boats fired dense cannon volleys from every angle—and from special launchers at their bows, they shot out enormous white "web nets"!
The nets spread wide in midair, forming a suffocating lattice that dropped over the Marine craft.
"Evasive! Evasive!" the helmsman shouted, wrenching the wheel.
Too slow by a hair.
A huge web landed on the stern and instantly wrapped the propeller. The boat's speed plunged like it had hit mud.
"Damn! The prop's tangled!"
"Starboard! Incoming shells!"
"Boom! Boom!"
Several cannonballs detonated near the craft, throwing up towering water columns. The hull rocked violently. Rain shoved Rosinante down against the cabin wall and used his own body to absorb the brunt of the shockwave.
"Return fire!!" Dal drew his blade and shouted commands.
The Marines opened up with rifles and the cutter's small rapid-fire guns—
But the enemy numbers were overwhelming. Worse, these pirates clearly knew the Fog Archipelago like their own backyard. Their boats slid like eels, weaving through fog and hostile currents, dodging Marine fire while striking from vicious angles.
Rain blocked flying shrapnel with his sword while reading the battle with Observation Haki, his expression growing serious.
The recon cutter was trapped in a complete encirclement—like a moth caught in a web—forced into desperate, clumsy defense. The hull groaned as cannonballs and ramming spikes battered it again and again.
"Commander! Port side breach—taking on water!"
"Comms! Can you reach Vice Admiral Sakazuki?!"
"No! The interference is too strong—no contact!"
Despair began creeping across the boat.
Squard laughed wildly, then launched himself off his flagship in a single bound.
"Keh-hahaha! Game over, Marine trash!"
His huge body cut through the fog like a cannonball. The long blade in his hands came down with air-rending force toward the cutter's helm—clearly aiming to kill the commander first.
"Protect the commander!" several Marines roared, firing upward.
But the bullets only threw sparks off Squard's body, unable to pierce his skin. He clearly had strong Armament Haki.
"Get out of my way!" Dal's eyes bulged. He roared, gripping his blade with both hands and meeting the descending strike head-on.
CLANG—!!!!
A deafening impact.
Dal felt an unbearable force crash into him. His palms split instantly, blood spraying—but through experience and sheer will, he stayed alive long enough to hold the strike for a heartbeat… before being blasted backward into the cabin wall.
Squard's eyes flickered with surprise, as if he hadn't expected a Marine commander to survive even one blow.
He snarled and raised his blade again, ready to cleave Dal—and the helm—apart. If this strike landed, Dal would die.
On the deck, Rain yanked Rosinante back from slipping, then turned and took the head off a pirate lunging at them.
He saw Dal's crisis. He saw the Marines fighting hard but clearly losing to the pirate elites around them.
"Tch… troublesome," Rain frowned.
What is Sakazuki doing? he cursed internally. Dal isn't strong enough to handle Squard, and he knows it. Why isn't he here? Sitting on the flagship playing "commander in reserve"? Great—now his adjutant is about to die…
Over these days, Rain had grown genuinely fond of Dal—upright, responsible—and the soldiers willing to die at his side.
Dying here would be a waste.
At the instant Squard's blade was about to fall and Dal's face turned to despair—
A figure appeared as if teleporting, right in front of Dal.
It was Rain.
"Hm?!" Squard's pupils shrank—he clearly hadn't expected a nobody recruit to move that fast.
Rain didn't hesitate. His sword flashed from the sheath.
A dense layer of pitch-black Armament Haki coated the blade.
Facing the mountain-like strike, Rain stepped in instead of back, his sword drawing a vicious upward arc to meet it.
The speed, power, and condensed Armament in that swing were far beyond anything "a hardworking ordinary recruit" could ever reach.
If Gion were here and saw that strike, she'd probably be too shocked to even hold her sword.
KRRANG—!!!!
An even harsher, more violent collision burst out.
Sparks exploded like fireworks.
Before everyone's unbelieving eyes—
Squard's unstoppable blade was actually stopped, dead, by this unknown Marine recruit.
Rain's feet even cracked the deck planks under the force, but he held the line.
No doubt about it, Rain assessed instantly. Just from the feedback, this guy's physique is above mine. A real SSR-class threat.
"You…?!" For the first time, shock flashed in Squard's eyes. How could this brat have this kind of strength and Armament?!
"Kill them all!" Seeing the cutter barely holding together, Squard crushed his doubts and lunged at Rain again. He needed to remove this obstacle first.
At the same time, pirates from the surrounding boats began jumping over, screeching as they swarmed onto the deck.
The cutter instantly became a chaotic slaughterhouse.
Rain and Squard clashed directly.
Steel flashed. Great blades collided again and again. Armament Haki thundered.
Rain pushed his power to the limit, combining refined swordsmanship and unbreakable Armament, holding Squard to a standstill.
He could feel Squard's raw strength pressing him down—but with superior speed and sharper Observation, it wasn't clear who would win if this dragged on.
Marines and pirates alike were stunned by the duel.
Dal stared, wide-eyed. "T-this kid…?"
Rosinante watched Rain like a war god, his mind completely blank.
Meanwhile, seawater kept pouring in. The cutter tilted harder and harder. Marines fought in desperation on the slick, rocking deck, outnumbered several times over.
Rain fought Squard while feeling the boat's condition through Observation Haki.
It was done.
We can't keep fighting on the boat. It's going to break apart!
Then—
BOOOOM—!!
The cutter lurched violently as the listing hull slammed into a hidden reef.
CRACK! CRACK! A bone-grinding tearing sound came from below.
The ship began to split. The deck heaved upward.
A massive wave, mixed with shattered planks and bodies swept up in the churn, slammed toward the collapsing deck.
"Hold on!" Rain stopped trading blows. He feinted a slash to force Squard back, then spun and grabbed Rosinante by the arm as he was thrown.
WHOOOSH—!!
The wave swallowed them whole.
In the instant he was tossed, Rain had already locked onto a nearby black island hidden in fog.
Now!
He stopped holding back.
As he hit the water, he used the wave's push and kicked hard underwater with both legs—like an explosive "underwater Geppo."
Splash!
The two of them shot through the mist like cannon rounds, clearing the center of the chaos and crashing down onto the rocky shallows of the shadowy islet.
Freezing seawater engulfed them. The impact knocked Rosinante out cold.
Rain tanked it with his physique, surfaced fast, and sucked in a breath.
He looked back once at the battlefield now swallowed by fog and whirlpools. Squard, Dal, and the others had vanished beyond his sensing range.