Meanwhile, on the other side of Hachinos Island's battlefield…
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gailram's sniper rifle roared repeatedly, but every bullet was effortlessly avoided by Ribo, moving with impossible agility.
She leapt and twisted through the rubble, landing on walls and leaving spiderweb-like cracks in the scorched concrete with every step.
"Scatter shot!" Gailram growled, losing patience, sending a single bullet splitting into hundreds midair.
Ribo crossed her arms, spinning two daggers like a whirlwind. Every projectile clashed against the blades, shattered into fragments—but the force still shoved her sliding backward over ten meters, her boots gouging deep furrows in the scorched earth.
"Got you, rabbit!" Neichen's blade suddenly slashed from behind.
Ribo barely twisted aside, but a long cut scored across her left shoulder.
"Lieutenant Ribo!" A Marine organizing the retreat shouted.
"I'm fine!" Ribo wiped the blood from her shoulder as the wound rapidly healed in a flash of green light. Then a sly smile appeared on her face. "But they're about to be in trouble… Life Pulse—Overload!"
"What?!" Neichen suddenly felt excruciating pain surge through her wrist, the blade shaking violently in her grip.
Looking down, she saw her skin unnaturally reddening, heating up, muscles convulsing uncontrollably.
"No worries! Just giving you a little 'treatment'!" Ribo twisted backward into a backflip, increasing the distance.
"This time, it's reverse healing—your skin's pain nerves amplified by 300%!"
Neichen collapsed to her knees. Her long sword clattered to the ground.
Seeing this, Gailram immediately swung his rifle back—but a white blur flashed before him.
"Too slow!" Ribo's boots suddenly enlarged in his view.
Rabbit Kick—Meteor Fall!
Crack! The sound of his nose breaking was horrifyingly clear.
Gailram went flying like a ragdoll, crashing through three crumbling walls before finally stopping.
Elsewhere, in the golden cage, the fishman Sebastian had already turned into a statue.
Tazolo exhaled without even looking back, retrieving his Den Den Mushi.
"Corporal, the pirate officers in the southeast district are neutralized. Send someone to detain them."
"Understood."
After ending the call, Tazolo glanced toward Ribo's direction.
"I wonder if she's done yet…" he muttered, golden liquid forming a slick path beneath his feet.
"Well, might as well go check!"
It didn't take long. When Tazolo arrived, his pupils constricted sharply.
Before him, Gailram of the Walde Pirates slumped like a heap of mud at Ribo's feet. His sniper rifle lay twisted and mangled nearby.
Even more shocking, the swordsman Neichen was being lifted by Ribo with one hand, her neck gripped tightly. Her body twitched violently, and a stream of blood-like energy was being forcibly drawn out of her!
"This is…" Tazolo's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard.
The extracted life force twisted in the air, eventually condensing into three crystal-clear, carrot-shaped biscuits.
As the last trace of energy drained, Neichen's body visibly withered, skin losing its luster. Her once-dark hair turned half gray in an instant.
"You only got three?" Ribo pouted in dissatisfaction, tossing the nearly lifeless Neichen aside.
"So that's only six between you two!" she added.
Then, like she was juggling toys, she tossed the healing carrots into the air and caught them again, her rabbit ears twitching excitedly.
"Back when I went out with Uncle Sakazuki, the captains could extract eight each… Oh! Right! You're not a captain. My bad."
Tazolo looked down at Neichen, aged at least twenty years in mere moments, then at the "healing carrots" in Ribo's hands.
"Damn… one against two, and she's stronger than me."
"Lieutenant Ribo…" Tazolo opened his mouth, but urgent footsteps interrupted him.
"Lieutenant Tazolo!" A squad of Marines, led by a corporal, arrived, stopping in shock at the scene.
"This…"
"Detain them all and return them to the ship," Tazolo quickly regained composure, pointing at the unconscious Gailram and the near-dead Neichen.
"And also—" Ribo hopped over to him, handing the healing carrots to the corporal.
"They're few, but crushed up, they can be shared with the lightly injured soldiers."
"Thank you, Lieutenant Ribo!" The corporal saluted earnestly.
"No problem! No problem! Hehe~" Ribo clasped her hands behind her back, unconsciously spinning on her toes, her grin stretching almost to her ears. She clearly enjoyed the feeling, every part of her radiating glee.
Tazolo couldn't help but smirk at the sight.
He turned to the corporal. "Alright, handle the aftermath. Ribo and I will go find Lieutenant Gern…"
Before he could finish, a familiar voice came from nearby.
"Well done, you two."
The voice was quiet, but the battlefield instantly fell silent.
Marines cuffing pirates froze mid-action. Captured members of the Walde Pirates stiffened, as if frozen by a spell.
All eyes turned toward the source.
In the sunset's glow, Gern Reginald Sigmar approached slowly.
He dragged something behind him, leaving a long trail of blood across the scorched earth.
As he drew closer, everyone's pupils constricted in shock.
Especially the pirates of the Walde crew:
The captain they had worshiped as invincible—the so-called "World Destroyer," Bondy Walde, bounty of 1.92 billion berries—was now being dragged along the ground by his hair like a dead dog.
The sea breeze carried the scent of gunpowder past, and Gern's Justice Cloak snapped behind him in the wind.
The sun cast his shadow long across the battlefield, as if to swallow all darkness within it.
"Gern!" Ribo was the first to snap out of her daze, hopping forward like a jubilant little rabbit.
"Look! Look! I took down two of them all by myself!"
Gern released his grip on Walde's hair, letting the pirate slump to the ground like a ragdoll.
"Tsk tsk tsk… looks like our Ribo's getting stronger and stronger!"
"Of course! Haha."
At that moment, Tazolo approached, eyeing the unconscious Walde.
"Is he…"
"Alive," Gern answered tersely. "But he won't wake up for a while."
Hearing this, the corporal snapped out of his shock and hurriedly commanded his soldiers:
"Quick! Fit Walde with the special Seastone manacles!"
Gern watched the soldiers move busily, then gazed toward the rising dusk in the distance, speaking softly:
"This mission's done… time to prepare for a promotion, I suppose…"