Leaving Loguetown

Next to the Thunder Phoenix at the shoreline, the battle between me and Smoker continued.

In the distance, I could see the figure of Zoro, finally reaching back to the ship. Now, I only needed to distract Smoker for a bit to escape from here.

Woosh… Smoker attacked me once again with his jitte; however, I parried it with my trident instead of dodging.

Thunk… sound of metal hitting metal took place as both of our weapons clashed.

"Damn it! What is this…?"

Smoker knitted his brows together from seeing the condition of his weapon.

I had just used my Rumble-Rumble fruit powers to conduct severely high voltage to the entire jitte, resulting in it melting and being unusable anymore. Although the weapon carried Seastone at its tip, it didn't mean I couldn't pass high voltage to melt the rest of the weapon.

"Now, we can finally talk about the important things Smoker… Like whether you're really immune to cancer from smoking…?"

I grinned and leisurely waited for Smoker to reply.

"Snort… you aren't leaving this place. In my past years of service here as Captain, I've never allowed pirates to escape!"

Smoker kept a tight watch at the Thunder Phoenix, threatening to attack it directly if I moved towards it and set sail.

I sighed at his words and said, "But what can you possibly do anymore? If you're waiting for the extra reinforcements from the Marines, don't count on it!

Smoker pressed his lips firmly together with doubt. He couldn't imagine that the Marine's reinforcement, which he himself was only informed about today, could have possibly been leaked to me.

"Mwah ha ha… Let me show these Marines not to mess with me." I said, inspecting the guests that'd arrived in the distance with a twisted smile.

**

At the Marine Galleon…

"Sir, we have finally arrived at Loguetown…"

The Marine subordinate saluted and handed out a few reports to the captain.

"Good, now release PX-3 and PX-5… This will be the third real test we're performing, so get all the technical teams ready for observation. Of course, that Cross pirate has to be strong enough to be a challenge for these beasts."

Without delay, the Marine Captain ordered the release of PX-9 and PX-5. These were human weapons developed by Marine head scientist, Dr. Vegapunk, known as Pacifistas. They were cyborgs built in the mold of Bartholomew Kuma, who was the prototype for them.

**

Soon afterwards, the two Pacifistas arrived in front of Smoker and me.

"That's the Warlord of the Sea, Bartholomew Kuma… No, it can't be!"

Smoker's nose wrinkled from confusion. He had no idea how there were two Kuma's here right now.

"You should venture out to the Grand Line already, Smoker. You'll get to see many fun things like this there eh."

A mocking smile formed on my face as I felt the electrical components inside the cyborgs. I started gathering large amounts of lightning to my hands to target them. My entire body was giving off rumbling sounds louder than the ones from the huge storm above.

Beep… Beep… Beep… The Pacifistas soon recognized my face from the bounty picture. Each of them opened their mouth to fire a laser beam, which was based on Kizaru's light-based Devil Fruit.

100 Million Volt Vari…! I released a 100 million Volts of electrical energy to the Pacifista close to me.

ZAPP… All of the Pacifista's electrical components went haywire, being fried by the excessive voltage. And Boom… the light beam exploded inside its own mouth, further injuring itself.

"That was too easy…!" I muttered.

While the first Pacifista had shut down, the second Pacifista was still able to load its beam in time to fire.

Pew Pew…! A light-based laser beam headed towards me; however, I'd already predicted its trajectory through my Mantra.

The light beam slipped passed me and cause a huge light-explosion in a distant spot. Just seeing the damage caused by the explosion warned me how bad it would be to get hit by one of those.

El Thor…! For the remaining Pacifista in the distance, I launched a massive lightning stream from my hand towards it.

BOOOOM! The entire Pacifista couldn't take the beam of high voltage electrically, exploding into hundreds of fragments of flesh and metal.

"Wow… Did you see th-"

Just when I was about to show-off to the pale Smoker, a laser beam formed at the hand of the first Pacifista. It seemed that there was some malfunction in its body that caused it to activate the beam unconsciously.

Pew… Pew… The Pacifista fired once again before shutting down for good.

Dark circles formed under my eyes when I saw the beam's trajectory.

The laser beam went on to hit near the Thunder Phoenix with a Bang…, inflicting shock waves upon it. The hull of the ship seemed to have taken massive damage from the impact…

I chewed on my lip and used my Mantra to perform some damage assessment. The crew seemed to have been heavily shocked from the explosion, but they had all survived.

Whew… I couldn't help but shake my head in relief when I heard all their voices once again. The damage could have been much worse than just the ship's hull if the beam was any closer.

"Ha ha ha… That ship won't survive the sea for more than 1 hour in this weather. You're now trapped here for days until we get further reinforcement"

Smoker laughed loudly at my misery.

In spite of being mocked by the Marine Captain that was responsible for most of it, my attention was focused somewhere else… Presently, my eyes were laid at the Going Merry setting sail in the distance, and a crazy idea started forming in my head.

"Smoker, I've had fun thanks to you today. But, I'll be leaving now…" I said.

"No, I won't let you leave even if you want to." Smoker pursed his lips from cautiousness and watched my movements carefully.

"Hoho… I see! Then, I wonder if your subordinates are made out of smoke too."

I glazed my eyes at the figures approaching in the distance and started gathering electricity to my hands once again.

"Captain, we're finally here!"

"We're going to surround the ship at your orders!"

In time, a few Marines soldiers arrived and started to surround the Thunder Phoenix.

"No! Get out of here!" Smoker yelled, running towards his subordinates.

El Thor…! With an evil grin on my face, I fired yet another beam of electricity but to Smoker's subordinates this time.

Smoker gritted his teeth and took the beam head on… ZAPP!

Smoker's body was fried from inside and out soon after. He fell from the sky with serious burns, his status no longer known by anyone.

Without delay, I teleported back to the Thunder Phoenix and ordered for it to leave immediately.

Owing to the fact I took out Smoker, the Marines tried to stop our ship from leaving with red faces. I made sure to electrocute them immediately and quickly escaped the town.

**

Back at the Marine Galleon, everyone viewed the event with pale faces. They couldn't help but shiver uncontrollably from seeing those monsters, which were built from the funds required for one huge Marine-issued battlefield, killed in an instant.

"S-Sir, what do we do…" The Marine subordinate asked.

"What we always do… Make sure that no one releases information about those Pacifistas and clean all signs of the battlefield."

The Marine Captain had a tight smile on his face as he prepared a convincing report for the Headquarters for the loss of the Pacifista.

Rumble-Rumble…!

The Marine subordinate trembled as he gazed to the large cluster of electricity forming above his head. He said, "I-Is that l-lightning forming above our heads"

Later screams of misery could be heard from all the Marine ships sent to Loguetown from the Science Branch of the Marines.