203. Ambush

The warship reached their first island within a day thanks to Issho.

"Issho-san, Mace, Flare, Violet and Dali, take a party and search these areas. If you spot something that matches the description I gave you, mark that area and take some samples."

"We will regroup here after three hours."

Shinobu gave out instructions and took three marines with her and all of them went their separate ways.

After three hours they regrouped.

Several samples of different plant species were placed before Shinobu. She checked them one by one and separated two from the group.

"Who found this?"

Flare and Violet raised their hands.

They immediately showed the marked area on the map. Shinobu led a group of marines carrying all sorts of containers to that area.

After a while they returned with bags full of research materials.

It took them several more hours to scour the rest of the island before leaving for the next one.

While they were enroute to their next destination a small ship was following them from far behind.

"Captain, they are moving again. Their coordinates seems to be...

A man with a wretched face spoke through the den-den mushi.

After sending out information he sat down comfortably on a chair and grinned.

"Joker made such a huge move for a single warship? Looks like whoever is on that ship really pissed him off."

...

Shinobu and her crew reached the next island the second day. This one was larger than the one before and it took them even more time to scour the island.

Even with Mace, Issho, Violet, Dali and Flare, it took them a good half day to fully scout the island.

Shinobu had a bright smile on her face as she watched the marines load the ship with samples.

"I never expected these islands to have this much specimen."

She commented.

Mace said, "It's not that surprising, ma'am. After all, these islands are uninhabitable, and it is untouched by the outside world. So it's reasonable that something rare outside can be found here."

Shinobu agreed.

As they were finishing the last of the samples the lookout suddenly let out a gasp and shouted.

"Captain, we got company. A fleet is approaching us!"

Mace narrowed his eyes, "How many?"

The lookout checked again and said with slight panic, "Ten ships. And half of them belong to-to Yonko Kaido!"

Kaido?!

Mace trembled for a moment. His face turned ugly.

"Don't panic."

Issho tapped his wooden cane on the floor and said lightly. However his voice reached every marine and calmed them down.

He walked to the edge of the island and slowly drew out his sword. He slashed it across the sky and sheathed it again.

Mace and the rest were confused as to what he did. They didn't have to wait for long to know the answer.

The sky suddenly started to brighten up. Several red dots appeared among the clouds, they were falling down with tremendous speed.

"Meteorites?!"

Mace was shocked, as were the other marines.

Even more shocked were the pirates.

Diamante was standing on the deck with an unsightly expression on his face.

"When did that marine's crew have such a character?!"

On one of the other ship was a large man. His eyes were cruel and his body continuously leaked out chilling murderous vibe.

"Jack-sama! What should we do?!"

This man was one of the three disasters under Kaido, Jack The Drought!"

Jack pulled out the two tusks on his shoulder, revealing two oddly shaped swords.

"What else?! I'm gonna destroy it!!"

The meteorite fell on them.

Jack jumped high into the air and slashed his sword several times like a lunatic. His eyes were bloodshot as he did so.

Diamante also jumped up. His long sword turned black as his jabbed it forward.

Two of the meteorites falling for the center of the fleet was stopped in mid air. Cracks formed on it's blazing surface and burst apart.

Chunks of burning rocks fell down like rain. The other pirates were strong enough to take care of those falling pieces.

However the last meteorite fell directly on a ship and swallowed it whole before sinking to the bottom of the sea. Another ship near to it was also caught up by the crash and fell apart.

Veins popped on Jack's forehead as anger rushed to his brain.

"Kill everyone!"

Issho didn't use the same move again as they were too close to them now.

"Get ready for battle!"

The canons on the warship was aimed at the pirates.

"Fire!"

Mace gave the signal and volleys of shots were fired.

"Fire!"

The pirates returned the fire.

The marines were able to get a few of them since there was a lot of ships. However the pirates failed to reach their target.

When they were close to the island Diamante and Jack jumped off of their ship and rushed straight for the marines.

"Die!"

Jack's bloodshot eyes oozed out tremendous murderous vibe. His sword gleamed as he swung it towards a marine.

Before he could reach his target Issho blocked his path.

"Let this Issho be your opponent."

The sword hidden in his cane was drawn out and blocked Jack's sword.

Issho stood tall like a mountain against Jack's attack.

Even though Jack was crazy, he wasn't stupid.

"Then you die."

Knowing his opponent was strong Jack went all out.

Diamante on the other hand was blocked by Mace. Both of them clashed against each other and no one came out on top.

By now the other pirates have landed on the island and engaged with the remaining marines.

Dali, Violet and Flare led the attack and held off the pirates.

Shinobu had her arms locked behind her as she looked towards the opposite end of the island.

"Such a huge line up just to kill me?"

She asked with no one else in sight. However as soon as she spoke several figures walked out of the woods.

Taking a head count there was atleast a hundred of them.

The person leading the group grinned and said, "Joker sends his regards to your husband."