Chapter 123

"If that's all you have, then you might as do yourself a favor and fall over a sword or something before I reach you," I said while looking the portal man in what I assumed was his eyes.

He didn't reply as his hands began moving quickly, conjuring more portals and throwing even more random things into them, causing me to activate my phasing ability as I started moving towards him.

Many portals appeared all around me as I charged towards the portal man with different projectiles shooting out of them, knives, bullets, spears, cannon balls, you name it was there, but I phased through everything without a scratch.

I quickly closed the distance between us, promptly swinging Triton at the man's head, trying to end with one swift stroke. But he reacted quickly by creating a portal beneath him, falling into it and emerging from a different portal some distance away.

"How long do you think you can keep this up?" I asked with a grin as I quickly flew towards him again, noticing the bounty hunters' fleet getting decimated by my crewmates.

"No matter how long you think you can last, your friends won't last as much," I added as I began dodging his attacks instead of merely phasing through them for the heck of it.

"And you'll run out of space to run to before you know it," I concluded as I began sending flying slashes towards the man, causing him to start creating portals in front of himself for protection.

The portals devoured my flaying slashes as new rifts appeared, shooting my projectiles back at me, and I merely grinned as I swatted them away with Triton or dodged them all together, causing them to hit the portal man's allies behind me.

...

As he continued to fight the portal man, fence, Johnny's crewmates weren't idle as they each jumped into an enemy ship, except for Bob and Doc Q for obvious reasons.

And Wilson was by far the most flashy out of the bunch as he flew into the air, transforming into his original, now downright gigantic gorilla form and landing in the middle of a bounty hunter ship.

To say that Wilson's landing was catastrophic would be an understatement, as the galleon class ship almost sank into the sea by the power of the impact alone.

Wilson then proceeded to beat the living crap out of all the bounty hunters on the ship while tearing the ship to shreds, using nothing but his brute strength.

And surprisingly, Laffite acted just as flashily, forgoing his usual stealthy style as he made full use of the cloud fruit, creating thunder clouds, iron cloud barriers, and even swamp cloud, which he used to drown the bounty hunters in their own ships.

Elly, on the other hand, merely flew around while sniping bounty hunters from the air with her trusty rifle as she kept a watchful eye on the battlefield, prepared to help any cremate in need.

Byron's actions were a mixture between Elly and Wilson as he too transformed into his gigantic crow form, flying overhead and raining flames on the unsuspecting bounty hunters, effortlessly sinking the first ship in his line of sight.

And Kozue strategically positioned herself on Byron's back, using her bow and rapidly shooting arrows, both mundane and explosive. While Law and Bepo kept teleporting from ship to ship, beating everything that moved.

...

The same situation continued to repeat itself, where I would close the distance between the portal man and myself only for him to create another portal, jump into it and emerge in a different location.

But that quickly ended when a man wearing too many guns on his clothes came running towards the portal man. "What the hell do you want, Memento?" asked the portal man in an annoyed tone.

"Don't you see I'm busy?" He scolded, all the while deflecting attacks and creating new portals to attack me without bothering to turn around. "We need to get out of here. Most of our allies are either dead or dying!" Memento said in an urgent tone, causing the portal to pause his actions for a second to look around.

He hesitated for a second or two, which was the time I needed to close the distance again. "O, no, you don't!" I remarked with a grin reached the portal man and his friend, swinging Triton to cleave them both in half.

I, however, didn't reach the portal man in time despite using my fastest speed as Laboon's towering form emerged from beneath the ship, breaking it in half and sinking it.

I had lost sight of the portal man because of the flying water vapor and wood shrapnel, but I did hear the unmistakable sound of a portal opening, meaning the bastard had at least survived.

I quickly began checking the surroundings, trying to locate where they would emerge, but found nothing and had to sigh and give up after looking around for a minute or so.

"Whatever, I'm sure he'll show up again sooner or later," I murmured with a shrug, smiling as my crewmates quickly began gathering at the portal man's ship.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, was our first victory in the grand line!" I exclaimed with a grin, spreading my arms to the side for dramatic effect, causing my companions to cheer.

"Now get to work. I want you to gather every coin and item of value that isn't nailed to these bounty hunters ships," I instructed, and everyone nodded with eager expressions on their faces.

"Then I want you to get hammers and get everything that's nailed as well, Rehahahahaha," I concluded with a loud laugh, causing some of my companions to murmur joking complaints as others merely chuckled as they got to work.

...

"Reporting, sir," the same marine soldier from earlier barged into the fleet admiral's office, saluting as he did. "Speak," Sengoku instructed as he raised his head from the paperwork he had buried in with a frown on his face.

"The battle between the silver hand pirates and bounty hunters at the twin capes has just ended, sir!" the soldier reported, still in the posture of a salute. "So quickly?" Sengoku replied with a question, his frown becoming more pronounced.

"What happened?" the fleet admiral asked again, giving the young soldier his undivided attention. "The pirates defeated, no they obliterated the bounty hunters, but their leader, Fence, seems to have escaped unharmed!" the soldier explained, hesitating as he spoke, trying to choose the best words to describe the conclusion.

"Anything else?" the fleet admiral asked. "The silver hand pirates seem to have new members, sir," the soldier replied, pausing and waiting for permission to elaborate, earning a nod from the fleet admiral.

"There are three new members. One of them is a renowned doctor and wanted criminal from north blue called Doc Q, and the other two are unknown, with one of them being a polar bear mink, sir!"

"I see. Dismissed soldier!" Sengoku instructed, holding back a sigh as he watched the young marine soldier turn around and leave his office.

"They're growing too strong too quickly," Sengoku murmured to no one in particular, heaving a deep sigh as he opened his drawer, intending to retrieve and indulge in a snack of rice crackers.

He sighed again as he opened his drawer upon noticing it was empty.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAARP!!!" the fleet admiral exclaimed with a bulging vein on his forehead, and his voice reverberated all over the marine ford, causing many new recruits to trip and fall out of surprise.