Emergency Signal

Fifteen days passed,

Blaize's unit and Fishman Pirates were playing the game of cat and mouse. Every time, he will miss them by few minutes to an hour.

Even he was frustrated by repeated failures. Though he was strong, he could neither catch nor reach them in time. How ironic!

He just needs one right opportunity. A sight of their ship is enough for him to get them. Furthermore, catching Fishman pirates yield him more merit points because of what Fisher Tiger did at Mary Geoise.

Blaize wants to badly learn Haki, for that, he needs at least 2000 Merit points. For now, he only has 800 something under his name.

With 2000 Merit points, he can once again go back to the training camp to learn Haki from Instructor Zephyr. In Marine, he's the best teacher of Haki.

Old Man Magnus whom he met during his hunting mission gave his word that he will teach Haki but the crux is he already told him that he wasn't ready yet.

When he will be ready? Blaize doesn't know. That's why he decided it's best to learn Haki from Zephyr.

Only by learning Haki, he can travel to the New World; a sea filled with full of wonders, great pirates, interesting people, peculiar islands, and powerful creatures.

--

Blaize stood on the front deck of the ship to welcome a new day as Golden Sun slowly rises above the Horizon.

Basking in the morning sunlight, he felt refreshed. Golden tiny particles invisible to naked eyes gathered around him, his body shone in golden light.

A sense of comfort washed over him. Morning light is the best time for Blaize to improve his constitution attribute and a perfect time to train his body.

Regis and Jotto stood a few steps away from Blaize, watching the latter basking in the sunlight.

"I don't know why Captain always bask in the sunlight, does staying under the sun bring any benefit that we don't know?" Jotto wondered aloud.

"Who knows? But I believe Blaize captain won't do anything meaningless." Regis stated. Both of them are with Blaize for six months, and they knew about his character to a certain extent.

In fact, most of the Marines on the ship were grateful to be placed under Blaize as they all developed in some way.

They respect and trust Blaize very much and will follow his command unconditionally, without any questions raised.

At that moment, a Marine ran towards Regis and reported: "Lieutenant commander Regis, we got another intelligence of Sun Pirates whereabout!"

"What?" Jotto exclaimed, a little agitated.

"Where?" Regis asked.

"The intelligence department from headquarters doesn't know whether it's true or not as it was a tip-off from a Merchant ship.

They spotted the Snapper Head in the middle of the sea and it was sailing east. I looked in the map, and if I am not wrong, they are navigating towards Gerong Island." The Marine Ensign replied.

"Good!" Both Jotto and Regis exclaimed.

Regis said, "Jotto, notify the soldiers and ready the sail. I will inform Captain!"

--

Blaize snaps out of his training hearing someone's call. Turning around, he glanced at Regis and inquired, "What is it, Regis?"

"Captain, Snapper Head was spotted near Gerong Island," Regis replied.

"Gerong Island..." Blaize muttered, he has some impression of it.

To capture the Sun Pirates, he studied most of the islands located near the Red Line. They mostly roam around this region.

Knowing them will just help him a little, as the GrandLine is huge. At most, they can react instantly and pursue them before they disappear again.

"What about the things that I asked to prepare, Is it completed?" Blaize asked after thinking for a moment.

"Captain, you know we don't have any skilled persons in our ship. With limited materials, resources, and the design you gave, we had done our best."

"Don't worry about it." Blaize waved his hand. "We just need them in working condition for a few minutes!"

"Then you can take a look at yourself, Captain."

Blaize and Regis walked towards the ships' back where Blaize saw a huge nozzle that's attached to a turbine designed by him.

The turbine was then directly connected to a Paddlewheel that was half-submerged in the water. The mechanism is similar to Ace's striker raft but bigger.

Blaize could see the engine is somewhat built crudely with low-level materials obtained from the Pirates ship destroyed by them.

It can only be utilized once, then it will lose its effectiveness. Anyway, Blaize is pleased with this thing as he now has a trump card to pursue Sun pirates.

"With this, we may have a chance to get them," Blaize muttered and commanded Regis to sail the ship towards Gerong Island.

It took them three hours to reach the vicinity of Gerong Island but there was no sight of Sun Pirates. The Marine soldiers on the ship scrutinized the surroundings to locate Snapper Head but they fail to see any.

'Did we miss them again?' Blaize frowned. He didn't like the feeling of being led around by the nose.

At that moment, his unit received an emergency signal prompting ship's Den Den Mushi to cry aloud.

"Captain Blaize, we are receiving an SOS signal. It's possibly from another marine unit somewhere near us." A Marine Ensign under his command ran forward, carrying the Den Den Mushi.

'Clank!'

Blaize attended the call without much thought and spoke, "Who is it?"

"Urgh...We are from Unit G-2, save us. We were surrounded and attacked by a group of Fishmen. Please, hur– Arghhh!" The communication ended after a weapon slashing sound.

"It's them. Tap the signal and find the other party's location. Since it's an emergency signal, they should be nearby!"

"Yes!" The Marine Ensign acknowledged and ran back to the cabin.

Within two minutes he found the location; it's towards their west. Under Blaize's command, the ship picked up speed and sailed forward.

After ten minutes of course towards the west direction, they spotted two ships in the distance; Snapper Head and a standard Marine ship.

'Finally!' Blaize smirked while the Marine officers under his command prepared the cannons for battle.