At Krieg's order, the nearest pirates raised their new-issue muskets and took aim at Ron.
They never pulled the triggers.
Azure arcs flashed through the air Wind Blades skimming past their throats and leaving thin red lines. Then the lines burst open. The blades didn't stop at the first rank either; they punched through flesh and bone to reap the men behind.
"What… happened?"
Many saw the glint of blue streak by, but few understood until horror rippled across their faces. Every pirate touched by that light came apart, bodies cleaved like neat blocks of tofu, limbs and torsos pattering across the sand in a rain of blood.
For Ron now, even firearms scarcely mattered.
With his spirit fully unleashed, the world slowed to a crawl. Every face, every weapon, every twitch of a finger lay exposed to his sight. Bullets might rival Wind Blades for speed, perhaps but the time between a finger tightening and a shot firing did not. He cut throats before steel could ever spark.
Shock froze the pirates for a heartbeat. Then someone, sweating cold, found his voice.
"Together. All together! He's only one man!"
Two thousand bodies. A terrifying number if they could focus fire at a single point, even Krieg would be torn to pieces. But this was not a disciplined Marine formation. It was a confused crush on a chewed-up beach with no space to align or aim.
At this distance only the front row could shoot. In truth, swords were more useful than guns here.
And most of all did numbers mean anything to a magician?
They did not.
Looking at the onrushing tide, Ron's eyes took on a glassy, gemlike sheen that made hearts stutter. A pressure rolled across the sand, a shared premonition of something terrible about to arrive.
It did.
Before him, blades of wind bloomed one after another, a monsoon of edges pouring forward.
How fast could he cast Wind Blade now?
A tenth of a second.
Even with the smallest cooldown between casts, he could hurl four or five in a single breath.
Hiss. Hiss. Hiss.
Wind Blades pealed from the air and swept into the crowd. Blood geysered in fans, then fell in sheets. In only a few seconds while many still stood dazed dozens became ragged heaps. Hands, arms, whole torsos spun and thumped to the ground.
Krieg's smile vanished, freezing into a hard line.
In mere instants, scores nearly a hundred had died. Even with close to two thousand gathered, terror rippled through the ranks. The rear saw only the front collapsing in swathes, as if carved by a thousand invisible blades.
"Shoot! Shoot! Kill him!"
Panic triggered a volley. Muskets cracked, smoke bursting from a few dozen barrels. Bullets screamed toward Ron.
He frowned, rolled left, and the wand flicked. Wind Blades met metal midair with sparks, then carried on to scythe more men from their feet.
After riding out the volley, Ron did not retreat. He charged straight into the mass of pirates.
Without defensive magic he still gave bullets their due respect. But once he crossed into the press, muskets became liabilities. Fire there, and you killed your own.
"Stop him. Stop him!"
Someone shrieked. No one moved to meet him. Fear gnawed the front line to pieces the Wind Blades had done that much. Even those who leapt forward swung only once.
A pirate roared and chopped down with his blade. The steel met an oncoming Wind Blade in midair, rang like a bell, snapped in two and so did the pirate.
Ron did not need speed of limb. He did not even need to swing. He was a swordsman who cut without a sword, a storm that struck from any angle he imagined. A thought, and the edge appeared.
He mixed fire in for variety.
Scarlet fireballs detonated among the throng while wind carved burning trenches through flesh and cloth. Screams layered upon screams. Under Ron's march the Krieg Pirates fell like wheat to the scythe.
One against two thousand.
No mind on that beach had imagined a scene like this.
Far off, Marines and civilians stared in awe-struck silence. Closer, Krieg and his lieutenants Ghost-Man Gin among them could scarcely believe their eyes.
"Damn him."
"To butcher my men so brazenly…"
Krieg's glare sharpened. "Gin. Harus. The rest of you stop him."
The cadres had been straining at the leash already, faces dark as thunder. At the order, they burst forward, racing into the killing field.
They had to stop him. If they didn't, if this continued even a little longer, that lone magician might butcher all two thousand.
Even as they ran, doubt throbbed under their ribs. Whatever this man was doing, the power he displayed was monstrous.
Beyond human.
"Is that… a Devil Fruit ability?"
On the Marine side, an ensign watched, throat working. He had expected that even a strong individual would be swallowed before reaching Krieg. But this, this was the kind of gulf he had felt months ago when a Headquarters officer from the Grand Line had flattened a whole branch garrison by himself, captain included.
Power not of the same plane.
Watching Ron carve a path with contemptuous ease, the ensign shivered. This was strength like that beyond these pirates, beyond this entire sea.
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