On the ruins of the houses, Luo Chen was surrounded by three Headquarters Captains.
His eyes swept over the three, but he didn't recognize any familiar characters from the story.
"Kill him!"
The sword-wielding Marine in the front roared, swinging his longsword and unleashing several sharp slashes.
Luo Chen lifted a hand and pointed. The earth overturned, and a dark green Wood Dragon burst forth.
Its thick tail swept through the air.
All seven sharp slashes shattered.
The Wood Dragon's tail was completely unharmed, not even a splinter falling off.
Seeing this, the sword-wielding Captain's expression changed drastically.
"Everyone, be careful! His strength is not at the Captain level!"
First, there was the death of Gal Locke.
Then, there was Smoker's encounter with Luo Chen.
The Marines' assessment of Luo Chen's strength was that of a relatively strong Headquarters Captain.
But the fact that the Wood Dragon had easily shattered the sword slashes without taking any damage proved that Luo Chen's strength likely completely surpassed that of a Captain.
The Wood Dragon flew through the air and charged at the sword-wielding Marine.
It was incredibly fast, and the opponent had no time to dodge.
The Marine could only let out a roar, tightly gripping his longsword to slash at the Wood Dragon.
A huge collision erupted.
A shockwave blew out in all directions.
The sword-wielding Captain let out a pained grunt. The webbing between his thumb and forefinger split open, and blood splattered as his body was forced back more than ten steps.
The Wood Dragon charged forward to kill again.
The other two Captains also launched their attacks at this moment.
One of them used Moonwalk to stand in the sky, kicking repeatedly and sending down a barrage of slash waves like sword slashes.
A wooden shield appeared in front of Luo Chen.
The vacuum slash waves from the Tempest Kick had no effect at all.
The earth split open, and a towering tree shot up from the ground, its hundreds of branches like a swarm of snakes, rushing toward the Marine standing in mid-air.
Even as the Captain continued to ascend with Moonwalk, he still couldn't escape the encirclement of the tree branches.
In the blink of an eye, he was imprisoned by a dense mass of branches.
No matter how he attacked with Tempest Kick, the branches were not damaged in the slightest as they closed in, preparing to capture him.
The other Marine, who was skilled in using Shave, suddenly curled his entire body into the shape of a wheel.
He charged over from a distance.
The Marine with the Wheel-Wheel Fruit ability even used Shave to accelerate during his charge, maximizing the impact.
Luo Chen did not dodge. He looked at the human wheel charging toward him, raised his right hand, and pressed it forward.
BZZZ—
No matter how the wheel-Marine tried to power forward, he couldn't advance an inch.
Luo Chen's palm was as steady as Mount Tai. With a sudden exertion of force, he grabbed the Marine's collar, directly interrupting his wheel state. Then, with a forceful swing, he threw the wheel-Marine toward where Smoker was.
In a short time, Luo Chen had suppressed all three Headquarters Captains.
But Luffy's group of three was also in a perilous situation under Smoker's attack, on the verge of collapse.
Luffy had been beaten black and blue by the Seastone Jitte, and blood was trickling from the corner of his mouth.
Zoro's and Sanji's injuries were even more severe. They were limping, standing back-to-back to face the enemy.
Smoker sneered. Just as he was about to finish the three of them off, he suddenly sensed something and looked up into the air behind him.
His expression changed. A Marine figure was hurtling toward him like a broken kite.
Smoker's body turned into white smoke. He shot into the sky and caught the Marine flying through the air.
He took a closer look and saw that it was one of the three Marines who had been surrounding Luo Chen.
Smoker looked up in astonishment, his pupils trembling violently.
He saw, where Luo Chen had been, a massive Wood Dragon roaring up at the sky, the sword-wielding Captain in its giant mouth. Not far away stood a towering tree, and in a cage of branches shaped like a steeple, the Marine who had been standing in mid-air with Moonwalk was bound.
In a short time, three Headquarters Captains, whose frontal combat strength was no weaker than his, had all been defeated!
A storm of shock raged in Smoker's heart.
The battle was completely different from what he had expected.
The strength Luo Chen had displayed last time should not have been enough to easily defeat three Headquarters Captains. But the fact before his eyes was that all three had been defeated in an instant.
So fast that Smoker hadn't even completely defeated the Straw Hat trio.
His eyelids twitched madly. He roared, "Everyone, fall back! Protect the civilians! Don't get near Luo Chen!"
Tashigi and the other Marine soldiers were terrified. They had also seen the situation on Luo Chen's side of the battle.
Three powerhouses from Headquarters, on the same level as Captain Smoker, had been defeated in the blink of an eye.
With Luo Chen's level of strength, they, the low-ranking soldiers with their rifles and other conventional weapons, were completely unable to deal with him.
Tashigi, having been captured before, knew well that she could not stay here and be a burden to Captain Smoker. So she led the Marine soldiers in a hasty retreat, maintaining a safe distance of nearly a hundred meters from Luo Chen.
To this, Luo Chen only gave a single glance, not paying it any mind at all.
The reason he had targeted Tashigi last time was because he had no way to deal with Smoker.
But times had changed. He no longer needed to resort to such methods.
Seeing the Marines retreat, Carina and Usopp were overjoyed, their faces breaking into brilliant smiles.
Usopp even made a face at Smoker and taunted him:
"Hey, smoke-man! Didn't you say three Captains would be enough to take down Luo Chen?"
"How come they were taken down by Luo Chen in the blink of an eye?"
A vein throbbed on Smoker's forehead, his eyes unable to hide his anger.
That long-nosed pirate who had always been so timid and cowardly was now, with someone powerful backing him, mocking him.
However, he now had to focus his full attention on Luo Chen and had no time to deal with him.
Meanwhile, Luo Chen started running, charging toward Smoker.
At the same time, he did not forget to be vigilant of his surroundings.
The sudden appearance of three Headquarters Captains meant that there might be other Marines hiding nearby.
Normally, Loguetown should only be guarded by one Captain, Smoker. The three additional Captains had most likely come from other branches in the Grand Line. There was no guarantee that there weren't other powerful Marines as well.
Suddenly, a sharp arrow shot out from a second-story attic in the distance.
Luo Chen, who was on high alert, noticed it instantly.
With a thought, a wooden shield rose up in the arrow's path.
This time, however, the shield was like paper. The moment it collided with the arrow, it dissipated into a cloud of wood splinters.
The arrow's force was greatly diminished, but it still shot toward Luo Chen.
"Armament Haki?"
Luo Chen's eyes narrowed. The arrowhead flying toward him was pitch black.
It was not the arrow's original color, but the result of being coated with Armament Haki.
'It's powerful, but it's probably not a Vice Admiral.'
Luo Chen immediately made a judgment, swiped his hand, and easily knocked the arrow away.
He stopped and looked up at the second-story attic.
A tall, thin Marine was exposed at the window, holding a large bow, the string drawn back, an arrow ready to be fired. He had slicked-back silver hair and a sharp, capable air about him.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—
More than ten arrows were fired in succession, so fast that they were almost released at the same time.
Luo Chen did not block them head-on, instead using Shave to move quickly and dodge.
The arrows were incredibly powerful, each one exploding with the force of a cannonball.
The bluestone pavement of Loguetown was shattered, and deep craters appeared in the ground.
The terrifying power of the arrows made the excited Straw Hat crew despair once again. Because even Luo Chen was having a hard time dealing with them at the moment, only able to dodge.
On the Marine side, however, morale was rekindled.
Smoker's legs turned into smoke, and his figure shot out.
He was going to cooperate with Marcus to arrest Luo Chen.
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