The forest, dozens of meters in radius, swallowed Marcus.
Luo Chen's figure flashed and also vanished from the spot.
The Marines, the Straw Hat crew, Nami, and the others waiting outside watched nervously. The situation had reversed again and again. None of them could predict the outcome.
...
Inside the forest, Luo Chen stood on a tree branch, observing Marcus, who was surrounded by thousands of branches not far away.
A moment later, he opened his mid-length black trench coat. Tucked into the inner lining were thirteen throwing knives that glinted coldly. These were the weapons Luo Chen had asked Usopp to make not long ago, mainly to be used in conjunction with the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Luo Chen threw seven of the knives, sending them shooting toward Marcus, who was entangled by the countless branches.
As the knives entered the twenty-meter range around him, they began to slow down, flying sluggishly.
Marcus carefully observed the flying knives. After confirming that there was nothing unusual about them, he turned his attention back to dealing with the branches and keeping a close eye on Luo Chen.
Even with the interference of innumerable tree branches, he could still successfully dodge between the seven slowly flying knives.
Luo Chen calmly sensed the Flying Thunder God marks on the seven knives. His figure flashed and disappeared from the tree branch.
Almost at the same instant, next to the flying knife on Marcus's left, Luo Chen's figure appeared.
Luo Chen threw a punch, its speed slowed.
Coupled with the fact that Marcus was already on guard, he narrowly dodged it.
Seeing the punch miss, Luo Chen's figure teleported again, appearing on Marcus's right side.
His punch speed was still restricted by the Fetter-Haste Domain.
Judging that this punch would not pose a threat, Luo Chen, in the instant he threw the punch, once again activated the Flying Thunder God Technique.
Using the brief time it took for the seven flying knives to pass by Marcus, he performed over a hundred Flying Thunder God movements.
Under the interference of thousands of branches, Marcus either dodged or blocked ninety-nine times.
The last time, he simply didn't have the energy to track Luo Chen's attack.
BANG!
Luo Chen appeared behind Marcus, a heavy punch slamming into the center of his back.
Marcus's face suddenly flushed red. He spat out a large mouthful of blood and pitched forward. He could no longer support his body and fell face-first to the ground, a large amount of blood pouring from his mouth.
Marcus's eyes gradually grew dim, his breathing slowly stopping.
Luo Chen controlled a branch to pierce through his heart.
"For you, a single mistake means death."
"Don't... be so arrogant... you won't escape the Marines' pursuit..."
Hearing this, Marcus gave a miserable smile. The light in his eyes completely faded, and his life was extinguished.
Luo Chen said nothing. He pulled the remaining five arrows from his body and threw them to the ground. He had been in such a hurry to deal with this man that he hadn't even had time to pull them out.
He looked at his blood-stained clothes and couldn't help but give a bitter smile.
"If I didn't have the Flying Thunder God Technique today, I really would have been defeated."
"This guy's fruit ability is too broken."
Luo Chen walked out of the forest.
He had dealt with the Rear Admiral.
Based on the previous battle, there should be no other strong enemies in Loguetown. Even if there were, Luo Chen wasn't too worried. Because he still had an insurance policy in Luffy.
Monkey D. Dragon should still be in Loguetown. The purpose of his appearance here was to protect Luffy as he entered the Grand Line. Even if Luo Chen hadn't intervened, nothing would have happened to the Straw Hat crew.
Of course, only Luo Chen knew all of this.
He walked out of the forest and instantly felt countless gazes converge on him.
"How can it be Luo Chen!"
"The Rear Admiral was defeated?! Run!"
"Everyone get out of the way! Let me run first!"
"..."
The first to react was the large crowd of onlookers.
Seeing Luo Chen walk out alone, everyone had guessed the outcome of the battle inside the forest. That Marine Rear Admiral had likely been defeated and killed. And according to the description on the wanted poster, Luo Chen was a cold-blooded pirate who had slaughtered hundreds of innocent villagers. If they stayed, they might be in mortal danger.
The crowd scattered like birds and beasts, fleeing in all directions in a panic. Among them were many reporters from various media outlets. They had recorded today's battle and were now following the crowd to flee into the distance.
Nami and Nojiko ran against the flow of people, heading in Luo Chen's direction.
The Straw Hat crew were all overjoyed.
Carina and Usopp cheered, celebrating their survival.
Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji, exhausted, plopped down on the ground.
After fighting that infuriating Smoker for so long, the three of them were completely spent. Normally, fighting people wasn't tiring, but fighting Smoker was no different from hitting the air. Anyone would be exhausted after punching the air with all their might for half an hour.
Luffy lay on the ground, turned his head to look at Smoker and the other Marines, and grinned.
"Zoro, they look terrible."
Zoro turned his head to look.
He saw that the dozens of Marines, including Smoker, were all ashen-faced. Many had collapsed to the ground in despair. The hands of the remaining Marines who could still stand were also visibly trembling as they held their rifles. Facing the returning Luo Chen, they no longer even had the courage to raise their guns and aim.
Zoro's gaze lingered for a moment on Tashigi's pale face. This woman looked a lot like his childhood playmate, Kuina. He didn't know if Luo Chen was going to kill them later. Whether he did or not, Zoro had no right to stop him, because Luo Chen was their lifesaver.
...
Luo Chen took in everyone's expressions.
He was slightly surprised to see Nojiko next to Nami. Then he roughly guessed why Nojiko had appeared in Loguetown.
Luo Chen said to the two women, "You can take Genzo's body now."
His gaze passed over the dozens of Marines and fell on the rotting corpse next to the collapsed execution platform. He let out a light sigh.
Wooden vines covered in small pink flowers grew from the ground. The vines wove themselves into a coffin, preserving Genzo's body.
Facing the despairing Smoker and the other Marines, Luo Chen asked, "Who made the decision to hang Genzo's body?"
Smoker bit down on his cigar and did not answer.
Tashigi was also stubbornly silent.
However, the eyes of the dozens of other Marines darted around, not daring to meet his gaze.
Luo Chen controlled tree branches to wrap around a few Marines and questioned them, his eyes filled with killing intent.
This time, a Marine couldn't hold back and revealed the truth.
After hearing it, Luo Chen's eyes turned cold.
'Onigumo again!'
Marcus had been temporarily transferred from a Grand Line branch under Onigumo's orders, precisely to assist Smoker in guarding Loguetown and preventing him from entering the Grand Line. At the same time, they were to try and lure Luo Chen out with Genzo's body.
'So, Onigumo is on his way to the East Blue, trying to trap me here. Does he have a tracking expert with him? Or is he just hoping the East Blue Marines can hunt me down?'
Luo Chen thought to himself.
Since Onigumo wanted to trap him in the East Blue, he had to enter the Grand Line as soon as possible.
In the Grand Line, although the Marine forces were stronger and there were more powerful Marines, the pirate forces were also correspondingly stronger. Luo Chen could get stronger quickly by plundering the wealth of powerful pirates.
Luo Chen's gaze swept over Smoker and the other Marines as he considered how to deal with them. These people had also been deceived. Killing them would bring him no benefit.
He took out a pair of Seastone Cuffs. He deliberately did not touch them himself, instead having Zoro help him put them on Smoker. To the Marines, he was a "Devil Fruit user." Keeping this card hidden might be useful in the future.
A thought flashed in Luo Chen's mind, and a giant tree rose up in the execution platform square. Branches descended, tying up Smoker, Tashigi, and all the Marines, and hanging them in the air.
During this time, Smoker glared at Luo Chen but was powerless to resist.
"Let's go. You'll take me to the Marine base."
Luo Chen pulled up the Marine who had revealed the information earlier and headed for the Loguetown Marine base.
Since he was here, he might as well leave the Marines a souvenir.
[Reviews - Power St0nes - Comments are highly appreciated to keep me going.....(+50 chapters) patre0n.c0m/talecrafter]