The Navy's battleships are not pirate ships. The warships here refer to the main fleet at the headquarters. Such warships can deal with the small-time pirates of the Four Seas just with the main cannon at the bow.
As part of the Navy's standard equipment, it has withstood the test of time and battlefields. It's not cheap to build, with biological weapons costing three times more than the warship, and adding weapon capabilities to it isn't cost-effective, but there's no other way.
It's hard to fathom Kaidou's mindset. Though he might not cause trouble every day, they can't handle having more flying beasts around. At the very least, they need a countermeasure capability.
Based on the battlefield feedback from Bogard and the others, the most troublesome ability of that monster dragon is its free flight. If they could fly too, holding the opponent wouldn't be too difficult.
The Navy originally adhered to past combat methods. Even with the Golden Lion's Float-Float Fruit, it only used giant islands to smash people, never taking advantage of aerial superiority.
Past intelligence shows that the Hundred Beasts also have a monster bird transport team and reconnaissance team. With the appearance of the eight-headed dragon, they must make a new change.
The flying dragons have thus been added to the Navy's combat training, but deploying them in actual combat is still difficult. Vegapunk isn't Arceus, and these flying dragons he created don't immediately recognize their master like Pokemon.
Mechanisms like the Blazing Angels exist, but they would double the costs and production time. The most important aspect is the waste of time and hassle, so Vegapunk disregarded that, leaving the trouble for the Navy to handle themselves.
The first thing the Navy must do to incorporate them into the combat sequence is dragon taming, to make them follow commands. This isn't a simple task. They lack the intelligence of Pokemon and are merely artificial beasts.
The Navy's development has nothing to do with the Hundred Beasts. At least, purely in terms of air force strength, they are already a generation ahead of the Navy.
Meanwhile, in Wano Kuni, a special dispute is ongoing.
It is not a conflict between the Hundred Beasts and other forces, but a dispute among the local residents of Wano Kuni, between different professions.
Currently, the culture of Grass God Pokemon is prevalent in Wano Kuni. Everyone hopes that their profession can have a Grass God to protect it. Although they previously had things they worshiped, those unseen, untouchable deities have fallen out of favor now.
Genuine Pokemon are more loved by them.
Some Pokemon abilities are clear, like Tinkaton, who carries a big hammer to forge things, clearly making them great in the manufacturing industry. Their categories are very distinct. Whether it's swordsmiths or construction workers, they'd all choose to worship Tinkaton.
However, mostly it's swordsmith and other weapon crafters; Tinkaton rarely gets involved in building houses.
Pastoralists, fruit farmers, doctors, they've all found their industry's representative Pokemon. However, the appearance of Machoke caused a split in some professions.
Machoke is very strong. Unlike those cute Pokemon, it's filled with muscles throughout its body, a Pokemon combining physical strength and lasting endurance.
And this physique requires training to maintain. Machoke doesn't sit idle, always seeking opportunities to exercise itself, acting with full force at all times.
To train its body, Machoke continually looks for physical work, like helping people move heavy luggage, which delights moving companies in the Pokemon World.
Two Machokes are enough to complete tasks that would take more than a dozen people, the same applies at construction sites. The workers really like these powerful Pokemon. They disregard terrain, and wherever people can go, they can reach.
Wano Kuni's renovation has never stopped. In recent years, the economy has started to develop, so many people have begun rebuilding their houses. With money in hand, they naturally wouldn't build cheap straw houses anymore, resulting in fully booked construction schedules.
And Machoke naturally set its sights on these construction teams, voluntarily joining them and becoming great partners for the construction workers.
Machoke's way of resting is also different from normal Pokemon and humans. Their rest is to switch to a new form of training.
Wild Machokes would train in the mountains. In Wano Kuni, Machokes sweat it out in the gym. It was during these rest times they discovered the dojos and sumo halls within Wano Kuni.
Sumo is a famous sport here, and excellent sumo wrestlers have always been popular among the people of Wano Kuni. As for dojos, they're places for martial arts like Karate but, in this Haki-dominated world, they're more about strengthening the body.
Watching these sports, the interested Machokes got involved, which then fascinated those people. Machoke's combat skills are very strong, and they also have excellent learning abilities.
In sumo and Karate matches, the Machokes have lots of fun, even shocking the dojo trainers and sumo wrestlers with their talent. In just a few days, they could hold their own in matches.
These people don't realize that Machoke's body is extremely resilient, with unfathomable power.
Always wearing a power-limitation belt to control its strength, if the belt is removed, they simply couldn't compete with Machoke. To be precise, under such circumstances, there aren't many sumo wrestlers who could face Machoke.
Hence, sumo wrestlers, Karate members, and construction workers all began to take Machoke as the Grass God of their professions, and this is where the dispute started.
Sumo wrestlers believe that construction workers already have Tinkaton and are now trying to compete with them for Machoke, which they see as too greedy.
After all, Machoke's energy is limited. When it's helping them work, it can't participate in sumo, even though there are many Machokes. The number of "working" Machokes far exceeds those "resting."
But construction workers think these people are making trouble out of nothing. No one specified that a profession can only have one god, and besides, Tinkaton is clearly more geared towards weapon forging. The Machokes involved in construction are the true good partners, the reliable "Grass God" worth relying upon.
Initially, it was just verbal disputes. But someone brought it up again after drinking too much in a tavern, leading to physical altercations, escalating the conflict.
Divided by profession, they formed different groups and launched a large-scale fight under the pretense of competing for the "god."
Although sumo wrestlers are bulky, they are few in number. In contrast, construction workers are numerous and have gained strength from working on sites, giving them an initial advantage. Later, some dojo members joined the sumo wrestlers' camp, bringing the dispute to a stalemate.
This matter wasn't hard to resolve, but some Machokes also split into two factions, causing trouble for those in charge of maintaining domestic order for the Hundred Beasts...