Charlotte Oven and Charlotte Snack did not choose to run.
Because they had realized that their ships were nowhere near as fast as the Marine warships.
The Marine warships that had once been tiny black dots were growing clearer and clearer to the naked eye.
Charlotte Oven sighed.
"Snack, we can't escape."
Snack fell silent too.
After Charlotte Linlin's death, the once-glorious Charlotte Family pirates had already been destroyed.
As remnants lucky enough to escape, they had also lost their former glory.
Snack said through gritted teeth, "Oven, we should have died on the battlefield against the Marines long ago, just like Mama and Katakuri."
"Get ready. Don't let these damn Marines look down on the Charlotte Family!!"
With nowhere left to retreat, Charlotte Oven and Charlotte Snack prepared themselves for death.
On the deck of the speeding Marine warship, Onigumo stood at the very front and looked at the pirates waiting in formation.
The corner of his mouth still carried a mocking smile toward pirates.
A crazed fighting spirit and an unshakable faith flashed in his eyes.
Even as the distance grew shorter and shorter, his expression did not change at all. That mocking smile remained on his face.
His right hand drew the long sword at his waist.
Shing!
The cry of a blade rang across the deck.
Onigumo gently rubbed the blade and sighed.
"Old friend, looks like I won't be able to keep walking with you after this."
Armament Haki spread from his right hand across the blade. The once-bright steel gradually turned a deep iron-black.
Onigumo raised the long sword high and roared toward the front.
"Everyone, do you see those pirates ahead, running like stray dogs?"
"Just a few days ago, under the command of Chief Instructor Zephyr and Admiral Fujitora, we killed their captain, Charlotte Linlin, and brought her head back to the plaza of New Marineford. Now only these pirates remain."
"This is the final moment before our ultimate victory. We cannot show even a hint of cowardice!"
"Charge in and kill them!"
"This sea will know peace forever. Filthy pirates like them should be cut down by our blades and sink into the sea as fertilizer!"
"For justice!"
"Fire!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Along with Onigumo's furious roar, the warship's cannons opened fire at full power.
Even while traveling at high speed, the gunners calmly pushed shells into the barrels and fired them one after another.
Like a sudden storm, the cannonballs rained down on the pirates ahead.
Charlotte Oven and Charlotte Snack did not move.
They coldly watched the Marine warship racing toward them.
The roar of cannons could no longer affect them, because they understood very clearly that the Marines had no intention of trading cannon fire with them.
The high-speed warship would only charge like a sword straight into the pirate ship beneath their feet, and then both sides would enter a bloody melee.
Wooo—woo—woo—woo!
A sharp alarm blared from the Marine warship.
To the pirates, that sound was like the call of death from hell. The other pirates on the deck looked in terror at the Marine warship that showed no sign of slowing down.
"No… no, don't!"
"We surrender! We surrender!"
Under that pressure, some pirates collapsed weakly onto the deck from sheer fear.
Charlotte Oven and Charlotte Snack's expressions also changed.
Before the warship arrived, their hearts had still been calm.
But when death truly descended upon them, they realized they could be afraid too.
"That Marine commander is a complete lunatic!"
"No normal person could come up with such a crazy tactic!"
Charlotte Oven glanced at Snack beside him and said, "I'll try to stop them. Otherwise, we won't even have the right to fight the Marines blade to blade."
After that, Charlotte Oven stepped through the air with Geppo and flew toward the speeding warship.
He intended to use his ability to destroy the Marine warship.
At the center of the deck, Onigumo looked coldly at Charlotte Oven charging toward him, his eyes full of contempt.
"And they dare call themselves pirates. They won't even gamble with their lives, yet they have the nerve to call themselves pirates."
Then he kicked off with both legs and flew into the sky from the hard deck.
His arms were already covered in thick Armament Haki.
Behind him, where the pirates could not see, his signature hair was tightly gripping a round bomb.
"Heat Wind Fist!"
Charlotte Oven threw out his best move toward the warship.
His crimson figure gathered terrifying heat. Before he even got close, Onigumo could already feel scorching air spraying across his skin.
"I will never let you succeed!"
Onigumo gripped his sword tightly and swung down with force, cutting out the most satisfying sword beam he had ever produced.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiip.
A tearing sound rang out.
The Heat Wind Fist Charlotte Oven had thrown was easily ripped apart by Onigumo's sword beam.
Even Oven's huge body was struck across the chest by that slash.
But soon, the wound on Oven's chest stopped bleeding.
"Marine, if that is all you have, then I'm afraid you'll die here today."
Although Charlotte Oven had been hit, he sharply sensed that Onigumo's strength was not enough to kill him instantly.
If it were a one-on-one fight to the death, the odds might be sixty-forty in Onigumo's favor.
But behind Oven, there was another powerful member of the Charlotte Family, Charlotte Snack.
Two against one meant Onigumo would die without question.
"We'll kill you first, then leave this place all the same!"
A savage look appeared in Charlotte Oven's eyes. He intended to properly torture Onigumo before ending him.
"Snack, help me! This Vice Admiral isn't that strong!"
Oven shouted behind him.
Hearing this, Snack also leaped from the deck and flew to Oven's side.
Seeing both fighters arrive, Onigumo did not feel fear at all. Instead, he became unusually excited.
This way, he would not have to waste effort gathering Oven and Snack together.
"Marine! I swear I'll make you suffer."
"Before you die, I'll slaughter every Marine soldier and throw their bodies in front of you. Then you'll understand the Charlotte Family's methods."
Charlotte Oven spoke viciously.
The sea wind blew fiercely across Onigumo's body, making his Marine uniform flap wildly in the gale.
"The Charlotte Family?"
Onigumo's mouth curved into a thick sneer.
"If you hadn't said it, I almost would've forgotten. Charlotte Linlin's head is still on display in New Marineford's exhibition plaza. She was your mama, wasn't she?"
"Hahahahaha! Trash will always be trash!"
"I, Onigumo, am not afraid of filthy pirates like you!"
Onigumo's words made Charlotte Oven, whose emotions were already unstable, grow even more violent. His expression became vicious and brutal.
He grinned savagely.
"Good. Very good! Still running your mouth when death is right in front of you!"
"Die!"
Oven used his ability again, turning himself into a high-temperature body as he rapidly closed in on Onigumo.
"Heat Wind Fist!"
This strike, filled with hatred, had a smaller range than before, but the temperature was even higher.
At the same time, Snack launched his own attack from the other side.
The two brothers planned to coordinate with each other and defeat Onigumo within a few moves.
"It won't be that easy!"
Onigumo raised his sword with both hands and chopped toward Charlotte Oven's head with all his strength, paying no attention to Snack coming from the other side.
Before the blade even reached Oven, the skin on Onigumo's body had already been cooked by the heat from the Heat Wind Fist.
Although Onigumo was in extreme pain, not a trace of it showed on his face. Instead, the sword in his hands swung even faster.
"You really are insane!"
The moment the long blade was about to fall on his neck, Charlotte Oven finally realized that the enemy before him intended to trade life for life.
He was not willing to be taken down by Onigumo when Snack's sneak attack was about to succeed.
So he withdrew his Heat Wind Fist and did his best to dodge.
Crack!
The sound of breaking bones rang out.
Snack's fist slammed into Onigumo's completely undefended body. The crisp sound of fractured bones told both of them just how serious Onigumo's injury was.
The long sword lost its strength in an instant and could only barely cut through the Armament Haki on Oven's body, lodging itself in his muscle.
Just as Charlotte Oven and Charlotte Snack relaxed their guard, Onigumo suddenly raised his head. His hands, coated in Armament Haki, grabbed tightly onto Oven and Snack.
"Heh. Got you!"
Beep… beep, beep… beep, beep, beep.
The urgent sound made Charlotte Oven and Charlotte Snack's faces change drastically.
Onigumo's hair pulled the bomb he had prepared long ago out from behind his head.
"You're lucky, pirates. Even inside the Marines, very few people have seen this thing."
"You will become the first and second enemies this weapon kills on the battlefield."
Buzz!
Alarm bells screamed in Charlotte Oven and Charlotte Snack's minds.
Even though they did not know what this bomb was, they could still feel an intense aura of death from it.
"You lunatic! Let go of me!"
Charlotte Oven instantly released his temperature to the highest level. He did not even care whether Snack beside him could endure it.
He only wanted to get away from Onigumo as quickly as possible.
Onigumo's palms and forearms were, without a doubt, cooked by the high heat. The intense pain made even a tough man like Onigumo bare his teeth.
At the final moment of his life, even though his hands and forearms had already been burned through, he still clung tightly to Oven and Snack without letting go.
Boom!
Rumble!
Like divine punishment, the place where Onigumo, Oven, and Snack were located erupted with light and heat comparable to the sun.
Within the range of that force, no living creature could possibly survive safely.
The blazing flames swallowed Onigumo, Charlotte Oven, and Charlotte Snack all at once.
A massive mushroom cloud rose into the sky.
In Oven's final moment of consciousness, only one word remained in his mind.
'Madman!'
If he had known from the start that Onigumo had come with the intention of mutual destruction, he would have fled without the slightest hesitation.
The former members of the Charlotte Family, the wealth of the Charlotte Family—he would have abandoned all of it.
Unfortunately, there was no medicine for regret in this world.
His arrogance had cost him any chance of survival.
A ferocious wave of air swept out in every direction. Even the warships and pirate ships below were affected.
The Marine warship that had been accelerating at full speed to ram the pirate ship was blown off course by the hurricane.
The once-calm sea was whipped up by the violent wind, raising waves dozens of meters high that crashed wildly in every direction.
At that moment, whether Marine or pirate, everyone could only cling tightly to anything around them to keep from being thrown away.
At the critical moment, Onigumo's deputy stepped forward.
He picked up Onigumo's communication device and began transmitting orders to the other warships.
"Full speed toward the outside of the waves!"
Relying on their own powerful engines and the force of the waves, the warships quickly left the unstable sea area.
Wooo—woo—woo—woo.
The sharp alarms on the warships warned every Marine soldier that they were still on a dangerous battlefield.
But soon, their efforts were rewarded.
They successfully escaped the area most affected by the wind and waves, breaking out into waters where the storm was much weaker.
"Turn around! Turn around!"
"Do not let a single pirate ship escape!"
"Gunners, fire! Blast their rotten ships apart!"
"Guys, Vice Admiral Onigumo has died in the line of duty! We cannot let his efforts go to waste! If any pirate ship tries to break out, ram it with our warships!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The cannons fired without pause. After cooling down for only a short moment, they impatiently opened fire again.
Even pouring cold water over the barrels could not fully cool them.
Clouds of white steam gathered around the cannon mouths.
The pirates in the center, already battered by the hurricane and waves, had lost the ability to resist.
When they finally followed the waves and rushed toward the outer edge, what greeted them were the dark cannon barrels of Marine warships.
One wooden pirate ship after another was blown apart under the Marines' firepower.
Seawater poured madly into the cabins, dragging entire ships of pirates down into the sea.
The cannonballs poured toward the pirates' position as if they cost nothing.
Until…
The cannon fire gradually weakened.
"What's going on?! Why did you stop firing?!"
The deputy grabbed the chief gunner and roared.
The chief gunner's expression was dim as he answered, "We're out. All the shells on the ship have been fired!"
The deputy shoved the gunner aside and pushed through the thick smoke before him, looking toward the pirates in the distance.
As the smoke gradually dispersed, the pirate ships became clear again.
Under the Marines' fierce artillery barrage, every pirate ship had become battered and broken, covered with dents and charred holes.
The surviving pirates were desperately repairing the leaks in their cabins.
After taking a deep breath, the deputy picked up the communication device.
"Gentlemen, the time has come to offer your loyalty to the Marines!"
"Accelerate! Ram them! Kill them!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
One warship after another rammed into the surviving pirate ships.
The moment they made contact, Marine soldiers whose eyes had already turned red grabbed their blades and jumped onto the pirate ships' decks.
They needed slaughter.
"For justice!"
"Kill!"