After deciding the members of the hunting team, Tsuru and Zephyr began studying the map for the next key locations to attack.
One thin line after another converged on the map.
The Marines' current encirclement was divided into block after block by those lines.
Finally, as the pen in Zephyr's hand came down, the meeting officially confirmed the hunting team's gathering point and their next direction of attack.
...
The front line of the war between the Marines and the pirates.
Smoke and the smell of burning filled the air.
Every now and then, a gunshot rang out from somewhere, though no one could tell whether it had been fired by pirates or Marines.
Enel was currently full of energy as he sat inside the temporary battlefield office, looking at the map in front of him before marking it heavily with his pen.
"Vice Admiral Enel, all pirates on the island have been cleared out."
Enel's adjutant lifted the curtain and walked in.
He shook the dust from his body and let out a long breath.
Seeing this, Enel pushed a cup of hot tea beside him over.
"Rest for a bit, Nason."
"We have already advanced quite a long distance. Now we need to stop and wait for the other teams."
Nason accepted the hot tea Enel passed him and said proudly, "Of course we have. We are the sharpest spear."
"What a pity. If our flank were guarded by Vice Admiral Bullett, we could already be fighting our way to Red-Hair's main base by now."
He truly felt it was a shame.
After all, the commander of this fleet, Enel, was extremely powerful. If not for the other Marine forces being unable to keep up, he could absolutely slaughter his way through the pirates with his strength.
However, after what happened last time, when Bullett had nearly been surrounded and killed by the Red Hair Pirates, Enel and the others had also become more cautious.
They tried to conserve their strength as much as possible when they had not detected any members of the Red Hair Pirates.
"Vice Admiral Enel, honestly, we could just fly over from the sky and drop bombs on the Red Hair Pirates' base. We could take them out from above."
Nason knew Enel could control the Ark Maxim, and this was not the first time he had brought up this idea.
Enel scratched his head and said, "I've wanted to do that for a long time, but Brother Raleigh keeps refusing."
"He said we would rather advance slowly than give the enemy a chance to turn things around."
In truth, there was one sentence Raleigh had not said.
If Enel really were captured by the Red Hair Pirates, then that would be the moment for the Marines to press all their forces forward and wipe out the Red Hair Pirates in one blow.
He would not accept the Red Hair Pirates using anyone as a bargaining chip with the Marines.
The only thing he would do was destroy the Red Hair Pirates completely and use their deaths as funeral offerings for the person captured.
Just as Enel and Nason were preparing for their next move, a messenger outside suddenly spoke.
"Vice Admiral Enel, the frontline command has sent the latest order."
Enel was somewhat surprised.
He had been here for quite some time, steadily advancing according to the plan previously set by Headquarters. Was there going to be a new change now?
Nason was also surprised. His tone carried excitement as he said, "Vice Admiral Enel, did the frontline command approve our plan to air raid the Red Hair Pirates' base?"
Enel smiled when he heard that, but quickly suppressed it.
"Let's hear what the frontline command says first."
The messenger took out the coded telegram sent by frontline command and read it aloud.
"Order: Vice Admiral Enel is to temporarily transfer fleet command to Rear Admiral Nason. Rear Admiral Nason will be responsible for the subsequent offensive missions."
"Vice Admiral Enel will form a hunting team with several other Vice Admirals and carry out decapitation missions against the stronger figures among the pirates."
The messenger's voice fell.
Enel and Nason stared at each other, both of them wide-eyed.
Neither of them had expected this result.
They had originally thought Headquarters believed the advance was too slow and had chosen the proposal they submitted. Instead, it had become this.
"Did something happen on the battlefields in other directions?"
Enel sharply sensed that something was wrong.
If there were no special circumstances on the other battlefields, the frontline command would not have made such a decision.
After organizing his words in his mind, the messenger said, "During last night's offensive against the pirates, Vice Admiral Onigumo fell in battle on the Totto Land front. The Marine Vice Admirals attacking from the direction of Wano also suffered losses."
"A total of seventeen Vice Admirals and Rear Admirals were killed in action. Headquarters can no longer bear such painful losses."
"After discussion between Vice Admiral Tsuru, Chief Instructor Zephyr, Grand Inspector Sengoku, and the others, the frontline command believes that many strong pirates at Vice Admiral level and above still remain among the enemy. Their existence is a threat to the Marines' ordinary fleets."
"Therefore, they believe sending out an elite team to hunt these targets will help reduce Marine casualties."
After that explanation, Enel and Nason had nothing to say.
On their side, because Enel was so overwhelmingly strong, the pirates they encountered had no strength to resist. Their advance could be described as crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood.
But not every Marine officer was as powerful as Enel.
Many ordinary Vice Admirals simply could not deal with the strong pirates who had spent years fighting and killing on the sea.
"Who else is on the team?"
Enel asked curiously.
At this moment, he assumed that with his strength, he would definitely be the team leader.
"Besides you, Vice Admiral Enel, the hunting team members include Vice Admiral Bullett, Vice Admiral Tokiake, Vice Admiral Doberman, Vice Admiral Jonathan, and Captain Rosinante."
"In addition, frontline command has sent over the route map. Please take a look."
After hearing the hunting team's luxurious lineup, Enel was stunned.
He had imagined that the hunting team would be made up of elites, but he had never imagined it would reach this level.
Aside from Rosinante, every single one of them was an elite Vice Admiral.
Enel and Bullett were already Admiral-level fighters in reality.
They simply had not been publicly announced as such.
Tokikake, meanwhile, was widely recognized as having the strength of an Admiral candidate.
With this lineup, forget hunting some strong pirates.
They would have enough firepower to charge straight into the Red Hair Pirates' main base and fight the Red Hair Pirates head-on.
"Are you sure frontline command isn't telling us to go straight into the Red Hair Pirates' base and pick a fight?"
The messenger looked at Enel's suspicious gaze and almost could not help laughing.
When he first received the message from frontline command, he had thought the same thing.
Was this team really not formed to assassinate Red-Hair?
However, he had not had time to think too deeply before delivering the intelligence to Enel.
"Well, Vice Admiral Enel, I am only responsible for delivering the order. As for anything else, please forgive me for not being able to offer advice."
After saying this, the messenger immediately slipped away.
Enel held his forehead and looked at Nason beside him.
"All right. Looks like this is another job arranged by those old men."
"But I really didn't expect the Marines in other directions to have suffered that many casualties."
After looking through the intelligence a few times, Enel was also shocked by the intensity of the other battlefields.
His own fleet had never fought like that before. Perhaps that was because none of the enemies he had encountered were as strong as him.
...
The Holy Land of the Celestial Dragons, Mary Geoise.
Inside the enormous white palace, the Five Elders sat together, listening as a Cipher Pol member reported the latest developments around the world.
However, when they heard about the Marines' actions in the New World, their expressions grew uglier and uglier.
Nusjuro spoke in a low voice, "Damn it…"
"The Marines' offensive in the New World is becoming more and more ferocious. I'm afraid the pirates won't be able to hold on much longer…"
Right now, the World Government and the Five Elders were caught in a difficult position.
They had wanted to support the pirates and use them to fight the Marines, but in a short time, that plan had become a huge joke.
Red-Haired Shanks, whom the Five Elders had treated as a chess piece, had quickly become isolated, the only pirate Emperor left in the New World.
If Red-Haired Shanks had not run fast enough, he would have been trapped inside the Marines' encirclement by now with no way out.
However, dealing with the Marines now was not easy either.
Cipher Pol members outside Mary Geoise were being assassinated in large numbers for unknown reasons.
Although most cases had been disguised as the work of the Revolutionary Army, the Five Elders could tell at a glance.
Only the Marines were capable of pulling out Cipher Pol's hidden nails like this.
"If there is truly no other way, we can ask Lord Imu to act and use Uranus to flatten New Marineford."
Mars frowned as he spoke.
This was also something they could accept.
At worst, it would simply mean launching another great purge.
Since one Void Century had existed before, that meant a second Void Century could also exist.
Saturn gripped his cane and spoke coldly.
"We cannot delay any longer. Once the pirates are dealt with, the Marines' next target should be us."
"The secrets buried in the Red Line cannot be known by the world. We must strike first."
"If the Revolutionary Army does not appear, then forget them. Aside from Dragon, the others are not worth worrying about."
"The enemy we truly need to consider is the Marines led by Raleigh."
"Call Kong over. It is time for him to choose where he stands."
"Also summon Shanks. If anything seems wrong with Kong, kill him here immediately. Anyone we cannot control must be destroyed rather than left to the Marines."
"This world should be ruled by one true king, not by a council of member nations made up of pigs."
...
Grand Line, beneath the Red Line.
The Revolutionary Army, ignored by the world for a long time, was currently moving across the sea in densely packed columns.
They no longer needed to hide their tracks so carefully.
Yet strangely, although they should have been easy to discover, they still had not been exposed.
Dragon could not understand it, but he guessed Raleigh's hand had to be behind it.
He stood alone at the very top of the flagship, expressionless as he looked up at the Red Line, which seemed impossible to climb over.
Set against the Red Line, the Revolutionary Army looked like a line of ants leaving their nest, tiny and insignificant.
But when enough ants gathered together, they could still bite an elephant to death.
Revolutionary Army Chief of Staff Sabo leaped several times from the deck and arrived beside Dragon.
"Leader, according to the intelligence we received, the Marines have nearly completed their encirclement of the pirates."
"The pirates in the New World are now surrounded by the Marines. I'm afraid those pirates won't last half a month before they're completely annihilated."
Dragon nodded slightly and said in a low voice, "The Marines are moving much faster than I expected. Fortunately, our own movements have not been slow either."
His eyes swept over the others on the ships.
Every Revolutionary Army soldier whose gaze met Dragon's was filled with endless fighting spirit and an unwillingness to surrender.
They did not believe in so-called natural nobility, nor did they believe this world had any so-called bloodline of gods.
They wanted to use their own hands to break the lock the Celestial Dragons had placed on the world.
Dragon's gaze grew slightly distant. Then he spoke.
"Order everyone to enter the cabins. The people in charge and all cadres are to grab onto anything nearby that can secure them."
"Today, we begin the slaughter of gods."
"All personnel, prepare!"
After Dragon gave the order, the Revolutionary Army soldiers let out excited shouts. Then they quickly and orderly moved to their assigned positions under the cadres' instructions.
Ten minutes later, Dragon's figure disappeared from everyone's sight.
Whoosh…
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
The sea, which had originally been calm, suddenly erupted with an unimaginable hurricane.
The hurricane spun around all of the Revolutionary Army's ships, accelerating faster and faster.
From a distance, one could see a super tornado with a diameter of five nautical miles slowly forming.
One ship after another gradually lifted from the surface of the sea under the terrifying upward force of the tornado and flew into the sky.
One ship, two ships, ten ships…
The ships that had already been modified and reinforced all rushed from the sea into the sky under the power of the tornado.
Sabo gripped the flagpole beside him tightly, his eyes filled with overwhelming admiration for Dragon.
Only someone with such powerful strength was qualified to be the leader of the Revolutionary Army.
When everyone had stopped paying attention to the Revolutionary Army, the Revolutionary Army had already achieved its strategic objective.
They had used new ships capable of crossing the Calm Belt to reach the Red Line below Mary Geoise.
Then, when no one could possibly expect it, they used Dragon's ability.
They directly pulled every ship from the sea into the sky.
Even Raleigh, despite knowing a great deal about Dragon, could never have imagined such a method of arrival.
And precisely because Dragon had played so far outside common sense, the Five Elders had not predicted it at all either.
At this moment, they were still studying how to deal with the Marines.
They never would have imagined that the Revolutionary Army they viewed as ants had already quietly approached Mary Geoise.
On the side of the Red Line.
If someone were looking down from above, they would see a sight no one in this world had ever seen before.
Dozens of enormous ships were rushing up from beneath the Red Line toward the sky at incredible speed.
Fortunately, no one discovered this scene.
While the Five Elders were still waiting inside the palace for Kong's arrival, a thunderous crash suddenly rang out, and the entirety of Mary Geoise shook violently.
In that instant, a nameless sense of dread struck their hearts.