This was the first. Teach moved with such speed that it hardly registered. The second, the third, until the ninth. Under the shocked, terrified gazes of everyone present, Marine Colonels fell one by one, all reduced to corpses beneath Teach's claws.
Only a badly wounded Williams remained.
Marine morale collapsed entirely. Of twenty-three branch Colonels deployed, twenty-two lay dead and the lone survivor was critically injured. How could the rest possibly keep fighting?
With the will to resist gone, the surviving Marines offered only scattered, half-hearted defense. The Nightfall Pirates' crew took full advantage, sweeping through the ranks with weapons flashing, cutting down soldiers who tried to flee.
The thought spread like wildfire; the Marines were finished. After Teach had displayed a power capable of cutting down Colonels in an instant, the only person in the East Blue who might stop him was Vice Admiral Brom.
But Brom could not arrive in time. Even at the Marines' best speed, it would take days to get from Loguetown.
Back in Loguetown the mood in the branch office was suffocating. Officers watched the live transmission with faces that grew paler by the minute. They had expected to crush the Nightfall Pirates, or at the very least cripple them. Instead, over ten thousand Marine soldiers and twenty-three Colonels had been decisively routed by barely two hundred pirates. The defeat was humiliating and absolute.
High-end combat power was what the Marines lacked. Outside of sheer numbers, even average members of the Nightfall Pirates were stronger than the typical Marine soldier. The larger consequence was already clear. the impact of this battle would ripple outward, and the East Blue was watching.
Some officers glanced at Brom, who sat at the head of the table. On the surface he was unreadable, but those who knew him well understood his anger. Brom was a man who wore Marine honor like armor; twice in a row to see that prestige smashed was intolerable.
The Den Den Mushi suddenly chimed. The sound loosened the tension only slightly. "This is Sengoku," came the voice of Fleet Admiral Sengoku.
That made everyone sit up. A call from Headquarters meant this was now beyond a local emergency. Brom had already guessed why they were being contacted.
"Yes, this is Brom," he answered, voice low and controlled.
"You know what's happening in the East Blue, yes?" Sengoku asked. At Headquarters, Sengoku sat in a conference room beside Vice Admiral Tsuru. With the battle playing live even in Sabaody, Marine Headquarters had been tracking every second.
Brom kept his reply terse. "Yes. I'm following the live feed."
"This incident is serious. Deal with it immediately. Do not let him grow," Sengoku ordered through the Den Den Mushi.
"Yes, Fleet Admiral," Brom answered. He had intended to wait and intercept the Nightfall Pirates, but delay was no longer an option. The threat required immediate action.
At Marine Headquarters, Sengoku turned to Tsuru. "Any background on this Teach? How could such a powerful pirate appear in the East Blue?"
"Nothing concrete," Tsuru said. "He showed up in the East Blue three months ago. Considering the timing around Roger's execution and that several Nightfall cadres were born in the first half of the Grand Line, I suspect Marshall D. Teach is not from the East Blue. He may be from the Grand Line."
"That is insufficient," Sengoku said. "Dig into his past. Place this crew on the list of top targets. Find everything on the captain."
Tsuru nodded. So young and so powerful, there had to be traces. If they found them, the Marines would have leverage.
On the screen, the sea still churned. The new era Roger had started kept pushing more men toward piracy. The Marines were stretched thin. The Nightfall Pirates' actions had already made their name echo across the East Blue. They now had to be stopped, and fast. This battle was a warning to others.
Far away in North Blue, an amused Doflamingo watched the live transmission and chuckled. He was sure Teach was hiding the full extent of his strength. From the papers he had read, Doflamingo had been intrigued by Teach and would continue watching with interest.
On the battlefield Williams screamed again, "Run! Don't fight! Run!" But his voice carried no command anymore, only the ragged desperation of a man watching his men die.
Some of the remaining soldiers fled, dropping weapons to move faster. Williams lay where he had been struck, staring at Teach with pleading eyes.
"Why don't you kill me?" he roared.
Teach regarded him with a soft, casual smile that was suddenly cruel. "Why would I kill you? It's more entertaining to watch your men die. This is the burial ground I prepared."
A cold realization contracted Williams's pupils.
"Kill them all! Leave no one alive!" Teach ordered the crew who were already chasing down fleeing Marines.
The battlefield became a funnel of death. On the other side of the island, on the warships, the last Marine sailors were cut down one by one. Nelson, saber in hand and stained with blood, cut through sailors as they tried to climb aboard. He closed boarding passages, denying escape. Pito and Gar—who had been the rear guard—pushed forward and hunted down any Marine who reached them.
This was not battle; it was a massacre. No one had expected Teach to show such ruthlessness. The Marines had been defeated in combat, yet the Nightfall Pirates had no intention of leaving survivors.
Within minutes the rout was complete. Twenty-three Colonels had fallen. The words Teach had said before the engagement echoed back: "Marines, you have been surrounded by us."
Civilians, pirates, and merchants who watched bit their lips and stared in stunned silence. The Nightfall Pirates were executing a slaughter of soldiers who had already given up. Over ten thousand men were being mowed down by barely two hundred attackers.
At Marine Headquarters a heavy crash resounded. Sengoku slammed his fist down so hard the table fractured. "Damn him!" he bellowed, his wrath visible on the screen. Tsuru clenched her own fists at what she was witnessing.
Brom, watching the crushed Den Den Mushi and Teach's face on the screen, could not contain himself. "This man will die. Impel Down would be mercy."
"The vice admiral must remain calm. We need options," the adjutant warned, recognizing Brom's fury.
The transmission cut to another scene: a stretch of open sea. Three Marine warships were paired with a single pirate vessel. From above it was clear the three warships had been torn apart by the Nightfall Pirates' Lucky Goddess, Bacarrat. The decks were strewn with corpses. Bacarrat had been handling the naval attack while the main force engaged ashore. She now sailed toward the anchorage where the remaining Marine ships lay, the only path of retreat for the surviving soldiers.
But any hope those Marines harbored would be short-lived.
Brom barked, "Find a Den Den Mushi to contact Williams. Bring it now." He could not stomach the thought of twenty-three branch forces—one-fifth of the East Blue's Marine strength—wiped out. The strategic consequences would be catastrophic: unguarded seas, pirate havens, and a collapse of order in the region.
A messenger dashed off and returned with a Den Den Mushi. It rang and rang until Teach's hand closed around it. Williams, bloodied and broken, fumbled it out and watched in helpless horror as Teach simply squeezed. The shell cracked under his grip.
The screen showed Teach crushing the Den Den Mushi. He had no interest in parley.
"You, what are you doing?" Williams gasped. Brom, watching the call, froze.
Teach chuckled. "I didn't need to guess. You all wanted me to let them go so you could save face. Marines always play that game. I wasn't raised to be frightened."
In Loguetown the officers' eyes flicked to Brom. Teach had seen through what Brom intended; that embarrassed the vice admiral. The insult burned.
Brom set the Den Den Mushi down and stood. Rage lit his face. "I must kill this man," he said, voice low and deadly certain.