The Marine

Not waiting to see what Nelson had chosen to do, Bill had decided to not fully commit his entire Department to being potential criminals by his individual actions.

If Nelson chose to protect the Celestial Dragon, Bill wouldn’t hold it against him.

If Nelson decided to throw the blame onto him, making him a Wanted Man, Bill wouldn’t hold that against him either.

However, for all of that, Bill had already committed himself to a plan of action.

And that plan was to kill the Saint Camael, the Cipher Pol Agents, and Gild Tesoro – and then take temporary shelter inside the Island Eater, Lord Bonbori.

After all, even if Bill was strong, Island Eaters the size of Lord Bonbori were rare even in the Calm Belt. So how could he possibly be at fault for not being able to react quickly enough to save the Celestial Dragon?

Not to mention, thanks to the presence of True Gold, Communication Snails wouldn’t work – he ‘unfortunately’ wouldn’t even be able to call for help!

This was why he had Borodo take over the command bridge, because for the next several hours, Bill couldn’t risk any Communication Snail signals leaving the city – at least not until the task was done.

Of course, the plan wasn’t fool-proof, Bill didn’t know what kind of technology Celestial Dragons had on them, and he had considered the possibility that he would be discovered the moment he acted.

He didn’t know how long it would take the Island Eater to arrive, but he figured it would be fast considering how nearby the monstrous creature would have been just a couple of weeks before.

But that would have to be seen in the future, because for now, Bill was staring at the faces of [Rob Lucci], [Gild Tesoro], and his enforcer simply known as [Dice].

Each of these men gave Bill some level of pause, but that didn’t matter much now.

Looking at them and figuring out who to defeat first, Bill barely noticed Lucci say: “Traitor… you enemy of the World…” and removing his mask, a black cloud wafted around him as the Cipher Pol Agent morphed into a human-leopard hybrid.

‘Arrogance- ‘Gild claimed as he started to draw gold to him, and he may have been right, but Bill didn’t think he was arrogant.

The fact was that he knew that he could have never reformed Saint Camael in the same way as he did Nelson Royale.

Because for Nelson, despite being royalty from a large kingdom, he was still bound by Marine laws. Saint Camael had no such restrictions, in fact, Bill was sure now that the World Nobles were legally above the law.

And since that was the case, Bill wasn’t ‘arrogant’, but he would stop a tyrant if he had it in his power to do so.

And for Saint Camael?

That tyrant was completely in Bill’s power to stop, and so he acted.

Now looking at the three men in front of him; [Lucci] was crouched and ready to attack, [Gild] had donned himself and [Dice] golden armor – standing slightly behind the big man who was cracking his neck to the side.

Each either speaking, or having spoken, but Bill didn’t say a thing.

Choosing the weakest of the three to deal with first, Bill moved like a storm and appearing beside Dice he kicked low – trying to take out the man’s tiny legs from under him.

But seeing this, and understanding Bill’s intent, Lucci was there, pulling the big man away to safety while golden axes chopped down.

Using his fist to pound sideways, Bill turned the golden axes into splinters – he was far faster than Gild’s manipulated gold, but the Casino King made up for ‘quality’ with sheer quantity.

Spiked golden tendrils stabbed at him from all sides, without his Observation Haki, Bill could only react with his natural reaction speed.

Dodging this way and moving that way, the trio never directly met Bill fist-to-fist and the Marine pressed onward in a situation where the one was the attacker against the three.

But such a situation could never last long, as realized even by his foes.

And with sonic booms that laid to waste the surrounding buildings, and even tore into the concrete ship deck, eventually one person was going to slip.

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Fighting more and more anxiously, Gild Tesoro could not understand where this Marine Commodore had come from.

As a global Kingpin who controlled the second largest underground black market in the world he could have gaps in his Intelligence Network, but men as strong as the Marine in front of him never, ever, went unknown.

A mere ‘strong man’ could be unknown, after all, many Kingdoms in the world had men on the level of ‘Vice Admirals’ in their forces, but for an Admiral-level monster…?

Impossible!

It was simply the case that the drive to make a person overwhelmingly powerful made it unthinkable that they would be hidden. After all, in Gild’s mind, people did not obtain power in order to not use it!

This was the truth, the modus operandi of Gild Tesoro’s life.

Constantly seeking wealth, constantly seeking power – all in order to actually use it!

The fact that he hadn’t heard of ‘Bill Ox’ didn’t make Gild cautious, it made him irate!

‘So what if this slave is a bit stronger than the rest?! Until you take fame and fortune into your own hands, you’ll always be someone to trample upon!’

With the entire area coated in gold, with golden flakes dancing through the air, Gild manipulated the battlefield in order to catch Bill off guard.

Stabbing in every conceivable direction, nothing worked. Instead, despite his insanity, Gild could tell that they were the ones being pushed back.

Using more and more gold, he failed over and over again.

And as he failed, his anger rose.

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Arms coated in Haki and a black cloud wafting around him, Rob Lucci could not understand.

Unlike Gild Tesoro, he knew of ‘Blackstone’ Bill Ox.

Naturally, as a lifelong member of the world’s most secret police – Cipher Pol – he had read dossiers on every single powerful person in the Marine organization.

He knew frankly that Bill was Aramaki’s son, and that alone had been enough to keep the Commodores name and face implanted in his mind.

In fact, Lucci even remembered meeting Bill several years ago in Water 7.

But for all of that, Lucci could not understand.

Because it was simply impossible for there to be a Marine asset as powerful as the ‘Commodore’ in front of him and Cipher Pol not be alerted to it.

Alerted to, and having measures taken against, Cipher Pol had contingency plans against every major Marine figure in the event that one turned traitor.

But here he was, fighting blind, and from all his experience in the World Government that was impossible.

Clashing at speeds faster than the eye could see, destructive waves and vibrations had laid to waste the surrounding area, still, he was feeling out his enemy.

Bill Ox was strong, devilishly strong, but Lucci himself hadn’t gone all out either.

For every punch, elbow, and knee thrown by the Marine in front of him, Lucci was able to deflect with his [Observation Haki] which he believed to be superior.

In fact, Lucci recognized, Bill Ox didn’t seem to even have Observation Haki to begin with.

Another impossible thing, he thought to himself - because as strong as Bill was, having Haki was prerequisite - but something that he could exploit.

After several minutes of going back and forth, sure of his strategy, the CP0 Agent was ready to act.

Having gotten into a flow with his two partners, Lucci smirked viciously, ready to act boldly.

But then, just in the moment when that should have been the beginning of his victory; he watched as if in slow motion as one of his partners attempted a headbutt.

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Throughout the battle Bill had clearly felt the limitation of not being able to use his Observation Haki.

Given his past, and his inclination to using Observation Haki in his day-to-day life, Bill was naturally more comfortable using [Time Slow], [Presence Erasing], and [Thought Reading] and could do so for long periods of time.

But for all of that, the imbalance between his two souls had made it a more and more tricky proposition to use like before – and the fact that fighting stirred the soul more than sneaking made it hard for him to risk using those powerful abilities.

Besides, Bill thought to himself calmly in the middle of that city-shaking fight.

He only needed one good chance.

Fighting 3 individuals who were as strong as pirates with hundreds and hundreds of millions of Beli as a bounty made it hard to tie one down.

When he aimed for Gild, who was controlling more and more golden tendrils, there was Dice coming from one way and Lucci coming from the other.

When he aimed for one of the others, needless to say, Gild could more expertly manipulate the gold – such that even after the seawater had sprayed over the city, a virtual river of gold had flown from the underdeck.

Then it came to him.

A cunning plan.

Slowing down to the level of Dice and Lucci, Bill bid his time.

He made very minor mistakes, but mistakes, nonetheless.

Still fighting at a level beyond most of the world – after all, even the weakest of his foes ‘Dice’ was an undefeated Champion, cherished by Gild who cherished nothing except the best – Bill made his play…

And, after what seemed like a long time, probably just under an hour of nonstop battle, it worked.

With his back turned to the big man, Bill heard a laugh and turned back to see Dice’s head covered in pitch-black Haki.

Spinning head-over-foot, the enforcer spun like a whirling top.

Seeing this, Bill didn’t smile. Barely reacted at all.

Instead, his own head turned gun-metal gray and against a headbutt powerful enough to shake a city, Bill held nothing back.

Dice was strong as a city.

But Bill was as strong as an island.

And with a flash of light, and a boom that could be heard and felt for miles away, it was over.

Whether or not Dice even understood what happened next was anyone guess but he was hit so hard that his powerful neck flew back several feet, his skin stretching but not tearing.

Now he was within arm’s reach.

Catching the big man by his tiny legs before he was flung back from the blast, Bill pulled hard and tore Dice limb from limb.

In a display that only took seconds to finish, in a display more brutal than Bill had ever committed before, Bill ignored Lucci’s [Finger Gun] in his back and finished the job.

Now bathed in blood.

Now, his Coat of Justice was dirty and torn.

Now, his eyes were pitch black.

Now, his head was gun-metal gray.

Now, his hands and arms up to the elbow were gun-metal gray.

Now, Bill turned his blackened eyes to the two remaining foes left.

His spirit shaking with anticipation.