NIHM: Ch. 11

Of course, for Kazuha, this was a rare jungle delicacy, but for that group of people who had no idea about the situation in the Little Garden, it was a disaster. They had stumbled into Little Garden, akin to accidentally breaking into Jurassic Park.

The enormous and terrifying predators, with their overwhelming size and strength, made those pirates who had just entered the Grand Line feel an unprecedented level of pressure.

"Damn it, what kind of monsters are these?"

"Don't be afraid! We have guns and blades! We're not even scared of the Marine, what's just an island to us? It's nothing we can't conquer!" The pirate ship's captain, who looked like a three-meter-tall human bull, spoke up.

In the next instant, he charged forward, aiming a violent head-on attack at a figure that suddenly lunged out from the jungle. To be fair, anyone who could become a captain and make it to the Grand Line clearly had some skills. With a ferocious burst of speed and power, he actually managed to send the charging Tyrannosaurus flying backward.

Seeing their captain's bravery, the pirates were emboldened. With newfound courage, they raised their blades and swarmed toward the fallen T. rex. Although the dinosaur had been knocked back, its massive body absorbed most of the damage, it only suffered a minor injury. With a quick roll, it was back on its feet.

As it faced the pirates swinging machetes at it, even though it was known as the jungle's overlord, the T. rex understood that two fists are no match for many hands. With a deafening roar, it swept its massive tail across several pirates, clearing a path through the crowd before quickly darting back into the jungle.

Some pirates were hit by the tail, but with adrenaline pumping and their minds dulled by cheap rum, they were too hyped up to care. At this point, there was only one thought in their heads:

Today, they would slay an ancient beast!

Roaring, the pirates charged after the T. rex. Their battle cries shook the forest, and everything in their path, be it jungle foliage or passing animals, was slaughtered in a frenzy of blades.

But their fervor was soon extinguished.

Because once they entered the jungle, they encountered more, stronger, scarier, creatures.

Ten-meter-tall mini-Titans.

Dozens-of-meters-long ancient anacondas thicker than barrels.

Swamp crocodiles over ten times the size of Nile crocs.

And then, there were the bee hives, which were as large as human mansions, housing thousands of bees.

Each bee was the size of a human fist.

"Damn it! What is this place? Why are there so many terrifying things here?!"

"Run! We have to get out of here, now!"

Someone shouted it first, no one remembered who, but it finally snapped everyone out of their rum-soaked stupor. All their courage vanished. Panic took over, and they bolted back the way they came.

But without courage or calm, the pirates fled blindly, scattering in every direction. Some even ran the wrong way, deeper into the jungle. Then, in the chaos, a few of them suddenly felt a sharp pain in their chest.

Looking down, they saw a branch as thick as a wrist, its tip sharpened to a deadly point, piercing clean through their back.

As the pirate lay dying, he looked behind him, hoping to glimpse his attacker, but all he saw was a shadow darting through the treetops.

The fleeing pirates were picked off, some ambushed by beasts, others caught in traps, and some simply blacked out after a shadow flashed past them. Some had their throats pierced, others had their skulls smashed, some had their bones shattered by brute force, and others were struck by wooden spikes or animal bones. By the time the pirate captain finally made it back to the shore, only two of his crew had managed to escape with him.

They quickly scrambled aboard the ship, trying to regain a sense of safety.

But once they were on deck, what they saw froze them in place, every sailor and crew member who had remained behind on the ship was unconscious, gagged, and tied up in a corner. And standing on their pirate ship was a man with purple hair, his back turned to them, wringing out his soaking wet clothes.

Judging from the uniform, those clothes belonged to a Marine officer. As for how this Marine had gotten onto their ship, they had no time to think about that.

As pirates, there were only two options when faced with a Marine: If you can't beat him, run. If you can't run, fight to the death and take him down with you.

The pirate captain gave a discreet signal to the others. Catching on, his crewmates began to quietly spread out, circling toward the purple-haired man from several directions.

Then, in a flash, they raised their machetes and launched a sneak attack from behind. Everything was going perfectly. The moment their blades struck the man's back, their faces lit up with triumph.

"We hit him!"

But in the next second, their expressions froze. Because when they tried to pull their blades back, they realized something was wrong, the blades hadn't pierced the man's body at all. Instead, cracks had spread across the steel like spiderwebs.

CRACK—

Every weapon in their hands shattered.

"No… No way. A monster!" The pirates stared in horror at the purple-haired man.

The man scratched his back casually, as if brushing off a mosquito bite. Then he turned to look at them with a calm, indifferent gaze.

"Since you're back... then come with me for reconditioning."

His voice was light, almost casual, like someone saying, "Come home for dinner." But before the pirates could respond, they suddenly felt a shadow fall over them under the blazing sun, casting darkness over their world.

And then, everything went black. Perhaps due to his physical toughness, the pirate captain was the last to lose consciousness.

In his final moments of awareness, he suddenly remembered who the man was. He had thought the face looked familiar. What he hadn't expected… was that a mere lowly pirate like him had somehow provoked the arrival of a Marine Admiral.

Black Arm Zephyr!

And as all the pirates fell, deep in the ship's hold, a few figures slowly emerged.

They were wounded Marines.

At this moment, the expressions on their faces were filled with relief, relief that their distress call through the Den Den Mushi had reached someone, and that, by sheer luck, there had been a strong Marine nearby.

These Marines were all from a branch unit. Even the strongest officers among them had seemed like towering figures in the eyes of their subordinates.

But Z had completely redefined what "power" meant to them.

Unseen speed. Invulnerability to blades and bullets. And a terrifying physique capable of swimming across an entire sea.

He shattered their understanding of strength.

"You stay here and organize things. I'll check the island."

Z had originally intended to leave, but with his Observation Haki, he sensed a watching presence nearby.

In the next moment, he leapt toward Little Garden.

The Marine had long known about the two giants locked in battle on the island. They had chosen not to interfere, because letting those two giants keep fighting endlessly here was far more beneficial than letting them return to Elbaph and regroup the Giant Warrior Pirates.