“Pir…
pirates!” A piercing scream, accompanied by flames that had begun to spring up in every direction, tore through the stillness of the night sky.
Three pirate ships were moored at the island’s harbor, and over a hundred pirates were pouring from their vessels into the island’s interior, engaging in arson, looting, and slaughter.
This island was known as Riman Island, located in a remote stretch of sea near the border of the North Blue.
It was a small island covering less than sixty square kilometers in total area.
The northern half was covered in dense forest, while the southern half housed a town also named Riman, where several thousand residents made their homes.
Though a guard post had been set up at the town’s entrance to keep watch, such meager defenses were utterly useless in the face of vicious, hardened pirates.
Several guards were cut down with ease by the swarming invaders, though one of them, in his dying moments, did manage to blow the warning whistle with admirable dedication.
That whistle did serve some purpose…
it roused nearby residents from their sleep, sending them scrambling in panic, and it carried the news of the pirate invasion deeper into the town for those who had not heard it.
The entire town was instantly thrown into chaos.
Residents fled in every direction without order, but many who could not run fast enough were overtaken and cut down by the pursuing pirates.
Some of the pirates broke into homes, stripped the meager belongings inside, and then set the entire buildings ablaze.
Beyond the guard post at the entrance, the town also had a self-defense militia made up of strong and able-bodied residents.
Upon hearing the alarm, the militia members grabbed their weapons and rushed out to fight the pirates.
But these militiamen were, at the end of the day, merely somewhat sturdier ordinary people.
Compared to the savage pirates, who were used to pillage and murder, they were still far too weak.
Moreover, they numbered only a few dozen, far fewer than the pirates in quantity.
Even though these militia members fought with reckless abandon, putting their lives on the line to protect the townsfolk, they were quickly cut down in large numbers.
The pirates, in contrast, suffered only a handful of casualties.
And yet, even those few losses were enough to enrage the pirates.
After all, resistance from common civilians was, in their eyes, an affront to the authority of pirates…
one that demanded severe punishment.
A towering man, over two meters and forty centimeters in height, with bulging muscles coiled across his entire frame, turned to a rather shifty-looking pirate beside him and gave the order: “Spread the word…
tonight, we kill every last person in this town!” This giant of a man was named Zodyl.
He was renowned for wielding a massive war hammer weighing a hundred and fifty kilograms, earning him the epithet ‘Hammer’.
He was the captain of this pirate crew, which went by the name ‘Hammer Pirates’.
Zodyl had not originally intended to slaughter the entire town, but he had not anticipated that anyone would dare to resist the pirates’ invasion.
Since they had chosen to defy him, he would show no mercy…
everyone in the town was to be put to death!
The shifty-looking man beside him was Zodyl’s first mate, named Oko.
Upon receiving his captain’s command, he immediately relayed the order to the rest of the pirates.
The underlings were thrilled when they learned that the captain had given the order for wholesale slaughter.
Though they had already killed many since landing, there was a world of difference between “kill some, take the loot, and leave” and “wipe everyone out and then leave.” Under their captain’s decree, a savage gleam now shone in every pirate’s eyes.
The bloodthirsty pirates surged further into the scattering civilians.
Though the townsfolk ran with all their might, they could not match the pirates in stamina or speed, and were soon overtaken and hacked down.
Before long, bodies were piling up along the roadside, creating a scene too gruesome to behold.
“BWAHAHAHA!” Zodyl threw his head back and laughed to the heavens.
“This is what happens when you dare to stand against our crew!” The Hammer Pirates would not dare to attack nations with standing armies, but they had pillaged countless small island towns like this one, and never had anyone been able to resist them.
As a result, Zodyl and Oko had bounties of twenty million Berry and ten million Berry respectively.
A bounty of twenty million Berry was nothing compared to the giants of the New World, but in these backwater seas, it was more than enough for Zodyl to be called a ‘great pirate’.
Just as Zodyl was basking in the slaughter carried out by his men, a figure appeared to be drifting rapidly through the air from a height of several dozen meters in the distance.
“What in the world is that?” Zodyl frowned, puzzled.
Though several of his underlings were gathered around him, no one answered, for none of them could identify the thing flying in from the sky.
Moreover, the night was dark, making it hard to see clearly.
As the object drew closer from above, the pirates gradually made out its shape…
but that only deepened their confusion.
‘It looked like a purple-black balloon?
No, it had eyes, and what seemed to be a mouth.
Was it alive?’ Still, no one knew what exactly was floating toward them, for it was a creature that did not originally belong to this world…
a Gengar.
To be more precise, it was a young man who had transmigrated into this world and eaten a Devil Fruit that allowed him to transform into Gengar.
In this world, the young man’s name was Pons.
When he saw the pirates slaughtering their way through the town, fury burned within him.
He dove down from the sky and launched his assault on the pirates.
When he was about seven or eight meters above the ground, Pons began his attack: “Acid Spray!” Pons opened his wide mouth and spat out globs of acid at the pirates.
Those struck by the acid let out agonized, piercing screams.
Although “Acid Spray” had a base power of only 40 in the Pokémon games, it dealt considerable damage to these pirates.
After all, the acid Pons spat was real, highly corrosive fluid.
When it splashed onto the pirates’ skin, it caused their flesh to fester and rot on the spot.
In the games, Acid Spray also had the effect of lowering the target’s Special Defense, but Pons was not sure whether these pirates even had such a stat.
In any case, it hardly mattered…
given the corrosive damage the acid was already inflicting, whether their Special Defense was lowered or not seemed rather unimportant.
Some pirates who had not been hit by the acid raised their swords and tried to strike Pons, but he remained more than seven meters above the ground.
Even as they stretched their arms and leaped upward, they could not reach him.
Pons quickly launched his second wave of offense: “Confuse Ray!” From his eyes, a violet glow burst forth.
The pirates caught in that light suddenly felt their minds become deeply scrambled.
“You…
you bastards from the Swordfish Pirates!” One pirate suddenly bellowed at the comrade beside him.
The Swordfish Pirates were the Hammer Pirates’ sworn enemies in this small stretch of sea.
Both crews loathed each other deeply, and they clashed every time they met.
Yet their strength was evenly matched, so neither could ever claim total victory…
only continue their endless, bitter feud.
Now, in these pirates’ eyes, their own comrades had transformed into the most detestable members of the Swordfish Pirates, glaring at them with murderous intent, looking ready to strike at any moment.
If that was the case, then they had no choice but to strike first.
The pirates raised their weapons and turned on their own companions.
The clash of steel rang out in earnest, and one by one, pirates fell dead by the hands of their own crewmates.
In the games, “Confuse Ray” inflicted a confusion status on the target, but in the games, “confused” meant only a one-in-three chance of attacking oneself.
Here, the confusion caused by Confuse Ray was far more literal…
it made the pirates genuinely mistake their allies for enemies.
Pons did not let up.
He opened his mouth wide and spewed clouds of purple smoke over the pirates.
This, too, was one of Gengar’s moves…
Smog.
In the games, Smog had a base power of only 30 and a 40% chance to poison the target.
But here, as that thick purple fog blanketed the area, the pirates caught within it breathed in the fumes constantly…
of course they would all be poisoned.
One after another, the afflicted pirates began to vomit, and the more severe cases coughed up blood.
On top of the acid burns and the wounds from their comrades’ blades, the compounding of multiple injuries caused many more pirates to collapse and die.
From afar, Captain Zodyl watched this unfold and was absolutely livid.
He roared at Pons: “What kind of monster are you?!
DIE!” Zodyl had not charged into battle immediately when this unknown enemy first appeared.
Though he was massive and looked like a brute, he was actually somewhat cautious by nature.
Besides, he was the captain…
why should he personally engage the moment a foe showed up?
He had his men test the waters first.
But in the span of just tens of seconds, nearly half of his crew had been killed.
Zodyl could hold back no longer…
now he had to fight himself!