Bab 50: Chapter 47

'Weird, I expected to face off against those marine officers we've fought previously.' Carina thought to herself as she swiftly dashed through the marine base, with a large sac on her back. 'The base is completely empty too. Have they given up with whatever plans they got?'

On her wrist, two Log Poses were strapped. One was the Log Pose she originally had, while the other was the one she found in the base. If there was one thing she was the best at, it was to find exactly what she's looking for.

*BOOM* Carina momentarily stopped as she felt the whole building vibrate violently, gazing at the direction where Rowan crashed onto. Consecutively, she dashed away from the site and continued to surf through the marine bases.

'Hm?' Carina stopped in front of the tremendously huge doors, amounting to more than four meters in terms of length. Next to the door, a plate was engraved with the following name: Baten. 'Jackpot.'

Without any hesitation, Carina checked for any traps nearby before creaking the door open and entering the office.

"Bounty posters, glasses, books, books. and... huh?" Carina expressed her surprise as she came across one particular children's book in the bookshelf. "The Tale of Youchiha Medusa. Wow. Youchiha was actually a thing?" Carina muttered to herself before throwing it in her sac as well.

*BOOOOOOOOM* Carina then heard another noise that blasted so loudly, causing her to wince slightly. 'What's going on outside?!!'

Quickly moving towards the window, Carina's eyes witnessed as she saw a huge amount of steam that covered the entire sea ahead of her. 'Carmen?!' She knew that Carmen was the only one capable of achieving such a feat.

Squinting her eyes, Carina attempted to get a better view of the scene, but to no avail. 'Steam of such scale. Carmen won't be that easy for the marines to deal with. Coupled with Rowan, the damage dealt to this base is catastrophic beyond belief. It is likely that those three marine officers, who momentarily fought us, will send messages to all the expeditionary units for an urgent return, and report to the other marine bases and their headquarter, Marineford. Not good.'

*BOOOOOOOOOOM* Interrupting her thought, another violent quake occurred, causing Carina's eyes to widen and turn her head downwards, to where she felt the vibration coming from. 'Rowan? That was definitely his ability. He's definitely struggling right now... we need to get out of here fast. And how will we do this? That Rear Admiral is tough to crack. A devil fruit ability that neutralizes most of the ranged attacks, and exceptionally skilled at close combat. Quite intelligent and calm enough not to be provoked.'

However, in the next moment, Carina witnessed Prominence making its debut from the sea full of steam, sailing victoriously. Carina's eyes lit up in delight, before she opened the window and instantly jumped down from the marine base.

"Carina!!" Sighting Carina, who was running towards them, Dan waved his hands widely while shouting. Carmen seemed to have regained her consciousness, as she leaned against the rail while sitting up.

"Carmen, Dan!! What happened?!" Swiftly landing onto the deck, Carina asked immediately. Dan chuckled in response before pointing at Carmen.

"Well, she just went kaboom, and wiped out the whole marines there. Best cook alright. She cooked tons of humans today." Ignoring Dan's dark joke, Carina couldn't help but open her jaw wide in a shock.

"The whole fleet?" Turning her head back, Carina still couldn't sight anything other than the steam. Shaking her head, she calmed herself down and quickly assessed the situation.

Looking up towards the marine base G-11, which was completely wrecked by Rowan and Baten's battle, Carina opened her mouth, "Listen. Rowan is fighting Rear Admiral in there, and got to say, that Rear Admiral is the strongest we've seen so far. I'm not sure if Rowan can win alone."

Looking at Carmen, Carina asked, "How much more can you fight?"

Dan shook his head in negative, "She completely exhausted herself. Sugar, fat, the level of whatever supplies an energy to her body is low. Barely has enough energy to keep herself conscious."

"Well, we only got one option then. Get me a speaker." Holding out her hand, Carina grabbed the red speaker that Dan passed to her, before taking a deep breath. "ROWAN!!! WE'RE ALL READY TO GO, GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!!!"

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"*Huff* *Huff* Heh, you hear that?" While clenching his bleeding stomach, Rowan weakly grinned at Baten, whose hand was onto the dial that he placed next to his ear.

"...And the whole fleet suffered a... defeat against Grimheart pirates. Survivor... there is none." A grim voice of one marine officer was heard, causing Baten's face to become colder and colder, full of killing intent.

"How? There shouldn't have been any problem with the plan." Baten gritted his teeth.

"One woman sir. One pink-haired woman part of Grimheart pirates ate Flame Flame fruit, a Logia-type. Even Commodore Kazu... was vanquished." Hearing this, Baten furiously crushed the dial, causing the Den Den Mushi to drop dead, unresponsive. "To think that was the case... I should have thought of such scenario right from the beginning when I saw the steam—even if it seemed nearly impossible."

Rowan weakly snorted at Baten, who finally lost his composure. "It has been... *Cough* fun and all, but... I really got to go." Although wobbling, Rowan maintained his position as the sole of his feet began to float gently.

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* Weak sounds of bounce forces boomed as Rowan continuously attempted to propel himself up. "*Cough* ...W-what a... *Cough* pain..."

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* Rowan gritted his teeth while sweating profusely. 'Come on, just one more time, work!!!'

Baten snorted coldly. "Where did your confidence come from? Do you honestly believe that you can escape from me?"

*Boom* *Boom* Rowan didn't cease his attempts to generate substantial bounce force from his feet.

Immediately after, Baten blurred from his spot before appearing in front of Rowan, with his finger pointing towards Rowan.

*BOOM* After all the attempts, Rowan managed to produce the bounce force of enough magnitude just in time, and very narrowly dodged Baten's Shigan, as he flew towards the sky.

"Oh please." Growling, Baten jumped up from the ground. "Geppo!" Jumping on top of the air, Baten instantly zoomed in towards Rowan.

Simultaneously, three marine officers dashed out from the marine base to help Baten, but stopped helplessly as Rowan flew to the sea.

Rowan scowled seeing Baten approaching at him full speed.

"Shigan: Kunren (Drill)!" Baten jabbed his finger forward while slightly twisting his arm at a blinding speed, towards Rowan's heart. Slightly bending sideways, Baten's attack landed on Rowan's right chest, causing the latter to vomit blood once again.

"*Cough* *Cough*." However, Rowan managed to apply small amount of bounce force on the area of impact. As the result, he was propelled further by Baten's Shigan, momentarily creating a distance between him and Baten.

Rowan moved his shaking right arm to Dan while free falling towards Prominence. "Dan... *Cough* ...gun." Rowan weakly spoke. However, he was still up high, and Dan couldn't understand Rowan's words.

"Dan, pass the revolver!!" Thankfully, Carina managed to understand Rowan by reading his lips. Dan quickly nodded and grabbed the revolver that was on his own holster, before throwing it to Rowan, who caught in midair and quickly shot three bullets consecutively.

*Boom* *Boom* *Boom* Small amount of bounce forces proved to be effective enough for the bullets, which are a lot lighter than Rowan in terms of weight. Baten, who was about to use Rankyaku towards the whole Prominence, cursed in fury before instantly propelling himself backwards to protect three marine officers, who were unable to defend against Rowan's attacks. After all, their ranks were at Captain or lower.

"Lesser." Baten easily stopped the bullets with a growl. At the same time, Dan received Rowan, who was falling, only to have his eyes bulging out from the sheer weight of Rowan, before both of them crashed from the deck to the lower ground, creating a hole.

"Ugh, how much do you weigh captain?!" Dan groaned before quickly standing up.

Carina looked back and forth between Rowan and Baten in anxiety as she shouted out, "Guys, we have to leave right now!!"

Rowan was feeling dizzy and weak. He could care feel his body or exert the bounce to propel the ship.

Carmen could do nothing but weakly speak, "Go..."

Dan seriously nodded and ran to the back of the ship. Prior to Rowan's arrival, Dan set up the ship so that the cannons were removed from the sides and placed at the back, where a large hole was forcibly made by him. It was unfortunate that their washroom was ruined as the result, but there really wasn't a choice.

Baten looked back at three marine officers and sighed in exasperation. "To think I would experience something of this calibre, in the early Paradise." All the marine ships at disposal were decimated by Carmen. No survivor left except for the four. Baten's plan would have worked perfectly, if not for the fact that Carmen ate one of the most destructive devil fruit in the whole world.

Now, facing against the cannons that Prominence aimed towards the marine officers, Baten had two choices: sacrifice his subordinates and go after the Grimheart pirates, or give up on the pursuit and save them.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* Four cannonballs flew towards them all at once, inducing dread from three marine officers. Prominence used the force generated from the cannonballs at the same time to propel away from the shore.

"Less Less One-Hundredth Size and Speed." Baten spoke as the cannonballs suddenly shrunk ,into a size of a marble, in front of him and stopped in the midair, before falling harmlessly onto the ground.

On top of Prominence, Carina shouted to Dan, "How many more cannonballs?!"

Dan shouted back, "Around thirteen!!" Looking back at the island, Dan fused the cannons again.

Baten gritted his teeth. 'Rationally speaking, the eradication of the Grimheart pirates definitely come first. And yet...' The marine officers behind him have been serving under him for years, along with Commodore Kazu and two other deceased marine officers.

Originally, he let five of them fight against Rowan and Carina, since he initially believed Rowan's skill to be around an average Commodore's level, for he pulled out an easy win against Smoker, who had the underwhelming rank as the Captain of the East Blue. It would have served as great ways not only to raise their merits, but also to gain more experiences. Oh, how the turn tables.

"*Sigh* Less Less Absolute Defence." Sitting down on the ground, cross-legged, Baten intensely glared at Prominence that was sailing away at rapid speed, while blocking all the cannonballs easily. Since the start of the battle, Baten remained unscathed.

Three marine officers behind him lowered their heads in dejection, as the steam cleared and a chaotic mess of woods, metals, other materials, corpses, blood, and all kinds were floating together.

"Ha... ha... Youchiha Bob... Grimheart... Rowan... whoever you are, I don't think I will be able to live in peace until I see you and your whole crew dead." A hatred blazed within Baten's eyes as they swept over the messes that were slowly sinking to the bottom of the sea. "Since I am to return to Marineford, why not chase after them?"

Reaching into the inner pocket of the black suit he is wearing, Baten pulled out a map. "Their next destination... based on the magnetism of 7th route... the Honey Dew Valley. Enjoy few more days of your life, pirate."