Reincarnated as Kaido, married Big Mom, and formed a dual-Emperor pirate crew.

Chapter 267: Reinforcements Arrive, Navy and Beast 2 Suffer Mutual Wounds

Looking at the Beast Pirates struggling fiercely yet displaying unwavering resolve, Kuzan asked the question that had been nagging at him.

"why?"

Why not surrender?

"Is Kaido that important to you? So important that you wouldn't even hesitate to give up your lives? What has he given you?!"

Upon hearing this, the Beast Squad Leader's struggles lessened considerably.

He was panting heavily with his face pressed against the deck of the warship, but his eyes were fixed upwards on Kuzan.

"You want to know?"

Seeing that he seemed to be able to communicate, Kuzan waved his hand, signaling the navy to release him from their hold.

Following Kuzan's orders, the marines quickly dispersed to the left and right after handcuffing the Beast Squad Leader's hands.

The Beast Squad Leader struggled to sit up and leaned against the warship's mast.

He turned his head, spat out a mouthful of muddy saliva, raised his head, and looked at Kuzan with a mocking expression.

"You think you can just tell me whatever you want to know? Who do you think you are?"

"What did you say?!"

Kuzan frowned slightly, and before he could even speak, a Marine next to him smashed the Beast Squad Leader's cheek with the butt of his rifle.

With a soft thud, the Beast Squad Leader spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm, along with a back molar.

"Answer Major General Kuzan's questions honestly! Otherwise, you'll die a horrible death!!"

The hot-tempered marine shouted at him, but the Beast Squad Leader just chuckled dismissively twice and leaned back against the mast.

Such mocking laughter immediately made the hot-tempered marine want to attack again, but Kuzan stopped him at the crucial moment.

“Using violence is pointless. He’s not even afraid of death, so what’s the point of hitting him?”

After saying that, Kuzan looked at the Beast Squad Leader.

"I am indeed very curious."

"Deception, betrayal, and ruthless pursuit of profit—that's how you pirates interact, isn't it?"

"Why? Why are so many of you willing to die for Kaido? What has he given you that makes you so devoted to him?!"

Upon hearing this, the Beast Squad Leader saw that Kuzan's attitude was indeed sincere. In addition, he felt that this was not a secret, and there was also a slight desire to show off to the Navy.

He considered his words carefully before speaking:

"What Captain Kaido gave us is nothing more than what you glamorous people are born with, but what we lowly and base people are born without."

"what?"

Kuzan wondered, what is something that people like them are born with, but pirates are born without?

Dignity? Kindness? Or a sense of justice?

Looking at Kuzan's expression, the Beast Squad Leader knew at a glance that he was definitely wrong, so he spoke with a mix of sarcasm and seriousness:

"Land to feed the whole family; family members who won't be taken away or harmed; stomachs to fill; warm clothes to wear; and the ability to live a better life, rise to a higher position, and earn a higher salary through hard work!"

"Captain Kaido has given us so much, and all we have to give him in return is a worthless life!"

"Even after we die, our families will still enjoy the preferential treatment given by the captain!"

"All of these you were born with, yet you are unwilling to share even a single one with us!!"

The Beast Squad Leader's emotions gradually became agitated.

"I don't care whether Captain Kaido is good or bad! Whether destroying the Nobles was right or wrong! I don't know!!"

"All I know is this! None of you were willing to give me everything I wanted! But Captain Kaido gave it to me!!"

"He gave it to me!! I'm entrusting my life to him!! Is there a problem with that!!!"

The last sentence was shouted out with all his might by the Beast Squad Leader.

Hearing his shouts that seemed to shatter everyone's eardrums, Kuzan fell silent, as did the surrounding Marines.

After a long silence, a navy officer chuckled self-deprecatingly, "What you're describing, we don't actually possess all of it; at most, we only have a small portion of it..."

Is that so?

Upon hearing this, the Beast Squad Leader's tense body completely relaxed.

A smile of realization, pride, and even happiness appeared on his face.

"So Captain Kaido gave us more than you could have gotten..."

"If that's the case... then I have even less reason to betray him!!"

"Come on, give me a quick death!"

After saying that, the Beast Squad Leader simply closed his eyes and silently awaited death.

Kuzan remained silent for a long time. In the end, he did not order the killing of the Beast Squad Leader, but instead imprisoned him in the warship's cell.

Then, he continued to lead the navy to launch attacks on other islands.

However, unlike before, this time the main force of the attack was entirely Kuzan.

He used his freezing power to quickly freeze the Beast Pirates who had gathered to rebel. His marines were mainly responsible for moving the frozen Beast Pirates into the prisons on the warships so that they could be transferred to Impel Down after the war.

In stark contrast to Kuzan, the situation is different for Sakazuki and Borsalino.

They adopted a very thorough annihilation tactic, that is, to leave no survivors if possible.

The Beast Pirates who were left behind suffered heavy casualties under their attack.

In order to reduce casualties and to inflict more damage on the navy.

The Beast Pirates began to scatter and hide in buildings, engaging in street battles with the Marines.

Perhaps, only two, or even just one, pirates were hiding inside that building.

But as long as any navy dares to get close, they can at least take one out with a sneak attack.

After suffering heavy casualties, Sakazuki and Borsalino began to learn from Kuzan about the Beast Pirates' shameless fighting style.

Before attacking each island, use a nature-based attack to clear the map first.

Borsalino is somewhat better off, as the attack range of the Yasakani no Magatama is mainly limited to empty houses where the civilians have already run away.

Sakazuki didn't discriminate between meat and vegetables; regardless of whether the people fled or not, Meteor Volcano was completely covered.

In his words, this approach meant: "These people are not the ones we need to protect!"

"They pay taxes to pirates! They accept the protection of pirates! Who can guarantee that they and their descendants won't become the next generation of pirates?!"

"To prevent such a threat from arising, we must nip it in the bud! Better to kill a thousand innocent people than let one guilty person go free!!"

Under the leadership of their three major natural systems, the navy's offensive was unstoppable.

The navy under their command was also accumulating military merits so many times they were practically overwhelmed.

Even though many of them felt that this way of fighting was somewhat cruel.

But looking at the military merits recorded by the officers and the "pirate spoils" looted from the islands, the naval soldiers chose to keep quiet and follow their three officers to launch the next round of attacks.

Just as they were gaining momentum and had already cleared more than half of the Whole Cake Island archipelago, a surging tsunami roared in from afar.

Kuzan was the first to spot it. He leaped from the warship and used Ice Age to quickly freeze the tsunami.

Then, before he could land, dozens of golden slashes flew over.

"Hahahaha! Navy, you bastards, you really have no shame whatsoever!!"

A giant ship flew in from the sky, and a golden lion descended from the heavens.

His gaze swept over the distant island billowing with smoke, and his eyes were full of disdain as he looked at the navy.

Kuzan remained silent, using Moonwalk and active elementalization skills to dodge Rajang's flying slash, and landed on the sea surface, freezing a large area of ​​ice.

"All warfare is based on deception; there is no such thing as shamelessness in war."

Kuzan stood on the ice field, his face grim, and said this.

"Hahaha! Well said! War is war! There's no such thing as honorable war!"

The Golden Lion shouted from the air, "So! We old guys are bullying the weak, so you little brats shouldn't say anything more about how unfair it is!!"

As his words fell, the frozen tsunami in the distance shattered, and a huge whale-headed ship plunged into the sea from above.

Then, a man, also wrapped in many bandages but full of energy, with a crescent-shaped white mustache on his upper lip, appeared above the whale's head.

"Navy! What do you mean by bullying these lowly soldiers?! If you've got the guts, come and fight us head-on!!"

Upon seeing this, Kuzan's gloomy expression was instantly replaced by terror.

"Not only Shiki, but even Whitebeard has come!!"

Immediately, he shouted loudly towards the warships behind him: "Retreat!! All troops retreat!!"

Upon hearing the order, Kuzan's adjutant, who happened to look up and see the Moby Dick speeding towards them in its foreign vessels, immediately issued a panicked order to the other naval personnel to withdraw.

The whistle signaling the withdrawal was blown, and the Beast Pirates, who had been beaten down and unable to lift their heads, seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack.

"Come and go as you please! Where do you think this is?!"

"Reinforcements have arrived! Brothers, it's time to fight to the death!!"

"Kill!!! We cannot let the navy return alive!!"

Amidst roars filled with hatred, the navy began leaving behind one corpse after another.

Just as the two sides were about to become locked in a fierce battle and the navy was unable to break free, a series of magma meteors fell from the sky.

Boom boom boom...

In just over ten seconds, the Beast Pirates, who had launched a fierce pursuit, suffered heavy casualties, while the retreating Marines, who were also being chased, suffered equally heavy casualties.

Kuzan's adjutant, his eyes bloodshot with rage, turned away angrily, only to hear Sakazuki shout over the loudspeaker, "Why aren't you taking this opportunity to withdraw the warship?!"

The adjutant was practically grinding his teeth to powder, but in the end he had no choice but to issue the order to retreat.

At the same time, Borsalino used the Eight-Foot Mirror to quickly provide support to Kuzan.

He and Kuzan stood in a row, facing the golden lion in the sky and the rapidly approaching Whitebeard.

"Kuzan, Sakazuki's advice is to retreat."

Kuzan nodded slightly. "I know that we are no match for these old guys right now."

Although both Shiki and Whitebeard are severely injured, they are still in their prime. Even if they are about to die, their final counterattack is not something they can easily withstand.

Rather than risk our lives to exchange one of them here, it would be better to wait a few more years until we are stronger and can then confidently capture these old pirates and imprison them in Impel Down.

"However, before we retreat, we need to prepare for the rearguard action."

Kuzan's hands emitted a chilling aura, gathering freezing power in his palms before hurling them towards the distant sea.

clack clack...

The freezing power, upon contact with seawater, quickly freezes the surface into solid ice.

Whitebeard stood at the bow of the ship, swinging his fist to create a shockwave.

The air shattered like glass, and the frozen sea was extensively shaken apart.

Borsalino seized the opportunity to unleash the Yasakani no Magatama, sending countless light projectiles flying.

Golden Lion slashed with his twin swords, deflecting the light bullets, but due to his severe injuries, he was unable to reach Kuzan and Borsalino.

And so, the two sides began exchanging ranged skills.

Kuzan and Borsalino ran while trying to buy time.

Although Shiki and Whitebeard wanted to capture all the marines, Shiki was still seriously injured and dared not charge forward to fight to the death.

Whitebeard, however, was limited by the speed of the Moby Dick. After the ice surface was frequently frozen by Kuzan, it was really difficult to increase the speed.

As for telling him to jump off the ship and give chase...

Borsalino shattered the icy sea as Borsalino caught up, leaving Whitebeard helpless and utterly defeated.

However, Whitebeard and Shiki's pursuit was not entirely ineffective.

Kuzan and Borsalino are ultimately just two people; they can't possibly take care of all the warships.

Pursued by Whitebeard and Shiki, the Navy, with a total of 10000 personnel and five warships, each with 2000 personnel, had two warships sunk.

While it's unlikely that all 4000 men were killed, the casualties were certainly not small.

In addition to the casualties incurred during the previous attack on the islands.

Of the 10000 elite naval troops on this journey, only about 5000 were ultimately evacuated under the protection of the Kuzan trio.

Now let's look at the beasts.

The Whole Cake Island archipelago, consisting of 35 islands, has seen 20 islands captured.

More than 1500 members of the Beasts Pirates headquarters died directly in the battle. More than 200 people turned into popsicles and surfaced after a warship was sunk. Another 200 people escaped by Kuzan on his warship.

Besides the members of the Beasts Pirates headquarters, the number of casualties among the guard teams spontaneously formed on each island is completely impossible to count.

A rough estimate suggests that the total number of casualties should be no less than 2500.

Thus, in the battle of Whole Cake Island, thanks to the timely rescue by Whitebeard and Shiki, the losses in combat personnel between the Navy and the Beast Pirates were roughly equal.

But the economic and civilian losses to the Whole Cake Island Islands are incalculable.

Of course, for Kaido at this point, the loss of Whole Cake Island cannot be entirely attributed to him.

Because he merely planted a flag on the island, the island's main wealth remained concentrated in the hands of the island's original nobles.

While the naval battle severely damaged the Whole Cake Island archipelago, it also severely damaged the nobles on the island.

In a sense, this also removed some obstacles for Kaido to completely control and rule the Whole Cake Island archipelago later on.