"Friend or foe?"
Kai's eyes narrowed slightly in thought.
Allies?
Unlikely.
Every Marine on Angel Island's branch had already been mobilized to form a complete encirclement around the Cerberus Pirates.
And Zephyr had never ordered Marine Headquarters to send reinforcements.
With a Marine Admiral like Zephyr present—
and with Kai himself, whose strength was no weaker than a Vice Admiral's—
there was no reason to think outside support would be necessary against pirates of this level.
Putting all of that together, Kai reached a conclusion.
These new arrivals were most likely hostile.
"A group of fairly capable fighters…"
"They may even be much stronger than the Cerberus Pirates."
"So… another pirate crew?"
His eyes flickered as he thought it through.
They knew full well that a battle between pirates and Marines was already underway here, yet they still came charging straight in.
That alone showed one thing:
they clearly intended to interfere.
"Reinforcements called in by the Cerberus Pirates?"
"Or…"
"just another pirate crew that happened to run into this?"
Kai didn't think any further.
Once he saw them, the answer would reveal itself.
"If they really are enemies…"
"then this becomes troublesome."
"This graduation trial was only supposed to be about dealing with the Cerberus Pirates."
"If outside forces get involved, that becomes an uncontrollable variable."
"And if that happens…"
"I'll have no choice but to step in."
That was where his thoughts landed.
Soon enough, right before his eyes, the Cerberus Pirates were almost completely routed.
Only Kurrin remained—
the captain with the sixty-million-berry bounty.
Even he was being steadily driven back by Smoker.
"Need help?"
Tina asked.
"No."
"He's mine."
Smoker refused immediately.
Victory was already within reach.
"Damn it!"
Kurrin's face became uglier and uglier as he was forced back.
Especially when he saw the bodies of his men piling up around him.
His mood sank to rock bottom.
"Damn Marines!"
"It took me years to build this crew!"
"And you bastards destroyed everything I worked for!"
"I'll never let this go!"
"Die, brat!"
Mad with rage, Kurrin threw himself into a frenzied, disorderly assault against Smoker.
Smoker still handled him with ease.
Then—
Bang!
A gunshot rang out.
A bullet tore through the air, aimed straight at Smoker's forehead.
The sharp whistle of the shot and the sudden danger made Smoker's expression shift.
He instantly turned elemental.
The bullet passed straight through his head without drawing blood.
Clearly, he had dodged it through partial intangibility.
"There's someone else?"
"Who?"
Smoker's face hardened as he stared toward the direction the shot had come from.
Then he saw him—
a sniper standing behind a newly arrived group of pirates, staring over with a savage, murderous grin.
"A pirate crew?!"
The moment Smoker saw them clearly, his expression grew even darker.
At the same time, Tina and the rest of the cadets saw the group closing in as well.
"Prepare for battle!"
Tina shouted sharply.
Her beautiful face was now filled with caution.
The rest of the cadets immediately tensed up again, all of them gripping their weapons tighter as they faced these unexpected newcomers.
They had only just finished one battle—
and now another pirate force had appeared.
"Teacher Zephyr never said the graduation trial would involve dealing with a second pirate crew too."
"Doesn't this count as going beyond the scope of the test?"
"There's another pirate crew operating around Angel Island?"
"Who are they?"
"Are they here to join forces with the Cerberus Pirates against us?"
"The difficulty just shot up!"
One cadet after another grew nervous, instinctively gripping their weapons harder.
Smoker and Kurrin's battle came to an abrupt halt as both sides opened some distance between them.
Smoker stared toward the newcomers with a frown.
Kurrin, on the other hand, didn't seem too surprised.
Apparently, he had already expected them.
"You're late!"
"My Cerberus Pirates are basically wiped out!"
"If you'd shown up earlier, things wouldn't have ended this badly."
"Damn Marines!"
Bloodied and wounded, Kurrin glared furiously at the middle-aged man leading the new pirate force.
That man had a head of curly hair, wore a gray coat, and looked like a shabby, sleazy old thug.
Untrimmed stubble covered his face.
And from him came a thick, foul stench.
"Kurrin, aren't you getting one thing wrong?"
"We're helping you because we've had business before. That's all."
"In other words, even if we hadn't come, we would still have been well within our rights."
"I sympathize with your losses. But don't stand there barking at me."
"You're the captain, and you couldn't even protect your own crew. What does that make you besides useless?"
"What does that have to do with me?"
"Was I supposed to protect your men for you?"
The greasy old man raised a brow, speaking in an openly unfriendly tone.
Kurrin took a heavy breath and barely suppressed the anger in his chest.
His expression was tense, his eyes full of fear and caution as he looked at the man.
After a moment, he lowered his head.
"I was too reckless."
"But I still ask you—help me get rid of these Marines."
"If you do, I'll repay you generously afterward."
That brought a satisfied smile to the man's face.
Then he turned and looked toward Smoker and the cadets.
His gaze paused on Smoker, and a trace of surprise appeared.
"A Logia user?"
"The Smoke-Smoke Fruit?"
"Interesting."
"I didn't expect to find a Logia in a place like this."
"Kurrin…"
"you didn't lose unfairly."
Clearly, he had already recognized Smoker's fruit.
Smoker, meanwhile, stared back with full caution.
Behind the sleazy old man stood around a hundred pirates.
Every one of them looked vicious and dangerous—not ordinary trash, but hardened elite pirates.
Compared to the Cerberus Pirates, their numbers were smaller—
but their quality was far higher.
To put it simply:
they had only a third of Kurrin's numbers, but several times his actual combat strength.
The two crews weren't even on the same level.
"Kill him for me!"
"Kill all of them!"
Kurrin glared hatefully at Smoker, then shouted toward the sleazy man beside him.
The man only gave him a bored look.
"I don't take orders from you."
"Stand there and watch."
He wasn't Kurrin's subordinate.
He had no obligation to obey him.
At that same moment, not far away, Marine Colonel Trull saw the newly arrived pirate group clearly.
His face changed instantly.
"This is bad!"
"That's the Swamp Pirates!"
"Their captain is a Logia user—the Swamp Fruit!"
"He's a great pirate with a bounty nearing a hundred million!"
"A true top-tier pirate of the sea!"
"Swamp Pirates captain Morrison—bounty: 100 million berries!"
The moment those words fell, the four hundred Marines behind him all turned pale.
One panicked gaze after another locked onto Morrison.
No one had expected such a terrifying enemy to suddenly appear here.
"A Logia user?"
Smoker's face sank.
As a Logia user himself, he naturally understood how difficult another Logia opponent could be.
And yet—
today, of all days, one had shown up.
"This just got bad."
He took a breath, then looked back toward Tina and the cadets and said seriously,
"From this point on, we may be facing a brutal fight!"
"All of you need to prepare yourselves to go all out!"
"This pirate crew…"
"…is clearly much stronger than the one we just fought."
"So do not get careless. Not for even a second."
Including Tina, every cadet nodded heavily.
Just from the oppressive presence coming off Morrison and his crew, they could already tell:
these people were no ordinary pirates.
The atmosphere instantly turned heavy.
Killing intent filled the air.
A fight was about to break out at any moment.
Off to the side, Kai watched Morrison, the Swamp Fruit user, with great interest.
"A Logia-type Devil Fruit user?"
"For Smoker and the others…"
"this is far beyond the intended scope of the graduation trial."
"Teacher Zephyr…"
"the test you arranged today has gone badly off course."
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