Chapter 101: Total Annihilation of the Iron Bone Pirates
Bounty amounts are a very interesting thing in this world.
Although the amount of a bounty doesn't necessarily represent true strength, to a certain extent, it does represent a pirate's level of viciousness and danger. Among pirates, comparisons are almost always based on bounty amounts, so generally speaking, pirates tend to be smug when their bounties increase.
Pirates with low bounties often feel a sense of awe in the presence of those with high bounties, while pirates with high bounties develop a feeling of superiority. This can be considered a form of class division among pirates.
It was precisely because of this interesting phenomenon that Ian was actually curious about what level his bounty would reach if he were ever wanted.
After hearing Ian's question, Tina, wearing her sunglasses, sat down on a deck chair and said unhurriedly, "Oh? You want to be wanted too?"
"Just curious, that's all!" Ian said with a smile. "Beautiful Tina, help me estimate it!"
"Drop that word!" Tina took a puff of her cigarette and said coldly, "Little brother, I'm much older than you. Even if you have to call me something, you should call me big sister!"
After saying that, she became serious and said, "Based on the pirates you captured in the East Blue, your bounty would be at least over 20 million Berries. However, since you haven't caused any major threats, it's hard to assess your danger level. So I can only say that if you were to be wanted, your current bounty probably wouldn't exceed 40 million!"
"That low!" Ian was a bit disappointed.
Compared to Ace's 90 million, it was less than half. Sure enough, Logia Devil Fruit users were taken more seriously.
Actually, Ian was thinking about it wrong. Tina didn't really understand Ian's strength either. The two had only clashed once before, which was the collision between the Moon Step and his sword energy. However, that single exchange made Tina mentally raise Ian's bounty estimate by 20 million, showing how much she valued him.
Moreover, there were some things Tina didn't say. When she contacted Marine Headquarters to check Ian's information, she naturally learned about Smoker's evaluation report on Ian. Smoker's comment that Ian "doesn't revere authority" made Tina think a lot. Her decision to let Ian hitch a ride on the ship was based on this consideration. In Tina's view, there was no need to force someone like Ian onto the path of piracy, nor did the Marines need to create more enemies for themselves.
So when estimating Ian's bounty, she deliberately kept it low. She didn't want Ian to develop ambition because of an inflated bounty estimate.
Ian was unaware of this mental activity. Just as he was about to drop the matter and chat with Tina to learn about the situation on Sabaody Archipelago, the lookout on the mast suddenly shouted.
"Captain Tina! There's something ahead!"
Tina stood up with a start and asked, "What is it? Pirates?"
"No... it doesn't seem like it!" The lookout raised his binoculars and observed, saying, "It looks like a shipwreck!"
Tina walked to the bow in confusion, with Ian and a group of Marine soldiers following. As the warship continued forward, the situation the lookout had described gradually unfolded before everyone's eyes.
The first thing they saw was a corpse drifting with the seawater!
The corpse was lying face down on a piece of broken ship plank, but its back had a long wound that had turned white from being soaked in seawater.
"It's a pirate!" Tina saw the tattoo pattern on the corpse's arm and was startled. "And it's someone from the Iron Bone Pirates!"
Tina had been sent out this time specifically to pursue the Iron Bone Pirates. Although the encirclement had failed, she had memorized the Iron Bone Pirates' emblem well, so she recognized it at a glance.
The Marine soldiers on the ship were also very surprised. They never expected that the Iron Bone Pirates they had been chasing would suddenly appear here.
The warship continued forward, and more and more corpses appeared, all without exception being members of the Iron Bone Pirates. When they arrived at the scene, everyone also saw a battered ship. The bottom of the ship was still intact, so it could float on the surface, but the entire hull seemed to have been blown away by a violent explosion, completely gone.
The members of the Iron Bone Pirates were scattered around, drifting slowly with the seawater.
"Investigate immediately!" Tina immediately commanded. "Check for survivors. If there are any, rescue them and question them to find out what happened! Also, look for Iron Bone Uing and see if he's here!"
The Marine soldiers immediately sprang into action, lowering small boats and rowing forward.
Tina turned around and asked Ian, "Could this have been done by your friend Ace?"
Ian shook his head and said, "Unlikely! First of all, we don't know if he took the same route as us after leaving. Even if he did, he wouldn't do something so cruel."
The Iron Bone Pirates members found here were almost all dead, and most of the wounds were from blades. This couldn't have been done by Ace.
As the Marine soldiers investigated, more and more strange situations emerged. Among the corpses they fished out, several actually looked like children!
But the strange thing was that although they looked like children, these corpses all had the Iron Bone Pirates' tattoos!
Just as Tina and Ian were looking at these corpses in confusion, trying to imagine what had happened, the Marine soldiers finally reported that they had found Iron Bone Uing's corpse!
The appearance of Iron Bone Uing's corpse meant that the Iron Bone Pirates had truly been annihilated. Tina carefully examined the wounds on Uing's body, and Ian also endured the nausea to watch, because the corpse's appearance was truly terrifying. His chest had a large hole in it, as if someone had fired a mortar shell against his chest.
"How is this possible? Tina is very puzzled!" Tina frowned. "Iron Bone Uing is a Bone-Bone Fruit user. He can freely control his body's bones, exposing them outside to form a layer of bone armor comparable to steel. Not even mortar shells, let alone warship cannons, could hurt him much. How could a close-range mortar shell have pierced through his chest?"
There were too many doubts. Iron Bone Uing's fatal wound gave the impression that he had no defense at all, as if someone had directly punched through him.
Ace's suspicion was indeed ruled out at this point, but the question remained: who was it that attacked the Iron Bone Pirates?
Ian was also deep in thought. The Iron Bone Pirates should have been very cunning. Tina had led her troops to Maze Island to encircle them but never encountered them. Instead, they appeared at this location, far away. This showed that the so-called activity near Whirlpool Island was definitely false information released by the Iron Bone Pirates. But man proposes, god disposes. Although the Iron Bone Pirates had evaded Tina's encirclement, they unfortunately encountered another enemy here, leading to their total annihilation.
But if he thought about it from another angle, what if the Iron Bone Pirates hadn't accidentally encountered an enemy but had been deliberately hunted down?
It wasn't unreasonable for Ian to think this way. In battles between pirates, it was usually not like this to kill everyone. They typically focused on robbing the other party's money, then killing their main executives, and then absorbing their subordinates to strengthen themselves. So the tragic state of the Iron Bone Pirates could only mean that they had a deep hatred with their enemy.
To hunt down the Iron Bone Pirates would require quite detailed intelligence, even comparable to the Marines, since even Tina, a headquarters captain, had been deceived.
However, what pirate could have intelligence capabilities comparable to the Marines? It was hard to say. Perhaps there were some, but pirates with such intelligence capabilities would rarely appear in the first half of the Grand Line, right?
Tina probably had similar thoughts to Ian, which was why she was so puzzled.
Just then, a Marine soldier suddenly ran over and said excitedly, "Captain Tina! We've finally found a clue! Look, we found this!"
The Marine soldier was holding a torn black cloth. He shook it open to show everyone and said, "We found this in the hand of an Iron Bone Pirates member. It seems he tore it from his opponent's clothes before being killed!"
Tina and Ian both looked up. When the black cloth was unfolded, there was a pattern on it: a skull pierced by a sharp sword.
This looked somewhat like the pirate flag of a certain pirate crew, but if interpreted according to the pattern's meaning, it seemed wrong. It seemed more like it meant killing pirates!
Tina looked at the pattern for a long time and came to the same conclusion as Ian, feeling that it didn't seem like the emblem of a pirate crew. After thinking for a moment, she stood up and said, "This matter, Tina must report to Headquarters! You all continue searching the scene!"
"Yes, sir!" The Marine soldiers responded with a salute and began working busily again.
Tina returned to the cabin. Ian looked around and found that many Marine soldiers were busy and no one was paying attention to him. He couldn't help but roll his eyes and quietly slipped into the cabin as well.
He planned to eavesdrop and see how Tina would report this matter to Headquarters.