Chapter 20: The Doomed Fate and Future
The ships anchored along the coastline were sunk one after another, seven in total. The Big Mom Pirates naturally sensed something was wrong, but these vessels couldn't move far from the shore. If they sailed away, the Big Mom Pirates members on the island would become isolated forces. If they didn't move away, all these ships would eventually be sunk. For a moment, they were caught in a dilemma.
Su Xiao loaded five bullets into the Duke of Annihilation's chamber one after another. This opportunity was rare; once he started sinking ships, the Big Mom Pirates would discover him and devise countermeasures.
By the time Su Xiao sank the twelfth ship, many of the Big Mom Pirates' vessels began to gather behind the giant rocks along the coast. They noticed that not a single ship behind those rocks had been attacked.
When the last pirate ship disappeared from Su Xiao's sight, there were already fifteen shell casings on the ground beneath his feet. He had sunk fourteen ships in total, with one missed shot.
The Big Mom Pirates' fleet was completely bewildered by the bombardment, but they had no idea who was attacking them. The distance of four kilometers was simply too far; even the gunshots couldn't travel that far, effectively providing a built-in silencer effect.
More and more Biscuit Soldiers appeared on the port, growing from dozens initially to hundreds. They feared no death, or rather, they weren't living beings at all.
Dressrosa had seven landing points. Before the battle began, the Don Quixote Family had numbered these landing points from 1 to 7.
Landing points 1 through 5 were each guarded by a Don Quixote Family executive. The location where Doflamingo and Katakuri clashed was at landing point 6. Landing point 7 was the one being assaulted by the Biscuit Soldiers.
Landing points 1 through 6 wouldn't be breached in the short term, but landing point 7 was already in critical danger. In this area, the Don Quixote Family pirates had suffered at least 40% casualties. If this weren't Dressrosa, the pirates at landing point 7 would have already fled. Those Biscuit Soldiers were like a group of small-scale Gundams specialized in close combat; ordinary pirates simply couldn't destroy them. Even Pica needed over half a minute to destroy one.
If landing point 7 were breached, it could easily lead to the other landing points being caught in a pincer attack.
Su Xiao still hadn't found where Charlotte Cracker was hiding, but he had discovered the source of the Biscuit Soldiers. Based on his observations, all these Biscuit Soldiers originated from behind a large rock.
Su Xiao immediately contacted Bubu Wang. Blending into the environment, Bubu Wang leaped across the giant rocks along the shore and quickly reached the designated position.
On a nearly ten-meter-tall rock, Bubu Wang crouched down and looked toward the side near the coast. A man with purple hair and a scar over his eye came into view—this was indeed Charlotte Cracker.
Charlotte Cracker sat cross-legged on a beach chair, just in the shade beneath the giant rock. Several pirates were beside him.
Clap, clap, clap...
Charlotte Cracker clapped his hands, and dozens of biscuits appeared around him. These floating biscuits gathered together and, after initial shaping, formed Biscuit Soldiers one after another.
These Biscuit Soldiers emerged from behind the rock and quickly charged toward the battlefield.
Seeing this, Bubu Wang's eyes were full of wonder. He jumped down from the rock and sat crouched a few meters away from Charlotte Cracker.
Charlotte Cracker yawned, completely oblivious to Bubu Wang. Yes, Bubu Wang's ability was just that unstoppable, even if his frontal combat capability wasn't great.
Bubu Wang took out a measuring tape from the team storage space. This rascal actually started measuring the distance between Cracker and that rock.
After a long while, Bubu Wang nodded in satisfaction and even shot a glare at Cracker. In Bubu Wang's peculiar train of thought, he wasn't backing down; before leaving, he even glared at Cracker, one of the Four Commanders.
Bubu Wang leaped back onto the rock, moving nimbly. He reached the other side of the rock, which was already at the edge of the battlefield.
Inside the battlefield, Bubu Wang moved as if strolling through his own backyard. He took out a marker pen and began doodling on the rock.
A moment later, Bubu Wang drew a red circle on the rock and used a thermal imaging device to calibrate it.
The red circle Bubu Wang had drawn corresponded to the horizontal position of Cracker's head. Su Xiao naturally couldn't aim directly at that red circle; if he fired at it, the bullet would bury itself in the sand beneath Cracker's feet.
Su Xiao began adjusting the shooting angle, fine-tuning it down to the micrometer. Meanwhile, Bubu Wang jumped onto another giant rock to observe whether Cracker had moved.
Soon, Su Xiao locked onto Cracker's position through the giant rock, while Cracker remained completely unaware.
The distance between them exceeded four kilometers and was separated by a giant rock. Unless Cracker had Observation Haki on the level of his older brother, he wouldn't sense anything.
A premonition? A feeling of dread? Impossible. The initial shooting distance was too far. Even if Su Xiao were attacked from such a distance, he could only rely on his instinct ability to detect it when the attack closed to within seven meters.
Click, click, click...
Su Xiao turned the metal wheel on the Duke of Annihilation, raising the crosshairs by micrometer increments.
On the distant giant rock, Bubu Wang suddenly stood upright, pointing both front paws toward the side rock, indicating that Cracker hadn't moved.
Su Xiao took a deep breath, his heartbeat slowing more and more. A human head was only so big, so the error for this shot couldn't exceed five centimeters.
His finger slowly squeezed the trigger. When he pulled it, his heart nearly stopped beating. The heartbeat would cause slight tremors in his body, which would deviate the trajectory by more than half a meter.
Boom!
The hydraulic buffer device beneath the Duke of Annihilation absorbed the recoil as the bullet left the chamber.
Just as the bullet exited the barrel, Cracker behind the rock raised both hands, preparing to clap.
"Let's end this boring war quickly. A mere sea scum dares to defy Mama's will..."
Before Cracker could finish his words, he heard a loud bang beside his ear as large pieces of rubble flew toward him.
Amid the rubble, a bullet whistled through, heading straight for the back of Cracker's head.
With a crackling sound, fragments of purple hair scattered, and pieces of blood-stained skull bone bounced up.
"Ah!!"
Cracker let out a hysterical scream. Unlike 99% of strong individuals, he hated pain intensely. He even resisted getting injections. In other words, he was afraid of pain.
The beach chair beneath Cracker flew several meters away as he himself tilted sideways, falling toward the sand.
With a thud, Cracker crashed onto the beach. He wasn't shot through the head, but the skull at the back of his head had been shattered by the bullet.
Cracker lay face down on the sand, his body trembling slightly. The powerful impact of the bullet had damaged part of his brain. In fact, his brain was now exposed to the air.
Inside the fourth floor of the villa, Su Xiao quickly pulled the bolt. As a shell casing flew up, he pulled the trigger again.
Swoosh~
After a terrifying whistle, a bullet struck the sand beside Cracker, blasting open a three-meter-wide crater.
The second shot missed. Su Xiao pulled the bolt again, aimed for less than a second, and pulled the trigger once more.
Another whistle sounded as the bullet embedded itself one meter from Cracker's side. The powerful impact pushed Cracker half a meter sideways.
The distance was too great. At this range, sniping a ship and sniping a person were entirely different concepts.
The Duke of Annihilation had a capacity of five rounds, with only two bullets left in the chamber.
Su Xiao fired the fourth shot without hesitation. The bullet flew straight toward Cracker. With a swoosh, a blur rushed in front of Cracker.
Boom!
Sand surged high as a pitch-black wall appeared in front of Cracker. A thumb-sized hole was blasted through the wall.
This wall altered the bullet's trajectory. Its appearance wasn't a coincidence but an inevitability. Someone who could foresee the future had arrived. As a blood relative on the same battlefield, this terrifying individual could naturally foresee his younger brother Cracker's impending death.
Cracker lay on the beach, twitching occasionally. It seemed he was struggling to get up. He had been ambushed, and even now, he didn't know who had set him up.
A sound of tearing air came from afar—Doflamingo, arriving through the sky.