Chapter 1062: A Pirate-Style Buster Call

Chapter 1062: Chapter 1062: A Pirate-Style Buster Call

"The captain is here!"

"That’s great! It’s Captain Dulmon!"

"Captain Dulmon is definitely going to take down that cracker bastard!"

"..."

Waves of cheers erupted from within the ranks of the Baca Pirates.

As the crowd parted, a tall, slender middle-aged man stepped forward. He had short black hair, a cigar clamped between his teeth, and a dark green captain’s coat embroidered with gold thread draped over his shoulders. Beneath it, he wore a black suit jacket, matching trousers, and a crisp white shirt, finished with pointed black leather shoes, giving off the distinct aura of a mafia boss mixed with a seasoned pirate.

"Hey, Cracker, picking on my subordinates? Where’s your pride as a commander?"

Dulmon exhaled a lazy ring of smoke, speaking with casual annoyance. Clearly, he was far from uninformed about Cracker’s background.

Just as a giant hand formed from deep, viscous green acid completely dissolved a biscuit soldier, it automatically liquefied once more, rapidly flowing back through the air to merge right back into Dulmon’s body.

"You acid-spewing bastard! Mama should have hunted you down all those years ago and finished you off for good!"

Cracker’s voice rang out, laced with grinding teeth. One of the nearby biscuit soldiers stepped forward, radiating a terrifying pressure as it glared viciously at Dulmon.

Hearing Cracker’s words, Dulmon’s expression darkened. His mind drifted back over a decade to when he was barely twenty years old and had formed a grand fleet numbering over ten thousand men. His renown at the time was second to none, rivaling even the legendary Gecko Moria of the West Blue, a source of immense pride for him.

However, he had watched the entire battle when Gecko Moria challenged Kaido of the Beasts. He could never have imagined that such a terrifying monster could exist in this world, utterly annihilating Moria’s massive pirate fleet single-handedly.

Having truly witnessed the pinnacle of worldly power, he had no choice but to temporarily shelve his ambitions of challenging a Yonko.

It wasn’t until six years ago, believing his strength had grown immensely after years of lying low, that he made his move once more. First, he completely wiped out five warships belonging to the Marines’ G-5 base, defeating a Vice Admiral in the process, before finally challenging Big Mom, another of the Yonko.

That battle served as yet another brutal reality check. Facing Big Mom, who commanded the very weather itself, and her formidable Sweet Commanders, Dulmon and his officers stood no chance. The Baca Pirates’ grand fleet of over ten thousand men had two-thirds of its fighting force dismantled in less than three hours, and their flagship was swallowed whole by the fierce storms summoned by Big Mom and plunged into the sea.

Truth be told, if Big Mom hadn’t grown bored and couldn’t be bothered to pursue them further, Dulmon would never have escaped with his life.

That battle left the Baca Pirates severely battered. The vice-captain who had walked through the gates of hell with him for years died at the hands of Katakuri, alongside more than a dozen officers and combatants. Their forces were reduced to a fraction of their former glory, and they were only narrowly saved from being entirely wiped out by an arriving Marine fleet.

He never expected that, six years later, the terrifying Big Mom would actually fall at the hands of a younger generation, finally affording him a shot at vengeance.

"Cut the chatter. Big Mom is dead, and there’s no one left who can stop me!" Rage boiled within Dulmon as an overwhelming aura surged from him, seemingly draining the world of its color until only black and white remained.

Thump, thump, thump...

Instantly, members of the Big Mom Pirates rolled their eyes and collapsed unconscious onto the ground one after another.

"C-Conqueror’s Haki...!"

Someone shrieked in horror.

"Tch. There are way too many ’kings’ on this ocean!" Cracker’s expression shifted slightly as he muttered, "Though, even more of those ’kings’ end up dead!"

"Pretzel Roll!!!"

In a flash, Cracker sprinted forward, the blade of his giant sword spinning at high speeds and whipping up spiral-shaped sword aura as he lunged fiercely toward Dulmon.

"Acid Swamp!!!"

Dulmon slammed one hand against the ground, instantly transforming the earth beneath them into a pool of green acid that rapidly expanded outward. In the blink of an eye, the ground within a radius of dozens of meters turned into a bubbling, acidic quagmire, hissing with oppressive heat.

Cracker was moving too fast to check his momentum, plunging one foot straight into the green acid swamp and stumbling forward several steps before managing to stop. The intensely corrosive acid immediately began eating away at his boots.

"Devil Fruit Awakening?!"

Cracker stared in shock at the ground beneath his feet, which was rapidly liquefying into a vast pool of acid.

"Katakuri, Caesar, Doflamingo, and Tesoro, they’re all awakened, so what’s one more to me!"

Dulmon let out a roar, extending his arms forward before clapping them together with tremendous force as his fingers interlocked.

"Evil God’s Grip!!!"

The next moment, two streams of acid surged upward, rapidly transforming into a pair of green, viscous giant hands that slammed inward toward Cracker trapped in the middle.

Boom—!

A heavy, muffled shockwave echoed through the air as a visible ring of compressed air burst outward. Cracker’s biscuit body was instantly engulfed by a massive wave of green acid, hissing loudly as it corroded his form.

"Damn you!"

Suddenly, an angry shout rang out. Cracker’s biscuit shell exploded violently, sending countless shards of biscuit and splashing acid flying in all directions as a single figure vaulted out from the center, landing cleanly on the outer street.

"Is this your true form? You were actually hiding inside all along!" Dulmon stared in astonishment at the figure nearly a hundred meters away.

"Is... is that really Cracker?"

"H-His Excellency Cracker?!"

"That massive body was just a shell!"

Right then, members of both the Big Mom Pirates and the Baca Pirates stared at Cracker in stunned disbelief, realizing for the first time that this was the true body of Thousand-Arm Cracker.

"Damn it! You wrecked my toy again!" Cracker glared furiously at Dulmon. Were his works of art really this easy to break?

First, it was smashed to pieces by Golden Ring Aeridar in Whole Cake Island; then, it was hacked to ruins by Oliver in the Fernal Archipelago; and now, it had been dissolved by Dulmon’s acid! Since when did his peerless defensive biscuit armor become such worthless junk?!

"Captain! Captain Dulmon!"

Abruptly, a terrified pirate came sprinting back from outside the town, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"What is it?"

Dulmon asked, displeased.

"C-Captain Dulmon, the Chris Pirates’ fleet is heading right toward us!" The pirate gasped for breath, pointing frantically out toward the open sea.

"Nani?!"

Dulmon was taken aback.

Cracker drew in a sharp breath.

Both factions present wore expressions of utter horror.

"A full ten wolf-prowed warships... they’re already less than a nautical mile away!" the pirate stammered, his face pale with terror.

Rumble, rumble—

Before either side could react, a low, rumbling thunder echoed faintly from the direction of the sea.

"Bombardment!!!"

Someone pointed frantically toward the sky, letting out a piercing shriek.

Boom-boom-boom-boom—boom-boom-boom-boom—

Countless streaks of fire gradually filled the sky, plunging downward into the town at breakneck speed. They triggered a chain of terrifying, violent explosions, tossing scores of people into the air like broken ragdolls on the shockwaves. By the time they hit the ground, there was nothing left of them but mangled corpses.

Wave after wave of cannonballs rained down relentlessly. The earth trembled violently, sending shockwaves rolling through the streets and launching showers of shattered stone into the air. In the span of a breath, the town transformed into a roaring sea of fire, taking on the terrifying appearance of a living purgatory.

"Damn it!"

Feeling the sheer intensity of the bombardment, Dulmon glared at the burning ruins surrounding him and roared angrily, "Are those bastards trying to mimic the Marines’ Buster Call and wipe this entire island off the map?!"