Meanwhile—
"Hey! You bastard, how dare you destroy the glorious statue of me—the world's greatest and most noble man?! I will never forgive you! I'll kill you for this!"
Inside the Marine branch, Luffy had just smashed the statue of Branch Captain "Axe-Hand" Morgan with a single punch. Morgan, driven mad, roared at Luffy, Zoro, and Koby.
"Father, that's him! He's the one who hit me! I told you he was trouble—hurry up and kill him! Get revenge for me…!"
Morgan's son, Helmeppo, recognized Luffy as the culprit and saw an opportunity. He immediately pointed at Luffy and shrieked at the top of his lungs.
"Ah! There you are—!"
Unfortunately for Helmeppo, his scream did the exact opposite of saving him—it drew Luffy's full attention.
"Huh?! Hey, don't come any closer!"
Helmeppo started trembling, waving his hands desperately, but it was too late.
Luffy's eyes lit up, and with blinding speed, he charged at Helmeppo, single-handedly hoisted him up, and dashed into the interior of the Marine base.
At the same time, Luffy barked at Helmeppo, "Where did you hide Zoro's swords?! Tell me now!"
"Captain Morgan, it's bad!"
"The young master has been taken by pirates…!"
"They're inside our base!"
The Marine soldiers panicked and rushed to report the chaos to Morgan.
"You don't need to tell me—I can see for myself!"
But Morgan was as cool as ever, utterly unconcerned that his only son was in pirate hands. "Don't bother worrying about that brat's life! I'm the great one here, not him! Just wipe out that Straw Hat kid's friends. I want him to know what happens to anyone who defies the great Captain Morgan!"
"Yes, sir!"
At Morgan's command, the Marines aimed their rifles at Zoro and Koby, who was still struggling to untie the ropes on the crucifix.
"Damn it! Why is this rope so tight?!"
Koby pulled and pulled, but the more he struggled, the tighter it got. He just couldn't free Zoro.
Zoro, staring down a dozen gun barrels, barked at Koby, "Run! If you don't run now, it'll be too late—you'll die here!"
But inside, Zoro was cursing his luck: "Am I really going to die here? No—I still have a promise to Kuina. I can't die yet!"
A quick flashback of Zoro's vow to Kuina flickered through his mind.
Bang!
The rifles all fired at once.
Whoosh!
Just as Koby and Zoro caught a glimpse of death, a thin wall of water suddenly appeared in front of them, blocking every bullet.
"What the…?"
Zoro, Morgan, and all the Marines froze in disbelief.
Koby, on the verge of wetting himself, breathed a sigh of relief. Tears welled up in his eyes as he gasped, "We're saved! Eden-san!"
"Hey, Koby—and you, the green-haired guy playing bondage games—need a hand?"
At that moment, Eden strolled in through the shattered gate, hands in his pockets, Nami and Happy following at a leisurely pace.
"Hey! Where did Luffy run off to?"
"And seriously, you guys are killing me! Barely half an hour apart, and you're already storming a Marine base?"
"Who gave you this much courage?"
Nami facepalmed at the chaos, utterly exasperated. "Honestly, can you please stop causing trouble for five minutes?!"
"Miss Nami, I'm so sorry! We only meant to rescue Zoro, we didn't mean for all this to happen!"
Koby bowed deeply in apology.
"Who said you could ignore me?"
During Koby and Nami's conversation, Morgan, feeling thoroughly disrespected, snatched a rifle from a subordinate and started shooting at Eden.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Bullets whizzed toward Eden at high speed.
Ding!
Eden casually flicked them aside with one hand.
"A Devil Fruit user, huh? I didn't expect to find someone who can control water… but you're no match for the great Morgan!"
Morgan tossed the gun and charged, swinging his massive axe-arm at Eden.
"Yap yap yap…"
Eden yawned and raised his own fist to meet Morgan head-on.
"That guy's finished! No one's ever blocked Captain Morgan's axe!"
The Marines looked at Eden with pity, already picturing him getting diced to pieces.
"Poseidon's Dragon: Collapse Fist!"
Eden, cool as ever, unleashed his Dragon Slayer magic.
BOOM!
The moment Eden's fist and Morgan's axe collided, something unexpected happened…
Morgan grinned at first. "Fool! My axe can split stone—!"
Crack… crack…
But then, to his horror, he heard the sound of metal shattering. His supposedly invincible axe-arm was fracturing all over.
"No way! This can't be happening!"
Morgan's eyes bulged in shock. But before he could even process it, the full force of Eden's punch exploded through him. The power ripped through Morgan's insides, sent him spewing blood, and launched him like a rocket straight into the sky.
"Aaaaahhhhh!"
All the Marines gawked in shock. Even Zoro, still tied up, stared wide-eyed: "Who IS this guy?!"
"You—you're…!"
"That's the 'Sea Emperor' Eden! He took down the Fish-Man Pirates, beat Arlong—the one with a 30-million berry bounty on his first wanted poster!"
One of the Marines trembled as he held up the latest bounty flyer, comparing Eden's face to the photo.
"What?! A 30-million berry pirate?!"
Everyone's jaw dropped. For the East Blue, a 30-million bounty was legendary.