At the back entrance of the Human Auctioning House.
Two armed guards lay motionless on the ground, their breastplates deeply dented inward, making it clear they wouldn't survive.
The once-sturdy wooden door that had been set into the frame was now nowhere to be seen. In its place was a gaping hole, as if blasted open by a cannonball.
Standing before the hole were Maude and Lafitte.
The loud explosion just moments ago was their handiwork.
From where they stood, they could clearly hear the commotion and shouts coming from within the auction house.
This kind of forceful entry would undoubtedly attract the full attention of the auction house's security forces in a short amount of time.
"Lafitte, let's wrap this up quickly."
Maude stepped over the scattered debris and into the auction house.
"Understood."
Lafitte gave a chilling smile and followed closely behind.
The two of them strode forward, one after the other.
Before they had taken more than a few steps, nearly a hundred guards arrived to block their way.
These guards were fully armed, wielding high-quality weapons.
After all, this was the most prestigious slave auction house on Sabaody Archipelago, with the financial resources to maintain a well-equipped private security force.
"It's just the two of them, yet they dare to do something like this?!"
The armed personnel, upon arriving on the scene, immediately noticed the shattered back entrance, their expressions changing.
"Huh!? That's...!"
"It's—it's Warlord Maude!"
The moment they recognized Maude, the previously enraged guards were struck silent, as if their throats had been seized.
A beat later, their expressions turned to pure shock and fear.
Warlord Maude…!
A storm-bringer of recent times, and on Sabaody Archipelago, second only to the Celestial Dragons in terms of untouchability.
But why was he here?
A chilling sensation spread through the guards as they grappled with their growing fear.
Inside the nearby slave cages.
The slaves, awaiting their turn to be auctioned off, raised their heads, looking toward the confrontation between Maude, Lafitte, and the auction house's security force.
"That really is Warlord Maude… What's someone like him doing in a place like this?"
Most of the captives were familiar with Maude's name.
Among them, a pirate captain named Billy, who had been thrown into the cage last, suddenly stood up and gripped the iron bars, his eyes widening as he gazed at the distant figure.
"If—if the shockwaves from their battle could just break these bars…"
The sheer force of Maude's entrance sparked a small glimmer of hope in Billy's heart.
"Stop dreaming."
A hoarse, cold voice came from behind him.
The speaker was another pirate captain, also recently captured, named Ozym. He had a bounty of sixty million berries.
Billy turned to glare at Ozym, eyes full of hostility.
But a pirate worth sixty million wasn't easily intimidated. With a sneer, Ozym casually tapped the collar around his neck with his finger.
"The thing that truly imprisons us isn't these cages or the shackles on our limbs. It's this. Get it, you idiot?"
"..."
Hearing Ozym's words, Billy snapped back to reality and sank to the ground in despair.
Around them, the other captives bore similarly grim expressions.
Just as Ozym had said, the real chains binding them were the slave collars around their necks.
Even if the cages and shackles were removed, they had no way to escape this hell.
Back in the Auction Hall.
The mention of Maude's name had sapped the confidence of the security force.
Though they should have attacked on sight, they stood motionless like wooden puppets, clearly paralyzed with fear.
A few guards with stronger nerves began to regain their composure.
"Bacardi Maude, this place belongs to Lord Doflamingo. Even you can't just—ugh!"
Schlick—!
Lafitte moved in an instant, his sword cane flashing.
The blade pierced straight through the throat of the guard who had spoken, cutting his words off mid-sentence.
"Guh…!"
The man's eyes widened in shock as he found himself face-to-face with Lafitte, powerless to do anything.
With an eerie grin, Lafitte twisted the blade free, a crimson flower blooming in the air.
The guard collapsed lifelessly to the ground.
"This is Doflamingo's territory?"
Maude walked forward, his expression calm. "And what of it?"
"..."
"..."
The remaining guards felt their blood run cold.
Lafitte glanced back at Maude, who was striding forward at a steady pace.
"Shall I take care of them?"
"We do it together. Finish within ten seconds."
Maude's gaze remained fixed on the group of guards, yet his footsteps carried him directly toward the cages.
Lafitte smirked wordlessly before swinging his blade toward the nearest guard.
Ten seconds to finish us?!
The armed guards felt humiliated beyond measure.
They numbered over a hundred!
"Kill them!"
With nowhere to retreat, the guards roared and charged.
Lafitte, being closer, was the first to be surrounded.
Yet with a few swift slashes, several corpses already lay at his feet.
The expensive, custom-made armor—crafted at great cost—was useless against Haki-infused attacks.
On the other side, dozens of guards armed with swords and spears rushed at Maude.
Maude remained unfazed, not slowing his pace.
As he walked, the shadow beneath him suddenly rippled and swelled, forming into long, black tendrils that writhed like the tails of a beast.
"What the hell is that?!"
The guards recoiled at the sight of the ominous black appendages sprouting from Maude's shadow.
Maude quickened his steps, and in an instant, the writhing tendrils lashed out like arrows, piercing through the chests of the leading guards.
The first wave of attackers didn't even have time to react before they were skewered and flung aside like trash.
In mere moments, nine men lay dead.
As Maude continued walking, the tendrils lashed out again, impaling the rest of the charging guards like a row of candied skewers.
In just three seconds, over fifty heavily armed men had been slaughtered, each left with fatal wounds.
Their dying screams echoed throughout the auction house.
As the tendrils retracted, Maude stepped past the writhing bodies, his focus solely on the cages ahead.
Inside the cages, all the captives—including the pirate captains—stared at Maude in stunned silence.
The sheer ease with which he had slaughtered the guards was forever etched into their minds.
"So strong… This is a Warlord…"
Several pirate captains shuddered at the realization.
Against such a monster, sheer numbers meant nothing.
"He's terrifying…"
A few of the female slaves trembled in fear.
They were mere dancers, never having witnessed such carnage before.
"He's coming this way!"
The captives soon realized Maude was walking straight toward them.
Terror gripped their hearts.
If even the armored brutes couldn't survive, what chance did they have?
"Could he be… here to save us?"
A female slave whispered hesitantly.
Silence fell over the cage.
Was that even possible?
Yet despite their doubts, a flicker of hope ignited within them.
The pirate captains, however, felt only unease.
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