Ten thousand meters above the ground.
A figure darted continuously through layers of dark clouds, stirring the entire sky with both hands.
Boom!
Massive amounts of mist and cloud were created out of thin air by the figure.
Under the figure's supersonic speed, the heavy cloud layers were swept into an enormous black mass.
At an altitude of ten thousand meters, the clouds were continuously piling up.
When the heavy dark clouds slowly began to descend under their own weight.
That figure continued to streak through them.
Droplets began to squeeze out from within the dark cloud mass whose balance had been broken.
And as those droplets gathered and fell from the uppermost layer of the dark clouds.
The cold air at an altitude of ten thousand meters froze those condensed masses of water into enormous hailstones the moment they left the cloud layer.
The dark clouds were constantly being consumed in the sky, while that figure continuously created more clouds.
From afar, it looked as though a natural disaster was descending upon this place.
Yet the figure constantly leaping through the sky seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself.
Artificial rain and hail were being created in the sky.
Meanwhile, directly beneath those dark clouds, the Krol Kingdom was suffering an unprecedented disaster.
Hailstones the size of watermelons, or even water vats, were no less devastating than meteors falling from the sky under the acceleration of gravity.
Pirates who had been lively just moments ago could be smashed into pulp by falling hailstones in the next instant.
The entire Krol Kingdom was now shrouded in a rain of hail.
Before a natural disaster, pirates and civilians alike were all equal.
Of course, the ones mainly struck by the hail were the pirates.
Among the civilians of the Krol Kingdom, all the brave ones had already been slaughtered during Patches's attack.
As for those cowardly, death-fearing wretches, with pirates from elsewhere continuously pouring into the country in recent days.
They had either joined pirate crews and aided their evil deeds, or been captured and abused by the pirates.
In any case, this former World Government member nation was now populated primarily by pirates.
"S-Save me!
I don't want to die yet.
Urgh, can someone help move this doorpost off me?"
A pirate had been pinned beneath a collapsed house.
His former companions, who were running everywhere in search of cover, turned a deaf ear to his pleas for help.
Before life and death, everyone was equal. No matter how loudly they usually proclaimed brotherhood and loyalty.
When truly faced with such a deadly natural disaster, who wasn't only looking out for themselves?
The hailstones in the sky grew larger and larger. At first they were only apple-sized, then they became watermelon-sized, then as large as water vats, and now some were even comparable to carriages.
This unprecedented natural disaster filled everyone with despair. Yet in the eyes of the tormented civilians, there was a trace of relieved liberation.
Countless hailstones relentlessly battered the land of the Krol Kingdom through the night.
The pirates who were usually vicious and arrogant now let out miserable screams one after another.
This was an exterminating slaughter without gunpowder or flames.
Tonight was destined to be a long, cold, bloody night.
If the past few days had been hell for the citizens of the Krol Kingdom, then tonight, that hell had descended upon the pirates.
"Dammit, what the hell is going on? Why are these hailstones so huge?!"
Standing atop the palace that had been smashed into ruins by hail.
Patches looked grimly at the hellish scene before him.
His subordinates, who had been as fierce as wolves and tigers just moments earlier, had almost instantly been smashed into pools of bloody mush.
Cries for help and agonized screams filled the entire kingdom.
As massive amounts of hail continued to fall.
Patches's heart grew as cold as the temperature.
Just moments ago, he had felt that he stood at the peak of his life, but this hailstorm had shattered his arrogant dreams into pieces.
His once fiercely loyal subordinates were now desperately begging for help beneath the hail.
Even those so-called key members who had only recently joined him were in a miserable state under this disaster.
The hail in the sky showed every sign of falling harder and harder.
Realizing something was wrong, Patches clutched his aching chest and began shouting, calling for all his subordinates to prepare to retreat and flee.
A natural disaster of this magnitude was not something humans could withstand.
Although Patches was powerful enough to be safe here, if his subordinates remained, they would undoubtedly be wiped out.
He reluctantly glanced at the palace destroyed by hail, as well as the beauties buried beneath it.
The core members of the Black Eagle Pirates braved the falling hail and quickly gathered around Patches.
An eagle's cry rang out through the dark night.
Patches, who had originally stood two meters tall, suddenly expanded in size and transformed into a black eagle circling above the palace.
Zoan Devil Fruit users naturally possessed powerful bodies.
Wings as hard as iron collided with the hailstones falling from the sky.
At that moment, beneath those wings seemed to be the pirates' only shelter.
The surviving pirates all fled beneath Patches's protection.
Ten thousand meters above the ground, through the Echo Map.
Roy could roughly judge part of the situation below.
Within the massive dark cloud mass, a hailstone even larger than an ordinary warship was continuously condensing as Roy held it aloft.
"Oh, you're trying to run after only this much? You clueless fools should obediently stay here and be smashed to death by hail!"
Roy aimed the gigantic hailstone and blasted it straight down.
"Everyone, hurry up and keep up! We're almost at the harbor! Once we reach the coast, these hailstones won't threaten us anymore!"
The bedraggled pirates had lost all the arrogance they had displayed moments ago.
They were now nothing more than a pack of beaten dogs barely struggling to survive under the hailstorm, relying on their captain.
"R-Rode, look! What is that?"
Among the running pirates, one pointed at the sky and called out to his companion in a trembling voice.
With his mouth wide open as he repeatedly swallowed, he could not believe his eyes.
"H-How can there be such a huge hailstone?"
A hailstone larger than a ship—no, a miniature iceberg.
Was falling from the sky, directly toward the pirates overhead.
The acceleration of gravity gave the iceberg nearly unstoppable power.
And even more deadly, this iceberg was not the only one.
Flying through the air, Patches could see from an eagle's perspective that it was not one iceberg at all—it was clearly ten!
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