Ace and Whitebeard's Battle

Facing Whitebeard's punch powered by the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, the Spade Pirates' three main fighters reacted instantly.

"Mirror Flame!"

"Unserved Ice Fang!"

"Earth Release—Earth Flow Wall!"

Ace's flames struck first. Faced with the enormous tsunami, they merely raised a burst of steam before fizzling out. After all, flames were naturally countered by seawater.

Next, the Cold Air Yamato exhaled froze the tsunami into ice, but she was not an Ice-Ice Fruit user like Kuzan who specialized in ice-based abilities. Though most of the tsunami was blocked, quite a few residual waves still surged toward them.

Finally came Yota's Earth Flow Wall. Empowered by the Chakra within him, which had nearly reached the peak of Kage level, the wall's scale expanded by more than tenfold, barely managing to block the incoming tsunami's aftermath.

As for the other Spade Pirates members, aside from shouting "awesome" from the sidelines, all they could do was stay far away to avoid being taken out by the aftershock.

"Gurararara! What a spirited bunch of rookies!" Whitebeard jumped down from the ship and slowly walked up to the three of them. Marco, Jinbe, and the rest of the crew followed behind Whitebeard.

"What should we do, Captain? I don't think we have much chance whether we fight one-on-one or all together. How about we just surrender?" Yota said to Ace in a joking tone.

"How could we possibly admit defeat just like that?" Ace smiled and said confidently, "I'll handle Whitebeard. You two just cover me."

Yota immediately nodded at those words. Covering him was great. At least he would not be beaten black and blue by the Whitebeard Pirates' commanders.

His strength was no weaker than that of an ordinary Whitebeard Pirates commander, but against figures like Phoenix Marco, Diamond Jozu, and Flower Sword Vista, he did not stand much chance of winning.

Besides, Whitebeard had brought seven or eight Squad Commanders this time. Yamato might be able to hold off Phoenix Marco, but if the rest charged together, they would definitely beat him black and blue.

Yamato, on the other hand, still wore an eager, excited expression. It was hard to say whether it was because she had seen the real Whitebeard Pirates from Oden's Journal, or because she could no longer suppress her desire to fight.

Of course, Ace had already spoken, and Yamato certainly would not go against his wishes. In the end, Ace was the only one who stepped forward.

Seeing Ace approach alone, Whitebeard's sons could worry about their Pops' condition all they wanted, but there was no way they could step forward alongside Whitebeard.

Given Whitebeard's pride, how could he possibly gang up on a younger Supernova with his own sons?

Moreover, although Whitebeard's condition had begun to deteriorate, it had not yet reached the terrible state it would be in two years later. Marco and the others still had complete confidence in Whitebeard.

Amid the tense atmosphere, nearly everyone focused their attention on Ace and Whitebeard. Only Yota's gaze drifted, seemingly unintentionally, toward the back of the Whitebeard Pirates, where a dark, fat man was eating cherry pie.

Yota hardly needed to watch Ace's battle with Whitebeard to know the outcome. Though Ace had grown somewhat stronger than in the original story, against Whitebeard, all it meant was that he could take a few more punches.

Sure enough, after exchanging a few words, Ace made the first move. Yet after only a few exchanges, he was already coughing up blood. In the eyes of the Whitebeard Pirates, Whitebeard had no idea what was going on and was holding back, not truly striking hard.

"Cough, cough, cough... Sacred Fire—Unknown Fire!"

Blazing flames erupted violently, but before Whitebeard, they felt like a gentle breeze brushing his face. The Conqueror's Haki wrapped around him trembled slightly, shattering the fierce flames into sparks.

Yota bared his teeth in surprise. Whitebeard's mastery of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit had truly reached an unbelievable level. Even the Conqueror's Haki attacks around his body carried a vibrating attribute. Unless an attack's force was concentrated, the instant it collided with him, it would be shaken apart.

With a casual punch, Whitebeard sent Ace flying another dozen meters. As Ace barely climbed back to his feet, a stunned expression appeared on his face.

"So this is one of the Four Emperors? He's monstrously strong!"

Seeing Ace's condition, Yamato was already struggling to hold herself back. Just as she prepared to step forward, Marco appeared in front of her.

Though Yota did not move, several other commanders turned their gazes toward him as well, clearly wary of him.

At that moment, Ace suddenly thrust out a hand and raised a wall of fire, separating the Spade Pirates from the others.

"Cough, cough... Yota, Yamato, take the Spade Pirates and leave first!"

"Ace!"

"Listen to me. Get out of here first!" Ace's expression was grave, but Yamato was stubborn by nature. How could he possibly persuade her?

Deuce was calmer instead. Gritting his teeth, he secretly told the remaining Spade Pirates, "Listen to me. We'll leave first. Once we get aboard our ship, we'll sneak around and attack the Moby Dick from behind!"

It had to be said that although Deuce was not much of a fighter, he was indeed quick-witted. If he had really pulled it off, the Whitebeard Pirates would have suffered some losses.

Unfortunately, in the One Piece World, individual strength was still supreme. Schemes only had some use when both sides were roughly equal in strength. If the gap was too large, no trick would matter.

Deuce led the remaining pirates toward another stretch of shore, while Yota sharply sensed that Blackbeard seemed to have started moving on the other side of the wall of fire.

"A good opportunity..."

It took Deuce and his group ten minutes to reach the shore, only to find Whitebeard Pirates members already waiting there to intercept them.

"Damn it, they anticipated this all along?" Deuce gritted his teeth. But seeing that the interceptors were merely ordinary Whitebeard Pirates grunts, with the strongest-looking one being nothing more than an ordinary dark, fat man, hope rose in his heart once more.

Then that ordinary dark, fat man and his group of grunts utterly destroyed them, knocking them all flat...

Anyone who could board Whitebeard's Moby Dick was no ordinary man. Even their grunts were elites among the Four Emperors' pirate crews. In the Marines, they could at least serve as commissioned officers at Headquarters, and in the Four Seas, they could earn bounties exceeding ten million. Their strength was not inferior to the Spade Pirates at all.

Of course, more importantly, that ordinary dark, fat man in Deuce's eyes was Blackbeard—the man who had once left a scar over Red Hair Shanks' eye!

Even if he had only left that scar on the younger Shanks, it was still no easy feat.

Though Blackbeard had not yet eaten the Dark-Dark Fruit, among Whitebeard's forty-six Squad Commanders, his combat strength could definitely rank in the top five.

To put it bluntly, even if Deuce's entire group joined forces, a serious Blackbeard could finish them off in one or two minutes.