"Is he dead?"
"That scared me to death. I thought I was about to die."
"Is the Tsar all right?"
"What exactly is Marshall D. Teach's ability? How could it cause an explosion?"
"Has anyone noticed how sturdy Gold City is? An explosion like that only left a few cracks."
The stinging smell of gunpowder slowly faded, leaving many people inside Gold City shaken.
If those monsters hadn't blocked the blast just now, they would probably have been killed.
"Something's off."
In the Navy's ranks, Tsuru surveyed the surroundings.
The ground and buildings were all made of gold. There might be a little greenery here and there, but under normal circumstances, even with them blocking the shock waves, an explosion like that would have left a crater tens of thousands of meters across.
Yet, strangely, the blast had only destroyed some greenery. The golden ground and buildings had barely been touched; they were absurdly sturdy.
This was a battle between Four Emperors. It made no sense that they couldn't even damage the battlefield!
Many people had noticed the same thing.
They just couldn't figure out why.
"Is that all a Four Emperor can do?"
A voice full of contempt rang out from the gunpowder haze.
A cloud of sand gathered into a human shape.
Crocodile still had a cigar between his lips, his fur coat billowing behind him.
His slicked-back hair remained perfectly neat, not a strand out of place.
"Zehahaha~"
Though Blackbeard was laughing, his expression was unusually grim.
Rage filled his chest.
In full view of everyone, he had been humiliated.
This was going to be a fight to the death.
"Dark Water."
Blackness engulfed his entire right arm. Blackbeard grimaced as he reached for Crocodile, while his left arm and half his body were enveloped in gunpowder