Flower-Fruit Mountain

There are still some days before the wedding ceremony between the Night Pirates and the Big Mom Pirates takes place.

The world's attention briefly focused on the northeastern side of the Beasts Sea, where the clash Beasts Pirates and the Navy had begun.

The mighty fleet, in its very first battle, mobilized 30,000 elite naval warriors.

Faced with the Beasts Pirates' formidable defenses, they knew that spreading their forces to attack would be futile.

Only by concentrating our strength and unleashing even greater power can we break through the Beasts Pirates' defenses.

The strong decide the course of a war. The Navy had also planned to use Novoya and Vergo, two highly mobile members, to launch surprise attacks on the Beasts Pirates' rear or other defensive lines.

Unless a strong opponent stands in their way, a solid defense is utterly useless to them.

But they soon gave up; having strong individuals was not enough, they also needed military strength.

The Beasts Pirates' Sea Mine had already cost them two warships before the war even began.

With a network of Sea Mine, their subsequent forces simply cannot break through.

Moreover, they possess highly mobile and powerful individuals, just as the Beasts Pirates do, such as King the Conflagration, who is even stronger and can also launch surprise attacks on their rear.

Therefore, they ruled out this mutually destructive plan and opted to wear each other down through direct naval warfare.

At this point, ordinary strategies are useless, and they don't even have the home-field advantage.

The Beasts Pirates' defensive capabilities were virtually unbeatable. They possessed suppressive firepower from a distance, Wano Country suffered a major defeat, being driven back and forced to flee in disarray without even touching the walls of the Beasts Pirates' fortress.

The World Government's objective for the Navy is to inflict significant damage and pain on the Beasts Pirates, thereby establishing the World Government's authority.

The Marine Headquarters, however, did not intend to do so. The Navy had not recovered much from the enormous losses inflicted in the war six months prior. Although they had agreed to the World Government's request, they did not want to suffer too many casualties.

Of course, they were prepared for losses, but they wanted to keep them within their expectations.

This is a rather difficult task. No matter what, we must inflict significant casualties on the Beasts Pirates, otherwise we will fail to deter the pirates, and they will become even more rampant, putting future Heavenly Gold at risk of problems.

Even the navy could not tolerate this situation.

This requires the planning of generals like Sakazuki and his staff on how to achieve greater results with minimal losses.

After several days, the navy finally cleared most of the Sea Mine hidden in the designated battlefield.

By mounting a fork-like tool on the warship, the Sea Mine would be hooked onto it while the ship is moving, causing them to explode prematurely and triggering a chain reaction. Due to the ship's length, the explosion of the Sea Mine would not affect the warship itself.

This eliminated most of the Sea Mine.

For a small number of mines, the navy also has countermeasures, such as adding several layers of steel plates to the bottom of the warships to protect them from Sea Mine.

As the warship moved, it would occasionally shudder, and a muffled sound would come from below—the sound of Sea Mine exploding.

However, it has little effect on reinforced naval warships unless there are multiple explosions in the same location.

The Beasts Pirates solved the Sea Mine they had created with such a simple method, opening up a path.

One has to admire the navy's wisdom; this method seems simple, but few people could have come up with it.

"Say hello!"

"Irregular Volcano!"

On the approaching warship, the cloak of justice fluttered in the wind, and Admiral Akainu's eyes were fixed on the Steel Fortress on the distant island.

This was unavoidable; they couldn't bypass the islands. The Beasts Pirates' defenses consisted of a network of Sea Mine laid between the islands. While the Sea Mine could be cleared, they weren't ineffective.

Continuing onward would be too much for even naval warships to handle.

Sakazuki's upper body turned into lava, and he raised his arms, unleashing a series of lava fists that shot into the sky, turning the entire sky red before falling like meteors.

The target of the crash was the island ahead.

Sakazuki's Meteor Volcano, his signature attack, threw the Beasts Pirates into disarray.

"Oh ho ho ho ho, is this little firework meant to tickle me?" Kaido had already transformed into his dragon form, laughed loudly, completely ignoring Sakazuki's Meteor Volcano.

But he needed to intervene, otherwise these Magma Fist would cause great damage to their Steel Fortress. Even ordinary pirates would find it difficult to withstand them. If they were hit by the Magma Fist, even those with Armament Haki would be severely injured or killed if they were weaker.

"Storm Tornado!"

A strong wind swept outwards from Kaido's body, instantly forming a massive tornado that circled Kaido enormous frame.

The falling Meteor Volcano were all attracted by the tornado, and from a distance, the tornado appeared to twinkle with starlight.

Some of the Magma Fist landed on Kaido without leaving even a scratch. After all, Kaido is a monster who can bathe in lava, so this high temperature has little effect on him.

The impact of the fall had long been weakened by the tornado.

"In return, you should try this trick too." The formation of a tornado is not as easy as that of a dragon; it simply takes some time.

Under Kaido's control, a tornado with a diameter of several hundred meters moved towards the direction of the naval fleet.

The Beasts Pirates members who were lying on the ground below slowly got up. If they weren't careful, they could easily be blown away by the tornado.

The ocean was surging and churning. Affected by the tornado, a huge whirlpool formed on the surface below, and the immense gravitational pull was drawing the warships towards it.

At the same time, the tornado and the giant vortex automatically moved closer to them.

They never imagined that at the very beginning of the war, they would face the threat of natural disasters.

Compared to Kaido's tornado, Sakazuki's Meteor Volcano is insignificant; in fact, its power was borrowed and became an aid to Kaido.

The power of a tornado is a hundred times greater over the ocean than over land.

Under Kaido's control and with its powerful attraction, they have no chance of escaping; the only way is to destroy the tornado.

They wanted to see how the Navy would respond. Faced with this move, even the Garp the Hero was powerless; his immense strength could only guarantee his own survival, not protect all the Navy personnel.

As the difficulty of increasing his strength increased, Kaido more on mastering and enhancing the inherent power of the Mythical Zoan.

Lightning, gales, and fiery clouds are all abilities that Kaido possesses, which he uses to enhance his strength.

Like Mobius, the Shadow Dragon of the Night Pirates, who possesses an extremely strong grasp of Shadow Power and mental strength, which is an important part of his combat power, Kaido is also working towards this direction.

Under the massive tornado, the naval fleet appeared extremely small.

Visibly, countless Sea Mine were drawn in and converged with the ocean currents, causing continuous explosions. If these warships were sucked in, they would be easily destroyed in a short time.

Is the war about to end so soon after it has just begun?

Even Sengoku, far away at the Marine Headquarters, felt a bit nervous upon seeing this.

This time, Sakazuki volunteered to take command. They had analyzed the Beasts Pirates' combat strength and various methods beforehand, and this situation was within their expectations.

He originally intended to appoint Kuzan as commander because of his Chill-Chill Fruit ability, which could easily freeze the sea, prevent Sea Mine from exploding, and create a battlefield for better offensive operations.

However, Sakazuki said he had a way to deal with it, and since he volunteered and was more aggressive than Kuzan, they agreed to Sakazuki's request.

They understand Sakazuki's personality; he doesn't speak carelessly, especially now that he's become even more composed.

On the warship, Tsuru and the others all turned their attention to Sakazuki.

Facing the stares of others, Sakazuki took a few steps forward. He also had his pride and wouldn't say anything carelessly; otherwise, the losses from the defeat would fall on his shoulders, and he might even be stripped of his Admiral.

He would naturally not do something that would be detrimental to himself.

With a leap, Sakazuki jumped directly into the sea, landing steadily on the lava he had created. The surrounding area, spanning dozens of meters, transformed into a sea of lava, which even began to solidify.

"Flower-Fruit Mountain!" Sakazuki said in a deep voice.

As soon as he finished speaking, the sea suddenly trembled violently, and ahead of him was a massive tornado that was constantly approaching.

"What happened? Was it an earthquake?"

Even the island was trembling.

The Seaquake grew stronger and stronger, leading many to speculate that Whitebeard was behind it.

However, some people recognized that this was a powerful move that Sakazuki was preparing.

The tremors are coming from the deep sea, and some people have already noticed them. There's a huge commotion deep beneath the seabed, and it's impossible to see what's happening on the surface.

But countless sea creatures began to flee, even Sea King began to move away from this area.

The endless darkness shimmered with a blazing red light.

It was an underwater volcano, dormant for countless years, but now, stirred up by Sakazuki, it was about to erupt.

A terrifying column of lava shot into the sky from the underwater volcano, breaking through the seawater and rising continuously.

The surface layer around the magma column cooled rapidly under the influence of seawater, and was quickly destroyed and shattered by the powerful impact of the magma column, before cooling again.

This back-and-forth motion creates a hard rock wall at the point where the magma column meets the seawater, while inside, lava continues to rise.

As the lava erupted, the ocean trembled more and more violently. Kaido, who was soaring high in the sky, looked down at the seabed and guessed that Sakazuki seemed to have done something.

The staff officer on the warship, Tsuru, also realized what Sakazuki had done.

"Tsuru, what happened?" Seeing Tsuru's expression, Garp knew that Tsuru already knew what had happened.

The sea was shaking, and the approaching tornadoes were making everyone very uneasy.

"An underwater volcano. Sakazuki triggered an underwater volcanic eruption, borrowing the power of nature. However, this can only be done in places with volcanoes. Sakazuki chose this place because he knew there was an underwater volcano." Tsuru explained quietly. This was just her guess, but it was pretty close to the truth.

The sea became restless, and this unusual phenomenon gave many people a sense of foreboding.

The massive vortex beneath the tornado seemed to have been affected, its rotation speed decreasing significantly.

Soon, the sea seemed to stand still, and a large bulge began to rise high in the center of the previously sunken whirlpool.

The next moment, boom!

A towering column of lava burst forth from the sea, shooting straight into the sky, while the powerful tornado was destroyed in a short time by the volcano's powerful eruption.

Everyone watched this spectacular scene.

Large amounts of lava fell from the sky, but due to the distance, it did not affect the Navy or the Beasts Pirates.

The lava fell onto the sea surface, spreading outwards from the center and cooling rapidly.

Not long after, the eruption of the underwater volcano ended, but a large area of "land" formed by the cooling and solidification of magma was left on the sea, even extending to the island defended by the Beasts Pirates.

"Not bad at all, this move." Kaido looked at Sakazuki and couldn't help but admire him. The destructive power of this move in the war was devastating. Lava would cover the surrounding area for several kilometers, and the core would be directly exposed to the terrifying power of a volcanic eruption.

Although it involves some trickery, only Sakazuki could do it.

This information should be noted down. Many factions watching the live stream took note of this. Be careful when Sakazuki appears in the volcanic area.

"Is it Awakening?" Teach had also been paying some attention to this battle, especially after seeing Sakazuki's move.

This kind of long-range sensing ability requires not only developing the Magma-Magma Fruit to a very high level, but also a wide range of sensory abilities, that is, a powerful Observation Haki.

Of course, the most important thing is the development of Devil Fruit. In his opinion, Sakazuki's Magma-Magma Fruit has already Awakening, and even if it Awakening n't, it's almost there.

However, Teach didn't take it to heart; it was normal for Sakazuki's Devil Fruit Awakening.

Although Awakening Logia Devil Fruit is difficult, Devil Fruit Awakening is perfectly normal for top-tier powerhouses.

It took Teach six or seven years to develop the Dark-Dark Fruit to its Awakening, and Sakazuki has been eating the Magma-Magma Fruit for at least fifteen years now, so his Awakening of the ability is not unexpected.

However, the effect of this move, besides intimidation, is simply to create a battlefield.

Furthermore, it's not cost-effective and requires a lot of physical exertion, since it involves remotely triggering the power of an underwater volcano.

In comparison, Sakazuki could create a volcano using his abilities with far less energy.

The most important function of this move is to create a battlefield, which is also Sakazuki's main objective.

If Kuzan to come, his Ice Age attack would be highly efficient and wouldn't consume much energy.

Aside from Sakazuki's stronger offensive capabilities and his willingness to volunteer, Sakazuki is practically the only Admiral in the navy capable of taking action.

Six months ago, the Navy lost an Admiral in World War I. Borsalino was in charge of the Naval Science Department and also served as an emergency support officer.

Kuzan guards the Holy Land, and two major events have occurred Holy Land in succession. For security reasons, the Holy Land needs a Marine Admiral to be stationed there.

The Three Admirals turns stationing themselves at the Holy Land, and now it's Kuzan's turn. He cannot leave without a valid reason.

With one Admiral guarding the Holy Land, the Marine Headquarters is feeling the manpower shortage and is now considering candidates for a fourth Admiral. The World Government is also interested in filling the gap, as the current situation at sea requires the Navy to have stronger capabilities.

However, top-tier combat power is already scarce. Putting aside whether the Marine Headquarters would agree, the World Government simply wouldn't offer anyone qualified to become Marine Admiral.

Not to mention the Gorosei, CP0 Chief Zero and two Deputy Chiefs Gaia and Alastair, Vulture also leads the Army.

CP0 is a direct force of the World Government, and another part consists of agents trained and controlled by the Celestial Dragons. They can also be considered the Holy Land's guard force, which is beyond the reach of others.

Therefore, the Navy will choose the final candidate, but the World Government will also need to be involved.

However, in the current Navy, the only people qualified to become Admiral are former Admiral Black Arm Zephyr and Vice Admiral Garp. Sengoku had also wanted to make them Admiral, but they both refused.

Therefore, the position of Admiral remained vacant throughout the year.

The solidification of the battlefield takes time, and even with the influence of seawater, the time is very short. The two sides are thus locked in a stalemate, and the emergence of the battlefield is exactly what they wanted.

Both the Navy and the Beasts Pirates need a battlefield like this.

The Navy is better suited for combat, while the Beasts Pirates still hold a significant advantage; many powerful weapons are more effective on land.