Whitebeard: Unethical, Attacking an Old Man

On the execution platform, Ace heard the commotion as well.

He opened his eyes and stared fixedly at that familiar ship; it was his home, and on it were the family he cherished!

Yet now, to save him, these family members had to come to this dangerous place.

His heart was instantly flooded with a myriad of emotions.

Gratitude, remorse, self-reproach...

Sengoku set down the Den Den Mushi he had been using for the broadcast, took another one for field command from a communications officer, and cast his gaze beyond the harbor.

According to the intelligence they had gathered, as many as 43 pirate crews had departed from the New World; it was impossible that only the four warships of the Whitebeard Pirates themselves would arrive.

Sure enough, after a short while, black dots slowly began to appear within his line of sight.

These dots grew rapidly, eventually merging into a single mass that blotted out the sky!

"Damn it, I miscalculated the formation. I didn't expect them to actually coat all their ships and arrive in the vicinity!" Sengoku's expression turned grim, tinged with a sense of helplessness.

In truth, he had considered this possibility.

After all, for the Whitebeard Pirates to come from the New World, the only path was to coat their ships and travel through Fish-Man Island.

However, thinking about it and executing it were two different things.

How vast was the ocean?

And the Navy lacked the ocean's darlings, the Fish-Men or Merfolk.

Due to the long-standing conflict between humans and Fish-Men, the hatred the latter held for the former was profound.

Moreover, Fish-Man Island was Whitebeard's territory.

Consequently, even if he had the heart to search, he had no way to locate these fifty-some pirate ships in the vast expanse of the sea.

Clang, clang, clang—

On the deck of the massive Whitebeard Pirates flagship, the Moby Dick, a giant wielding a naginata, his face adorned with a crescent-shaped white mustache curving upward, slowly stepped onto the highest point of the prow, standing opposite Sengoku on the distant execution platform.

"Gurarara... It's been a few decades, hasn't it, Sengoku?"

The man who had arrived was none other than the one currently hailed as the strongest man in the pirate world.

"Whitebeard" Edward Newgate, with a bounty as high as 5.046 billion berries!

Sengoku watched him coldly, an aura radiating from his body that did not lose out to his opponent's: "Whitebeard!"

"Is my dear son alright? Gurarara, wait a moment, Ace. Pops is here to take you home." Whitebeard's gaze was disdainful; the dense crowd of Marines on the massive Marine Headquarters plaza before him seemed not to exist in his eyes.

"Don't talk big, Whitebeard!"

Before Sengoku could respond, Akainu, who had been harboring rage like a volcano on the verge of eruption beneath the execution platform, finally found his outlet.

He erupted!

BOOM!!!

Great Eruption!

Akainu took a step forward, and every part of his body, save for his head and legs, transformed into scorching magma.

He raised his hands high toward the sky, and the magma surged from his arms, shooting upward as if he were manifesting a floating volcano in the heavens.

This volcano erupted with peerless fury, transforming into countless scorching, high-impact fire meteors that rained down upon the four Whitebeard Pirates ships below.

"Gurarara, Akainu brat, your strength isn't bad, but it's still lacking!"

Whitebeard laughed loudly, clenched his fist with one hand, and smashed it fiercely toward the sky at an angle.

Crack, crack, crack—

The formless, intangible air was actually smashed by his punch, creating spiderweb-like fissures.

A massive shockwave flew toward the volcano that was currently raining down fire meteors.

—BANG!!!

The volcano was shattered in an instant, turning into fragments that scattered across the sky.

"Admiral Akainu's attack... was resolved so easily!" The Marines were in an uproar.

The three Admirals were their top-tier combat power!

Yet, at that very moment, one of the falling fire meteors began to squirm, and in the end, it actually transformed into the likeness of Akainu!

Hellhound!

This was the move with the most astonishing speed in Akainu's arsenal, allowing him to rapidly extend his magma-fied arm while coating it in Armament Haki!

In such an unexpected situation, even Whitebeard failed to react in time!

BOOM!!!

The Hellhound struck Whitebeard's cheek heavily, passing through it and snapping a mast behind him, not stopping until it had punched clean through the Moby Dick.

"Sakazuki brat!" Whitebeard roared, his fist coated in thick Armament Haki and imbued with peerless vibrational power, smashing fiercely into Akainu's chest.

Akainu's body was sent flying from the Moby Dick, anchored in the center of the bay, all the way into the buildings within Marine Headquarters. Even after traveling several thousand meters, the impact was enough to cause all the structures near his landing point to collapse!

The power of a single blow was truly terrifying!

As the dust and smoke began to clear, Whitebeard's face was revealed.

His cheek and nearly a third of his iconic white beard had completely vanished, and beneath the skin, one could even see charred black bone scorched by searing magma.

It turned out that he had used Observation Haki to perceive the trajectory of Akainu's attack, tilting his head at the last moment in the heat of the crisis to avoid a fatal blow.

However, Akainu's attack had been far too sudden, and the speed of Hellhound was simply too fast for him to evade it entirely.

This first exchange seemed to have left both sides wounded.

The Marines had temporarily lost an Admiral, while Whitebeard had been shorn of a significant portion of his face!

This scene shattered the aura of the "Strongest Man in the World," causing the morale of the Marines to soar!

"Go check on the situation with Sakazuki immediately. Everyone else, launch an all-out assault on the Whitebeard Pirates!" Sengoku calmly issued his war orders.

Several officers responsible for battlefield rescue immediately led their men toward the site where Akainu had landed.

Meanwhile, on the Marine plaza, the crescent-shaped fortress, the outer guard warships, and every single Marine sprang into action upon receiving Sengoku's command.

On the other side, seeing their respected Pops—a seventy-two-year-old man—ambushed like that, the entire Whitebeard Pirates crew erupted in fury.

"Despicable Marines, kill them all!!!"

"Kill, kill Red Dog!!"

"Charge, kill them!!!"

"All of you, stand down!" Whitebeard spat a mouthful of blood from the intact side of his mouth. He looked calmly toward the execution platform in the distance and burst into laughter. "Gurararara, Sengoku, the brat you trained isn't bad! But now, why don't you try this move of mine?"

With that, he plunged Murakumogiri into the deck beside him, clenched both fists, and smashed them violently into the air on either side of him.

Sea Quake!

Rumble—

The vibrations radiated outward from his fists in all directions at high speed.

In an instant, it felt as if the entire world was filled with the sound of this thunderous shaking.

"What's happening?"

"Vibrations, it's the vibrations again!!"