The Prisoners' Riot

While Mosen and the others worked hard to improve their strength, the prisoners in Extreme Cold Hell also took action.

Extreme Cold Hell had cells like the other levels, but from the day Mosen arrived until now, he had never seen a prisoner locked inside one.

At first, Mosen found it rather strange. Why weren't the prisoners locked up?

Later, Mosen understood. In an environment like Extreme Cold Hell, it made little difference whether they were locked up or not. Most prisoners would freeze to death without food to provide them with energy, and locking them up would only mean the guards had to dispose of their corpses.

The guards didn't want to enter this icy wasteland either, so they simply threw the prisoners in and left them to fend for themselves.

However, this approach concealed a huge danger: some of the stronger prisoners could survive by working with others to hunt Military Wolves.

By now, eleven prisoners with bounties exceeding 300 million Beli had adapted to the environment of Extreme Cold Hell. They had joined forces and hunted Military Wolves together.

Military Wolf meat was edible, and its fur could keep them warm. Those eleven prisoners with bounties exceeding 300 million Beli were no longer like Mosen when he had first arrived in Extreme Cold Hell, when only one-tenth of their strength remained.

Once they had recovered some of their strength, thoughts that should never have surfaced naturally began to emerge.

Those men had wanted Mosen's cabin for a long time. On top of that, the four of them—Mia and the others—had been living in Mosen's cabin throughout this period, without having to suffer the cold or hunger. The sight made the prisoners green with envy.

So they decided to take a gamble, kill Mosen, and seize the cabin.

The eleven prisoners with bounties exceeding 300 million Beli crept to the front of Mosen's cabin under cover of darkness.

They had watched Mosen for many days and knew that he came outside to train every morning.

According to their plan, they would hide in the snow beforehand. The next morning, when Mosen came out of the house, they would launch a surprise attack and kill him outright.

But the prisoners had no idea that Mia's Observation Haki had reached a level beyond their wildest imagination.

The first day they secretly spied on Mosen, Mia had already noticed them.

After that, every time they came over, Mia reported it to Mosen.

Once or twice was fine, but when they came every day, Mosen began to sense that something was wrong.

Mosen had long been on guard against these prisoners, and so were Mia and the others.

Therefore, the moment the prisoners arrived near the house, Mosen and the others opened their eyes in unspoken understanding.

"Mosen, they're here again!" Michael whispered.

"Looks like they're planning to ambush us! Mosen, what should we do?" Ian asked.

"What else can we do? Kill them all!" Mia said murderously.

"Mia, how did your bloodlust become even worse than mine?"

"These people are causing trouble in the middle of the night and ruining my sleep quality. Staying up late makes people age prematurely!" Mia said viciously.

"What do you think, Paddy?" Mosen turned and asked Paddy.

"I'll follow your lead." Paddy still looked as indecisive as ever.

"In that case, let's make our move. They'll be a threat as long as they're alive."

Everyone nodded and got up to leave the house.

When Mosen opened the door, the prisoners were digging through the snow. Seeing Mosen suddenly emerge, they all froze for a moment.

Mosen couldn't be bothered to waste words on them. Waves of cold air radiated from his body, drawing in the ice and snow nearby and transforming it into a giant serpent more than ten meters long.

Mosen manipulated the serpent, swinging its tail down at one of the prisoners.

The prisoner dodged the serpent's attack and shouted, "Brothers, looks like they've discovered us! Let's attack!"

"Eleven against five! We've got the advantage!"

"Go! Once we kill them, we'll have a house!"

The prisoners charged toward Mosen and the others, shouting.

Mosen leaped onto the giant serpent's head, then gathered the surrounding ice and snow into a massive cannon.

Carrying the ice-and-snow cannon on his shoulder, Mosen fired two shells condensed from ice and snow at the two charging prisoners.

The two prisoners didn't dodge. Instead, they coated their fists in Armament Haki and shattered the ice shells.

Mosen snapped his fingers. The shattered ice shells instantly transformed into hundreds of ice needles that shot toward the two prisoners.

The two prisoners had clearly anticipated this attack. Mosen had once used a similar move to injure the burly pirate. Against pirates with bounties exceeding 300 million and rich combat experience, the same trick would certainly be useless.

The two prisoners coated their arms in Armament Haki, stood back-to-back, and rapidly swung their fists, shattering the ice needles.

Seeing this, Mosen immediately manipulated the giant serpent to attack. The serpent, more than ten meters long, coiled around the two men, while Mosen jumped from its head and created ice spears and arrows with the Frozen Lineage Factor from the side, hurling them at the two prisoners.

The two men used Armament Haki to withstand Mosen's attacks.

But a person's Armament Haki was like their stamina: using it consumed it. Once their Armament Haki was depleted, they needed some time to recover.

It was like how Luffy needed time to recover his Haki after using Gear Fourth.

Although the two prisoners had recovered some of their strength by hunting Military Wolves during this period, their stamina still drained rapidly in an environment like Extreme Cold Hell without a house to shelter them from the wind and snow. At most, the two had thirty to forty percent of the strength they possessed at their peak.

That was why Mosen chose the same approach he had used against the short pirate who attacked him at the beginning. He took advantage of the terrain and continuously wore down the two prisoners' stamina and Armament Haki with the Frozen Lineage Factor.

Once their stamina gave out, it would be time for Mosen to deliver a killing blow.

The two prisoners were battle-hardened, so Mosen's intentions naturally couldn't escape them.

They knew perfectly well that if this continued, death was the only thing waiting for them.

The two stopped holding back and chose to fight by trading wounds, unleashing their full strength.

Faced with Mosen's thrown ice spears and arrows, the two directly ignored them, focusing all their attention on the ice serpent.

The two attacked at the same time, striking the ice serpent from the front and rear.

Mosen frowned and hurled the ice spears and arrows at them even faster.

"Crack, crack, crack!" Amid the sound of breaking ice, the ice serpent was completely shattered.

At the same time, the ice spears and arrows had pierced several holes through the two men's bodies.

"Heh heh! Brat, creating that ice serpent cost you quite a bit of stamina, didn't it? Now that we've shattered it, there's nothing left to restrain us. You're dead!"

"The holes you just stabbed into me—I'll pay you back tenfold, a hundredfold!"

With that, the two prisoners charged at Mosen together.

Mosen slowly closed his eyes and assumed the stance for Iaido Slash, gathering his spirit, energy, and focus toward the blade in his hand.

Soon, Mosen's aura reached its peak. By then, the two prisoners' fists were only an inch from his head.

Mosen slowly opened his eyes. A blade of light mixed with waves of cold air cut through the wind and snow. "Iaido—Ice Slash."

We just received word that this place is finally going to reopen, most likely next Monday.