"Teacher Garp..."
Leon, wearing his bubble, looked at Garp, who was barely holding back his laughter and showed not the slightest embarrassment.
Before he could finish speaking, a sudden kick sent him plunging back into the water.
"Get swimming, Leon!"
Leon turned and gave Garp a long, deep look.
So you liked laughing, huh!
When Kuzan punches you flying someday, I'll make sure to kick you while you're down. Otherwise, I wouldn't be doing justice to our teacher-student bond!
A thin layer of coating easily withstood the pressure at a depth of ten thousand meters.
If Newton were reincarnated in the world of pirates, they'd have to pour concrete directly over his coffin. Otherwise, the lid would never stay shut...
After a brief adjustment, Leon displayed astonishing strength and endurance in the seawater.
Like a tireless giant beast, he towed Garp's Dog Head Warship away from the Marine fleet and sped through the water at an incredible pace.
Garp and Kuzan stood side by side at the bow.
"With strength like Leon's, it won't be long before he earns the title of the Marines' monster."
Kuzan murmured in admiration, while Garp burst out laughing.
"My eye for talent never misses!"
"But..." Kuzan's gaze settled on the pitch-black depths of the sea. "Would you like me to step in, Mr. Garp? We're underwater, after all. It's still difficult for a human to contend with that kind of creature in the sea..."
"No need yet."
Garp looked calm.
"I want to see what he can do!"
Outside the ship, Leon sensed danger. He had just encountered a descending current that flowed through the water like a waterfall.
The Dog Head Warship entered it and immediately plunged through the water at high speed, without needing Leon to tow it.
He didn't have Observation Haki like Garp and Kuzan.
But with his inhuman senses, Leon had already detected that something was waiting where the descending current converged.
An extremely dangerous creature was silently waiting for its prey to arrive.
At their current depth, sunlight could no longer penetrate the water.
In the surrounding darkness, the faint sounds of something enormous moving could be heard.
As Godzilla, Leon stood at the top of the food chain, but he still retained some of the fear of the unknown deep sea that he'd felt as an ordinary human.
That was, thalassophobia.
Imagine that you're alone at the bottom of the sea, surrounded by a murky darkness.
You look around by the faint light of some unknown source.
All around you, all kinds of unimaginable deep-sea monsters are writhing with grotesque bodies...
Fuck!
Leon shuddered involuntarily. When faced with unknown danger, most people would choose to run.
But a few hotheaded idiots like Leon would clench their fists, feel their blood surge, and charge headlong into danger. You could call them brave.
Leon accelerated, charging straight toward the source of the danger with everyone aboard the warship.
A huge, dark yellow tentacle nearly a thousand meters long suddenly emerged from the water, aiming straight for the warship behind Leon.
If the warship were damaged this deep underwater, only a handful of those aboard might survive.
Just before the dark yellow tentacle could wrap around the warship, a terrifying aura erupted from aboard it.
The tentacle instantly withdrew like a bolt of lightning and disappeared into the water.
Conqueror's Haki?
Leon looked back, but couldn't tell who had unleashed it.
The sea monster was startled by the aura. It went still for a moment, but didn't give up. Instead, it changed targets and began attacking Leon outside the coating.
Facing a relentless barrage of tentacles, all Leon could do was drive them back. Against a monster of that size, his attacks barely registered.
While struggling to fend them off, Leon also had to be careful not to let a tentacle break the bubble around him.
When neither Garp nor Kuzan showed any sign of stepping in, Leon gritted his teeth and untied the rope around his body.
He twisted aside to dodge an attack, then sped straight toward the monster itself.
With the Dog Head Warship out of the descending current and without Leon as its engine, it came to a stop.
Seeing Leon disappear into the darkness, Kuzan couldn't help feeling anxious.
"Teacher Garp!"
"It's all right, Kuzan! I believe in Leon!"
Garp's voice was firm, but his hands clutching the railing tightly betrayed his unease.
"It seems I'll have to use my powers to freeze all the seawater around us..."
Kuzan steeled himself. As a Devil Fruit User, it was difficult for him to fight at full strength in this environment.
Freezing all the seawater around them would leave both sides badly hurt, but for Leon's safety, he couldn't afford to worry about that.
Away from the others, Leon's eyes glowed blue.
Using Godzilla's thermal vision, Leon finally saw the deep-sea monster in all its glory.
Before him was an enormous octopus-shaped Giant Sea King, stretching for who knew how many thousands of meters!
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