A Small Battle Record at the 300-Mile Milestone

The scorching sun hung high in the sky, and ten ice peaks stood tall across the training grounds, with a thousand men vying to ascend them.

The Allosaurus had a vacant look in its eyes; under Kujaku's command, it bared its fangs, drooling as it whipped its tongue about and charged forward.

Anyone who has frequently slid to tackle tigers knows that dinosaurs are creatures with thick legs and short arms, making them quite simple for humans to hunt—all one needs is a long spear, a well-timed slide, and a single thrust to easily secure the kill.

However, Conrad lacked a spear; as the saying goes, even the cleverest housewife cannot cook without rice, and fighting a dragon bare-handed is a painful endeavor.

Most importantly, Drake was his friend!

It is common knowledge that he, Conrad, possessed innate divine strength; if he failed to hold back during a fight and left his friend severely injured, what then? He would have to spend time recovering.

Therefore, out of wisdom and friendship, he chose to advance in the same direction as Drake, leading the charge.

Conrad's movement technique was superb; his two Wind God Legs swept and maneuvered through the crowd. The marines ahead, hearing the tremors, turned back to see his heroic figure and fled in terror.

A path up the mountain was carved out without a single drop of blood spilled.

"Run faster! You useless thing!" Kujaku chased from behind, cracking her whip wildly, turning wave after wave of marines into her pursuing captives.

Hearing her angry command, the Allosaurus's eyes turned red, its thigh muscles bulged once more, and its running speed doubled.

The distance between it and Conrad closed by the second.

Conrad recalled the humiliation he had suffered at the hands of Black Cage Hina; this woman Kujaku was surely even worse!

He absolutely could not let himself be controlled by a woman again; he searched for an opportunity to use his footwork to bypass Drake and strike at the enemy commander.

Once Kujaku entered his range, he would surely use a big slap to teach her a lesson!

Just then, in the mountain path cleared by the fleeing marines, a person appeared—or rather, that person hadn't moved at all, walking quietly on the ice.

She tugged at the collar of her navy-blue cloak, seemingly sensitive to the cold, exhaling white mist as she slowly turned back. She glanced at Conrad, then looked toward the pursuing Allosaurus.

"Ain," Conrad called out. He had already passed her, but seeing her pace remain leisurely, as if she were stuck in a walk she couldn't escape, he reached back and grabbed her cold, smooth hand.

Under the gaze of Ain's wide, startled eyes, Conrad spun in place, swung Ain around in a circle, and tossed her out of the path he was running on.

After all, Drake was chasing him; if they weren't on the same path, she would be safe.

"Don't mention it!" Conrad waved his hand behind him.

Yet, while still in mid-air, Ain suddenly exerted force from her waist, folding nearly one hundred and eighty degrees. With a supple backflip, her cold, white legs—straight as needles—traced a circle and landed firmly on the ground, one after the other.

"What are you doing?"

"Uh... I was being meddlesome, my apologies." Conrad didn't stop his pace, having already reached the winding mountain path of the ice peak.

"Roar~" At this moment, the Allosaurus also passed Ain and stepped onto the mountain base.

Before the roar could even finish, the volume dropped sharply, for Ain's hand had slapped the Allosaurus's thigh, igniting a cluster of peach-colored flames.

The dragon's body, which had been at least five meters tall, rapidly shrank until it became a small, short-armed creature barely over a meter long.

"Drake! I have tolerated you again and again! Yet you persist in your pursuit! We are friends!"

Conrad leaped down from the second tier of the ice peak, swinging his fist. "If I don't teach you the way of friendship today, it will be my fault as your big brother if you cause a great disaster later! Whale-Slaying Tyrant Fist!"

This punch was heavy, powerful, and peerless.

Carrying a soul-shaking aura, it struck the fierce dragon head—which hadn't even grown its teeth yet—knocking it back into its juvenile form in one blow. It tilted its head, collapsed onto the ice, and began foaming at the mouth.

One punch, the dragon defeated.

A fledgling effort.

A minor achievement at the start of a three-hundred-mile milestone, not worth mentioning.

Conrad hoisted Drake onto his back and began climbing the ice peak; a big brother could discipline his younger brother, but he couldn't forget to help him up.

"Is he your friend?" Ain walked behind him, seemingly deep in thought.

"Yes."

"You hit your friend?" Ain frowned, clearly disappointed, her tone cold as she said, "You invited me to be your friend the day before yesterday, and I was still considering it, which is why I helped you. You... you actually... hit your friend!"

The ice peak was freezing; the temperature had dropped to an unknown degree below zero. Frost covered their eyebrows and hair, and her voice trembled, whether from the cold or her anger, it was hard to tell.

Conrad was not afraid of the cold, but a sudden sense of desolation filled his chest. He blurted out an explanation: "He was being controlled, by a bad wom—"

"Even if he was controlled, you cannot hit him! You cannot hit a friend!" Ain ran ahead, passing Conrad without looking back once.

Conrad felt this logic was wrong and wanted to chase after her to explain the correct principles, but carrying someone was heavy, and seeing her resolve, he let it be.

When they reached the platform of the ice peak, the fighting was intense. Seventy or eighty people were gathered in several groups, either in a standoff or already engaged in combat, trading blows with knives, guns, clubs, and fists.

Ain stood quietly by the edge of an ice block, her palm still burning with peach-colored flames, while two children with broken, bleeding noses lay beside her.

Clearly, she had displayed her prowess as soon as she arrived, and the groups of marines kept their distance, not daring to approach.

"Conrad!"

Kujaku and Bling Bling caught up, leading a large group of slaves under the influence of the Whip-Whip Fruit, looking like a pack of zombies.

But with Kujaku lacking Drake as her vanguard, Conrad unleashed his Wind God Legs, followed by his Lingbo Micro-steps, weaving through the marines and using his own body to block the whips.

Finally, as he neared Kujaku, he raised his large palm, intending to slap the rosy flush from her cheeks.

Kujaku pouted and shouted urgently, "Pay up!"

Conrad switched to grabbing her wrist, slapping the back of her hand hard enough to make Kujaku bite her lip and let out a pained grunt, forcing her to release the Combat Whip so he could snatch it away.

He wrapped it around his hand a few times before cinching it around the back of her patterned sundress, binding Kujaku's hands.

"True, one shouldn't strike a person in the face, especially not a real man striking a young lady."

"You only know how to dodge! What kind of real man is that! Pay up!" Kujaku was extremely unconvinced. She had been practicing the whip since she was seven, seven years of training that allowed her to strike exactly where she aimed, yet Conrad was like a loach; she couldn't land a single hit.

Conrad's ears treated money like dirt; a hero was never sensitive to the word 'money,' so he automatically ignored her, saying, "As long as my Haki is strong enough, I can also become immune to the effects of Devil Fruits."

Kujaku wore a grievance-stricken face and turned her head away. Dressed only in a strapless sundress, she shivered while bound by the whip, feeling as cold as if she were about to break.

She shouted at a large group of slaves, "Hurry up and fight, you poorly trained pieces of trash!"

"Yes~!"

The group of burly marines looked listless, launching indiscriminate attacks on the mountain peak, even grabbing their opponents to roll down the ice cliff together.

At the same time, the battles on the other nine mountains were also drawing to a close.

Prince used his formidable Clay Giant to scatter the headquarters group.

Except for two youths who had practiced the Six Powers in advance—one using Tekkai, the other Kami-e—everyone else was eliminated, including Fullbody.

Prince raised his arms to the sky, proving his strength and provoking Conrad from afar, as if he were the king of the new marine recruits.

Conrad, however, had no time to look at him; his gaze had fallen upon the central ice peak, which was overgrown with lush vines.

Dozens of vines bound a Black Wolf and a Kangaroo, both clearly being Zoan-type ability users.

These vines were all released by a youth wearing a marine sailor uniform with pink hair that looked like an octopus.

Binz, Shove-Shove Fruit.

The other survivor from the training ship.

The battle had not yet ended, but the temperature had dropped to an outrageous level. Aokiji seemed not to have considered setting a standard at all, only concerned with lowering the temperature to drive people away.

A marine who could no longer withstand the low temperature twitched his legs and shouted, "I forfeit! I give up!"

The second after he shouted, an ice spike rose from beneath his feet, shooting up two hundred meters to lift him out of the Ice Hell training ground and into the solitary sunlight.