Under the blazing sun, ten ice peaks stood across the training ground as a thousand people competed to climb them.
The Allosaurus had a crazed look in his eyes. At Kujaku's command, he opened his toothy maw, lolling his tongue and drooling as he charged.
Anyone who'd ever tripped a tiger knew that dinosaurs had thick legs and short arms. They were easy for humans to hunt: all you needed was a long spear. Stick it upright, slide in, and give it a thrust, and you could kill one with ease.
But Conrad didn't have a spear on hand. As the saying went, even the cleverest housewife couldn't cook without rice. Fighting a dragon barehanded hurt.
Most importantly, Drake was his friend!
Everyone knew Conrad was born with immense strength. What if he got carried away and seriously injured his friend? Drake would need time to recover.
So, out of wisdom and friendship, he chose the same direction as Drake and led the charge.
Conrad's Wind God Leg was superb. He darted through the crowd, his two legs sweeping across the battlefield. Marines ahead of him glanced back at the sound of an earthquake, saw his heroic figure, and fled in every direction.
A clear path up the mountain opened without a drop of blood being shed.
"Run faster, you useless thing!" Kujaku chased after them, lashing her whip wildly. One group of Marines after another became prisoners in the chase.
Hearing his master's angry command, the Allosaurus's eyes reddened. The muscles in his thighs swelled once more, and his speed doubled.
The distance between him and Conrad shrank by the second.
Conrad recalled how Black Cage Hina had humiliated him last time. That Kujaku woman would only be worse!
He couldn't let another woman control him. He searched for an opening to overtake Drake with his footwork and take the enemy commander's head.
The moment Kujaku came within range, he'd teach her a lesson with one big slap!
Just then, a person appeared in the path the Marines had cleared—or rather, that person hadn't moved at all, walking quietly across the ice.
Gripping the collar of her sea-blue cloak as if she were cold, she breathed out white mist and slowly turned to glance at Conrad before looking toward the pursuing Allosaurus.
"Ain," Conrad called. He had already passed her, but she was still strolling along slowly, as if she wanted to walk on but couldn't.
He reached back and grabbed her cold, smooth hand.
As Ain's pupils widened in alarm, Conrad spun on the spot, swung her around once, and flung her off the path he was running along.
After all, Drake was chasing him. She'd be safe if she wasn't on the same path.
"No need to thank me!" Conrad waved over his shoulder.
But while Ain was still in midair, she suddenly arched her back with a burst of strength, bending nearly 180 degrees. She flipped nimbly, her pale legs tracing a circle like the hands of a clock, and landed firmly on her feet.
"What are you doing?"
"Uh... I was meddling. Sorry." Conrad kept moving, already on the winding path up the ice peak.
"Roar!" The Allosaurus passed Ain at that moment and reached the foot of the mountain.
His roar hadn't even finished before its volume dropped sharply. Ain had slapped the Allosaurus's thigh, igniting a ball of peach-colored flame.
The dragon, at least five meters tall just moments ago, quickly shrank until he was a little over a meter tall, with short arms.
"Drake! I've put up with you again and again, but you just won't stop chasing me! We're friends!"
Conrad leaped down from the second level of the ice peak and swung his fist. "I can't let you go on acting this way toward your friends. If you grow into a real menace, it'll be my fault as your big brother! Whale-Slaying Tyrant Fist!"
The punch was forceful and unstoppable.
Wrapped in overwhelming Haki, it struck Drake's fierce dragon head before his teeth had even fully grown. One blow turned him back into a child. He toppled onto the ice, head tilted, foaming at the mouth.
One punch, and the dragon was down.
A fresh-faced newcomer.
A simple little achievement early in his three-hundred-milestone journey. Nothing worth mentioning.
Conrad hoisted Drake onto his back and climbed the ice peak. An older brother could discipline his younger friend, but he couldn't forget to help him back up.
"He's your friend?" Ain walked behind him, seemingly lost in thought.
"Yeah."
"You hit your friend?" Ain frowned, clearly disappointed. Her voice turned cold. "You asked me to be your friend the day before yesterday. I was still thinking about it, and that's why I helped you. And you... you actually... hit your friend!"
The ice peak was bitterly cold, the temperature having dropped who knew how far below zero. Frost coated their eyebrows and hair, and their voices trembled as they spoke. It was hard to tell whether they were shivering from the cold or anger.
Conrad wasn't afraid of the cold, but a sudden pang of sorrow rose in his chest. He blurted out an explanation. "He was being controlled. By that nasty—"
"Even if he was being controlled, you still can't hit him! You can't hit your friend!" Ain ran ahead, overtaking Conrad without looking back.
Conrad thought she was wrong and wanted to catch up and explain the right way to think about it. But carrying someone was heavy, after all, and she seemed to have her own principles, so he let it go.
When they reached the platform at the top of the ice peak, the fighting was fierce. Seventy or eighty people had gathered into several groups, some squaring off and others already fighting with swords, spears, staves, fists, and kicks.
Ain stood quietly by a corner of the ice, her palm burning with peach-colored fire. Two boys lay beside her, their noses broken and bleeding.
She had clearly shown off her abilities as soon as she arrived. The groups of Marines kept their distance, not daring to come near.
"Conrad!"
Kujaku and Bling Bling caught up, followed by a large group of slaves with Whip-Whip Fruit powers, like a horde of zombies.
But without Drake leading the way, Conrad kicked off with Wind God Leg and then used Lingbo Micro-steps, weaving through the Marines and using his own body to shield himself from the lashes.
At last, he reached Kujaku and raised his big hand, ready to slap the blush off her cheek.
Kujaku pouted and shouted, "Pay me back!"
Conrad changed his grip, snatching her wrist and smacking the back of her hand. Kujaku bit her lip and let out a pained moan, dropping her Combat Whip. He seized it.
He wound it around a few times and cinched it around the back of her waist, over her floral spaghetti-strap dress, binding her hands.
"True, you shouldn't hit someone in the face—especially when you're a grown man and she's a young woman."
"All you know how to do is dodge! What kind of man does that make you? Pay me back!" Kujaku was thoroughly indignant. She'd been practicing with the whip since she was seven and had trained for seven years. She could hit anything she aimed at, yet Conrad was like a slippery eel, and she couldn't land a single lash.
Conrad treated money like dirt and wasn't bothered by talk of it. He ignored her automatically and said, "As long as my Haki is strong enough, I can resist Devil Fruit effects too."
Kujaku looked wronged and turned her head away. She wore only a strapless dress, and now she was shivering, bound with the whip and so cold she looked ready to break.
She shouted at the large group of slaves, "Hurry up and fight, you bunch of worthless idiots who need to be taught a lesson!"
"Yes!"
The Marines, all burly men with vacant eyes, attacked indiscriminately across the mountain. Some even grappled with their opponents and rolled down the ice peak together.
Meanwhile, the battles on the other nine peaks were also drawing to a close.
Prince used his powerful Clay Giant to scatter the headquarters' group.
Except for two young men who had learned the Six Powers in advance—one using "Tekkai," the other using "Kami-e"—everyone else was eliminated, including Fullbody.
Prince raised both arms to the sky, showing off his strength as he taunted Conrad from afar, as if he were the Navy's new top recruit.
Conrad had no time to look at him. His eyes were fixed on the central ice peak, which was covered in lush vines.
Dozens of vines had wrapped around a Black Wolf and a Kangaroo. They were clearly both Zoan users.
The vines had all been released by a young man in a Marine sailor uniform with pink hair like an octopus.
Binz, the Shove-Shove Fruit.
Another survivor from the training ship.
The battle wasn't over, but the temperature had already dropped to a horrifying low. Aokiji seemed not to have considered setting a standard at all; he just kept lowering the temperature to drive them out.
One Marine couldn't take the cold any longer. His legs began to spasm as he shouted, "I quit! I give up!"
The moment he spoke, an ice spike rose from beneath his feet and shot up two hundred meters, carrying him out of the training ground in the Ice Hell and into the sunlight alone.
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