Summit War: The Rescue

"Crack! Crack!"

The sound of wood splintering rang out. The entire execution platform was engulfed in a huge cloud of dust. At the moment the platform collapsed, Sengoku, who had been standing atop it, grabbed Ace and leaped away.

Of course, once Sengoku had pulled Ace away, his attacks on Chen Qiang stopped as well, giving Chen Qiang a chance to get back to his feet.

But after standing up, Chen Qiang glanced at where Sengoku had reappeared after leaving the platform and decisively gave up on attacking him just then.

After all, that brief fight had made the gap between them perfectly clear to Chen Qiang. Sengoku didn't even need to take him seriously to toy with him one-handed. Chen Qiang had also gotten a clearer idea of his own strength.

Even if Chen Qiang pushed himself past his limits and fought with every muscle injured and every bone broken, the power he could muster would barely reach the level of a Vice Admiral. There was practically no chance of defeating an Admiral, let alone Fleet Admiral Sengoku!

So Chen Qiang wisely refrained from charging at Sengoku again. Instead, he fought the Marines who had surrounded him. That didn't mean he had given up on rescuing Ace; he was simply waiting for an opening.

As he fought, Chen Qiang deliberately steered the battle toward the place where Sengoku had been standing.

While Chen Qiang fought the Marines beneath the execution platform, Luffy and the others also woke up on the ice at the center of the battlefield and joined the fight.

With Luffy and the others joining in, the Whitebeard Pirates launched their full-scale attack, and the Marines' preparations gradually came to light.

The Pacifista robots that had been hidden earlier were brought out and set upon the Whitebeard Pirates. In no time, the 43 pirate crews under Whitebeard's command suffered heavy losses.

It was also then that Whitebeard was stabbed. The attacker was Squard, captain of one of the pirate crews under the Whitebeard Pirates. Akainu had manipulated him, using his hatred for Roger to make him strike at Whitebeard.

But Squard's attack only enraged Whitebeard. After forgiving his foolish son for trying to kill him, Whitebeard vented his fury on the Marines.

No one on the battlefield could withstand Whitebeard's attacks. His intervention sent the pirates' morale soaring, and they managed to suppress the Marines' fierce offensive. For a time, the two sides were evenly matched once more.

The moment Whitebeard joined the fight, the Three Admirals—Akainu, Kizaru, and Aokiji—all attacked at once, barely managing to halt his advance.

It was then that Chen Qiang, breaking through the Marines surrounding him, fought his way back toward Sengoku and Ace.

"Ace! I'm coming to save you!"

Just then, the Whitebeard Pirates' First Division Commander reached Ace and Sengoku first, using his ability to fly. He attacked Sengoku, hoping to rescue Ace at his side.

"Now's my chance!"

Chen Qiang wasn't about to let this opportunity slip by. The long blade he had just snatched transformed into a huge, blood-red tiger, scattering the Marines around him.

"Clatter!"

With the Marines driven back, Chen Qiang didn't stop. The Seastone chains that had been wrapped around him slid off his body. With a sweep of his left hand, they shot toward Ace.

While Sengoku wasn't paying attention to what was happening nearby, the chains wrapped around Ace. Chen Qiang gave them a hard tug, pulling Ace through the air toward him.

But before Ace could reach Chen Qiang, Sengoku had already struck Marco with his palm and sent him flying. He also spotted Chen Qiang's move, so he darted away from where he had been standing and tried to regain control of Ace before he could fall into Chen Qiang's hands.

Chen Qiang had expected this. With an opponent as powerful as Sengoku, Marco alone couldn't hold him back. So as soon as Chen Qiang threw the chains and wrapped them around Ace, he set his other hand in motion.

"Blood Barrier!"

The Marines Chen Qiang had slashed down earlier suddenly felt their blood rushing faster through their veins. The small wounds that had already stopped bleeding began to gush blood once more.

The blood left their bodies and shot into the air, quickly gathering into a massive sphere.

Chen Qiang waved his hand, and the sphere swept around Ace just as he flew toward them, encasing him inside.

At that moment, Sengoku arrived and reached for Ace. But as soon as he touched the blood sphere, even he felt his blood racing faster through his veins. It seemed as though the blood throughout his body was trying to burst out of him and surge into the open.

Faced with this strange situation, Sengoku turned his reaching hand into a palm strike. A massive shockwave formed in his hand and sent the blood sphere flying.

"Heh heh! You fell for it!"

Seeing Sengoku's move, Chen Qiang couldn't help chuckling. Though the sphere contained plenty of blood drawn from the other Marines, most of it actually came from Chen Qiang himself. During the earlier fight, every time he wounded a Marine, he had infused some of his own blood into the injury.

That was how Chen Qiang was able to control the Marines' blood. As for the force Sengoku had just felt tugging at his blood, that was an effect Chen Qiang had achieved by infusing a large amount of his own blood. It was really only enough to scare his opponent; the pull couldn't draw blood out of someone's body.

As for the steadily increasing pull Sengoku felt, that was entirely under Chen Qiang's control. He was counting on Sengoku's incomplete understanding of his ability to make him hesitate to test it outright.

After all, tricks like this worked best on clever people like Sengoku. Someone who wasn't afraid of dying—Luffy, for instance—wouldn't abandon his goal even if he felt that kind of pull.

So when Chen Qiang saw Sengoku strike the blood sphere away, he smiled and began his next move.

Rather than wait where he was for Ace to come flying toward him, Chen Qiang rushed forward. Just as Ace was about to be struck into the ground by the shockwave, Chen Qiang appeared beneath him and leaped up. He moved his left hand and pulled Ace out of the blood sphere.