Clearing the Area

Steel Country, outer harbor.

Five massive naval warships had just dropped their heavy anchors, the gangplanks not yet fully lowered.

"All forces, listen up! Disembark immediately! Target the central highland fortress!"

Vice Admiral Momonga drew the famous blade at his waist and roared the order to charge. Thousands of elite marines poured off the warships like a tidal wave, sprinting toward the highlands.

However, the one-armed old man at the prow of the lead ship lacked the patience to wait for the main force to assemble.

"Too slow."

Zephyr looked at the black smoke billowing from the distant highlands, his remaining left hand yanking the Justice coat draped over his shoulders.

"Boom!"

The warship deck beneath his feet emitted a dull, explosive crack, the sturdy planks instantly spiderwebbing. Zephyr's massive, tower-like frame shot upward like a reverse-flying meteor, soaring straight into the clouds!

"Instructor Zephyr!" Seeing this, Vice Admiral Momonga immediately turned to the two rear admirals behind him. "You two, follow me. We'll move ahead to provide support."

"Yes! Vice Admiral!"

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Four consecutive, deafening sonic booms erupted over the harbor. Zephyr, Momonga, and the two rear admirals stomped the air at high frequency, executing Geppo, the advanced movement technique of the Rokushiki.

The four figures became like arrows piercing the sky, leaving the sprinting main force of marines far behind. With cold, murderous intent, they closed in on the central highlands at terrifying speed.

Meanwhile, at the breach of the highland fortress.

Ace stood silently atop the broken walls and ruins.

That terrifying aura, which had previously been hovering in the distant seas, suddenly magnified at an unreasonable speed within the sensory net of his Observation Haki.

"Flying straight here using Geppo, are they?"

Ace narrowed his eyes slightly, a sharp, fierce battle intent igniting in his deep black pupils. As expected of the Navy's powerhouses; this decisive, no-nonsense style was truly far superior to those warlords who only knew how to hide in the back.

"Sabo."

Ace swept his gaze toward the three people below, still surrounded by the ten-thousand-strong army and war chariots, and spoke in a steady voice: "The Navy is coming via Geppo. They'll reach the battlefield in ten minutes at most."

Hearing this, Sabo tightened his grip on his alloy staff. "Do you need me to go down and help?"

"No need."

Ace's voice was not loud, yet it clearly pierced through the clamor of the battlefield, reaching the ears of Jeno, Leona, and Buggy, who were fighting below.

"Navy reinforcements will be here in ten minutes. Hurry up and finish off the leaders; don't waste time."

In the battlefield below.

The three of them felt a sudden chill upon hearing Ace's words.

"Damn that captain! Easy for him to say while standing around!"

Buggy cursed loudly, but his movements instantly turned frantic. He knew full well that Ace wasn't joking. The Navy reinforcements were arriving soon; they couldn't afford to get tangled up with these cannon fodder anymore.

"Looks like I don't have time to drag this out with you lot."

Jeno spat on the ground, the mechanical exoskeleton on his right arm emitting a strained, creaking sound. The long, high-intensity swinging of his hammer was causing his stamina to plummet rapidly.

Several warlord leaders behind the main army also heard Ace's words.

"Navy reinforcements are coming! As long as we stall for these ten minutes, they're the ones who will die!"

The one-eyed leader waved his command saber, shouting to the other leaders beside him: "All forces, tighten the defensive line! Musketeers, hold the front! We're falling back! Do not engage these three lunatics in close-quarters combat at any cost! We win the moment the Navy lands!"

The warlord leaders understood instantly, immediately ordering their soldiers to form dense shield walls and fire nets, attempting to use human-wave tactics to build a wall of sighs to stall for time.

However, Jeno, Leona, and Buggy had no intention of letting them have their way.

"Trying to stall for time? Keep dreaming!"

Jeno snorted coldly, and the mechanical device on his back erupted with high-pressure steam. He charged straight into the dense net of musket fire. Ordinary lead bullets only sparked against his heavy exoskeleton armor, unable to stop him in the slightest.

Like a human bulldozer, he violently smashed through a shield wall composed of dozens of soldiers, heading straight for the one-eyed leader hiding in the rear.

"Big guy, do you really think I'm afraid of you!"

Seeing no way to avoid him, the one-eyed leader gritted his teeth and drew a heavy machete, swinging it down at Jeno's head. As a leader with strength comparable to a pirate with a bounty in the tens of millions, the power of his strike was enough to split rock.

"Clang!"

Jeno raised his thick mechanical right arm, forcibly blocking the blow. The hydraulic lines of the mechanical arm emitted a dull roar.

"Is that all the strength you've got?" Jeno grinned, swinging the hydraulic power hammer in his left hand. "I use more force than that when I'm smashing scrap metal!"

Accompanied by the loud sound of a pressure valve releasing, the power hammer slammed into the one-eyed leader's chest with violent kinetic energy. Although the man had used the back of his blade to protect his vitals at the last second, the pure industrial brute force still bent his machete. The one-eyed leader spat out a mouthful of blood, flying backward with his blade, and crashed into an abandoned war chariot.

On the other side, Leona's combat was just as clean and efficient.

Facing the swarming cannon fodder, she didn't even bother using her large blade, relying solely on the terrifying physical fitness honed from years of hunting ancient beasts to weave through the crowd with ease. Every flash of her silver boning knife precisely severed the weapons and tendons of her enemies.

Soon, she found another warlord leader clad in heavy refined steel armor.

"Woman, your blade is fast, but it will never cut through this heavy armor made of top-grade black steel!" The armored leader laughed wildly, swinging his meteor hammer.

Leona's gaze turned cold as she drew her massive Black Steel Bone-Cleaver with her right hand, swinging it down hard against the incoming flail.

"Clang—!"

Sparks showered everywhere, and the heavy recoil forced both of them to take half a step back. Leona glanced at the armor, seeing only a shallow white mark left by her strike, and curled her lip imperceptibly.

So I still can't cut through pure steel yet? What a troublesome turtle shell.

Although her technique was far superior to her opponent's, she had yet to master the realm of cutting steel, making it a bit more strenuous to deal with such heavily armored enemies. However, as a top-tier chef, the one thing she possessed in abundance was the patience to dismantle her prey.

She dodged while carefully observing the enemy's weaknesses.

If I can't cut the shell, I'll just slide my blade through the gaps!

Leona crouched low, slipping under the sweeping flail, and the silver blade in her left hand struck out like a viper, piercing with extreme precision into the gaps of the heavy armor at the leader's knees and armpits.

"Ah!"

The armored leader let out a miserable shriek; the injury to his joints caused him to lose his balance instantly. Leona seized the opportunity to leap up, slamming her Black Steel Bone-Cleaver onto his helmet with all her might. The massive shockwave penetrated the helmet, knocking him unconscious on the spot.

On the other side of the battlefield, Buggy's fighting style was the most impossible to guard against.

"Chop-Chop!"

Buggy's upper body hovered in mid-air, his hands moving like two fighter jets uncontrolled by gravity, smashing wildly into the crowd.

The last warlord leader, wielding a spear, was driven to distraction by Buggy's limbs flying everywhere. While parrying with his spear, he keenly noticed Buggy's feet hiding behind cover.

"Caught your weakness, Red-Nose!"

A flash of malice crossed the spear-wielder's eyes as he hurled his weapon, aiming straight for Buggy's real legs.

"Bang!"

A crisp gunshot rang out from the ruins in the distance.

A precise lead bullet deflected the spear's trajectory in mid-air, causing it to graze the sole of Buggy's shoe and embed itself into the mud.

"Hey, Red-Nose, hurry it up. Ten minutes are almost up."

Carina held her smoking flintlock pistol with one hand, standing behind high cover, and calmly blew on the muzzle. Although she hadn't joined the melee, her precise marksmanship and battlefield awareness were her own contributions to the fight.

"Don't you nag me! This Great Me is finishing up right now!"

Buggy's face flushed red, and in a fit of embarrassment and anger, he retracted his hands. Taking advantage of the moment the spear-wielder was disarmed, he slammed his fist—encased in a Seastone Knuckle—against the man's own fist. In a bizarre display, while his fist was still locked in the clash, he executed a shoulder tackle, slamming into the man with full force. As the opponent fell backward, he swiftly controlled his fist to deliver a knockout blow to the head.

Immediately after, Buggy pulled two special red bombs from his coat, tossing one onto the spear-wielder's chest and the other precisely into the crowd of soldiers still attempting to resist.

"Special Buggy Ball!"

A massive fireball erupted within the enemy ranks, and the violent shockwave sent dozens of soldiers flying.

With the fall of the three ten-million-berry warlord leaders, the remaining thousands of soldiers, who had already lost their will to fight, completely collapsed. Fear spread through the army like a plague; the defensive line disintegrated, and countless men threw down their weapons and armor, fleeing in a panic toward the base of the highlands.

Jeno, Leona, and Buggy stood in the center of the chaotic battlefield. Although the fighting had ended, their eyes still burned with combat intent. Their strength had been tested in the most authentic way during this skirmish.

At the breach in the fortress.

Ace watched the retreating army below, withdrawing his gaze with satisfaction.

"The timing is just right."

The moment Ace's words fell.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

In the sky in front of the highlands, four sharp, dull sonic booms exploded, rolling in like thunder.

Gale winds howled, and the clouds were forcibly torn apart.

Four figures radiating biting killing intent plummeted from hundreds of meters in the air like meteors, slamming into the open ground between the retreating warlord soldiers and the Eclipse Pirates with a deafening "bang."

The hard rocky ground cracked inch by inch under the massive impact, kicking up a sky full of dust and smoke.

As the dust settled, the purple-haired old man in the lead slowly straightened his hulking, iron-tower-like frame. His empty right sleeve fluttered in the wind, and those eyes, weathered by time and filled with endless killing intent, bypassed the three people below and locked directly onto the black-haired captain wearing a dark red trench coat atop the fortress.

"So you're the brat causing trouble here."

Zephyr's low voice echoed across the empty battlefield. The iron-blooded pressure belonging to the pinnacle of the old era bore down like a physical weight, making Jeno, Leona, and Buggy feel a sense of breathlessness.

Ace stood on the broken wall, meeting Zephyr's gaze from his high vantage point.

He did not retreat, nor did he speak; he simply clenched his fists slowly. Within his deep, dark eyes surged a long-suppressed, scorching desire to clash with a true monster.