Shock

"BOOM!!!"

Just as Dawn and the others were retreating under the escort of the officers, a stone lion came crashing down from the sky with a howling wind and an overwhelming sense of pressure.

"Rankyaku!!"

Beside him, one of the officers responsible for guarding Dawn and the others was the first to leap into the air, charging straight at the stone lion.

Stepping through the air with Geppo, facing the approaching stone lion, his legs had already turned pitch black. He sent forth a series of razor-sharp, massive slashes that, in an instant, shattered the stone lion into a pile of rubble.

But in that moment of delay, the battle here seemed to have caught Golden Lion's attention. Amidst his clash with Garp, after a large-scale attack, even more stone lions came howling toward the group.

Then, multiple officers kicked off with Geppo and rose into the sky, the sonic booms of their steps echoing through the air.

Accompanying them were hundreds of Rankyaku slashes, tearing through the air with sharp whistles as they shredded the stone lions.

The Marine officers tasked with guarding them had made their move, but the results weren't as good as expected.

The stone lions created by Golden Lion's attacks were, in essence, just stone given the form of lions through the power of the Float-Float Fruit. Their true substance was still nothing but rock.

If they couldn't be completely destroyed, even fragments of stone, carrying enough kinetic energy, could still inflict lethal damage.

And most of the officers were tied up trying to fully obliterate the stone lions. But just then, Dawn saw three stone lions charging straight at him and the others!

"Damn it, run!!" the officer beside them roared. The relaxed expression he'd worn after seeing the officers act had instantly darkened. He kicked off with Geppo, rushing to intercept.

But even the officers had to treat the stone lion attacks with serious effort. For the second-tier combatants—the field-grade officers—it would take multiple people working together just to block and shatter them.

For a moment, the situation looked grim.

"BOOM!!" With a piercing howl from the sky, the sole remaining threat came screaming in with murderous intent!

In an instant, the stone lion charged ferociously toward the young trainees of the camp.

And now, all the nearby guards had been fully occupied, unable to come to their aid. Facing the stone lion were only the young and the even younger.

"Tekkai!"

Just as the stone lion was about to roar and strike, Sola, that tiger girl, instantly tossed the little one in her arms toward Berigood beside her, then turned without hesitation and charged straight ahead!

At that moment, Sola had transformed into a tiger-like half-beastman form, the tiger stripe on her forehead forming the character for "king." She looked imposing, but facing the massive stone lion, it was like an egg hurling itself at a rock.

"That idiot! Resistance Aura—Air Wall!" Dawn cursed and immediately manipulated the air to block in front of Sola.

"SLAP!"

Sola slammed into midair as if she'd hit a pane of hard glass.

After a brief pause, she could be seen sliding straight down along the semi-transparent, glass-like wall Dawn had created.

Though the impact had twisted her features, and with her beast form, it was hardly a pretty sight.

"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!"

Right in front of Sola, the stone lion was stopped by several layers of "Air Shields," but the shields kept shattering and then reforming again and again.

"Get out of here!" Dawn shouted hoarsely at Sola. The girl's head was still a bit dizzy from the collision.

"Oh... oh!!" Shaking her dazed head, Sola immediately got up and ran toward Dawn. After all, for a Zoan user, that kind of impact was nothing.

Beside her, Dawn, having blocked the stone lion, saw that the nearby officers had already dealt with the previous lion pack and were now taking over this straggler. He couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

The defensive skill he'd developed to deal with Golden Lion's attacks wasn't bad. The Air Shields he'd just used had shown decent defensive power.

But Dawn had been afraid of the aftermath hitting Sola behind him, so he kept creating new shields the moment cracks appeared in the old ones, just as the stone lion struck again. That was how he'd managed to hold out so long.

Dawn and the others were, after all, elites of the training camp. After a full sprint, they soon reached the Marine Headquarters shelter.

The air was thick with the smell of sweat mixed with the rusty tang of blood—a testament to the brutality of this battle.

He called for everyone to help out. Even if they couldn't handle severe injuries, they could still manage simple bandaging, first aid, or miscellaneous tasks.

As for Dawn, having shown his excellent medical skills, he joined the emergency treatment of the seriously wounded.

But faced with the wailing, injured Marines and the families living at headquarters who had been caught in the crossfire, Dawn once again realized the cruelty of this world.

And in that moment, the seed of desire to grow stronger within Dawn took deeper root. He refused to become cannon fodder who had to struggle just to block the shockwaves of a fight between the strong!

This world was like that.

On the surface, it seemed full of dreams, adventure, and a beautiful fantasy world, with all kinds of strange islands to explore or take risks on. But behind it all lay utter cruelty.

The weak had no choice in survival. Everything was forced upon them.

As time passed, this battle ended with half of Marine Headquarters destroyed, and Garp and Sengoku capturing Golden Lion and imprisoning him on the sixth level of "Impel Down."

As the News Birds flew in all directions, newspapers blanketed the world, emblazoned with this major headline:

"Captain of the Flying Pirate Crew—Admiral of the Golden Lion Fleet, the great pirate known as the 'Flying Pirate,' attacked Marine Headquarters. After a fierce battle, he was captured by Marine Hero Garp and Buddha Sengoku working together."

Below the text was a photo of Golden Lion after his arrest, locked in a cage, looking utterly disheveled.

For a moment, the seas shook once again, and the Marines' prestige rose even higher!

Not long after the arrest of Pirate King Roger, they had now taken down one of the Four Great Pirates, "Golden Lion."

Now, only Whitebeard and the lone, wandering Red remained on the seas.

For a time, even within Marine Headquarters, rumors spread that the age of pirates was surely doomed to decline and fall.

After all, the Navy's achievements during this period had been far too dazzling. Needless to say, the Pirate King Roger—capturing Golden Lion, who commanded numerous fleets in the New World, was an accomplishment that, in a sense, was even greater than capturing the Pirate King himself!

After all, the Roger Pirates only had a single ship, whereas Golden Lion's subordinate fleet possessed enormous military strength!

Now, with the leader gone, the fleet under Golden Lion would inevitably splinter.

Beyond that, what everyone looked forward to was the execution ceremony of the Pirate King, Roger.

As long as the execution in Loguetown went smoothly afterward, it would deliver an immensely powerful shock to the pirates on the seas, and at the same time, those who had yet to set sail would see the fate that awaited pirates.

But at this moment, people did not yet know that an even greater upheaval was about to arrive.