Escape

"Such tenacious vitality!"

"A pity! Under this move of mine, that bit of resistance is completely useless!" The electric light flickering at his fingertips had finished converging; his immature technique was ready.

Utilizing the principle of electromagnetic induction, this iron bead would bloom into the flowers of Gray's delight.

"Railgun!" There was no earth-shattering roar, just a beam of orange-red light flashing past. The iron bead was launched at three times the initial speed of sound, its velocity and power increasing throughout its flight.

Although the iron bead was melted into ash by the high temperature the instant it was launched, it served merely as a primer for the ammunition.

The launched beam was clearly visible to Gray's Observation Haki, and the magnetic field force enveloping this world forcibly corrected the beam's trajectory.

It sounded like a long time, but from the moment Gray launched the attack until it reached Tokikake, it was only a blink of an eye.

Even if his Observation Haki saw it, his body could not react in time.

"Damn it!" Tokikake could only dodge to the left as much as possible, using all his Armament Haki to defend his right side.

When attacking, a bullet had such a small surface area that he could not bring his powerful Armament Haki into full play, let alone project his Haki onto the bullet.

But when used for defense, the simple hardening of Haki was the best protection.

Not only that, the excessive application of Haki gave Tokikake the ability to project it outward to attack, weakening Gray's Railgun strike slightly.

"Boom!"

"Tokikake!!!"

The dazzling red light completely pierced through Tokikake's body and then slammed into the island.

Rumble!!!

An earth-shattering shockwave swept across, and on Minion Island, there was nothing left standing above the ground.

"Hoo~" Taking a deep breath to calm his panting body, Gray controlled his wheelchair to slowly descend to the ground.

"It seems! Using this move now is still a bit of a stretch!" Feeling the less than ten percent of stamina remaining in his body, Gray sighed inwardly before turning his gaze toward Tsuru and the others.

But the moment Gray's gaze shifted, Tsuru instantly snapped back to reality, her mind already made up: "Go!"

Scooping up Gion, Tsuru used Shave repeatedly to travel, and while the members of the Donquixote Family were still immersed in the power of Gray's move, she had already completely broken out of the encirclement.

"What are you all staring at? Give chase!" Gray's voice, filled with frustration at their incompetence, finally brought them back to their senses.

It wasn't their fault; Gray had never displayed this move in front of them before.

After all, they were only sparring to train their physical techniques, not fighting to the death.

The initial speed and power of the Railgun technique made it impossible to use as casually as a normal skill.

To be honest, this was only the second time Gray had used it since developing it. The previous time was during a mission last month.

"Oh, oh!"

"Fufufu, well done, Gray. Wait for our good news; we will definitely make sure they stay behind!"

"Hurry, chase them! Don't let them board the ship!"

"Yes, Young Master!"

As everyone left, the area finally fell silent.

After glancing around casually, Gray used his ability to turn his wheelchair and arrived at the edge of the giant crater where he had killed Tokikake.

But before he could get close, Gray, who thought he had already killed Tokikake, never expected that Tokikake would still have a chance to survive such an attack.

After Doflamingo and the others chased after Tsuru, and before Gray could get close, Tokikake instantly jumped out of the giant crater and ran rapidly toward the coastline.

"What!"

Although shocked, Gray hurriedly activated his previously closed Observation Haki.

"So that's how it is!"

A red light flashed in his eyes. Through his Observation Haki, Gray had already seen the situation clearly: "His right arm is gone, and the right side of his body is charred by the high temperature, which actually prevented him from bleeding out?"

"And... it seems this strike didn't damage his internal organs much! Did the high temperature... actually prevent secondary trauma?" Even though he understood the situation, Gray was unable to pursue him again.

For the current Gray, the Railgun skill was his strongest attack after breaking his limits.

It was the most stamina-consuming skill Gray possessed, aside from his limit-breaking series.

If a sneak attack combined with his strongest move couldn't kill the enemy, he had no stamina left to expend.

If Tokikake hadn't fled just now but had instead turned back to kill him, he might not have had much ability to resist.

"Too dangerous! Next time... unless I completely sever the enemy's head, I shouldn't turn off my Observation Haki perception early."

"Celebrating before the match is over is a bad idea!"

"If only I could have killed him completely." Regarding Tokikake—no, regarding the Marines, Gray held no personal hatred.

He only wanted to kill them because their stances were different.

Knowing that his predecessor's country had been destroyed because of the Celestial Dragons, Gray was already an enemy of the Celestial Dragons and the World Government and Navy that represented them.

Gray would never show mercy when eliminating the lackey forces under his enemies.

Tokikake had escaped this time, and he had made a mistake. But next time, he would never make such a mistake again.

Gray was also confident that as long as the enemy was not an Admiral or higher, he could thoroughly kill them.

This spatial movement attack, as well as the Railgun, were merely a fraction of his growth over the past three years.

"My body should be ready for Armament Haki training now!" As he walked toward the coast, Gray pondered and summarized this battle, as well as his next direction for self-strengthening.

"My Devil Fruit ability has reached a certain stage; the rest is just a matter of grinding it out over time."

"As for physical strength, it's the same as always; it can only grow through gravity training."

"If I want to rapidly increase my strength now, it can only be through Armament Haki!"

"However, it is also time to perfect the Personal Magnetic Field Project. After three years of continuous development, I have finally identified the problem."

Brrr-brrr!

Brrr-brrr!

"Hello! This is Sengoku!" Seeing that it was Tsuru calling, Sengoku answered in a very relaxed tone.

"Tsuru..."

"Don't speak, send reinforcements to us immediately! The strength of the Donquixote Family far exceeds our estimates; Tokikake has sacrificed himself!"

Unaware that Tokikake had already escaped, Tsuru could only report the situation truthfully based on what she had seen.

"I am currently taking Gion and fleeing toward the sea. Have Kizaru come to support us quickly!"

Click!

As soon as she finished speaking, Tsuru hung up the phone. It was at that moment that Sengoku's brain instantly processed the situation.

"Shave!" Disregarding the need to find a messenger, Sengoku used Shave directly to rush toward Kizaru's office.

Fortunately, the Admiral's office and the Fleet Admiral's office were on the same floor, so he did not have to run very far.

"Kizaru! Kizaru!"

"Oh, so it's Fleet Admiral Sengoku! Are you here to have a drink..."

Sengoku interrupted Kizaru directly, speaking with rapid urgency: "Head to the North Blue immediately to support Vice Admiral Tsuru. They are being hunted by the North Blue's Donquixote Family."

"Furthermore, Tokikake has sacrificed himself!"

At these words, Kizaru instantly transformed into a yellow flash and vanished from the office.

Tokikake and Kizaru were not just colleagues; they were close friends.

Well, it would be more accurate to say that as long as a Marine was at the Vice Admiral level, they had a decent relationship with Kizaru.

Within the upper echelons of the Navy, Kizaru belonged to neither the Dove Faction nor the Hawk Faction.

If one had to categorize him, he likely belonged to the neutral Slacker Faction.

He offended neither side; even with a hardline, iron-blooded figure like Sakazuki, Kizaru could still manage to chat with him for a few moments.

Of course, this was all thanks to the fact that both were elite Marines from the same graduating class, having studied together under Zephyr.

A yellow flash streaked across the sky, departing from Marineford, passing the Sabaody Archipelago, and diving straight into the Calm Belt, flying rapidly over it.