Narrowly Escaping Death

But before he hit the cliff face, he already knew he wouldn't escape unscathed. So, at top speed, he took down the six pirate flags and wrapped up some important items—the Bright Light, branches suspected to be from Treasure Tree Adam, and several pieces of metal—then slung them over his shoulder.

As for the Beli he had "worked so hard" to loot, he had abandoned it. A hundred million Beli piled together weighed far more than these things. He wasn't the sort to value money over his life.

Originally, he had planned to recover and rest up before calmly taking everything across Reverse Mountain. But Garp's appearance had thrown that plan into disarray.

"Come on, Reverse Mountain!"

As Reverse Mountain drew nearer and nearer, Gato had initially felt somewhat uneasy. Yet for some reason, he was now growing more and more excited.

Thanks to Divine Wind Control. Without that technique, Gato's ship would have smashed head-on into Reverse Mountain. But now it had been blown slightly off course, and half the ship had yet to make contact with the cliff face.

Gato leaped high into the air and began flying, avoiding the impact while watching with his own eyes as the ship was smashed to pieces. However, because the other half was still within the waterway, fairly large pieces of wreckage continued to be swept upward by the current.

He hurriedly sped up, caught up with a larger piece of wreckage, and clung to it tightly.

There was no helping it. He had to use its momentum to get up there. With less than half his chakra remaining, there was no way he could cross Reverse Mountain and land safely on his own.

Gato was experiencing the most thrilling thing he had ever encountered since gaining his memories. No roller coaster could compare to this.

Clinging to a massive chunk of wood, he bobbed constantly in the water as the powerful current battered his body, occasionally slamming him into the mountain walls on either side.

Even with his already powerful physique, he could barely endure such impacts. Especially when he struck the mountain walls—each collision made him cough up blood.

The flight ability granted by Divine Wind Control could only be used when his body was suspended in midair. Getting entirely out of the water was nothing but a fantasy for him. He couldn't fly even if he wanted to, and could only press onward down this path.

Just as Gato was about to lose consciousness from the battering of the current and mountain walls, he vaguely felt his body suddenly lift into the air, as if Reverse Mountain had thrown him out.

Gato bit his tongue hard, forcing himself awake. He had already realized that the grueling journey up the mountain seemed to have reached its end.

Sure enough, once he regained clarity, he discovered that the force of the water had carried him past the peak of Reverse Mountain and flung him high into the sky.

"Wind Release—Divine Wind Control!"

White wings appeared once more. After falling some distance through the air, Gato stabilized himself.

Looking at the thick clouds beneath his feet, Gato had no idea how high above the sea he was.

The air was thin at such altitudes, making flight even more difficult. He had used almost all his chakra while climbing the mountain to protect himself. Now, it seemed he had reached a dead end.

Fortunately, he had anticipated this situation. Gritting his teeth, Gato flew some distance away from Reverse Mountain before dismissing Divine Wind Control.

"AAAAAH!"

Free-falling from high in the sky was another thrilling experience. Compared to the crushing overload caused by the rushing water on the way up, the weightlessness of free fall made Gato even more nauseous and disgusted.

Luckily, he had not eaten before climbing the mountain. Otherwise, he would have thrown it all up by now.

Gato forced himself to calm down, hoping to use this brief window to recover some precious chakra.

Falling into the sea of clouds meant that the air around him was becoming denser again, but that was not a good thing. The air condensed into clouds was cold enough to form ice crystals. Breathing it in caused severe damage to Gato's lungs.

If he had been in perfect condition, such damage would have been nothing. But now, there was not a single part of his body that was still in decent shape. Passing through these clouds was simply adding frost to snow.

Fortunately, this stretch was nowhere near as long as the climb. Soon, Gato broke through the cloud layer and saw the azure sea.

As he pierced through the clouds at free-fall speed, the distance between him and the ocean visibly shrank at an alarming rate. He hurriedly used Divine Wind Control again to slow himself down.

Weightlessness abruptly turned back into crushing overload, placing immense pressure on his body while draining his chakra even faster.

The tiny amount of chakra Gato had recovered during free fall was about to run out.

At this rate, his chakra would soon be completely exhausted.

He weakened Divine Wind Control, no longer hoping to use it to fly. He only wanted to slow himself as much as possible before reaching the sea.

He opened the bundle made from the pirate flags, took the Bright Light, tucked the two branches into his belt, and threw away the pieces of metal. Then, he turned the pirate flags into a crude parachute.

He needed anything that could slow his descent. He simply had no hands left to hold those pieces of metal, so he could only throw them away.

Still, metal was dense, so they should not have fallen too far from where he landed. He could dive into the sea to look for them later—if he managed to keep his life, that was.

With his preparations complete, all that remained was to leave the final outcome to fate. When he was still several hundred meters above the sea, Gato's chakra finally ran dry, and he continued accelerating downward.

The time it took to fall several hundred meters passed in an instant. Gato could only make a slight adjustment to his posture before plunging into the sea.

Splash!

Like a whale breaching the surface before crashing back down, Gato's fall sent up an enormous spray.

Bubbles rose beneath the surface with a steady gurgle. Then, with a splash, Gato pushed his head above the water.

"Huff... huff, I finally survived. Hic, hahaha!"

He spotted an uninhabited island nearby and could not help feeling lingering fear. Fortunately, he had not hit that island.

He was not a monster like Kaido, capable of falling from the height of a Sky Island without so much as a scratch.

If he had struck land, he might not have died, but he would certainly have suffered fractures throughout his entire body. Once he lost the ability to move, all he could do would be wait for death.

Now he did not even have enough chakra to maintain water walking, so he could only endure the agony throughout his body and swim over.

Gato collapsed onto the island's beach, feeling as though he had seen this scene before.

"Cough, cough... Did I die again? Hahaha."

After spitting out a huge mouthful of seawater, he felt that this was the closest he had come to death since arriving in this world.

He had truly used every last ounce of strength to survive such a desperate situation.

"This world really can't be underestimated."

Gato had only just made a breakthrough and had thought himself already quite powerful. Yet when facing a top-tier expert like Garp, he had been utterly unable to fight back.

And he had only been blocking Garp's attacks from far away. He had never expected that after just a few exchanges, he would be beaten into a serious injury.