Sudden Ambush

At the other end of the square, a sandstorm suddenly rose up without warning.

Crocodile had somehow broken free from his brief entanglement with Luffy, and the golden sand grains reformed into human form in mid-air.

He glanced in the direction of the Whitebeard, a cold smile that would never fade, before turning to look at Gecko Moria, who was blocking his way, and Doflamingo, who was strolling towards him from the side.

"Furfurfur! Crocodile, you wouldn't be thinking of helping Whitebeard, would you?" Doflamingo's Parasite Strings danced between his fingertips, his tone full of amusement as he watched a good show.

Crocodile raised his hand, and a sandstorm condensed in his palm into a rapidly spinning sand blade.

He licked his chapped lips, his eyes cold and crazed. "Help him? I'd love to kill him with my own hands. But if you two stand in my way—I'll kill you both first, it'll be the same."

On the bow of the Moby Dick, the purple half-giant still stood motionless.

Uchiha Fugaku stood between the eyebrows of Susanoo, arms crossed, his greyish-white clan chief's robe fluttering in the sea breeze.

Gion's Kompira and Tokikake's swords slashed down from the left and right sides simultaneously. The two slashes, both at the Admiral Level, were wrapped in the dark luster of Armament Haki and slammed into Susanoo's ribs. The shockwaves from the explosions sheared off a layer of ice from the surrounding ice.

Fugaku didn't even lift an eyelid.

A faint ripple spread across the Susanoo's skeleton at the point of impact, before it returned to its original state without leaving even a crack.

A few months ago, outside Origin Island, he had to fight with all his might against Gion, Susanoo be activated to its semi-complete form to barely block the Famous Sword's attack.

Back then, every time his Mangekyo Sharingan turned, it was accompanied by a needle-like stinging pain. His eye power was being consumed so quickly that he had to carefully calculate the rhythm of every second in the battle.

Things are different now.

After the second successful transplantation of the Hashirama Cells, he could clearly feel that his pupillary power was recovering at an unprecedented speed—that warm, vigorous life force was constantly nourishing his eyes.

The Semi-Complete Susanoo maintained for several hours without feeling any strain.

If he really had to fight to the death, he could completely grow the half-giant into its full form in a short time—grow legs, don armor, and enter its complete form.

It's not that we can't do it, it's just not the right time yet.

Gion's blade scraped against Susanoo's ribs, leaving a trail of sparks, but her expression was even more somber than the flash of the blade.

A few months ago, outside Origin Island, she was able to firmly suppress the man in front of her.

Back then, she shattered his Susanoo Skeleton with a single strike, forcing him to rely on the fire dragon to buy him a chance to catch his breath.

But now— Tokikake and Jia Ji combined, they couldn't cut through a single rib of his.

It's only been a few months. Monsters. Every single one of these Red Eye people is a monster.

Tokikake then slashed out from the side, but the attack was also deflected by Susanoo's defense.

He took two steps back, standing back-to-back with Gion, and whispered something. Fugaku didn't give them a chance to adjust their tactics.

Susanoo raised its hand, and purple Chakra condensed in its palm into a rapidly spinning energy ball, which it smashed down at the feet of the two.

Gion and Tokikake retreated simultaneously, and the energy ball exploded in the ice, creating a deep crater, sending ice shards and water vapor soaring into the sky.

Fugaku's attacks were always unhurried, as if he were doing a craft that required patience to complete.

His goal was not to kill, but to stall.

Every second these two people linger here reduces the pressure on the Execution Platform.

As for Natsu —he didn't even need to activate his Observation Haki; he just needed to wait until that brat felt the time was right.

Just as the battlefield was in chaos, an arrow came flying through the air without any warning.

The arrow was so fast that even Observation Haki could only catch a blurry afterimage. The Armament Haki wrapped around the arrowhead created a faint black ripple in the air, and even floating volcanic ash was instantly pierced through wherever it passed.

Garp's iron fist clashed with Murakumogiri, the shockwave and Armament Haki colliding to shatter the stone slabs beneath their feet. Whitebeard's entire focus was on this single strike—

His Observation Haki detected the arrow, but his body couldn't react in time. His arms were locked in a fierce struggle with Garp's monstrous strength, and he couldn't break free even an inch.

Just before the arrow struck the Whitebeard's back, a gray-white figure silently appeared on his left shoulder.

Uchiha Natsu one knee on Newgate's broad shoulder, his right hand having somehow drawn the Tang Saber from his waist, the blade drawing a dark golden arc Setsuna he turned.

The arrow was severed in two by a single stroke, the broken shaft grazing past the Whitebeard's cloak before embedding itself in a stone slab a dozen meters away, its fletching still humming.

He slowly raised his head, his crimson Three-Tomoe Sharingan piercing through the smoke of battle and locking onto the figure in mid-air.

It was a woman.

She stood on the back of a bird made of countless translucent arrows, its wings flapping slowly in the air, each flap creating a fine trail of arrow-like phantoms.

She wore a pure white cloak, the collar of which was embroidered with an ancient emblem that belonged neither to the Navy nor to CP0.

One hand holds an ancient-looking longbow, its body engraved with intricate patterns, the bowstring still vibrating slightly.

With his other fingertip, he held an arrowhead, its tip gleaming with a cold metallic sheen in the sunlight, trailing a very thin, almost invisible line at its end—the other end of that line pointing directly at the back of the Whitebeard's chest.

The God's Knights.

Uchiha Natsu's eyes turned icy cold the moment he recognized the bow and the emblem.

The judicial body directly under Imu, the king of the Celestial Dragons, is an elite group of the Celestial Dragons and has the power to judge and execute Celestial Dragons.

It is said that all God's Knights are under the absolute control of Imu's power, and have been endowed with strange abilities such as immortality and teleportation.

The woman in front of me is one of them.

"Mammaya Gunko." Natsu's voice was not loud, but it clearly pierced through the smoke and shouts of battle, each word as cold as if squeezed from the depths of ice.

In mid-air, Gunko raised an eyebrow slightly.

She looked down at the boy, who was no more than ten years old, standing on the Whitebeard's shoulder, at the Tang Saber in his hand that was still emitting a faint Chakra tail flame, and then at the arrow that had been broken in two on the ground.

Her expression didn't change much; she remained calm and unhurried, as if what had just been severed wasn't a fatal arrow with a carefully calculated trajectory, but a tree branch tossed out casually.