Alliance

"Luffy, that was an explosion just now, wasn't it?" Li Ziming asked worriedly. "Is it really okay to leave them up on the mountain?"

"It came from the direction we took..." Robin frowned.

"Maybe it has something to do with whatever left these footprints..." Franky eyed the enormous tracks in the snow uneasily. If someone could create something as unnatural as that dragon, who knew what other monsters they had?

"Yeah..." Luffy stretched his Observation Haki to its limit. "There are two things up there that feel like beasts. Let's go back!" He made the call at once. Finding the truth at the research facility mattered, but his friends' lives mattered more. The group raced toward the summit.

When they returned, they saw two huge figures holding what looked like rifles. But the guns were so large they might as well have been cannons.

"Yah!" Luffy kicked at one of them, but the figure vanished into the swirling snow.

"Luffy, be careful! Their fur might be white. They're probably blending into the snow!" Li Ziming released several hollows and sent them darting through the snow, trying to flush their enemies out.

But camouflage could be remarkably effective. Li Ziming couldn't find a trace of them. Luffy was about to use his Observation Haki when the enemy struck. A terrifying cannon blast and a figure appearing out of nowhere caught the Straw Hat Pirates off guard, and Nami was snatched away.

"Damn it!" Chopper angrily began treating Brownbeard.

"Huh?" Luffy and the others stared at the battered giant. "Tea Crocodile? Weren't those two here to rescue him?"

"No. They seemed to be after our lives and the children. Brownbeard was apparently a target too..." Chopper shook his head. "And now they've taken Nami..." He gritted his teeth, remembering the doctor who