Meanwhile, aboard the naval warship that was still sailing farther away, a fading trail of white foam stretched out behind the stern.
Tsuru stood beside the railing, her gaze crossing the widening stretch of sea to land on the behemoth blotting out the sky. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed onto the deck as though all her support had been stripped away.
Beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.
Then Tsuru spoke, an uncontrollable tremor in her voice. "What... what is that? Could it be... this is Ron's real trump card?"
Based on the intelligence the Navy had gathered, she had thought she understood most of Ron's abilities.
Now, however, she suddenly felt rather ridiculous.
Those pieced-together reports probably covered only what he was willing to let others see.
Tsuru raised a slightly trembling hand and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She was very glad she had rejected the idea of fleeing.
Of course, with Ron suddenly summoning such an enormous Thousand-Armed Buddha, both Roger's and Rayleigh's expressions had turned ice-cold.
"Roger, let's retreat for now." Rayleigh quickly glanced at Roger beside him and spoke in a low voice.
Although neither side had exchanged blows yet, merely standing there, he felt that pressure tightening around him like a slowly constricting rope, leaving him unable to breathe.
Roger fell silent for a moment, then shook his head. "Rayleigh! If we retreat, Amazon Lily is finished. Shakky will definitely be captured."
"This isn't the time to get hung up on that. Ron said he could help Amazon Lily. Then let him go. Our first priority now is keeping ourselves safe, then finding another way," Rayleigh said hurriedly.
"No!!! Rayleigh, you trust him too much. What if he's just lying to us? Besides... it really does seem possible that he's already joined