Boom—
The flames exploded, blasting countless gang members away.
Lin Nuo withdrew his fist, breathing lightly.
Not a single intact stone slab could be found in the arena beneath his feet.
Twenty meters away.
Sarez knelt on one knee, his tachi embedded in the ground to keep himself from collapsing.
The sunlight quietly shifted.
Lin Nuo raised his head and squinted at the sky.
Noon had passed. The sun had begun to tilt westward, casting shadows along the arena walls.
The timing was about right, he thought.
According to the plan, if Moria and the others found no one at the underground Base, they would retreat to the docks first.
Then... it was time to wrap this up.
Lin Nuo took a deep breath. The fire wings on his back spread fully open, their cyan-blue flames illuminating the surroundings.
Sarez saw this.
Thinking Lin Nuo was about to launch another fierce assault, he immediately gritted his teeth and drew his blade.
"I'm done fighting."
Lin Nuo's calm voice rang out.
Sarez froze.
Then he saw Lin Nuo shoot straight toward the grandstand, landing before the cages in the blink of an eye.
Three flashes of cold light swept past.
The three iron cages imprisoning Ivankov, Kuma, and Ginny were effortlessly torn apart.
"Lin Nuo!"
Ivankov was the first to rush through the opening, spreading his arms as he came toward him.
"We got out!" Ginny followed right behind, her eyes lighting up.
And Kuma—
When he looked at Lin Nuo, gratitude and relief mixed within his dull eyes.
Lin Nuo stepped forward, covering his right hand in Lunarian Flame before chopping down several times with the edge of his hand.
The handcuffs and shackles snapped apart and fell to the ground.
"Long time no see, everyone."
He patted Kuma on the shoulder, then rubbed Ginny's head.
Finally, he raised an eyebrow at Ivankov. "Since when did you start wearing eye makeup? Weren't you locked up?"
"Hee-haw! It's called taste! Do you understand taste?!" Ivankov retorted through his tears.
Lin Nuo smiled and shook his head, then turned to Kuma with a serious expression.
"Kuma, I have a lot of questions for you—really, a lot."
"But we can talk on the way."
"We need to get out of here first."
The moment he finished speaking, Sarez suddenly leaped onto the grandstand!
He raised his tachi high, Armament Haki coating the blade as he lunged forward.
The blade flashed down upon them.
"I was only playing with you before."
Lin Nuo gently raised his right hand, spreading his fingers with his palm facing forward.
Lunarian Flame and Flame of Regeneration surged out together, forming a red-and-blue barrier before him.
The instant the tachi touched the barrier, it was sent flying away.
The tremendous recoil made Sarez's scalp go numb.
"When did you get the illusion that you could break my defense?"
Then Lin Nuo's right leg lashed out like a whip.
There were no flames around it—just a pure, swift strike that landed squarely in Sarez's abdomen.
Sarez's eyes bulged instantly as he flew backward and crashed heavily into the stone steps below.
The entire arena fell silent.
Samuel, the third-in-command, stood frozen in place, his face utterly blank.
Lin Nuo lowered his leg.
"Though it's not really appropriate for me to say this." He looked down at the people below.
"Your Haki is at the absolute bottom among everyone I know."
He paused, then grinned.
"I won't compete anymore. The judges can decide who the champion is."
"So—"
"See you."
With that, Lin Nuo hooked Ivankov under his left arm and slung Kuma over his right shoulder.
Then he tilted his head at Ginny.
"Get on."
Ginny's eyes lit up. She nimbly jumped up, wrapped both arms around Lin Nuo's neck, and hung onto his back.
"Let's go—!!!"
Lin Nuo kicked off the ground and shot into the sky.
"Wait..." Samuel came back to his senses, but it was already too late.
Only then did the tens of thousands of spectators in the stands erupt into an uproar!
"Where's the champion? What about the match? What about my bet?!"
"Did you get that on camera? That scene just now."
Shutters clicked, and flashes went off in an unbroken wave.
The front pages of every newspaper in West Blue tomorrow had already been decided.
"B-Big Brother..." Samuel's voice trembled. "What do we do...?"
"What else can we do?" Sarez coughed up blood.
"We can't fly... so we can only accept it."
But amid his fury, a trace of doubt surfaced.
Why had he suddenly left?
Did I guess wrong? He didn't have accomplices attacking the Base at all? He simply came to rescue them, then left once he did?
"Big Brother," Samuel said quietly.
"Should we... go take a look at the Base anyway?"
"With the competition disrupted like this, there's no way it can continue..."
Sarez fell silent for several seconds before slowly nodding.
High in the sky.
The wind howled.
"Woo-hoo! We're finally out!!"
Ivankov waved his arms and legs excitedly.
Lin Nuo smiled and turned his head. "Kuma, how are you feeling?"
From his shoulder, Kuma's voice was much steadier. "Without Seastone, I feel much better."
"Thank you."
"That's good." Lin Nuo's tone then turned urgent. "But Kuma, I've been holding these questions in for so long."
"...Ask."
"Why, at the end of God Valley, didn't you send us back to your hometown—the Sorbet Kingdom?"
The air fell quiet for a moment.
Kuma remained silent for so long that Lin Nuo thought he would not answer.
"The Sorbet Kingdom... was my hometown. My parents and I originally lived there peacefully."
"But later, we discovered... that the country was actually hiding World Government agents."
His voice began to tremble faintly.
"Because of those agents, my parents and I were targeted, and we were captured and taken to the Holy Land Mary Geoise..."
"And at God Valley... we went through something like that."
"Later, at God Valley, when you protected us from the Celestial Dragons and told us to run first, I started thinking."
"If we returned to the Sorbet Kingdom, would those agents find us again? Would we drag you into it? Would everyone's escape plan fall apart?"
Kuma closed his eyes.
"The small islands around here were places we passed when we took a Marine warship to God Valley."
"I remembered that this place seemed remote. There was no Marine base and no government Base."
"So I changed my mind at the last minute and sent you here."
"To this place that seemed... relatively peaceful."
Lin Nuo said nothing for a long while after hearing this.
"So that's how it was..." he finally said softly. "It's okay, Kuma."
"If those Celestial Dragons hadn't gone mad and poured everything into hunting you down, you all could have reunited safely."
"But now, I'm here."
"From now on, whether it's your hometown or any other country—you can go wherever you want."
"I promise."
The wind howled beside them.
Ivankov vigorously wiped his eyes, muttering, "The wind's so strong, sand got in my eyes."
Kuma and Ginny exchanged a glance, their eyes full of hope for the future.
Only after quite a while did Lin Nuo remember another important question.
"Oh, right, Kuma, there's something else."
"I can understand Roger and the others asking you to send them back to their own ships."
"But why were Rocks and I sent to such far-apart locations?"
He turned to look at Kuma's profile.
"While I was unconscious, what exactly happened at the end of God Valley?"
Hearing that, Kuma lowered his head, his gaze sinking into memory.
"At the time, you were unconscious when you suddenly turned into a blue giant bird. You began fighting that demon."
"During the battle, you also helped restore our strength."
"In the end, you trapped that demon with flames, and I prepared to send you away."
Kuma spoke slowly. "But at that time... I was still being suppressed by the demon's Conqueror's Haki. I couldn't use my ability."
"After those uncles understood the situation, they joined forces to attack the demon."
"I used that opening to send you flying away."
"But my Devil Fruit abilities were still struck by the aftermath of their battle."
"That was probably why the bubble wore off early."
He looked at Lin Nuo, deep fear still lingering in his eyes.
"Luckily, you didn't fall into the sea. I kept praying back then."
"Then, at those uncles' request, I sent them to different places—the shore, and islands a little farther from here."
Lin Nuo was stunned.
So that was what had happened.
It was not that Kuma had lost control, nor had something gone wrong on Rocks' end. The aftermath of that Conqueror's Haki melee at God Valley had interfered with his Devil Fruit abilities.
That meant—
"Rocks, Kaido, Linlin, Whitebeard..." Lin Nuo's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
"They can't have gone very far! They might still be in West Blue, or they may have only just entered the first half of the Grand Line!"
He took a breath, a brighter and more delighted smile than any he had worn these past days blooming across his face.
"I found them! I finally found news of them!!"
"All my running around these past days wasn't for nothing!!!"
Overjoyed, Lin Nuo suddenly beat his wings!
His flying speed surged!
Cyan-blue flames drew a long, dazzling trail through the sky!
Lin Nuo even performed several difficult rolls and spins in midair.
Like a bird that had truly broken free from its cage, soaring freely through the blue sky!
"Waaahhh—!! So high! So amazing! But... I'm so dizzy!!"
Ginny spun until she was completely disoriented, her little face pale as she could only close her eyes.
"Hee-haw! Faster! Higher!!" Ivankov, on the other hand, howled with excitement.
Kuma tightly gripped Lin Nuo's shoulder, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
They flew wildly for a while.
Only then did Lin Nuo steady his flight again.
"Oh, right." Ivankov suddenly remembered something, and his expression turned serious.
"Lin Nuo, besides us, there are still many children being held in the underground Base."
"It's fine." Lin Nuo's smile did not fade. "They should have already been rescued by my companions."
"According to the original plan, you were supposed to be rescued by them too."
"I just didn't expect the gang to bring you straight to the arena, so I ended up being the one to save you."
He adjusted his direction and accelerated toward the abandoned docks.
"Now, let's hurry to the docks and meet up with them."
Ivankov's eyes lit up. "Hee-haw! Then speed up even more!!"
"Wait, wait, wait—"
Ginny protested weakly.
"Let me... let me get down and throw up first!"
Before you continue