Bullet the Kill-Stealer

The two who could not be of help here planned to seize the warship first, so the others would have no worries holding them back.

Their idea woke Sal up. Turning his head, he saw Mr. 2 Bon Kurei secretly turn and leave. He was going to disguise himself as Magellan and trick the Gate of Justice into opening.

The Gate of Justice was just as crucial as the warship. Only by opening it could they ride the current and quickly reach Marineford.

According to the original plan, once they reached the first level, Luffy, Bon Kurei, and Inazuma would open the Gate of Justice.

Of course, such a plan might prompt the guards to destroy the controls, making it less reliable than Bon Kurei going alone. If the group were no match for Magellan, Sal would not object to Bon Kurei's plan. After all, sacrificing only him would ensure the plan's perfect execution.

But things were looking great now. There was no need to sacrifice anyone.

Sal immediately leaned close to Luffy's ear and explained Bon Kurei's plan. Luffy was deeply moved. Anyone willing to die for a friend was absolutely worthy of respect.

"How could Little Bon do this? No, I have to get there quickly."

At that moment, Inazuma also said he would go with him, which reassured Sal considerably. With this strategist around, Luffy would not recklessly ruin Bon Kurei's plan. Tricking the Gate of Justice open was practically guaranteed.

After explaining everything, Sal picked up an ordinary longsword and used Conqueror's Coating. Dark crimson lightning wrapped around the blade. There was not much time left in his transformation, so he had to end this quickly.

A massive cannonball once again marked the start of battle.

Venom Demon stretched out an arm and caught the cannonball. Although the explosion destroyed the entire arm, it did not affect the main body. As Magellan's stamina was rapidly drained, Venom Demon's arm quickly regenerated.

Then Ivankov used Galaxy Wink again. Dozens of afterimages of giant heads surrounded Magellan, but this time Magellan had a response prepared. The enormous demon suddenly spun, flinging countless streams of venom in every direction.

Quite a bit of venom splashed onto Ivankov's giant head. The pain made him lose his composure after only a few blinks, and he hurriedly injected himself with Immunity Hormones.

While Magellan was dealing with Ivankov, Sal had already Flash Stepped behind him. His blade fell, and a dark crimson slash accompanied by lightning cleaved directly into the venom. Even with Armament Haki blocking it, it carved a wound deep enough to expose bone.

Grunting in pain, Magellan quickly controlled Venom Demon's arm to strike back, barely forcing the treacherous attacker away again.

Like blossoms scattered by a celestial maiden, plenty of venom also splashed onto Sal's body, corroding it and producing green smoke. In close combat, it was difficult to avoid touching the other man's venom.

"Boom... Boom..."

Bondi's bombs struck Venom Demon's back again, causing Magellan's barely closed wounds to split open once more.

Magellan had now realized that he was completely at a disadvantage, thoroughly restrained by the simple teamwork of the three men. The other two were manageable, but Bondi's More-More Fruit was simply too powerful.

As for trying to ambush the shooter first, that was impossible as well. The other two could easily stop him.

"Criminals, don't think..."

The battle between the four continued on the second level for two minutes. The terrifying shockwaves sent everyone else fleeing to the top level, where they engaged the remaining Marines in fierce battle.

Even without five top-tier fighters, these defeated Marines were still no match for the pirates.

Facing Marines weaker than himself, Buggy charged into the crowd first.

"Hahaha! Trash Marines dare block me, Buggy? Take my Buggy Bomb!"

His separated leg fired tiny bombs, but their power rivaled ordinary cannons, blasting the Marines off their feet.

Meanwhile, Jinbe carried Crocodile on a wooden plank and swam across the sea at no slow pace. Not far ahead was the warship that had already sailed several thousand meters from the harbor.

At this point, the entire Impel Down harbor had no other warships left. Only a coastal supply vessel unsuitable for long voyages remained usable.

Of the remaining three warships, two had been destroyed by Blackbeard's crew. The sole surviving warship was too far from the harbor, and Blackbeard had not wanted to waste time on it, so he had left it alone.

Its survivors could only watch helplessly as Impel Down fell.

The warship's acting captain, a Marine Headquarters colonel, saw the two men approaching and immediately guessed their intentions. Gritting his teeth, he gave the order.

"Destroy the warship immediately! The prisoners plan to use our warship to leave Impel Down. During the Marineford War, we absolutely cannot allow these vicious criminals to escape!"

The Marines aboard quickly sprang into action, carrying over barrels of explosives to blow up the ship. The rest lowered the small boats and prepared to evacuate.

The commotion aboard the warship caught Crocodile's attention. While still several hundred meters away, he turned into a mass of sand and drifted toward the deck.

Several Marines preparing to ignite the explosives were pierced through the body by yellow sand blades and fell one after another.

A shrill alarm sounded.

"Enemy attack! The enemy is former Shichibukai Crocodile!"

Jinbe also used Fish-Man Karate, controlling the current to sweep several Marines overboard.

"And former Shichibukai, First Son of the Sea Jinbe!"

Crocodile floated above the mast while Jinbe boarded from the stern. Though there were only two of them, they brought despair to the Marines.

Crocodile gathered power in his palm, and yellow sand instantly blanketed the deck. Screams rang out one after another from within the dust storm. With only a Headquarters colonel leading them, they had no room whatsoever to resist two powerful Shichibukai working together.

The mission to seize the ship was complete. Now it depended on the other two teams.

Inside Impel Down's top-level control room, the trio also completed their task smoothly. Bon Kurei first disguised himself as Magellan and entered the control room, using the excuse that reinforcements were about to arrive to have the technicians open the Gate of Justice.

Once the Gate of Justice was open, Luffy and Inazuma joined forces and easily subdued everyone in the control room.

Impel Down, Second Level

Meteor Bombardment

Three gigantic bombs exploded simultaneously. With Sal and Ivankov keeping Magellan pinned down, he had no time to dodge and could only watch Venom Demon be blasted apart again.

After the demon dispersed, Magellan no longer had the strength to gather it again. He was in an extremely miserable state now. Half an arm had been cut off, and his body was covered in severe blast wounds.

The only thing he could not understand was why Sal, who had clearly touched the venom several times, had not succumbed to poison and still retained his peak combat strength.

Naturally, Sal had no idea what puzzled him. Otherwise, he would only have been even more delighted. Though the transformation had only eighty percent of his strength and lasted ten minutes, it seemed to possess an extremely high resistance to venom.

The other two were not doing much better. Ivankov, the support fighter, had been poisoned repeatedly. Even after treating himself with Healing Hormones, his huge head had turned purple, clearly showing that his poison resistance was nearing its limit.

Bondi was the only one in slightly better condition, but even he was nearing exhaustion. His frantic use of his Fruit power had nearly drained his already weakened stamina.

Sal tossed aside the shattered longsword and picked up another blade. Every use of Conqueror's Coating consumed an ordinary sword. What a hassle.

There were only about thirty seconds left in the transformation. He no longer intended to drag this out. He casually called for Magellan's surrender, but before receiving an answer, he charged at him again.

"Surrender, Magellan. You've already lost."

"Never! You'll only pass over my corpse! Poison Dragon!"

Just as Magellan controlled Poison Dragon for one final desperate struggle, another change occurred. A figure no smaller than Magellan appeared behind him.

Douglas Bullet clasped his dark, muscular hands together, then expressionlessly smashed Magellan down with all his strength. The tremendous force even shattered the floor.

Magellan vanished into the third level below. Judging by the destructive force of that blow, had it punched straight through the third level as well?

Seeing this, Sal immediately cried out in accusation.

"Damn it, kill-stealer!"