One Piece World! A Token of Allegiance

Boom!

Another explosion rang out. Loa swiftly turned his head. This one had come from the beach. Even from so far away, he could smell the pungent scent of gunpowder.

"Someone finally came? Whoever it is, I'm getting off this island!" He had long since had enough of life on this lonely island. Loa thought viciously, then leaped upward with all his strength.

Crack!

At the peak of his jump, Loa began to fall, but a palm-sized slab of ice appeared beneath his feet. With a light step, his falling body immediately came to a halt. Then he leaped toward another slab of ice. Repeating the process, he stepped on blocks of ice and rapidly flew through the air toward the beach.

Vick felt humiliated and furious. He was only an ordinary pirate with a bounty of 500. He had just arrived on the Grand Line and had not even encountered a single merchant ship. Why was he being hunted by a Marine Headquarters vice admiral? And for two whole days and nights! What the hell had he done to deserve this?

If the specially modified Flying Fish had not possessed propulsion no weaker than a Marine warship's, he would have been shackled and escorted to Impel Down two days ago.

But his luck had run out. The warship behind them seemed sick of this cat-and-mouse game. Since earlier, the cannons at its bow had fired without pause. Even after destroying their sails, they had not stopped.

Losing its sails was fatal for a wooden sailing ship like the Flying Fish. Filled with grief and anger, Vick ordered them to land at the nearest shore and make their final stand.

So what if he was a Headquarters vice admiral? He was Scissorhand Vick! He would never surrender without a fight!

This island was a little strange. It was clearly a summer island, yet there was a ten-meter-tall ice sculpture on the beach. But with no way out, Vick could not worry about that. After landing, he immediately ordered his crew to return fire with their cannons and prevent the warship from approaching.

Boom!

Another shell exploded, this time striking the Flying Fish's side directly. The pirates loading shells below deck suffered heavy casualties, blood and severed limbs scattered everywhere.

They were pirates, after all. How could their cannon accuracy compare to that of well-trained Marines? Moreover, in order to increase its speed, the Flying Fish carried very few cannons. Its sporadic return fire posed no threat at all to the steadily approaching warship.

On the warship, seeing that the pirates' cannons had been destroyed, the Marines raised their muskets and sabers, waiting for the order to charge.

An officer hurried toward the man standing at the bow. After approaching, he saluted. "Vice Admiral Momonga, the Scissor Pirates have lost the ability to retaliate with cannons. Shall we order the charge?"

Hearing this, Vice Admiral Momonga, dressed in a light purple striped suit and dark blue shirt, his deep-purple mohawk standing tall, stared solemnly at the pirates by the beach. He swept out a hand. "Cannon cover! Attack!"

"Yes, sir!"

Upon receiving the order, the warship immediately cut its power and began slowing forward. At the same time, several boats were lowered, and the Marines rapidly approached the shore under cannon cover.

"The Marines are here! Brothers, kill them!" Vick roared, raising his musket and beginning to fire.

Loa arrived at the beach outside the forest and found a chaotic scene before him. The first thing he saw was the Flying Fish, billowing black smoke. Only then did he notice the blue seagull flag in the distance, bearing the word "MARINE."

It could not be helped. The spectacle of such a huge ship exploding was simply too striking.

Hiding behind a coconut tree, Loa's eyes narrowed. "This is the Marine insignia from One Piece... So I've come to the world of One Piece!"

Loa stared in shock at the lively scene on the beach, feeling a little dumbfounded. He had brought a Fairy Tail system to the world of One Piece? What kind of bullshit was that? Their power systems were completely different!

The situation on the beach was nothing more than a simple scene of Marines hunting down pirates.

Loa shifted his gaze to Vick, who was directing the battle. After examining him carefully, he decided that Vick was probably just some nobody.

The Marines of the One Piece world were not to be provoked, but pirates were another matter. These people fought on their own. They might be strong individually, but in the end, they were nothing more than a disorganized rabble.

After learning which world he was in, Loa did not want to provoke the Marines. Looking at the pirate ship that had been blown apart, it seemed that if he wanted to leave, he would have to rely on the Marine warship.

So he set his sights on the Scissor Pirates, who were hollering as they fired to stop the Marines from landing, and sneered.

"Though we have no grudge against each other, I need to use the Marine warship to leave this island. Naturally, that requires a token of allegiance. So... sorry about this!"

After muttering to himself, Loa jumped directly into the air. The earth beneath his feet cracked into a web-like pattern under his monstrous strength. The immense boost granted by his dragon body sent him soaring into the sky in an instant.

Since he was behind the Scissor Pirates, Vick, who did not possess Observation Haki, failed to notice Loa in the air. But Vick's failure to notice did not mean Momonga would miss him.

His gaze sharpened as he carefully observed the leaping figure. "Who is that?"

Loa stepped onto ice formed in midair. His lungs swelled high as he clenched his fists before his mouth, magic power gathering within him.

Buzz!

A blue magic circle more than a man's height appeared before Loa, its center aimed directly at his open mouth.

"Ice Dragon's Roar!"

The next moment, an icy storm shot forth. Starting out only as thick as a fist, it rapidly expanded in midair into a massive thing several meters across. Like a roaring giant dragon, it slammed viciously into the Scissor Pirates' formation.

Boom!

Under Loa's control, the icy storm exploded the moment it reached its optimal killing range. A thunderous roar rang out like spring thunder. Before Vick could react, he was swallowed by the explosion.

Countless tiny ice shards, propelled by the violent airflow from the explosion, mercilessly harvested the lives of the Scissor Pirates like bone-scraping blades. The intense cold froze the pirates into statues before blood could even flow from their wounds. At the very center of the blast, where the magic power was most violent, not even a complete corpse could be seen.

Dragon Slayer Magic, even ice-element Dragon Slayer Magic, was incomparably violent. Otherwise, how would it differ from Gray's Ice-Make Magic?

After the icy storm exploded, terrifying cold followed. The spreading frost instantly froze the surroundings. The waves had only just risen when they froze solid, taking shape as hard blocks of ice.

Even the Marines aboard the distant warship felt a bone-piercing chill. Not to mention the Marines who had already boarded the boats.

"An ice-based ability..."

This scene was somewhat beyond Momonga's expectations. He had guessed that Loa would attack the Scissor Pirates, but he had never imagined it would be such a crushing massacre. And he was using an ice-based ability!

But now was not the time to dwell on that. Seeing the frozen sea rapidly spreading toward the advance force, Vice Admiral Momonga snorted and drew the katana at his waist, slashing horizontally with incredible speed.

Whoosh!

A massive pale-blue sword slash, powerful enough to sever waves, sped over the advance force and forcibly tore apart the endlessly spreading ice. The fierce sword energy left a deep groove in the sea. From afar, the ocean looked like jelly with a chunk scooped out of it.

The advance Marines were caught off guard. It was too late to change the boats' direction, so they all fell into the sea.

But they were Marines. Other than a few Devil Fruit users, the rest were skilled swimmers. Though their boats had capsized, they soon resurfaced. Still, everyone floated in the water with their arms wrapped around themselves, their lips blue and their teeth chattering nonstop.

It was simply too cold!

Seeing this, Vice Admiral Momonga slowly sheathed his katana and ordered his adjutant, "Immediately send people to assist the advance force!"

"Yes, sir!"

The adjutant gave Momonga a grateful look before hurrying off to relay the order. Vice Admiral Momonga of Marine Headquarters was just such a commander, one who cared for the soldiers under him.

Loa also saw that pale-blue sword slash, and his expression suddenly turned annoyed. "Damn, it was my first time using my ultimate move, so I couldn't control the power. I nearly froze the Marines to death... But someone capable of unleashing a sword slash of that intensity should be at least a swordsman according to the manga's logic, right? Probably."

Thinking back on that terrifying sword slash, Loa was filled with resentment toward Eiichiro Oda. The One Piece world's power system had always been criticized. The later characters appeared, the stronger they became, giving it the feeling of a massive stat explosion in a game. At level 100, a turtle that respawned every three minutes was more terrifying than the big boss of an old raid dungeon.

This chaos made it impossible for Loa to judge, based on the manga alone, what level of Marine was aboard the warship several hundred meters away.

Then again, this was practically a common problem in Japanese manga. Just look at Dragon Ball, Naruto, and Bleach. Which one did not have increasingly exaggerated combat power as the story went on?