Minnie's Strongest Strike (Happy Dragon Boat Festival!)

Thanks to reader ~?﹏?????~ for the 100 reward!

"It's still too early to give up!" Laurent Minnie had somehow gotten back on her feet. Her right leg was still twitching uncontrollably, and she could only let it lightly touch the ground.

She looked utterly bedraggled, but her words successfully reignited the fighting spirit of the recruits still standing.

"That's right, it's still too early to give up!" Tony shoved aside Simon's supporting hand, his eyes brimming with fighting spirit. "I have an ultimate move that needs one minute to charge! With it, I once killed a pirate captain who attacked a town, a great pirate with a bounty of 5,400 Beli, on the spot."

He first explained the move's power to everyone, calming their nerves. After a pause, Tony continued, "Minnie, Simon, and everyone from the Recruit Camp! I'm counting on you! Even if we lose, we have to leave Loa with a souvenir!"

There was no need to spell it out. Simon and Minnie exchanged a look, then nodded resolutely and called out to the recruits still standing around them. "Everyone! Hold Loa back!"

"Yeah!"

"Grab your weapons and charge!"

After all the Ice Wolves had been eliminated, only a portion of the recruits still had the strength to fight.

But before the terrifying Demon King Loa, no one retreated. Howling at the top of their lungs, they surged forward behind the two of them.

"Huh? These guys..." Loa glanced sideways. "Even if they're not strong enough, their fighting spirit is pretty impressive!"

Still, while he acknowledged them inwardly, Loa had no intention of holding back. Whoever needed to be knocked down would be knocked down.

He pressed a hand to the ground, and surging frost wildly spread in every direction.

"Well, I hadn't planned to use this move, but I think it'd be better to make you despair sooner."

"Ie ake, Icefield!"

Crack!

As the frost swept past, countless recruits were instantly frozen in place. Those lucky enough to leap over it could not even keep their footing on the slick ice after landing.

In an instant, the recruits who had charged so fiercely moments ago were stopped dead, falling all over themselves.

However, that did not include the top ten. Even if this batch of recruits was weak, they were still recruits from Headquarters.

Their future achievements would at least place them among the commissioned officers, if not the field-grade officers. They were the backbone of the Navy. No matter how weak they were, they could still dodge Loa's simple freezing move.

Unless they were truly too close and had no time to react.

Like Laurent Minnie, who realized in despair that she could no longer lift her feet.

This was no longer Loa's Icefield from a month ago. Neither its freezing speed nor the hardness of its ice could compare to before.

"Watch out, Minnie!"

Suddenly, Simon shouted. He picked up a scimitar from the ground and hurled it out.

Whoosh!

The blade tore through the air with a piercing shriek, aimed straight at Loa, who was preparing to finish Minnie with a punch.

The scimitar shot forth like lightning, making Loa's expression turn grave. "Devil Fruits really are unreasonable. A guy outside the top hundred in physical fitness at the Recruit Camp can actually throw something this fast."

If the iron sand Simon had scattered before was like ordinary bullets, then this scimitar was like Kizaru's laser. Its speed was simply absurd!

Once speed reached a certain level, a standard-issue scimitar forged from ordinary iron would not be much duller than a Supreme Grade Blade.

Moreover, Simon had clearly calculated this throw beforehand. It perfectly blocked Loa's advance. Any slight deviation would have exposed a flaw and allowed Loa to succeed.

In only an instant, it had reached Loa.

"What an impressive sniping technique." With a sigh, Loa had no choice but to abandon his attack.

At the same time, he turned and fired countless ice spears, knocking down the recruits who had approached in preparation for a sneak attack.

While Loa was dealing with the cannon fodder, Simon came to Minnie's side. His raised fist was pitch-black.

"Armament Haki!"

Minnie blurted out in surprise, then quickly covered her mouth. Yet her eyes were full of curiosity as she gazed at Simon, her beautiful eyes seeming able to speak.

Simon shook his head. "No. This isn't the time for that! They can't hold him off for a whole minute by themselves. Let's go!"

Boom!

The sound of something breaking behind him caught Loa's attention. He turned around and saw a leather shoe piercing through the dust and charging straight at him.

"A shoe? Simon has run out of things to throw—no, it's Minnie!"

Loa was about to make a joke when he saw Minnie burst out of the smoke.

"How did she get out?"

Though Loa was puzzled, his hands did not slow. He directly opened his hand and caught Minnie's surprise attack.

Little did he know, this was exactly what Minnie had wanted!

With one foot caught, Minnie flipped through the air and used the strength of her waist and abdomen to whip her other leg forward with all her might.

Charging, accelerating, pouring in all her strength!

The dark brown sea beast leather shoe radiated scorching heat. Strands of flame coiled around it, leaving a glaring streak of red light through the air.

Mountain Forest Blast!

Boom!

A sound like a cannonball exploding rang out. The scattered dust flew up and enveloped Loa within it.

"Did it work?"

The recruits all looked hopefully toward the center of the field. At that moment, Minnie was like a goddess of war in their hearts, glowing with golden light.

But the next moment, everyone saw the change in Minnie's expression.

"Ahh~!!!"

Her scream rang out again. Minnie fell to the ground and rolled around while clutching her right leg, which would not stop cramping.

From within the smoke came Loa's calm voice. "Kick my handsome face again, and I'll press your Yongquan acupoint again."

"What?!"

Even while lying on the ground, with waves of bone-piercing pain shooting through her twisted tendons, Minnie did not look away. That strike had been the strongest attack she had unleashed in all her years. It should have been enough to leave Loa with a souvenir.

But when she heard Loa's calm tone, Minnie's eyes widened as she stared at the smoke before her in disbelief.

Suddenly, a massive ice wing stretched out from the smoke. With one flap, it whipped up a gale that scattered the dust and revealed Loa, completely unharmed.

Or rather, Loa had not been injured.

The Ice Armor on Loa's right cheek had shattered, and specks of ice crystal fell from it. For the first time since the battle began, Loa's Ice Armor had been broken.

Sengoku looked at Laurent Minnie lying on the ground and smiled approvingly. "Not bad, truly not bad. Zephyr, this batch isn't as terrible as you said after all!"

He knew exactly how hard Loa's Ice Armor was. Information Kuzan had revealed during casual conversation had made him gasp. It was a defense tougher than steel, one that even he needed to use thirty percent of his strength to break.

And now that Loa's strength had improved once again, one could only imagine how much stronger the defense of that Ice Armor had become. Just thinking about it made Sengoku feel sorry for the recruits.

Yet Minnie had actually shattered Loa's defensive Ice Armor with nothing but her kicking technique. That strength deserved recognition.

Although Sengoku was satisfied, Zephyr remained deeply worried. "But do you know how old Minnie is this year? She's 1! Her peak will come before she turns forty. With only a few years left, don't you know how far she can grow in the future?"

"Well, at worst, we can find her a Devil Fruit to eat. Although the top three of this batch are indeed much weaker than those from previous years, aside from Simon, none of them are Devil Fruit users. They still have plenty of room to grow!" Garp said carelessly as he munched on a rice cracker, failing to notice Zephyr's expression growing darker and darker.

Sure enough, in the next second, Zephyr exploded. He grabbed Garp by the collar and sprayed saliva at him. "What do you know?! Devil Fruits are products of demons! Strength from within is true strength! If you can only grow stronger by eating a Devil Fruit, then you'll never amount to much in your whole life!"

Sengoku and Garp both found it hard to respond to that topic. Shrugging, Garp pulled a doughnut from his pocket. "Don't be angry! Here, have a doughnut!"