Obstacles

"I-it's Admiral Aokiji! He's made his move!" someone exclaimed excitedly.

The strongest fighters had entered the fray, which meant ordinary soldiers like them had no place in this battle.

No one wanted to see meaningless deaths.

The soldiers cheered as though an admiral's presence made anything possible, as though there was no problem they could not solve.

Yet even as they spoke, hundreds more whirlpools appeared beneath the warships at once, like ravenous black holes.

The roaring maws of the whirlpools exerted an immense pull. Even at full power, the warships could not escape.

"Ice Age!" Aokiji shouted.

Crackle, crackle, crackle!

The sound of freezing ice spread into the distance, bringing an extraordinary sense of relief.

The Marine soldiers who had narrowly escaped death showered Aokiji with gratitude, saying in relief:

"Thank goodness Admiral Aokiji came along this time. Otherwise, we'd definitely have been buried at sea."

"Exactly!"

Those words instantly struck a chord with many of them.

Akainu's expression darkened at the sight.

"Tch! Nothing but dumb luck!"

Kizaru spread his hands, reflecting on how the conflict between those two had only grown harder to reconcile since their struggle over the position of Fleet Admiral.

Akainu was even getting angry over something this trivial.

But being frozen in place presented another problem. Egghead was still hundreds of miles away, and they could no longer advance.

"What an idiot. How are we supposed to sail when he's frozen the sea?" Akainu grumbled.

The Five Elders also noticed the change and ordered the admirals to resolve it within ten minutes.

"Great Eruption!" Akainu roared.

A spark of magma appeared in midair, then soon began churning violently.

Boom, boom, boom!

It burst apart, scattering small projectiles all around like rain.

The small blobs of magma exploded the instant they struck the ice,