Boom! Boom! Boom!
Cannons roared around the square, brilliant bursts of fire flaring beside the combatants.
"Crush them all! Fight your way into the bay!"
The Whitebeard Pirates' ships that had not entered the bay turned their cannons toward it as the fourteen division commanders began fighting, unleashing a fierce barrage together.
Countless dark cannonballs shot from the barrels toward the Marine warships frozen into the ice inside the bay.
Crack! Boom!
Several figures in white moved at once, intercepting every cannonball before it could reach the warships.
"The Marine Headquarters Vice Admirals have all shown themselves!"
When the barrage failed, members of the Whitebeard Pirates rose and peered down over the railing. Seeing the Marine officers standing in a neat row, they laughed mockingly. "I've never seen so many Vice Admirals gathered in one place. Most people would probably turn pale at the sight. But when their opponents are Pops and us, that's a different story."
The assembled Marine Vice Admirals were no less imposing than the Whitebeard Pirates' fourteen commanders. Even so, experts of their caliber wore grave expressions as they faced the Whitebeard Pirates.
"Bring the ship alongside the ice and kill them all! The bay is our target. Forward!"
Squard stood on the railing and shouted to his crew.
"If it's for Pops, I'd die a thousand times over! Marine Headquarters Vice Admirals, you've come at just the right time. Let's go, Squard Pirates!"
As his crewmates leaped from the ship and headed into the bay, Squard opened his mouth wide and loudly proclaimed his "loyalty" to the figure in the distance.
"It's finally begun."
Sengoku stood on the Execution Platform, watching the chaos below with a grave expression.
Beside him, Ace knelt on the ground. As he watched the cannon fire below, his expression grew steadily more excited.
Within range of the bombardment, a man with a long sword on his back slowly appeared among the Shichibukai as the battle began.
"Well, that's a rare sight!"
From the raised platform, Kizaru watched Dracule Mihawk appear and spoke with surprise.
"That lone wolf Hawk-Eye actually came to fight. I didn't expect that."
Beside Kizaru, Akainu spoke coldly, his eyes hidden in the shadow of his cap's brim.
"What's this? Are you really going to fight?"
Doflamingo asked curiously from beside Hawk-Eye.
"I only want to find out how great the gap is between us and that man."
Fierce fighting spirit burned in Hawk-Eye's eyes. Ever since he appeared, his gaze had remained fixed ahead on Whitebeard, one of the Four Emperors, who stood unshaken within a ring of a hundred thousand Marines.
"Even the strongest warriors tremble when they meet his eyes, unable to move at all. He truly deserves the name Hawk-Eye."
Deep wariness flickered in the Empress's eyes. She and Hawk-Eye were on the same side, so she should have had no reason to fear him. But her expression suggested her feelings were not so simple.
"Every swordsman wants to cross blades with the man called the strongest. That's a swordsman's instinct."
Vista, commander of the Whitebeard Pirates' fourth division, looked at Hawk-Eye with fierce fighting spirit in his eyes. It had nothing to do with which side he was on. It was simply the instinctive urge of one swordsman to challenge another.
"Yoru, the Black Blade—one of the twelve Supreme Grade Blades!"
Hawk-Eye drew the long sword from his back and slashed at the ice before him.
A tremendous sword strike tore through the ice with unstoppable force. Before the stunned eyes of the crowd, it hurtled toward the man standing at the pinnacle.
Whitebeard did not move an inch as the sword strike raced toward him. Not even his smile changed.
He remained so calm that the slash before him, towering like a mountain and vast as the sea, might as well not have existed.
"Pops!"
Whitebeard did not move, but Diamond Jozu, commander of his third division, could not stand by and watch him be cut down. With a shout, he leaped in front of the ship and placed his body between Whitebeard and the slash.
"Ugh... aaah!"
With a mighty roar, Jozu used brute force to hurl Hawk-Eye's slash into the sky.
Boom!
A deafening blast and a violent shockwave swept across the square, stunning everyone.
"He blocked the World's Greatest Swordsman's slash!"
The Marine Soldiers looked up with grim faces. When the dust cleared and they saw Jozu beneath the path of the slash, they were every bit as shocked as when he had stopped it.
Glittering diamonds covered Jozu from head to toe, turning him into a hard-as-diamond man.
After that brief clash, the Whitebeard Pirates began jumping from their ships. They charged across the ice, straight toward the square.
On the square ahead of them, every Coastal Defense Cannon turned toward the pirates below at Sengoku's command. Dense cannon fire once more engulfed the square.
Under cover of the bombardment, Marines and pirates finally clashed at close quarters.
"Well, those Whitebeard Pirates commanders really are monsters. If we want to keep our losses down, I suppose we'll have to take their leader first."
Kizaru tilted his head and rose from his seat. In an instant, he became streaks of yellow light and shot into the sky nearby.
The yellow light blazed into view above the battlefield. Its glare forced combatants on both sides to stop what they were doing.
Yasakani Sacred Jewel!
High above, the light faded to reveal Kizaru in its place. He crossed his hands before his chest and unleashed a "fierce" attack at Whitebeard, who stood at the bow of his ship.
"Well, well! Good thing I made it!"
As the yellow light flared, a dashing figure slid down an Ice Path from the Ice Wall nearby and swooped in front of Whitebeard.
Yasakani Sacred Jewel!
Dazzling yellow light burst from Jiang Lin's hands and raced skyward. A dense rain of light bullets struck Kizaru's own and exploded, sending shockwaves rippling out.
"That's... Pirate D! He caught Marine Headquarters' attention after just two appearances, and after he caused havoc in Impel Down, they raised his bounty to eight hundred million Beli! He's a rising great pirate!"
Far from the light-filled battlefield at Marineford, reporters watching the live broadcast on the Sabaody Archipelago excitedly grabbed their pens and paper when Jiang Lin appeared, recording what he did.
Through the reporters' words, news that Jiang Lin had appeared at Marineford and fought Kizaru soon spread across the world.
"D!"
"D?"
"D..."
As the news spread, the powers throughout the New World all shifted a little of their attention to Jiang Lin.