Giant Tree No. 23, Sabaody Archipelago.
Crocodile flew backward like a torn sack and crashed into the mangrove's thick trunk. He coughed up bloody foam, his pupils shrinking violently.
Damn it, that kick had shattered his arrogant soul!
"C-Captain Crocodile?!" His crew froze, their throats tightening.
Their captain was a Logia user! How could a single kick have struck his solid body?!
"Can't get up already?" Gern leisurely lowered his foot and brushed nonexistent dust off his trouser leg. His voice carried a hint of boredom. "Is this all a Supernova can do?"
A deathly silence suddenly fell over the surroundings.
Just then, a pirate wearing a battered tricorn hat got a clear look at Gern's face.
His knees suddenly buckled, and he dropped to the ground with a thud, his teeth chattering. "H-Heavenquake... It's Heavenquake Gern!"
"Hey... that man..." A scar-faced pirate suddenly froze in place. The liquor bottle slipped from his hand and shattered on the ground.
"What?" His companion turned impatiently, only to go deathly pale the instant he recognized that figure.
"Heavenquake..." The scar-faced man's voice trembled so badly it was barely audible. "That 'monster of the Navy'..."
"Two years ago..." A pirate in a battered tricorn hat suddenly collapsed onto his backside. "All by himself... he took the Whitebeard Pirates' Second Division Commander..."
"He defeated Kozuki Oden!" someone beside him finished with a shriek. "'Samurai' Oden, with a bounty of 1.95 billion Beli!"
But an even more terrifying memory followed.
"What do you rookies know?" A one-eyed pirate suddenly burst into hysterical laughter, madness creeping into his voice.
"Seven years ago! At G2 in the New World! This kid made his name by severely wounding Golden Lion with a single slash..."
Before he could finish, Gern suddenly turned toward the crowd, his lips curling into