"Shanks!!!"
A shout bordering on a roar tore through the din.
While fending off Enel, Benn Beckman caught the decisive moment out of the corner of his eye.
Shanks collapsed from exhaustion, Griffon slipped from his hand, and the blade of Gern's Eight Desolations pointed coldly at his former companion's throat.
At that moment, the thread called "reason" snapped inside Benn Beckman's mind.
Shanks was their captain, the heart of their crew.
Any one of them could fall, but not that core!!
Benn Beckman abandoned his struggle with Enel. He sprang into motion, ready to charge toward the center of the battlefield, no matter the cost.
"Where do you think you're going, mortal?"
Enel's mocking voice rang out as a blinding pillar of lightning crashed down from the sky.
"El Thor!"
But this time, Benn Beckman did not turn back!
"Get out of my way!!" he growled. Rather than dodging, he coated his back with the strongest Armament Haki he could muster and took the lightning strike head-on, even though it could have blasted a hill apart!
His body merely staggered, a trickle of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. His forward momentum did not slow at all!
Driven by sheer, fearless determination, he forced his way through the lightning barrage!
"What?!" The mockery on Enel's face froze, replaced by a flash of shock.
He had never expected this man, who had fought him with such composure and reason, to choose a desperate tactic so utterly unlike his usual style.
And in that ten-thousandth of a second while Enel stood stunned, Benn Beckman had already made his move!
He did not charge straight toward Shanks. That was too far away, and Gern would never give him the chance.
So his target was-Enel!
Whoosh! Benn Beckman vanished from his