"Whitebeard, Golden Lion...
And now you, the so-called Navy 'Hero.'
Heh, once you grow old, you're all nothing special!"
Beneath the surviving half of "Curse Doctor" Samuel Kronos's mask, his eerie green eyes flickered.
Strange mycelium seeped silently from his fingertips and beneath his robes once more, spreading toward the ground without a sound.
He intended to undermine Garp's footing from below, supporting Shiryu's lethal slash.
"Navy Hero?"
Shiryu of the Rain spat out blood mixed with fragments of broken teeth, enduring the agonizing pain of his caved-in facial bones.
He tightened his grip on Raiu, which Garp had thrown back and left embedded at an angle in a nearby rock, and fixed his murderous intent on Garp.
"If we kill him, that'll shake the Navy, won't it?"
The two moved almost simultaneously, one from the left and one from the right, perfectly coordinated!
Yet, just as their feet moved and their auras reached their peak...
"Whoosh~ Crack, crack-crack-!"
Two thick, crystal-clear ridges of ice, their edges sharp as blades, rose from the ground without warning!
One on each side, they cut precisely across Samuel's and Shiryu's paths, completely separating them from the area where Garp stood!
Samuel and Shiryu froze abruptly, turning in astonishment toward the source of the ice ridges.
"Kuzan, what's the meaning of this?!" Curse Doctor Samuel's bewildered voice came through his broken mask.
Shiryu said nothing, but his eyes held the same demand for an explanation.
Kuzan did not answer immediately.
He merely lowered his head slightly, half his face frozen over and concealing part of his expression, and let out a long breath of icy air.
Only then did he raise his eyes, calmly sweeping his gaze over Samuel and Shiryu before saying in a low voice,
"Small fry, stand down."
"You?!" Samuel and