Above the N-7 Sea Area, lightning and smoke filled the region where Ma Chao was fighting several elite Headquarters Vice Admirals.
In mere breaths, three of the five elite Vice Admirals had fallen! Only the battered Strawberry and Momonga, who had just steadied himself, remained!
Strawberry looked at Yamakaji, embedded in the bottom of an ice crater, then at Doberman and Onigumo floating on the distant sea, their fates unknown. A trace of despair finally flashed through the eyes of this veteran Vice Admiral, who had always been known for his composure. The boost granted by Life Return · Fleeting Beauty was gradually fading, replaced by a faint sense of weakness. He realized that the gap between them and the monster before them was large enough to inspire despair. This was no encirclement and extermination, but a one-sided... judgment!
"The Marines' justice... must not end here!" Strawberry growled hoarsely. He tore off his tattered shirt with one hand and raised his two somewhat damaged swords. Armament Haki coated both blades, turning them pitch-black. The muscles throughout his body unnaturally shrank and swelled by turns, veins coiling like dragons beneath his skin, which even began to seep beads of blood. He seemed to be burning his own life force to unleash some ultimate secret technique! "Two-Sword Style secret art · Sacrifice for righteousness · Shigure's thousand splendors!"
Strawberry wreathed his twin swords in Armament Haki and concentrated all his strength in his arms. His blades slashed in alternation, their gleams pouring down like a torrential rain. Each strike landed precisely on the point of impact of the last as he built momentum through high-speed movement with Soru. He became a human-shaped streak of light, seemingly using Iron Body over his entire body as he charged recklessly at Ma Chao. He actually