In the northeastern corner of the N-7 Sea Area, on a strange landscape of intertwined ice and fire created by Aokiji and Zhang Fei's duel, two utterly different, terrifying auras clashed wildly. One was a primal power, as heavy as a mountain, that shook the earth; the other was a sinister, ever-changing Thorn Hell that entwined life itself.
"These old fists once smashed open the Jewel Ice Sheet of the frozen continent..." Chinjao's deep voice echoed like rolling thunder. "Today, I shall offer your blood, Holy Knight, to the battle flag of my Hua Country!"
Saint Shepherd Sommers chuckled and lightly tapped the ground with his longsword. "Lowly barbarian, however hard your armor is, can it withstand the sting of the 'Thorns of Love'?"
"Hasshoken: Drill Dragon Drill Nail!"
Chinjao's enormous, 5.2-meter-tall body was covered in obsidian-like armor. On his forehead, the "12" tattoo that marked him as the Happo Navy's twelfth Pillar glowed dark red under an infusion of Armament Haki.
With a low roar, he stamped his thick legs against the ice, instantly cracking the frozen seawater beneath him. The Rhyperior Fruit had granted him not only unparalleled defense, but also the primal authority to control earth and stone. As he charged with his signature iron-head attack, the ice tore apart with ease. Rocks and sediment surged up from the seabed, forming a gigantic stone cone over ten meters in diameter that thrust forward as though to tear through everything.
"Ridiculous! The thorns of love will coil around you until every bone in your body is crushed!" Shepherd Saint Sommers moved elusively, his beard, trimmed into the shape of a cross, trembling with his twisted smile. Faced with this mountain-cleaving, rock-shattering strike, he did not meet it head-on. He spread his arms and unleashed the full power of