"Attack! Don't stop, no matter what!"
"Those two are a core member of the Rocks Pirates and their newly recruited apprentice crew member!"
"The latter doesn't have a bounty yet, but Kaido, another apprentice crew member, already has a bounty of hundreds of millions of Beli!"
The elite vice admirals attacked with swords raised.
Almost all of them had started with the Six Powers, surpassing the limits of the human body.
Then, through countless battles and trials, they had mastered Two-Color Haki.
After that, they advanced further with blades, leading Marines and fighting in coordination with supporting fire.
Zephyr would later adopt almost this very approach to train the next generation of powerful Marines!
Some of them were also ability users, mostly common Zoan types.
But their formidable recovery speed made them even stronger in battle!
Five or more elite headquarters vice admirals constituted a Buster Call-level force.
That was the kind of encirclement Shane and John faced.
One was a drunk, and the other was on the verge of losing his reason.
No matter how many more came, they could not possibly be afraid.
An encircling assault with suppressive firepower meant nothing to these two men, who had little conscious awareness left.
Shane dodged blades and bullets from time to time.
Then he would catch a blade bare-handed!
Each opponent was fiercer than the last, and the pace of their attacks kept mounting.
Elite vice admirals were not to be underestimated, especially several working together, not to mention the rear admirals leading Marines in the charge.
The battlefield descended into chaos.
Only now did a slight change emerge.
As time dragged on, fewer and fewer pirates arrived, while the Marines' numbers continued to grow.
After all, the Marines had to maintain order across the world, and their reserves ran deeper.
Even leaving aside the top-tier fighters on the Red Line.
The disparity between the numbers of pirates and Marines alone was considerable.
Still, it was precisely the arrival of the Rocks era that had driven more pirates to sea.
Roger's appearance would send all of this into an unprecedented frenzy!
"Don't be afraid of them!"
"The Rocks Pirates are all ability users! But we have Seastone!"
"Open fire! As long as they're human, they'll run out of stamina eventually! Attack from a distance!"
The fighting did not stop.
The carnage at God Valley surpassed even that of the Paramount War!
How could a Whitebeard in his twilight years compare to himself in his prime?
John grew a little tired and simply leaned against Shane's back, snoring.
"Now isn't the time to sleep, John!"
Shane defeated an attacker with a single blow.
His reason slipped away little by little.
Amid his confusion, the sounds in his ears grew increasingly clamorous.
Following his instincts, he kept dodging attacks and striking back as opportunities arose.
Shane was more like a fish on a beach, seemingly trapped, but in truth able to await the tide's return at any moment.
John drunkenly collapsed onto the ground.
He watched the stars gradually fade.
His eyes were unfocused.
"You know, rookie?"
"Most of the Rocks Pirates grew up surrounded by war."
"We were created by this world, and now they're afraid of us."
"It's laughable. If I hadn't met that bastard Rocks, I'd still be somewhere out at sea, searching for new treasure."
A vice admiral wielding a long, curved blade attacked.
Just as he was about to stab John.
Shane grabbed John and hauled him up.
"John! Stay drunk any longer, and you'll get killed!"
Swaying on his feet, Captain John tossed aside his empty bottle.
He wandered around casually, yet deftly avoided the bullets and blades.
He looked at Shane through sleepy eyes.
Pointing at the towering man before him in hybrid form.
He said with complete seriousness:
"Rocks is a gambler. He'll bet on anything."
"The treasure I want, the fine liquor I like-if we win the bet, I can have it all."
"Honestly, I prefer treasure hunting and throwing parties to fighting and killing."
"But Rocks said that as long as we win the bet."
"We can search for every treasure in the world!"
"We can raise our glasses and drink all the different fine liquors from every sea in the world!"
"Do you think we can win?"
Captain John suddenly began vomiting.
But as he threw up, an intoxicating mist spread at tremendous speed.
Standing within it, Shane actually fell into sync with Captain John amid the clamoring voices in his mind.
The black dragon form and Azure Dragon Form originated from the same lineage factor.
Being drunk already boosted their explosive power!
Through sheer accident.
And with Captain John leading him, Shane actually picked up a few techniques by following his example.
"Watch out!"
The surrounding Marines fell to the ground one after another.
An elite headquarters vice admiral wielding two swords immediately moved to protect them.
"Retreat! John is using his Devil Fruit ability! That intoxicating mist will make you pass out!"
The frightened Marines turned and ran.
But before they had taken more than a few steps, amid that nauseating alcoholic reek.
The temperature shot up.
Explosive Heat Flame ignited the mist in an instant, and a sea of fire blazed fiercely.
Flames covered a vast stretch of the beach.
John burped, seemingly sobering up a little.
"Rookie. Shane."
"That bastard Rocks has begun his final, all-or-nothing gamble."
"Though I don't know why I'm telling you all this."
"But fate is what brought Rocks to where he is today."
He led Shane out of the sea of fire.
He strolled casually over to an Oak Chest, kicked it open, and took out a bottle of red wine.
He drank in great gulps, spilling plenty of wine from the corners of his mouth.
Shane's breathing quickened, and his heartbeat accelerated too.
The drunkenness faded.
What remained was the will to survive.
White vapor escaped from both corners of his mouth as the cells inside his body fought one another.
Under these conditions, Shane's perception and physical toughness increased drastically.
It was as though his body was undergoing modification.
Success would mold him into a monster; failure would leave a skeleton steaming with white vapor.
Before dawn at the latest.
The drug's effects would end, and intensified pain would ravage his entire body!
John and Shane were surrounded and attacked again by the elite vice admirals pursuing them.
But the Kurozumi Siblings came to their aid.
After the barrier blocked the sword strikes and Haki.
The siblings stayed outside the valley.
They seemed to have no intention of proceeding any farther.
Until the final outcome of the battle was decided.
Calculating as they were, they would not readily take sides again.
If Rocks lost, they would split up.
If Rocks won, they would immediately greet him with smiles and claim they had held off the Marine reinforcements!
As they walked through the valley.
John chatted idly, a sentence here and there.
"Hachinosu is a pirate paradise. Lawless. Anything can be traded, including crew members."
"One day, Rocks appeared. He's a born gambler with insanely good luck."
"He has both strength and personal charisma. He won time and time again."
"Even I lost to him, but he also offered an even bigger stake."
"He wanted all of us to join him in betting on this battle to overturn everything!"
"The winners would become the world's new rulers!"
"You were the last to board."
"Now."
"The gamble has reached its final moment."
"But the Rocks Pirates have never been united enough. From the very beginning, he was the only one on this side of the wager."
"What Rocks is trying to move is fate itself!"
John stood in the valley.
Darkness tore at the sheer cliffs.
Stone statues marked the traces of the fighting here.
"The whole world is on the other side of the scales!"
Shane had arrived.
The final battleground of the battle of God Valley!
Before you continue