The gauntlets on Vic's fists were now coated in pitch-black Armament Haki.
Hook Sword's swift blade collided with Vic's gauntlets.
Both sides broke away as soon as they clashed.
Vic immediately kicked out, sending several Rankyaku air blades sweeping toward Hook Sword.
Hook Sword dodged while coating his blade in Armament Haki to block the incoming Rankyaku air blades.
One-Eye, who was tied up fighting Joseph, grew increasingly grim as he listened to the sounds coming from elsewhere.
After several minutes of fierce fighting, the two sides were still evenly matched.
The reason for this awkward stalemate was that neither side could do anything to the other.
The brothers, One-Eye and Hook Sword, were speed fighters, while Vic and Joseph were defensive fighters.
One side couldn't break through the other's defenses, while the other couldn't land a hit.
And so they remained at an impasse.
The only way to break it was to rely on others coming to support them.
Clearly, the Noah Family held the advantage now.
Having dealt with Cat Claws Brian, Lilith and Ray had already arrived in the air above them.
Waiting for the right moment, Ray made a wormhole jump and suddenly appeared behind One-Eye.
"Water Severing Wave!"
A miniature wormhole the size of a thumb opened in his palm. The wormhole connected to it was currently in a trench more than eight thousand meters beneath the sea.
At that depth, the water pressure exceeded eight hundred atmospheres.
In an instant, a water blade swept toward One-Eye's back.
Joseph, who was facing One-Eye, immediately stomped hard on the ground.
Soru! Joseph shot backward in an instant.
One-Eye's Observation Haki had already detected the danger, and he immediately rolled forward.
The water blade swept past, cutting trees in half.
Although he had avoided the water blade, One-Eye's rhythm was thrown into disarray.
Bang, bang, bang... Ray held a revolver in his other hand, using it alongside the unstoppable water blade to attack One-Eye relentlessly.
Bullets soon bit into One-Eye. As he was shot and lost blood, his movements became increasingly erratic and his reactions grew slower.
Joseph, who had just jumped out of the fighting area, quickly picked up rocks and hurled them at One-Eye.
Caught between attacks from front and back, One-Eye found himself in an increasingly perilous situation.
"Argh... no..."
The scream came not from One-Eye, but from his younger brother, Hook Sword.
Just now, Hook Sword, worried about his older brother, had been struck by a poison needle from Lilith, who had been hiding nearby. The potent, super-strength cardiac glycoside toxin instantly caused his muscles to spasm and his heartbeat to become irregular.
This disrupted the calm state of mind needed to use Observation Haki.
Seizing the opportunity, Vic broke Hook Sword's left arm with a punch.
His composure shattered, Hook Sword had no time to dodge and was struck by another of Lilith's poison needles. Pressing his advantage, Vic punched straight through his chest.
Hearing his younger brother's scream, One-Eye's eyes widened in fury as he cried out, "Bastards! I'll kill you!"
Ray and the others, however, didn't waste time talking nonsense with him. They launched an even fiercer attack.
Water blades swept across, and gunshots roared.
Poison needles struck from hiding, and boulders flew.
In less than twenty seconds, One-Eye's body was riddled with bullet holes, and the poison spread rapidly.
The next moment, a water blade cut him in half at the waist. A boulder fell from the sky and smashed into his head, blowing it apart.
One-Eye and Hook Sword were dead.
The Money Pirates' last officer.
He was fleeing frantically. He was very short, but he wasn't slow in the least. Instead, he used his small size to dodge between the trees in the forest.
What he didn't know was that someone already had him in their sights.
As the battles elsewhere came to an end.
Jay, who had been preparing to support his companions from hiding, finally had his hands free.
In an instant, countless black threads emerged from the forest.
The graphene threads previously hidden in the forest seemed to come alive, closing in around the fleeing dwarf.
"What is that?"
Bang, bang, bang... The dwarf emptied his pistol and saw that it had no effect. He immediately raised his hands. "I surrender! Don't kill me! I know where Barton's money is hidden."
Jay, hidden in the shadows, did not come out. Instead, he controlled the graphene threads and tied the dwarf up like a zongzi.
With that, the Money Pirates' six remaining officers had all been defeated.
The scene returned to the center of the deserted island.
Using Geppo, Barton looked at the black mist around him and the seawater still raging below.
He realized that his opponent had chosen the location cleverly. The center of the island was a lowland, which meant the seawater would not recede quickly.
I have to fight in the hills, or the seawater could easily reach me.
He quickly stepped through the air, running toward the hillside where Noah had stood earlier.
Noah raised a hand and clenched it.
The bomb cards beneath the hillside were instantly triggered.
Barton had just stepped onto the hillside from midair when his Observation Haki went wild with warnings.
Damn it, there's no time! Life Exchange: Black Armor!
In an instant, the hillside erupted like a volcano.
The life force in Barton's body steadily diminished, and his ink-black Armament Haki was consumed at a frantic rate.
When the smoke cleared, Barton was still unscathed.
"Die!" Terrifying Armament Haki gathered around Barton's hands. "Hasshoken: Sea-Splitting Piercing Fist!"
Noah shot a card toward him. Flames surged beneath his feet, and his body rose over a hundred meters in an instant.
The card was struck, and thousands of cubic meters of seabed silt instantly gushed down.
The non-Newtonian fluid formed by the silt briefly stalled Barton's attack, but he promptly blasted it apart.
Barton tried to use Geppo to pursue Noah again, but the rain of silt flying through the air splattered his body. He instantly felt weak. This is bad. Something's wrong with this silt!
There was too much silt around him, however, and Barton's body grew increasingly weak.
The next second, he fell into even greater despair.
A huge mass of seawater was crashing down above his head.
Boom! Struck by the seawater, Barton lost all strength in his body, and his Devil Fruit ability failed to respond at all.
"I refuse to accept this!"
But what did that matter? The victor became king, and the loser an outlaw. A loser was a loser.
Noah took out a Den Den Mushi. "Jay, activate the fishing net."
"Got it, Brother Noah."
Soon, the graphene threads hidden in the central lowland fished out Barton, who had been swept there by the seawater. To prevent him from playing dead, however, Jay followed Noah's instructions and kept his lower body submerged in seawater.
Before long, in a swamp in the central lowland, a graphite giant climbed out from beneath the mud. A large number of graphene wires were still attached to the giant, which stood over ten meters tall.
The graphite giant came to a stop not far from Noah. Its chest then sprang open, revealing a cockpit inside. Jay had been hiding inside the graphite giant all along.
"Brother Noah."
"Untie Barton."
"Understood."
The graphene threads binding Barton promptly loosened.
Noah took out an iron barrel resembling an iron lung and stuffed Barton inside, leaving only his head outside. The barrel was filled with seawater.
He then sealed Barton in a card.
Noah took Jay with him to seal away the other captured dwarf, and finally they gathered at the shore.
On the sandy beach, Anthony had submerged Cat Claws Brian, whom Mary had found, in an oak barrel. The barrel was naturally filled with seawater.