The Battle Royale

"That bastard Garp..."

On the Execution Platform, Kong saw Garp's extravagant entrance and burst out laughing in exasperation.

Though he called it exasperation, he was actually relieved.

With men like Garp in the Marines, along with Sengoku, Tsuru, and the others, how could the Marines fail to grow stronger in the future?

As for Kong, being captured by pirates had brought him utter disgrace. Even if he survived, he would no longer have the face to represent justice.

Even so...

He turned his head slightly and looked at Kaya beside him.

Rocks had gone up, yet this young man remained here. The relaxed way he watched the battle was strange.

"I've never seen you before. Are you the reinforcement Rocks found?" After a moment's thought, Kong posed the question as a probe, with a certain intent behind it.

Kaya glanced at Kong and chuckled. "Do you think it was worth it, sacrificing so many Marines to save you alone?"

Kong's gaze sharpened. Kaya was trying to undermine him!

But Kong was not about to be fooled. He immediately said in a deep voice, "It's not for me, it's for justice! How could a villain like you understand?!"

"Then watch closely as the Marines sacrifice themselves." Kaya paid him no mind and looked into the distance.

In truth, Kong still felt heavy-hearted.

From his elevated position, he could see the battlefield clearly, and every Marine who fell.

Some might be swallowed by criminal gunfire, others surrounded by pirates and cut down with swords, and still others killed by unidentified area attacks.

Whose children were they? Whose fathers?

He gathered his thoughts, stopping himself from dwelling on them. Things had come to this; the only way to end the fighting was to fight!

"Buddha's Light Shines Everywhere!"

Having transformed into his Buddha Form, Sengoku raised a hand and unleashed a shockwave in every direction. His glittering golden appearance made many pirates think they had seen the Buddha himself.

The next second, vast swathes of pirates around him were struck down, their bodies battered and mangled.

"It's Vice Admiral Sengoku!"

"And Vice Admirals Zephyr and Tsuru!"

"The giants are helping clear a path!"

"Ohhh! We won't lose!"

The Marines' morale soared as they pushed the battle line forward inch by inch.

A giant wielding a one-handed sword ran at the very front, cutting through everything in his path.

Though it was a one-handed sword, it was larger than an ordinary person's house. Whenever it came crashing down, ordinary pirates were instantly reduced to paste.

Suddenly, a pink figure leaped into the air!

Clang!

The blades met, throwing off sparks.

"Mamamama~ A giant! What an exciting race!" Charlotte Linlin grinned, her wide mouth painted with pink lipstick.

"Charlotte Linlin!" The giant's rage erupted the moment he recognized her.

Old enemies burned all the more fiercely when they met!

Years ago, the five-year-old Charlotte Linlin had been exiled to Elbaf, home of the Giant Tribe, because her body had grown far too large and she had caused destruction in her homeland.

The Giant Tribe had gradually come to accept her as a friend, but she later suffered an attack of Hunger Pangs, destroyed their village, and killed their elder, Jorul.

Although the incident led to Charlotte Linlin being driven out of Elbaf, she still could not forget the Giant Tribe.

"Hey, hey! Come with me! Become part of me!" Charlotte Linlin paid no heed to the battlefield, trying to recruit a member of the Giant Tribe.

"How dare you insult the honor of an Elbaf warrior!" The giant was driven mad with anger.

The two clashed, causing considerable destruction. Seeing this, some people familiar with Charlotte Linlin were left speechless, unsure what to say.

"She isn't planning to collect Giant Tribe bloodlines here, is she?!" John remarked.

"If it's her, I think it's possible." Keel held a gun in each hand, continually shooting down Marines who came near.

"Crap! Garp's coming!" Ganzui's expression suddenly changed, and he instinctively backed up several steps.

The others fighting alongside him took a closer look and saw that it was true. Garp had broken away from the main Marine force and was charging straight toward them.

Some pirates stood in Garp's path, but they couldn't even slow him down. His powerful body sent them flying on impact.

"Everyone! I'm leaving first!" Keel promptly fled, vanishing after a few quick movements.

The others were dumbfounded.

Did he have to run so fast?! Besides, this was Hachinosu. Where could he run to?

"Damn it! If he gets hold of us, we're in for a rough time!" Babel said.

"Hang on... You're a Fish-Man, aren't you?! What are you doing on land? Get into the sea and stop the rest of the Marines from landing!" Maron shouted at Babel.

"Oh, right! How did I not think of that?!" Babel clapped his hands, realization dawning.

Maron thought pirates' intelligence was really something else!

As they talked, Garp spotted them too.

Though they were different from ordinary pirates, Garp paid them no mind and prepared to ignore them.

"Garp! I don't think you're the strongest. Let me show you my new power!"

But then a figure jumped in front of Garp.

Kaido?!!

John, Maron, and the others were stunned to see Kaido suddenly appear and block Garp's path.

Kaido knocked his fists together, his face full of confidence.

"Vollständig: Power of God..."

Bang!

Kaido went flying in an instant! The pillar of Reishi light hadn't even formed before he vanished to who knew where.

In full view of the others, Kaido spun through the air who knew how many times before finally crashing down at a leisurely pace, half his body buried in the ground.

"What was that? I thought it was a speed bump!"

Garp gave it no further thought and continued deeper in.

He had become the most conspicuous figure on the battlefield, scraping across the ground like a bulldozer.

It was quite a sight, like a man passing through an army of ten thousand generals.

But that didn't mean Garp could charge straight to the Execution Platform. Someone would step in.

Rumble!!

The ground split into several pieces, and a seismic wave burst forth with a rush of air, driving straight at Garp's face.

Garp stopped, and the shockwave vanished.

A figure now stood ahead of him, recognizable by his white crescent mustache and long naginata.

"Newgate? Another one's come out." Garp tilted his neck, producing a cracking sound.

"If I let you keep going like this, I'm afraid this war won't be able to continue." Newgate stood there, a lone man barring the way against ten thousand.

"I know a little about you. You're interested in a war like this?" Garp didn't attack immediately.

"I'm not interested. I just don't intend to let you go any farther." Newgate raised a fist, its surface covered in a layer of white air waves.

"Then give it a try!" Garp coated his fists in Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki.

In an instant, both men attacked together.

"Infinite Fist Bone!"

"Tremor-Tremor... Machine Gun!"

The sky was suddenly torn apart by two forces of supreme Haki, the sea of clouds forcibly swept clear in an instant. The entire vast area fell deathly silent, and the earth began to churn!

Garp's hands were wreathed in pitch-black Armament Haki, mixed with the surging red glow of Conqueror's Haki, his fists tensed like divine hammers of steel.

It was no longer one fist shadow, nor ten, but dozens of explosive, meteor-like heavy punches every second, unbroken and endless.

Beneath the frenzied onslaught of Infinite Fist Bone!

The black Haki condensed into tangible fist pressure, while enormous blasts of crimson fist force erupted in the air, packed tightly together and filling the entire sky in overlapping layers.

Newgate thunderously raised his arms, unleashing the full power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, enough to shake the world!

Countless tiny but intensely concentrated spatial shockwave projectiles fired in succession from his fists, sending densely packed, transparent spheres of vibrating light shooting out at high speed.

The air was blasted apart, torn open, and shattered over and over, producing an unbroken series of thunderous detonations.

Every impact carried the destructive power to smash towns and split the earth.

Countless streams of black fist pressure poured forward like a meteor shower, crushing and scouring everything in their path without leaving a gap.

And the spatial torrent that destroyed the atmosphere covered the entire battlefield in layer upon layer of shockwaves, dense as rain.

A pure, extreme, and unceasing eruption!

Blinding black-and-white light burst across heaven and earth. A gigantic depression was pressed into the land, and the ground was hurled into the air, exploding into a towering haze!

Continuous destruction! Unceasing tremors!

Dense, fine cracks appeared in space, and the entire island shook violently beneath their exchange of blows.

No one knew how many pirates were killed by the aftershocks. The spectacle was so immense that it shattered countless people's worldviews; overhead, gods roared in fury.

At this rate, the island was going to sink!!