The Quincies Show Their Strength
"Sengoku! You bastard!"
John panted heavily, his face furious.
Ahead of him, Sengoku had grown larger, his entire body shining with golden light. His eyes were wide, making him look like a wrathful guardian deity.
Several Vice Admirals stood beside him.
People said there were differences in strength even among Vice Admirals. With Sengoku there, the other Marines could only play a supporting role.
As the war intensified, it would inevitably develop into a battle of soldiers against soldiers and commanders against commanders.
Keep wiping out the small fry? How could that be possible?
"John, you useless bastard! You can't even hold Sengoku back?" Maron shouted from the side.
"Fuck you! Why don't you do it?" John shouted back. "Where are the others? Where the hell did they go?"
No sooner had he spoken than a cloud of smoke burst from the ground.
When it cleared, Ganzui walked out, covered in dust and sporting a few minor injuries.
"This guy tried to run, but I knocked him back!"
Zephyr crashed down from above, sending a web of cracks through the ground.
Sengoku didn't reply. He raised a hand and sent out a shock wave.
Crackle!
John spread his hands, drawing metal from across the battlefield to form a shield in front of him.
The shock wave struck the metal shield head-on but failed to shatter it immediately, instead producing a deep, resonant sound like a tolling bell.
Whiz!
Zephyr had just been about to advance when he suddenly heard something cutting through the air toward him, faint but deadly.
He whipped his head around. A streak of silver-red light flashed past his eyes and buried itself in the ground behind him.
He looked back and saw that it was an arrow.
"Tsk! Missed, huh?"
Maron held a Reishi Bow, silver with red trim, glowing faintly in his hand.
Zephyr's gaze changed when he saw it.
Did a lot of people have those bows?
Zephyr recalled encountering pirates fighting with bows at least three times since the war began.
Those bows seemed to have come from the same manufacturer. They all glowed, and once their arrows were fired, they couldn't be touched and simply vanished into the air.
Though they hadn't caused him any trouble, he had taken note of the strange phenomenon.
"John, die!"
While John used his shield to resist Sengoku's attack, a Marine circled behind him and slashed his saber at John's neck.
Without John maintaining it, the shield would probably shatter at once. If he could seize this opening to dodge...
Dodge, my ass! I'll take it head-on!
Clang!
The Marine's eyes widened. His saber struck John's neck, but it made the sound of steel clashing, and even sent sparks flying.
"Hey, hey! Does justice sneak up on people too?" John twisted his neck. Something seemed to glow in his eyes beneath the hair hanging over his forehead.
His skin turned to steel?!
The Marine confirmed it at once. Having failed to land a successful blow, he retreated without hesitation.
Seeing this, John found it quite a headache.
He only liked beating up weaklings, not fighting these troublesome battles! They were too annoying.
Whoosh!
A pillar of light rose from the ground and shot straight into the sky.
John turned and saw a halo over Maron's head and a pair of wings on his back. He had activated Vollständig.
His eyes darted around, and he suddenly had a good idea.
"Come on, Sengoku! Can you still hit me?"
John put on a display of stepping on one foot with the other and actually rose into the air, where he stood suspended.
Sengoku tilted his head up to look, a strange glint flashing in his eyes.
He can fly? It looks like Geppo, but it's different. After all, who can use Geppo to stand on air and stay completely motionless?
"Watch this!"
John spread his hands, and countless weapons on the ground rose into the sky, drawn by magnetic force.
Under his control, the blades turned to point at Sengoku below, then all fired at once.
Faced with the barrage raining down on him, Sengoku raised a hand and released a shock wave.
The weapons were crushed one after another the instant they touched it. Before long, they had become harmless metal fragments scattered across the ground.
"Damn it! I really can't do a thing about this guy!" John was both angry and exasperated.
Besides, even if they hit him, could they cut through Sengoku's golden body? He doubted it.
Rumble-!
A series of violent explosions erupted on the ground.
Zephyr leaped out of the flames. Half his Marine cloak had been burned away, but he himself was largely unharmed.
Not far away, Ganzui, who had been preparing a move, stared in shock. He looked at the dirt he had rubbed off in his hand, then at the explosions, his mind nearly grinding to a halt.
"That's not right... Maron, what's with that form? What exactly did you do?"
Maron walked out of the explosions, half his body transformed into machinery, the cannon barrel on his shoulder retracting.
Hearing Ganzui's words, he smiled disdainfully.
"You're an explosion man who can only create explosions, while I'm a weapon man who can create even more attacks. Obviously, my ability is superior to yours!"
These guys loved saying whose Devil Fruit ability was superior to whose, then using it to show off.
Whatever else might be said, Ganzui was furious.
"Bastard! Quit bullshitting! I saw you using a bow! That's clearly Quincy power!" Ganzui was both shocked and angry.
What's going on with Maron? When did that happen?
Suddenly, several dark figures rushed at him. Ganzui was alarmed and only had time to protect himself with Armament Haki.
But several arrows came flying immediately afterward. The Marines didn't press their attack, instead pulling back at once.
The arrows embedded themselves in the ground in front of Ganzui.
Ganzui froze for a moment. The Marines had indeed been driven back, but as he looked at the arrows, he found his feelings hard to put into words.
"Maron, you bastard..."
Ganzui suddenly fell silent because he saw Maron locked in a fierce fight with Zephyr, transforming into all kinds of weapons, including plenty of explosives.
Only then did Ganzui belatedly realize that the arrows had come from another direction.
He turned and saw John flying conspicuously in the sky, using a bow to attack Sengoku on the ground.
He fell silent. Standing between John and Maron, the brawny man was speechless.
"John? Since when?!"
Maron happened to glance back and was startled too. John was actually using a Reishi Bow and arrows as well.
Wait... why does it suddenly feel like they're everywhere?!
These few were only individual cases. In fact, most of the Quincies were spread across different areas of the battlefield.
Over this period, the number of Quincies had grown rapidly.
After all, Kaya no longer needed to act personally. The Quincies themselves were already capable of reproducing.
This special fighting style had appeared on the battlefield in large numbers for the first time, leaving the Marines facing them struggling to cope.
"What's that?"
"No idea! A new weapon?"
"Damn it! After it grazed me, the wound burned and felt like it was being torn apart!"
"Looks like these pirates came well prepared!"
A Marine unit was locked in a bitter struggle, arrows from several Quincies around them constantly claiming their comrades' lives.
Almost every time a stray blue arrow streaked through the air, someone fell.
"Damn it! Let's fight them!"
A Marine roared and charged forward with his sword.
In the distance, a pirate holding a Reishi Bow smiled cruelly and gently drew the string.
As he activated Reishi Gathering, Reishi in the air gathered and took the shape of an arrow.
He then released the string, firing Heilig Pfeil.
The Marine reacted quickly, swinging his sword to knock the arrow away, but his blade broke instead!
After shattering the saber, the Reishi Arrow plunged into the Marine's chest. He screamed as the impact sent him flying.
He finally crashed heavily to the ground, lifeless.
"Marines, from now on, you'd better get it straight who's hunting who!"
The Quincies continued hunting down Marines, while some Quincies also encountered powerful Marines and met their deaths in battle.
The battle seemed to settle into a stalemate.