"100 million volts!"
"Deep Blue Armament!"
"Furious Thunder Slash!"
The chaotic thunder exploded over the sea, and the heavy war halberd crushed down on Glieffer's towering twelve-meter-tall giant body, plummeting toward the ocean like a meteor.
Before he even hit the water, a massive gash several meters long had already torn open across his broad chest.
A torrent of blood gushed out like a waterfall.
The crackling electric light scorched Glieffer's giant body, charring it entirely and emitting wisps of blue smoke.
Even his formidable Armament Haki couldn't withstand the thunderous power infused with Rorschach's Deep Blue Armament.
Realizing he was about to fall into the sea, Glieffer had no choice but to abandon his strength-based giant clone.
His massive body vanished instantly, shrinking down to less than a dozen centimeters. Under Rorschach's astonished gaze, he transformed into a small bird, flapping his wings, veering across the sea surface, and swiftly darting toward the harbor as a blurred afterimage.
"He turned into a bird? This guy's replication ability isn't limited to humans; he can replicate other animals too. He's quite a tricky opponent."
Rorschach's eyes flickered. Gripping his war halberd, he moved to pursue.
At that moment, a crashing sound of splintering wood erupted behind him.
The overturned, floating ship on the sea suddenly burst open beneath Rorschach's vessel. Amidst a flurry of flying wood chips, a massive figure charged out, its jet-black giant fist striking toward Rorschach's back.
"Chinjao the Drill, openly attacking a Navy admiral is a capital offense. Even if your country is a member of the World Government, that doesn't exempt you. Do you understand?"
Clang!
The clangor of steel resounded through the sky.
Rorschach instantly turned around, his war halberd clashing against Chinjao's incoming giant fist.
Chinjao's body descended, landing back onto the tattered ship.
He looked up, fury in his eyes enough to scorch the sky and sea: "You Navy brat, do you think a bit of skill lets you act arrogantly before me? I was dominating the New World before you were even born! Return my Heavenly Dragon Halberd, and I'll leave you a whole corpse!"
"Heh, talking big, yet didn't Garp the old man flatten your head with a single punch?" Rorschach sneered, clenching his left fist. "Want me to help you hammer out that drill head? I've studied Vice Admiral Garp's Fist Bone techniques extensively."
"You're that old bastard Garp's disciple?!"
Chinjao's eyes turned bloodshot upon hearing this, his white mustache fluttering as a surge of Conqueror's Haki erupted from within him, surging toward Rorschach.
Rorschach's gaze sharpened, releasing his own Conqueror's Haki once more.
Boom!
Two masses of black and red energy collided over the sea, sparking tiny black and red lightning bolts.
The clash of Conqueror's Haki sent the seawater below surging in all directions.
At the moment of this black and red collision, both moved simultaneously.
Rorschach tossed the Heavenly Dragon Halberd into the air, clenched his fists, and the Deep Blue Armament flowed over his massive fists, striking directly at the two-meter-shorter Chinjao.
Chinjao's right hand, covered in jet-black Armament Haki, punched toward Rorschach.
"Eight Impact Fist!"
"Six Styles Secret Technique! Six King Gun!"
Boom!
Above the sea near the harbor, the bird-transformed Glieffer flitted rapidly among the advancing pirate ships, like an almost imperceptible phantom, swiftly heading toward his intended destination.
Suddenly.
On the harbor ahead, a gaunt, shriveled old man smiled at him, revealing a few remaining yellow teeth, and swung the two long swords in his hands.
"Jonathan!"
Glieffer's heart chilled. Without hesitation, his bird form rapidly expanded, instantly transforming into the six-meter-tall figure of André.
But his transformation didn't stop there; his body continued to swell, reaching eight meters tall.
On his back, a dark green turtle shell emerged, crisscrossed with segmented lines.
Whoosh!
His head and limbs retracted into the dark green turtle shell.
Clang! Clang!
Two brilliant sword lights struck, causing the turtle shell to spin mid-air, flying toward the hunters on the right.
"Earth Elder Fist! Life Return!"
Jonathan shouted, his shriveled body rapidly swelling, muscles filling out, making him appear decades younger, around fifty or sixty years old.
With a step, he vanished from his original spot, darting like an afterimage to chase the spinning turtle shell, raising his sword for a slash.
Whoosh!
A jet-black fist suddenly extended from a hole in the turtle shell's side, striking toward Jonathan's face.
But Jonathan seemed to have anticipated this. His left-hand sword, enveloped in a green ghostly aura and black Armament Haki, slashed toward the protruding arm from the shell.
At that moment, multiple thick arms emerged from the spinning turtle shell, relentlessly striking Jonathan's sword-wielding wrist, deflecting his right-hand slash.
Then, two sturdy arms extended from the shell, wrapped in inky black Armament Haki, fiercely grabbing at Jonathan's swords, seemingly trying to snatch them away.
"Not bad. After all these years, you've improved significantly, even reaching advanced Armament Haki. But relying solely on replication abilities without using your own skills shows a lack of confidence, Glieffer!"
Jonathan twisted his wrist, and wisps of black energy emanated from his swords, forming a blue and a red ferocious ghostly aura in Glieffer's wary eyes.
In the next instant!
Two intertwined blue and red sword beams burst from Jonathan's swords, slicing through the armor-like turtle shell on Glieffer's chest, leaving bloody gashes on his arms.
"Dual Sword Style! Avici Hell!"
Clang!
With a piercing explosion, Glieffer, transformed into André, was struck in the chest by the twin swords, sent flying over a hundred meters, crashing through several houses at the harbor.
Within the royal city, dust billowed, and the continuous explosions terrified the residents hiding inside.
Jonathan stepped into the air, using Moonwalk to pursue rapidly.
Meanwhile.
Several fleeing pirate ships finally approached the Queen of Spring City's harbor.
Upon seeing the nearby shore, many pirates couldn't help but weep with joy.
"Sob... We've finally escaped that monster's attacks! We're saved!"
A pirate's joyful cry hadn't even finished when he was struck head-on by a massive mast-like log, his body exploding into a bloody mess, leaving a paint-like stain on the harbor's rocky ground.
Then, the pirates' ears were filled with earth-shattering roars.
"Kill!"
"Kill all the pirates!"
"Don't let them breach the inner city! Kill them!"
Daz Bonez, Absalom, and the others hadn't yet recovered from their earlier nightmarish encounter when they saw a frenzied wave of attackers coming their way: navy soldiers dressed in white uniforms, bounty hunters wielding swords, and royal guards clad in armor with spears in hand.
The pirates who had just landed at the port were like a rushing flood crashing into a massive dam.
In just an instant, hundreds, even thousands of waves were shattered against that dam-like wall, held back at the front!
Absalom's ears rang with thunderous battle cries, like mountains roaring and seas crashing.
The chaotic army, formed from different factions, suddenly unleashed an overwhelming momentum that made every pirate's face pale with dread.
Leading the charge were the navy soldiers in white uniforms.
Those two hundred vividly uniformed soldiers were like a sharp blade, slicing through the pirates at the port like a tiger in a flock of sheep.
Everywhere they passed, they left behind severed limbs, blood, and bone-chilling screams that echoed like the wails of ghosts and wolves.
Over a thousand bounty hunters followed closely behind, mercilessly finishing off the fallen pirates with throat-slashing and decapitations, so brutal and ruthless that the pirates' legs trembled in fear.
Under the lead of those two hundred navy soldiers, this hastily assembled defense force of Spring Queen City forged a magnificent and heroic momentum at that moment.
The thousand-strong formation charged back and forth at the port, like a giant white-headed serpent, ready to devour every invading enemy.
"How could this happen? Those bounty hunters and guards were all weak trash before!"
A pirate shouted in disbelief.
"Fire the cannons! Tell the ones on the ships to bombard the shore!"
Someone tried to run back to the ships at the port, only to be swatted away like a fly by two towering giants.
Pamel and Andre, the two towering strongmen, roared as they swung massive iron-wrapped logs, charging along the port's edge, violently smashing the cannon ports on one pirate ship after another.
"We can't let this continue! We must stop those navy soldiers! As long as the navy dies, those bounty hunters and royal guards are nothing but a ragtag mob!"
Daz Bonez's expression turned grave. His right arm transformed into a spinning blade, shredding several incoming spears, then his five fingers morphed into sharp blades, slashing through the armor and chests of several royal guards under their shocked and furious gazes.
He had fought countless battles and knew well that for an army, overall strength was important, but even more crucial was its will.
An army with steadfast will might fight to the last man without collapsing or losing hope.
A force with weak will might crumble in fear and hesitation even after losing only a tenth—or even a hundredth—of its comrades.
The navy force before him, though just two hundred strong, clearly belonged to the former.
But they—the pirates—were unmistakably the latter.
If they didn't stop those white-clad navy soldiers, if they let them continue their charge, then despite their numerical advantage, their pirate army would collapse like a landslide!
"Let me handle this! Members of Baroque Works, follow behind my zombie army! My zombie army is full of undead warriors that can't die!"
Absalom commanded over a thousand zombies, their bodies stitched together and faces terrifyingly grotesque, as they charged headlong into the fiercest part of the battle.
Meanwhile, he himself faded into transparency amid the surging crowd, vanishing from everyone's sight.
"Baroque Works members, charge with me! Dust Slash Quick Blade!"
Daz Bonez's ten fingers turned into blades, his feet transforming into icy blades as he skated swiftly across the ground.
His figure darted forward through the chaotic crowd, heading straight for the leaders at the front of the navy ranks.
His sharp eyes had already picked out Hibari, Rorschach, Lucci, Bepo, and others as the core of this navy force.
If he could take down those few at the front, the navy's morale would waver.
And once the navy's charge stalled, the rabble behind them—only good for waving flags and shouting—would crumble in no time!
Swish!
His burly figure leaped into the air, lunging straight at the nearest target: Rorschach, who held a long blade.
Daz Bonez crossed his hands and slashed down at Rorschach with fierce force.
The ten razor-sharp blades formed by his fingers sliced through the air, letting out a chilling, whistling howl.
Ten sharp slashes erupted simultaneously, forming an intersecting barrage that rained down densely.
"Ten-Finger Death Slash!"
At such close range, with such speed, hidden among the charging pirates until he suddenly struck—it was the perfect ambush.
Daz Bonez was certain he could slice this seemingly ordinary navy soldier into pieces with a single move.
But at the very instant his ten-blade strike came down, Rorschach vanished from his original spot as if he had foreseen the ambush. In the next moment, he reappeared at Daz Bonez's right side, both hands gripping his blade as he unleashed an upward diagonal slash with his Kikoku blade.
"…Huh?"
Though surprised by Rorschach's speed, Daz Bonez didn't panic.
His ability ensured that sword strikes were the least of his worries.
"Be careful, Rorschach! That guy's Daz Bonez, an assassin from the West Blue, a Paramecia-type Dice-Dice Fruit user—he can turn his whole body into steel and blades…"
Hibari called out a warning.
But before her words finished, a translucent hemispherical dome descended from the air.
Rorschach gripped Kikoku with both hands, black Haki spreading from his hands along the long blade as he slashed diagonally at Daz Bonez, who had taken a defensive stance.
"ROOM! Surgical Cut!"
Swish!
An invisible force flickered inside the hemispherical surgical space.
"…Huh? Not a slash?" Daz Bonez froze—he hadn't felt the impact of a blade.
He looked at Rorschach holding the long blade opposite him, confused.
"Navy… what are you… what's this?"
Unlike a typical swordsman's strike, Rorschach's slash had no blade light, no air-piercing sound.
Yet in the next instant, under Daz Bonez's baffled gaze, his steel body split cleanly from bottom to top, sliced neatly into two halves.
"…You…"
Confusion filled Daz Bonez's eyes.
He felt no pain, yet his body had been unquestionably cut in two by the opponent!
Without pausing, Rorschach shifted the blade's angle. The tip crackled with a faint electric arc as he thrust it toward Daz Bonez's bewildered eye.
Pshhht!
The black Haki-covered blade pierced effortlessly through Daz Bonez's eye socket and out the back of his skull, sending a spurt of blood spraying out.
His remaining eye still held traces of confusion, but its light rapidly faded.
Not far away, the invisible Absalom saw this horrifying scene and was instantly frozen with terror.
The raised cannon in his hands, aimed at Hibari, completely forgotten.
"…Huh?"
But Hibari's gaze shifted, turning toward the frozen Absalom, making his whole body stiffen, his expression filled with shock.
"She… she can see me?"
"Shave!"
With a stomp of her foot, Hibari's petite figure vanished from her spot—and from Absalom's sight.
"No good! These navy soldiers… they're no ordinary fighters!"
A chill ran down Absalom's spine as he instinctively turned and bolted toward the dense horde of zombie warriors behind him.
But a delicate fist came flying at him, whistling through the air with a fierce aura. In that moment, faintly visible on the fist, was the snarling image of a ferocious ghostly dog.
"Hell Dog!"
(End of Chapter)
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