At the top of the Red Line, ten thousand meters above sea level.
On this narrow red continental plate, there was a three-hundred-meter-wide canal that seemed to cut the long, narrow land in half.
This canal, running along the top of the Red Line, was artificially built by the World Government specifically for ships traveling between the first and second halves of the Grand Line.
When a ship was transported to the ground by the giant lifts on either side of the Red Line, it would be directly sent into this canal by a hundred-meter-long conveyor belt.
Then, the ship would be pulled by a tugboat, or it would start its own steam paddle to travel to the lift channel on the other side and enter another sea.
At this moment, on this canal ten thousand meters away from the sea, the Unicorn was sailing rapidly with its steam paddles, heading towards the other side.
On the bow deck, Marine officers were standing or sitting, all looking at Rorschach, who was eating frantically.
"Don't push yourself so hard. We're counting on you to sail the ship. Don't worry, once we cross the Red Line, it's only half a day's journey to the top of G-1. Take your time, don't rush."
"That's right, that's right. Take it slow, Rear Admiral Rorschach. You're already very fast."
The officers all urged Rorschach to take it easy.
Throughout the journey, Rorschach had pushed himself to his limits, frantically controlling the airflow to propel the Unicorn at high speed just above the sea surface.
After a full ten hours of travel, they finally reached the lift at the foot of the Red Line.
For ten hours, he performed extreme maneuvers, stopping from time to time to eat frantically to replenish his physical strength, and then continuing to speed on the sea.
If it weren't for Kuzan forcibly stopping him, he would have even planned to use his ability to fly the Unicorn directly up.
Rorschach's madness had completely shocked all the officers on the ship.
No one dared to look down on this young Marine, who had become a Rear Admiral at such a young age.
Leaving aside his strength, his sheer madness and perseverance alone had already won over all the Marine officers present.
One must know that the so-called vanguard was, to put it bluntly, a suicide squad.
However, it was a powerful suicide squad composed of Admirals, Vice Admirals, Rear Admirals, and Commodores.
Although there were the Marines' highest combat powers in the team, all the officers present knew how dangerous this war would be.
No one believed that they would definitely survive, and most of them were going in with the intention of dying.
Very few officers who had reached the rank of Commodore or higher were afraid of death.
However, the drive of someone like Rorschach, who was desperately rushing towards a place where he could die, was something that even veteran Vice Admirals like Onigumo had to admire.
Of course, many people had already seen that Rorschach's strength was very likely to be the strongest on this ship, aside from Garp, Kizaru, and Aokiji.
His amazing physique and abundant physical strength were all shocking.
Some of the officers who had seen Rorschach a year ago when he first arrived at Marineford were even more shocked, and they were now filled with reverence for Rorschach.
Even if some people's ranks were higher than Rorschach's, it didn't hinder this reverence for his strength and talent.
Monster.
This was a true monster.
It was only at this moment that Rorschach, who was called the "Monster of the North Blue" a year ago, finally lived up to that name in everyone's minds.
Only a monster could grow to such a revered level in just over a year.
"I'm fine, don't worry."
After a hearty meal, Rorschach returned to his human form, let out a long breath, and leaned against the ship's rail to rest.
The temporary supplies they had obtained from the Holy Land guards next to the canal, which was about half the meat of a medium-sized Sea King, were 50% eaten by him alone.
The other 50% was shared by the others.
In other words, he had eaten the same amount of food as five hundred Marine officers, which was truly terrifying.
"Vice Admiral Doberman, you just contacted Admiral Akainu. What did he say?" Rorschach looked at Doberman, who was sitting not far away with an X-shaped scar on his face.
This guy was a typical hardline Marine officer, a veteran Vice Admiral under Akainu's command, and one of the main Vice Admirals who led the Buster Call. His strength was quite formidable.
Doberman was always grim and followed a strict absolute justice. He would sacrifice anything for justice, including himself.
But Rorschach's question still got a response from Doberman.
"Admiral Akainu is fine. The main pirate forces have not yet arrived at G-1. They are still attacking the major Marine branches in the New World and have dispatched a large number of forces to pursue and intercept the fleeing soldiers heading for G-1. To prevent the pirates from using a 'sneak attack' strategy, the Admiral is personally stationed at G-1, and Momousagi, Chaton, and others have gone out to sea to rescue the fleeing soldiers from other branches. We have not yet found any traces of Shiki and the others."
Just then, a clank clank clank sound rang out. It was the conveyor belt beneath the Unicorn, which was hidden in the canal, rising up. It lifted the Unicorn, which had reached the end of the canal, and, with the steam winch, moved it towards the giant lift platform on the New World side.
After a shake of the hull, some of the Holy Land guards who were specifically responsible for this job came forward and carefully inspected it. After confirming that there were no safety issues, they opened the transmission valve of the lift.
The giant gears hidden in the thick steel roared and turned, driving dozens of thick steel chains to move down along the rock wall of the Red Line.
As the lift descended, the mysterious and dangerous sea of the New World finally appeared in Rorschach's eyes little by little.
He couldn't help but walk to the side of the ship's rail and look at the ever-expanding endless sea.
"The New World, the paradise of the strong. Finally... No!"
Before the emotions welling up in his heart could be blurted out, the smile that had just appeared on Rorschach's face instantly vanished. He looked up sharply at the sky above.
"What's wrong?" Noticing Rorschach's actions and voice, everyone on the deck looked up, following his gaze.
Then, everyone's faces changed.
They saw countless tiny black dots in the sky above, constantly getting bigger in their line of sight.
"Enemy attack! All units, be on alert!"
Momonga drew the katana from his waist and shouted, pointing it at the sky.
He didn't need to remind them. Everyone present was a veteran who had been on countless battlefields. They had already tensed up, drawn their weapons, and were staring intently at the black dots that were getting bigger.
Garp grinned and clenched his fists, making them crackle. "Hahahaha, this kind of attack, other than that bastard Shiki, I don't know anyone else who can do it."
"This is really scary. We haven't even reached G-1, and we're already going up against a living legend of the sea?" Kizaru put one hand in his pocket and raised his right hand to scratch his cheek.
"Be careful! Don't let the pirates' attacks damage the ship or the lift." Kuzan took his hand out of his pocket and ordered Dalmatian, who was standing behind him, "Contact the Holy Land guards and have the units on the Red Line pay attention to protecting the lift channel."
"Yes!" Dalmatian quickly took out a Den Den Mushi to make the call.
Garp was right.
After only a few dozens of seconds, when the tiny black dots that were rapidly descending from above were only five to six hundred meters away from the descending Unicorn, everyone discovered that the small black dots were actually huge pirate ships.
These pirate ships, with lion heads painted on their sails, were all filled with roaring pirates. They were the great pirate fleet of Shiki, which had been missing from the sea for many years.
Although many of the Flying Pirates had left after Shiki's capture, there were still quite a few old pirates who were loyal to Shiki and chose to continue waiting for him, and they continued to follow him and pledge their allegiance after his escape from Impel Down.
And now, these pirates, who had been missing from the sea with Shiki for seventeen years, had a day to see the light of day again. They were all as full of energy as a fifty-year-old bachelor who had been cooped up for too long.
Before the pirate ships even got within effective cannon range, cannonballs, rocks, and iron balls were thrown directly from their decks.
A dozen pirate ships, each larger than the Unicorn, carrying seven to eight thousand pirates, all grinned and threw cannonballs down. They didn't care if they hit anything; they just threw them down.
For a moment, the Marine officers on the Unicorn watched in horror as a rain of heavy objects came crashing down, covering a space of a thousand meters in all directions.
As the first cannonballs, rocks, and other heavy objects that were thrown down were about to hit the top of the lift, Dalmatian, who was on the phone with the Holy Land guards, quickly shouted at Rorschach, "Rear Admiral Rorschach, quickly use your ability to fly the warship out of the lift platform! The energy shield is about to be activated. Once the shield protecting the lift is activated, it can't be opened for twenty-four hours. We don't have time to be stuck here."
Just as Dalmatian finished the first half of his sentence, Rorschach had already swelled up again, transforming into his blue Kirin form. He controlled the airflow to propel the Unicorn, which moved sharply to the side of the platform, and at this altitude of seven to eight thousand meters, it was thrown diagonally towards the sea below.
In the next second, along with a series of humming sounds, an arched dome suddenly appeared at the top of the lift channel behind them, like half of a giant oval eggshell, covering the top of the huge lift.
"That's... the shield from Egghead Island, isn't it? I can't believe they installed it here too?" Garp looked at Kizaru with some surprise.
Kizaru shrugged. "This energy shield is very useful, so of course it should be given to the Holy Land first."
"Borsalino, next time, get some for us Marines too. Get one for Marineford and one for G-1. Oh, and get one for me too. I want to install it on my warship."
Garp's words made Kizaru's mouth pucker up to the sky.
He raised his hands in surrender. "Give me a break, Vice Admiral Garp. The cost of this thing is comparable to a hundred warships."
"Vice Admiral Garp! Admiral Kizaru! This is not the time for idle chat! The pirates are coming!"
A Marine officer's forehead was covered in cold sweat as he watched Garp and Kizaru still talking nonsense.
On the energy shield that had risen outside the rapidly descending lift channel, various heavy objects from the sky crashed down, and a series of dazzling fireballs rose.
The rumbling explosions were transmitted from a distance.
Not only that, a sharp whistling sound also rang out above the Unicorn.
Cannonballs whistled down, crashing straight towards them.
These cannonballs, which were thrown directly from an altitude of over a thousand meters, didn't even need to be fired from a cannon barrel. When they hit the ship, they would explode with more force than a regular cannon.
"Hahahaha, cannonballs? I'm the best at this. Bring me the cannonballs you prepared earlier!"
Garp rolled up his sleeves, reached out, grabbed a cannonball, and swung it at the cannonballs falling from the sky.
"Whoosh!"
Everyone felt a strong gust of wind suddenly rise from the deck in front of them, and a rapid sound of air being torn apart came from their ears.
In the next instant, a huge explosion erupted about five hundred meters above the Unicorn.
Everyone looked up in astonishment and saw a large ball of intense fire expand like a small mushroom cloud, covering a diameter of over a dozen meters of the sky. It sent out a violent shockwave, which detonated the surrounding cannonballs.
And these detonated cannonballs transmitted the shockwave further away.
For a moment, the single cannonball that Garp had casually thrown out caused a chain reaction, detonating the hundreds of cannonballs that were raining down from the sky.
They heard a series of continuous cannon fire exploding, and the entire sky was covered by the black smoke and fire from the detonated cannonballs.
"Well done! You're still sharp, old man!"
A smile appeared on Rorschach's face. He took the opportunity to open the Ga-chan at the stern of the ship, allowing the Unicorn to quickly charge out and fall towards the distant sea, hidden by the smoke and flames that covered the sky.
Hearing Rorschach's praise, Garp's old face almost broke out into a smile like a chrysanthemum.
He was full of pride. He tore off his shirt, revealing a chest covered in countless scars. He reached out and grabbed two more cannonballs, throwing them out again.
"Hahahaha! Of course! Who do you think I am? These opponents are all just a bunch of lowlife punks. In the entire Flying Pirates, other than that old bastard Shiki, the rest are all lowlife punks. I can take them all on by myself."
"Watch closely! I'll make these old geezers remember the fear of being dominated by me again!"
"Fist of Iron! Meteor Shower!"
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh! Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"
Garp swung his arms, turning them into a blur. He threw the cannonballs that the officers behind him pushed forward with his bare hands, leaving the Marine officers on the deck dumbfounded.
Cannonballs shot out from Garp's hands with a terrifying, supersonic speed. It was as if they had a self-aiming lock, hitting the falling cannonballs with perfect accuracy.
And Garp was clearly not just using his Observation Haki to hit cannonballs with cannonballs.
Every cannonball he threw often hit the areas where the cannonballs were most concentrated.
When a cannonball exploded, the shockwave would detonate the surrounding cannonballs, causing even more explosions.
Therefore, everyone just felt a series of huge explosions, and waves of violent impacts came from above, constantly pushing the Unicorn to accelerate away.
"Throwing cannonballs with his bare hands, and the speed and power are even more terrifying than those fired from a cannon. As expected of Vice Admiral Garp!" an officer couldn't help but exclaim.
Onigumo and the others were relatively calm. They even had the leisure to take out a cigar and smoke it.
Heh, what a joke. Who do you think this guy is?
There can be three Marine Admirals, but there will always be only one Marine Hero.
Shiki is a living legend. Isn't Garp one as well?
Just then, Garp, who was throwing cannonballs, narrowed his eyes. The muscles on his right arm bulged, and he slammed it towards a certain direction in the sky.
This extremely violent swing even blew up the air in front of Garp, creating a white shockwave. The entire bow of the Unicorn sank down significantly because of it.
The cannonball he threw was wrapped in a layer of flowing Haki. It was like a meteorite rising against the air, breaking through one sonic boom after another, emitting a terrifying wailing sound as it shot towards a blurry figure that was flying through the air.
"Fist of Iron! Meteorite!"
(End of Chapter)
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