In order to sweep away the enemy with overwhelming force, even the crew's doctor, Philo, donned a raven mask and joined the fray.
Eager to prove himself, Arthur wasn't idle either. He quickly set his sights on the highest-ranking officers of the Donquixote Family—Trebol and Diamante.
However, just as he was about to engage, he witnessed Law effortlessly eliminating both Trebol and Diamante in one swift maneuver.
Seeing this unfold before his eyes, Arthur was left speechless, caught in a whirlpool of complicated emotions.
The main reason? The way Law dealt with them was just too…
Damn slick.
Still reeling from what he had seen, Arthur, at Law's request, precisely threw two silver needles with fine threads attached to their ends, catching the sinking Trebol and Diamante before they disappeared beneath the sea.
Instead of immediately hauling them to the surface, he patiently waited until they had lost consciousness due to oxygen deprivation before carefully dragging them ashore.
Staring at the unconscious Trebol and Diamante, Arthur found himself in a dilemma.
In this battle, he needed to take down at least one officer to prove his worth.
Yet, these two Devil Fruit users were explicitly designated by Maude as captives to be kept alive.
If he simply left them be and an accident happened, he'd most likely have to answer to Maude.
"Can someone take over for me…?"
Arthur murmured weakly, glancing around at the other battle zones.
Everyone was engaged in combat. No one had the time to pay attention to his predicament.
As for Law, after tossing this burden onto Arthur, he had already rushed off in pursuit of other Donquixote Family officers.
Arthur had wanted to seize the opportunity to prove himself in battle, but upon realizing the situation, he felt nothing but exhaustion.
"Sigh."
Accepting his fate, he sighed, then stepped forward and systematically broke all four limbs of Trebol and Diamante before tightly binding them with his fine threads.
This wasn't an act of venting frustration, but rather a necessary precaution to prevent any unforeseen incidents.
"I can't just keep an eye on these two the entire time, can I?"
Arthur gave the threads in his hand a slight tug, looking helplessly toward Law's retreating figure.
Law, completely unaware of the trouble he had just dumped on Arthur, had only one thing on his mind—the remaining Donquixote Family officers.
In the battle zone.
Perona and the others quickly eliminated the hundred or so Donquixote Family members who had managed to withstand Maude's Conqueror's Haki.
Now, only six officers remained on the field, aside from Viola and the Hobby-Hobby Fruit user, Sugar. Each of them was now engaged with a key member of the Maude Pirates.
"Damn Maude Pirates…!"
The Pop-Pop Fruit user, Gladius, glared furiously at Jim, who had transformed into his hybrid Triceratops form.
Jim wiped the blood off his face with an indifferent expression and said coldly, "If you've got anything left up your sleeve, use it."
Gladius sneered. "You're just relying on the recovery ability of a Zoan-type… Hmph, just wait. I'll make sure you suffer—"
"Room."
A spatial field suddenly expanded, cutting off Gladius's words.
"Shambles."
Before Gladius could even turn toward Law's direction, he was instantly transported above the sea.
Sploosh!
A large splash rippled across the water's surface.
"Law, I—glug glug… glug glug…"
Realizing what had happened, Gladius struggled desperately in the sea.
Onshore.
Jim's face stiffened as he watched Law steal his prey right from under him.
"Arthur, do your job."
Ignoring Jim's murderous glare, Law tossed out the command before heading off to find his next target.
Arthur, with veins popping on his forehead, looked down at the flailing Gladius in the sea.
In the second battle zone.
"A moving skeleton? That's quite the rarity, yieeek."
Wearing a tight, ribbed bodysuit that exposed a thick patch of chest hair, the Ton-Ton Fruit user, Machvise, coldly eyed Brook and sneered viciously:
"Too bad your opponent is me. The only fate awaiting you is to be crushed into dust by my ability, yieeek!"
"Yohoho~ In that case, I simply need to avoid being crushed, don't I?"
Brook held his cane sword in front of him, his hollow eye sockets locked onto Machvise.
"What?!"
Machvise gasped. "There was such a method, yieeek?!"
"???"
Brook tilted his skull slightly, utterly baffled.
"Room."
At that moment, Law's deep, magnetic voice rang out.
A spatial field enveloped Machvise.
"Shambles."
Sploosh!
Another splash erupted from the sea.
Machvise flailed desperately in the water.
"Yieeek… glug glug… yieeek… glug glug…"
Onshore.
Brook's neck joint creaked as he slowly turned his head, staring blankly at Law's unexpected interference.
"Law~~ how~~ could you do this~~~?"
A voice filled with resentment transformed into wisps of green ghostly fire, floating beside Brook.
"Arthur, get to work."
Law left Brook with those words and dashed toward his next target.
Arthur: "..."
Third battlefield.
"Oh ho ho! Are you that captivated by my beauty, little girl?"
A towering figure with sharp facial features, curled hair, and glossy lips—Giolla, the user of the Art-Art Fruit—stood with her hands on her wide hips, twisting her body flamboyantly.
Hovering in midair, Perona was surrounded by a few of her Negative Hollows.
"Auntie, my little darlings absolutely adore people like you—those who are way too full of themselves."
"Oh dear, stop it! I can't handle such flattery twice in a row! Oh ho ho!"
Giolla spun her thick waist with exaggerated enthusiasm.
"I WASN'T PRAISING YOU!!!"
"Little girl, jealousy will—"
"Room!"
"Huh?"
Giolla's twisting motion froze. The next moment, she suddenly found herself hovering over the sea.
"Splash!"
Another ripple spread across the ocean's surface.
"What's hap... glub glub ...Law, it's you... glub glub ..."
Giolla flailed in the water, struggling to stay afloat, looking as though she could sink to the bottom at any moment.
Onshore, Perona widened her eyes and glared at Law. "Hey! That was my opponent!"
"Oh."
Law responded indifferently before turning away to find the next officer.
"Splash!"
"Glub glub..."
And just like that, Law systematically teleported the remaining Donquixote Family officers into the sea in mere moments.
In the end, only Dellinger—one of the few non-Devil Fruit users with fishman blood—remained standing.
"E-Everyone... got taken out?!"
Dellinger, who had barely even warmed up for the fight, looked around and realized he was the only one left.
Not far away, Law glanced at the bewildered Dellinger before shifting his gaze to his crewmates, whose eyes were now glowing red with frustration from having their fights stolen.
"Don't look at me like that. This trick was something Maude taught me. If you have a problem, go complain to him."
Under the piercing stares of his comrades, Law calmly deflected the blame onto Maude, who was currently watching Aokiji take down Jack.
"Huh? The boss taught you this?"
"Was it Captain's idea?"
"I swear, I wanna know how Captain's brain works! He always comes up with the most unexpected strategies!"
Hearing Law's words, the crew's anger momentarily subsided. Instead of scolding him, they were left with admiration for Maude's tactical brilliance.
But Law merely pointed at Dellinger and coolly stated, "There's still one left. He's all yours."
"Hmm?"
The crew collectively turned toward the last remaining member of the Donquixote Family. The red glint in their eyes gradually shifted to an ominous green.
Their gazes locked onto Dellinger like a pack of ravenous wolves spotting a lone, helpless lamb.
"!!!"
Dellinger stiffened, staring at the multitude of glowing green eyes aimed at him.
Usually aggressive and ruthless in battle, he was now frozen in fear.
"Just what kind of monster den is the Maude Pirates?!"
His body trembled slightly.
Meanwhile, Law calmly walked toward the Donquixote officers that Arthur had fished out of the sea one by one.
Having personally doomed these officers to their defeat, his next task was extracting their Devil Fruits for Maude.
As for the other fights happening elsewhere, he had no intention of interfering.
In his eyes, Maude and Aokiji alone were more than enough to effortlessly annihilate the entire Beasts Pirates squad, including Jack the Drought.
Not to mention, two of the crew's main combatants were also engaged in battle.
The outcome was already decided.
Frankly, the Beasts Pirates had the worst possible timing. Just as Maude was preparing to wipe out the Donquixote Family for good, they stumbled straight into his path.
"At this rate, we should be able to extract at least ten Devil Fruits for Maude... Hm, ten Devil Fruits... Why do I feel nothing about this? Have I already gotten used to it?"
Law briefly calculated the spoils they were about to reap and arched an eyebrow in mild surprise.
Ten Devil Fruits.
The way he said it made it sound as trivial as collecting ten apples...
Speaking of which, once Maude gets these ten Devil Fruits, will he actually use them, or is he just hoarding them?
For some reason, Law found his own speculation... strangely plausible.
After all, Maude had once made a comment during a banquet that, at the time, sounded like a joke:
"It's just like a card game. Collecting every Devil Fruit recorded in the 'Devil Fruit Encyclopedia'—doesn't that sound fun?"
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