"Bullshit! Pirates are the ones who stop at nothing!" the Marine giant roared in anger, struggling furiously.
"You're beyond reason. You've been completely brainwashed by the Marines." Brogy's face was grim. He slammed a fist into the Marine giant's face, knocking him unconscious.
The Marines and pirates were locked in a frenzied, chaotic melee. The sounds of slaughter shook the heavens. The moment the two sides clashed, massive casualties were incurred. Blood stained the cold, white ice, a shocking and glaring crimson.
"Jeffries, you're too far forward! Get back here!" Hank shouted, reprimanding a young man at the front who was emitting black smoke.
"It's fine, Captain Hank! I'm strong!" the young man yelled back without turning. Dark smoke poured from his hands, forming three giant venomous smoke-pythons that slithered through the Marine ranks, swallowing one soldier after another. Any Marine swallowed by the black smoke was instantly poisoned, collapsing unconscious. If they didn't receive treatment, they would be dead in less than half a minute.
This was Jeffries, the boy Bege had saved from Taku years ago. He had chosen to merge with Taku, gaining his Poison-Smoke Fruit. In the following years, Jeffries had undergone high-intensity training and had finally developed enough combat power to participate in a battle of this scale.
"White Fist!" Suddenly, a white smoke-fist shot out from the Marine ranks, striking one of the poison-pythons. The snake was instantly dispersed, and the Marines trapped inside fell to the ice.
Smoker, white smoke flowing from his body, threw two more punches, destroying the other two smoke-pythons. He stared at Jeffries, taking a drag from his cigars. "A smoke ability, just like mine? No... it's poison smoke. It must be a special Paramecia, the Poison-Smoke Fruit."
Back at the Academy, Admiral Zephyr had told him about the Devil Fruits subordinate to his own. The first one on the list below the Smoke-Smoke Fruit was the Poison-Smoke Fruit. He knew a little about it.
"Since it's a subordinate fruit to mine, I have no reason to lose." Smoker charged toward Jeffries, a massive tide of white smoke surging from his body, rolling toward Jeffries like a white sea.
"A Logia-type Smoke-Smoke Fruit user. So we finally meet. I'm not afraid of you!" Jeffries also knew about the Smoke-Smoke Fruit; Bege had told him that it was the superior version of his own.
A great plume of black poison smoke erupted from Jeffries's body, and he charged forward as a black sea of smoke. The white and black tides crashed into each other, rolling and churning in all directions.
Immediately, two figures shot out from their respective smoke clouds and slammed into one another.
Jeffries barely managed to block Smoker's Jutte. He opened his mouth and exhaled a thick cloud of poison smoke, hitting Smoker square in the face.
The black smoke enveloped Smoker's face, turning it dark, but in an instant, all the poison simply flowed off him, and his expression returned to normal.
"Don't forget, I'm a Logia-type Smoke-Smoke Fruit user. Your poison is useless on me," Smoker sneered. He sent Jeffries flying with a kick and then transformed into a cloud of smoke to pursue him.
But just then, a figure blurred in from the side, lashing out with a kick that struck Smoker. Smoker's smoke-body instantly solidified, and he was sent flying backward, crashing onto the ice.
The figure that landed was Hank.
"Jeffries, now is not the time for a duel. Use your area-of-effect attack!" Hank ordered.
"I know!" Jeffries replied, clearly reluctant. He climbed to his feet and began to exude a massive cloud of black poison smoke, which began to spread toward the Marine formations. The gas quickly covered a large area. Inside the cloud, all the Marines' faces turned black as the poison took hold.
It wasn't just the Marines; the pirates were also caught in the gas. They clutched their mouths, their faces turning pale as they tried to escape the poison zone.
Smoker's expression changed drastically, and he lunged for Jeffries, but Hank blocked his path.
"Hank, Captain of the Fire Tank Pirates' Ninth Division." Smoker's face was grim. He was proud and confident, but he would never underestimate the young man in front of him, who was about his same age.
"You may be a Logia, but your element is too weak," Hank said coolly. "You're not strong enough to break through my blockade."
"How will we know until we fight?" Smoker's face hardened, and he charged at Hank.
Jeffries's poison gas spread wantonly across the battlefield. Suddenly, a figure leaped up from the Marine side. He waved his hands, and a powerful gust of wind was generated, blowing the black poison smoke away from the Marines and back toward the pirates.
"A wind-based Devil Fruit user?" Jeffries's expression changed. A wind user was his natural enemy.
His face hardened. The dispersed poison smoke quickly re-condensed, forming a massive poison dragon. He directed the dragon to charge across the battlefield, swallowing one Marine after another. The Marines immediately sent a Commodore to intercept the poison dragon.
The battle between the Marines and pirates raged, with men dying every second.
Meanwhile, on the battlefield of the top commanders, the fight was just as heated. The ice field was being completely torn apart.
Of the four main battlefields, the fight between Bege and Steel Bone Kong was by far the most intense. They were truly in a deathmatch. Kong was dead set on eliminating Bege.
Bege's own killing intent was just as high. The longer they fought, the more ferocious and ruthless the battle became.
Kong sent Bege flying with a punch, his aura growing even more powerful. It seemed that from the beginning of the fight until now, his power hadn't waned but was instead growing stronger.
"Justice will prevail!" Kong roared, his tiger-like eyes locked on Bege. He took one step, instantly appearing in front of Bege, his iron fist punching through the air once more. Not to be outdone, Bege met the fist with his sword. He was once again sent flying by the fist's colossal power, and he coughed up a spray of blood.
"Justice is invincible! 'Demon Dragon,' you will die beneath my fist of justice!" A powerful light shone in Kong's eyes, and his aura exploded outward again. He was like an undefeatable god, and every step he took seemed to shake Bege to his core, as if his foot were stomping on Bege's very heart, inspiring fear.
"So fast...!"
Bege looked up in shock. Kong was already above him, his eyes wide with astonishment and a faint trace of terror.
"Justice Iron Fist!"
Kong roared. His raised right fist slammed down. The terrifying pressure from the punch landed on Bege, and the ice beneath his feet instantly vaporized.
Bege grit his teeth, his ferocious aura tearing through the pressure wave. At the very last second, his body vanished. The terrifying iron fist slammed into the ice, completely obliterSating a dozens-of-meters-wide section of the battlefield. The tyrannical force of the punch continued into the sea, punching a hole all the way down to the seabed hundreds of meters below, leaving a massive fist-shaped crater.
The seawater surged, and the entire ice field trembled.
Bege reappeared several dozen meters away, his face dark and grim.
"So this is a Conviction-Conviction Fruit user. Once they have an unshakeable belief, their power becomes endless. I've truly learned my lesson this time."
That was right. Steel Bone Kong was a user of the Paramecia-type Conviction-Conviction Fruit. As long as the user held a firm belief in their heart, they could convert that belief into power.
The stronger the user's conviction, the more terrifying their power became.
And Kong's unshakeable, indestructible belief in "Justice" was his greatest strength.