Screech!
In a flash like lightning striking flint, several gorgeous golden flying slash waves tore through the air and collided with the shockwave Sengoku had launched.
Boom!
The shockwave detonated on the spot.
"Slash Wave Thousand-Cut Valley!!!"
Golden Lion Shiki gripped his twin blades and unleashed razor-sharp slashes in rapid succession.
The golden flying cuts split the sky and arrived in front of Sengoku in an instant, forcing Sengoku to dart left and right, slipping through them with perfect evasions.
Sengoku roared at the dazed Garp, "Garp! Stop Golden Lion!"
Snapped back to reality, Garp sprang like a long-jump champion, one leap carrying him over the wall's battlements. Then, like a hunting eagle diving from the heavens, he dropped from the sky and slammed down in front of Shiki.
Blood stained the corner of Shiki's mouth. His eyes burned with killing intent as he barked, "Move!"
Inside, anxiety clawed at him.
With Tengetsu Ares' strength, there was no way he should have lost to Sengoku.
This looked like something else entirely, like Ares had lost consciousness.
They had to retreat, now, and take Tengetsu Ares with them.
"When have you ever seen this old man step aside?" Garp clenched his fist, answering with action.
A terrifying punch force surged out, dragging thick shockwaves of air that made the atmosphere tremble.
"Fist Bone Meteor Impact!!"
Shouting out a move name was normally cringeworthy, the kind of overdramatic habit only a kid would have.
But in a boiling, blood-pumping battle like this, it didn't feel cringey at all.
It only made Garp's presence loom larger.
As if the punch itself grew heavier.
Maybe that was just the tradition of hot-blooded anime fights.
"Pack: Shiki's Might Ground Scroll!!!" Shiki bellowed, going all out.
The earth churned and rolled. Under the power of the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi, it morphed into one majestic stone lion after another, forming a blockade in front of Garp.
At the same time, Shiki split his focus.
He shot into the air, controlling his ability with one hand, while his other hand, gripping a sword, sent several slashes screaming outward toward Sengoku.
"Sengoku! I, Shiki, will not allow a man like Tengetsu Ares to die so easily!"
The incoming slashes interrupted Sengoku's next move. He glared at Shiki.
"Golden Lion! Are you arrogant enough to think you can take me and Garp at the same time?!"
"Even if you team up… so what?" Shiki's face split into a wild, unruly grin. "Shishishishi hahahaha!"
"A man like Tengetsu Ares cannot fall here. I don't know what's happening to him, but as long as I, Shiki, am standing…"
"Don't even dream of hurting him again!"
Sengoku's brow tightened. He hadn't expected Shiki to be this reckless, challenging two of the Marines' greatest forces alone.
It was madness.
Sengoku leapt, his golden form vaulting into the air, appearing before Shiki with a cold, cutting stare.
"You'll pay for that arrogance."
"Buddha Shockwave!"
"I'm the Golden Lion!!!" Shiki roared, his posture domineering, like a true king of beasts surveying his domain.
An invisible surge of Conqueror's Haki rippled out, making the surrounding air currents surge and shudder.
With one hand, he raised his blade Meito, Sakura Ten.
In that instant, its brilliant, icy edge turned into a jet-black blade, inside and out saturated with Shiki's ferocious Armament Haki.
He didn't hesitate.
He cleaved straight into Sengoku's shockwave!
Shiki understood it clearly.
At a moment like this, only he could step forward.
His enemies were Admiral Sengoku and Garp. And Sengoku, right now, was empowered by a Mythical Zoan.
His mouth was arrogant, yes.
But arrogance didn't mean he would underestimate monsters like these.
Besides
He wasn't here to win.
He was here to buy time for Tengetsu Ares.
I just need that brat to wake up, Shiki thought grimly. Whatever happened, I can ask later.
Screech!
The razor-sharp Meito blade seemed to split the air itself as it crashed into Sengoku's shockwave without fear.
Boom!
The shockwave exploded, violent winds bursting outward in rolling waves, sweeping in every direction.
"This guy can split his focus and still fight like this…" Sengoku's face sank. "As expected of Golden Lion."
The towering golden Buddha's legs exploded with power, stamping so hard it seemed to crush the air itself BOOM! like a cannon blast.
Geppo!
The golden Buddha shot like an arrow to Shiki's left side, and Sengoku drove a punch straight toward Shiki's flank.
"Tch… Sengoku…" Shiki retreated fast.
His left hand was busy controlling the stone lions formed from the earth. His right hand held his sword.
That meant his left side was exposed and Sengoku saw it instantly.
As he drifted backward, Shiki swung with his right hand, flinging several dazzling sword auras that tore through the sky
Only for Sengoku to smash them apart with his fists.
Sengoku didn't pause.
He stomped again, kicking off with a sonic boom, surging forward like a man strapped to rocket thrusters. The golden light on his fist flared Shiki couldn't afford to underestimate it.
Sengoku's golden Buddha might not have the steel-hard, bulging muscle mass of Tengetsu Ares or Kaido.
But that didn't mean it was weak.
Quite the opposite.
Sengoku's strength was terrifying in its own right.
As one of the Marines' traditional pillars of power, he had no glaring weaknesses in martial skill, Haki, or Devil Fruit ability.
And a Mythical Zoan, rare as legend itself, amplified physical power enormously.
"Damn it!" Shiki felt suffocated.
With one hand on a sword, he couldn't unleash the full might of his dual-blade Great Swordsman style.
He slashed several sharp sword waves to slow Sengoku, and in that narrow window, he used the Fuwa Fuwa no Mi to pull more distance.
His self-proclaimed title Ruler of the Skies wasn't just empty bragging.
The battle was at a deadlock.
And it wasn't only Shiki's side that was locked in brutal stalemate Kaido and Zephyr were too.
But someone arrived soon to shatter that balance.
One by one, figures emerged.
They wore white masks of varying designs. Their bodies came in all shapes tall, short, heavy, thin… and some of them might not even be human.
White cloaks concealed them from head to toe, and leather gloves covered their hands at all times.
The moment the CP0 agents appeared, shock rippled through the battlefield.
"It's CP0… I've never seen this many move together at once…"
"CP0 doesn't belong to the Marines. The Marines can't command them. Is this a joint operation?!"
"…!"
Only a handful of Marines knew about this operation.
For most Marines, CP0 were ghosts names you heard whispered, never faces you saw.
The Cipher Pol branches that interacted more often with the Marines were CP1 through CP9.
And those intelligence types, whenever they dealt with Marines, always acted arrogant and dismissive, like they looked down on everyone in uniform.
CP0 ignored the surrounding Marine elites entirely.
Their eyes went straight to Kaido, still locked in battle with Zephyr.
Kaido's intel had long been dissected down to the bone.
"Squad Three, move," ordered CP0's commander, Claude. "Capture Kaido."
Several CP0 agents stepped forward, peeled away from the group, and vanished with ghostlike footwork.
Many Marines recognized it instantly.
Soru.
"So fast… I've heard every CP0 agent is extremely proficient in the Rokushiki, and that's just their basics!" an old Marine officer cried out.
Even he, as a commander, had only mastered one or two of the Six Powers.
And that alone had made him stand out among the ranks.
In the Marines, anyone who fully trained Rokushiki and didn't die young could easily become a major officer maybe even climb into the true upper tier as an elite Vice Admiral.
Back to the point
Kaido, in his Hanuman form, had almost no blind spots.
He saw them immediately, and his face changed violently.
"CP0… the World Government's strongest intelligence organization… and they've mobilized this many at once?!"
Unease flooded him.
A Marine ambush was one thing.
But this?
The Marines and CP0 working together?
Are they trying to wipe all of us out here?
Sweat began to bead on each of Kaido's multiple faces.
He'd seen CP0's strength before. He feared them.
And across the seas, CP0's name alone made pirates go pale terror that traveled faster than the wind.
In the time it took him to think, five or six CP0 agents in white cloaks and masks had already surrounded him.
Zephyr's cold, taut expression eased slightly. He let out a quiet breath.
Facing a monster like Kaido alone was enormous pressure.
This bastard had eaten a Mythical Zoan, gaining a body like indestructible vajra hard enough to make steel feel soft.
His strength was absurd.
And his speed was as swift as a gale.
If it were just me against Kaido, Zephyr admitted grimly, I might not take him down in a short time.
Thank goodness CP0 is here. Otherwise, if this guy keeps growing…
Someday he'll be another Whitebeard. Another Golden Lion.
Another nightmare the Marines can't easily handle.
After trading blows with Kaido, Zephyr fully acknowledged Kaido's power.
Other than being young, there was almost no weakness to exploit.
At the earlier Marine meeting, they'd already briefed many commanders on Kaido's background. The Marines and World Government knew his origins all too well.
And because they knew, they understood something else even better.
Kaido's potential was terrifying.
A child thrown into wars so deadly that even adults struggled to survive
And who grew through countless battlefields
Until he became the strongest warrior of the Vodka Kingdom.
And back then…
Kaido was only
Ten years old.
That was why the World Government had taken interest in him.
The moment CP0 appeared around him, Kaido instantly transformed into a feral tiger.
He charged toward his escape route with a deafening roar.
"Get the hell out of my way!"
"Anyone who blocks me dies!!"
A hurricane howled.
Kaido swung his massive kanabo down without mercy, smashing toward CP0's heads. If it landed, there would be no suspense only meat paste.
"Raimei Hakke!!"
Behind CP0 masks, their eyes clearly reflected the terrifying muscle mass on Kaido's arms.
When Kaido exerted force, the muscles writhed like slick pythons, a living "snake disaster" twisting across his limb that made the soul shudder.
Years of combat experience screamed a warning to that CP0 agent.
Trying to block that head-on was stupidity.
But CP0 doctrine was carved into bone.
In a mission, you do not retreat.
If you retreat and cause failure, the punishment is hell.
And now, with Kaido trying to flee if he dodged and let Kaido break through…
The consequences would be catastrophic.
All of those thoughts flashed through the CP0 agent's mind in the time it took a spark to jump.
"Ultimate Tekkai!!"
In an instant, the CP0 agent's muscles bulged.
At rest, muscle stayed soft.
When exerted, muscle turned hard.
And a body trained beyond human limits became harder still.
CP0 controlled every muscle fiber, forcing the entire body into a tightly flexed, braced state.
At the same time, Armament Haki hardened over him, turning him into a statue of black jade.
Smooth surface.
Cold sheen.
White highlights flickering like golden light.
In the next heartbeat
As soon as Kaido committed to the breakout, CP0 agents from other angles reacted in a perfect chain.
They struck together.
One agent raised a hand, index finger aimed at Kaido, unleashing advanced Shigan. Fingers stabbed the air in rapid bursts, producing invisible air bullets that shot toward Kaido's vital points.
Another lifted a long, slender leg so long it would make countless girls on some distant blue planet jealous. Hidden beneath the white robe, the agent's gender was impossible to tell.
The kicks were flamboyant, rapid, and deadly.
Air blades appeared like blue streaks and screamed toward Kaido.
Meanwhile, the remaining three CP0 agents flickered forward in pursuit, clearly more specialized in close-quarters combat.
…
BOOM!
Kaido's kanabo slammed down, swallowing the CP0 agent's figure whole.
To everyone watching, it looked like the massive club had smashed directly into the ground, cracking it open with a sound that made teeth rattle.
Dust erupted.
Rubble sprayed in all directions.
On Kaido's back, one of his faces twisted with murderous fury.
Six thick arms, as huge as elephant legs, shone with golden light. With palms spread, they formed a massive shield.
The air bullets, sharp as real rounds, struck his palms and rang out in a rapid clatter.
Two of those hands then snapped out fingers thick, joints massive and hard and caught the blue flying slashes like someone catching butterflies.
And then
He crushed them.
A grinding sound rang out that made everyone's teeth ache.
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