The battle for the Baratie began in earnest.
A wave of enraged Krieg Pirates swarmed onto the floating platform, their battle cries a savage roar against the calm sea air. They were met by an equally furious, albeit much stranger, defensive line.
The fighting cooks of the Baratie.
"You think you can just waltz in and take our home?!" Patty roared, swinging a massive meat tenderizer like a war hammer.
"Our restaurant has the best food and the toughest fists in the East Blue!" Carne added, expertly parrying a sword thrust with a pair of oversized frying pans.
A chaotic brawl erupted on the floating stage. It was a clash of two worlds. The Krieg Pirates fought with swords and guns, the tools of professional marauders. The chefs fought with giant ladles, sharpened cleavers, and bags of scorching hot spices. They were a whirlwind of culinary carnage, their desperation to protect their home giving them a strength that surprised their attackers.
Patty and Carne, having safely escaped the wreckage of their Sabagashira No. 1, were at the heart of the fight. They moved back-to-back, a seamless unit of destruction.
"Listen up, you bastards!" Patty bellowed to his fellow cooks as he sent a pirate flying with his cannon-like fist. "Remember why we're here! We were kicked out of every other restaurant! They told us we were too violent for the kitchen!"
"They told us cooks should cook, not fight!" Carne added, slamming his pans together on a pirate's head. "But this is the Baratie! This is the only place in the world where we can be who we are! A place where we can cook with our souls and defend it with our fists! This isn't just a restaurant! It's our freedom!"
Their words ignited a fire in the other chefs. They fought with renewed vigor, for their home, for their pride, for their freedom.
But as Patty and Carne finished off another wave of attackers, a new figure appeared silently behind them. He was a massive man, encased from head to toe in pearl-studded steel armor, with two giant, round shields covering his fists.
"Freedom? Pride?" the man said, his voice dripping with arrogance. "Such pretty words for such a pathetic struggle."
It was "Iron Wall" Pearl, one of Don Krieg's top commanders.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I am the man who has fought in countless battles and never shed a single drop of my own blood. My body is an invincible fortress. You are not warriors. You are just cooks. Your resistance is futile."
Patty and Carne, enraged by his taunts, charged him. Their best attacks, a powerful punch and a pan-slam, connected squarely with Pearl's armor.
CLANG!
The blows simply bounced off, leaving not even a scratch. The chefs stared in horror.
"My turn," Pearl said with a yawn.
He threw a single, seemingly casual punch. The pearl-studded shield on his fist slammed into the two chefs, sending them flying backwards like rag dolls, defeated in an instant.
As Patty lay unconscious, a few of Krieg's men saw an opportunity. They scurried forward, their greedy eyes fixed on his prized set of kitchen knives that had fallen beside him.
But a black-suited blur intercepted them.
It was Sanji. He had been watching from the restaurant's railing. He leaped from his perch, his body an arc of controlled grace. He landed not on his feet, but on his hands, planting them firmly on the wooden deck.
Using his immense core strength, he kicked his legs up and began to spin, his body a human top. His long, black-trousered legs became a sweeping, circular weapon, a devastating human buzzsaw.
BUPP!
His shoes connected with the heads and bodies of all the surrounding pirates at once. They were sent flying in every direction, knocked out cold before they even knew what had hit them.
Sanji gracefully flipped back onto his feet. He calmly picked up the knife roll.
"A cook's tools," he said, his voice cold as ice, "are his soul." He tossed the knives back to Patty.
Pearl laughed at the display. He pounded his armored chest. "It doesn't matter how many of you there are! None of you can even scratch me! In all my battles, I have never once bled! I AM INVINCIBLE!"
That arrogant boast was the final straw for Sanji. "We'll see about that."
He launched himself from the platform, his black-shoed foot aimed like a spear at Pearl's arrogant face.
At the exact same moment, Don Krieg, who had been watching the main battle unfold from the wreckage, saw his own opportunity. Luffy was standing on the edge of the Baratie's deck, completely engrossed in watching Sanji's dramatic showdown.
'The fool is distracted,' Krieg thought, a cruel grin on his face.
He drew back his armored fist and unleashed a treacherous sucker punch. The blow slammed into Luffy with immense force.
"GUAH!"
Luffy was sent flying through the air like a rubber cannonball, his trajectory completely uncontrolled. He soared over the floating battlefield, over the fighting Sanji, and directly over the head of the invincible Pearl.
And then he came down.
BONK!
It was not the sound of a grand battle, but a comical, hollow thud. Luffy's head crashed directly onto the top of Pearl's pearl-studded helmet.
The force of the impact drove Pearl's head down into his own chest plate with the sound of a turtle retracting into its shell. Luffy, meanwhile, bounced off and landed in a heap nearby.
For a moment, there was a stunned silence.
Pearl slowly, shakily, lifted his head from his armor. His arrogant expression was gone, replaced by one of pure, bewildered shock.
He raised a trembling, armored hand to his face. He felt something wet under his nose.
He brought his hand back and stared.
On the tip of his finger was a single, bright, impossible drop of red.
Blood.
His blood.
The invincible man had bled for the very first time, not from a sword or a cannon, but from a rubber boy's head accidentally falling on him.
The battlefield fell silent as everyone stared at the impossible sight.