The brutal impacts sent the battleships rocking, masts groaning as hulls teetered on the edge of capsizing.
The propulsion arrays beneath the ships had already been wrecked by the Sea Kings. Without wind in the sails, the fleet had no way to move.
"These Sea Kings are infuriating!"
"Damn it. This has to be Rakuya controlling them." Sengoku's face was iron. A fleet like theirs almost never suffered this kind of large-scale harassment. Today was too abnormal. It could only be Rakuya's doing.
No one knew how he was doing it, but everyone believed it was him.
"He can command Sea Kings? On top of wind, rain, thunder? How is anyone supposed to beat that?"
"Since when did a monster like this exist!"
Curses spread from deck to deck, but fear gnawed deeper than anger.
Boom.
A battleship lurched as the starboard side buckled inward. The entire hull skidded back and slammed into the ship behind it.
Crash.
The collision crushed through bulkheads. Under the savage pressure the broad warship twisted and compressed, losing its shape in seconds. Sailors pitched over the rails and vanished into the deep.
Sakazuki flashed to the rail, eyes going a shade darker when he saw the massive Sea King ramming the hull.
"Beast."
His right fist became magma and he drove it forward.
Thud.
The molten hammer punched through the creature's chest. It disintegrated to ash a heartbeat later.
"Fleet Admiral! We are surrounded. Sea Kings on all sides. Our propulsion units under the keels are destroyed!"
A rattled seaman scrambled up from belowdecks, voice shaking.
"What? The drives are down?" Steel Bone Kong ground his teeth. His sleeve snapped with the force of his gesture.
Another roar. Kong's own flagship shuddered as if struck by a titan's shoulder. He staggered and nearly fell.
"Enough!"
"Sakazuki, Kuzan, Borsalino. Kill every Sea King in range." Kong's tone went cold.
All three were Logia users with vast-area techniques.
They answered at once.
Kuzan only nodded. Cold poured from his hands.
"Ice Time."
Boom.
His fist landed and a rime of frost raced over the Sea King's hide. In an instant it froze solid.
"Break."
Kuzan exhaled. The trapped beast powdered to frost and drifted apart.
He looked out across the waves. A dozen more Sea Kings burst from the deep, throwing up towers of spray.
"Ice Block: Pheasant Beak."
Cold gathered. Kuzan thrust out his arm and a long ice-bird tore free, wings spread, a clear cry ringing from its beak as it dove.
Where it passed, the sea glazed white. The dozen beasts locked in ice mid-surge, unable to move.
"Kuzan, freeze everything."
Kong's gaze fixed on the hundred-meter swell rearing in the distance.
Kuzan stepped to the black water, lowered both hands, and unleashed his power.
"Ice Age."
Boom.
The thunderous surge turned to black ice in a breath. The surface for hundreds of meters around sealed over.
On another front, Sakazuki raised both arms toward the swarming shadows.
"Meteor Volcano."
Colossal magma fists geysered into the sky. From afar they looked like a storm of crimson fireworks, colliding above the fleet before bursting apart into a burning rain of stone.
Sengoku's eyes narrowed at the scope of the attack. He vaulted to the foredeck.
"Great Buddha Form."
Muscle surged and his body swelled, rising into a towering golden Buddha haloed in radiance.
The magma stones fell for the decks. Sengoku lifted both hands.
"Impact Wave."
Boom.
A compressed shock front blasted out from his palms. The falling magma turned to dust in midair, scoured to gray ash.
Kong and Garp did not pause. They shot out over the water, legs snapping through the air as Armament-hardened Rankyaku scythed outward, hacking the last of the molten shards to pieces.
Vice admirals vaulted skyward one after another, boots flashing as they kicked away the remnants that threatened their ships.
Borsalino stood at the center, scanning for anything their net had missed. He spotted a Sea King driving straight for a hull and raised a finger. Golden light pooled at the tip and lanced out.
"Laser."
The beam skewered the whale-sized beast in a blink. It went limp and sank.
"Hm. There's another one."
He frowned, then dissolved into photons and flashed away.
"Light-Speed Kick."
Crack.
He inverted in the air and hammered a heel into another Sea King's skull. The beast screamed and fell, all resistance gone.
The battle on the surface raged hot. For every Sea King killed, more surged up. It felt endless. Marine Headquarters had its hands full. No one had time to watch the duel above.
High overhead, Rakuya stood with his hands clasped behind him. A storm of black crows swirled together and knit back into his body. He opened his eyes.
Under the ink-dark sky, his pupils burned blood red.
The Mangekyo Sharingan had opened.
"Brat, what eyes are those?" The Elder tilted his head back, genuinely startled. In eight hundred years he had never seen eyes like these.
From them he felt something evil and immense, a pressure that raised the hairs on his arms.
"Do I need to tell you?" Rakuya's voice was cold, his bearing solitary and proud.
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