"Give me the cannonball."
At this moment, World was positioned at the "mountaintop." In terms of the ship's structure, this should be the lookout tower. Seeing the cannonball intercepted by Hancock's arrows, World knew the main character had arrived.
He reached out toward Byojack and then received a walnut-sized pellet.
That size was no bigger than a bullet, but in World's hands, it could unleash a completely different kind of power.
"More-More Fiftyfold Cannon!"
With a single hand motion, the scattered pellets suddenly enlarged midair, their speed and mass increasing fiftyfold in an instant.
This ability alone was a headache for the World Government. With it, even if World had only a handful of pellets, he could unleash the destructive force of an artillery barrage.
Compared to ordinary cannonballs, the projectiles thrown by World surpassed them in both speed and power.
Although Hancock's arrows still turned them into stone mid-air, they didn't stop. They continued flying into the heart of Kuja.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
At the same time, the sound of arrows slicing through the air rang out as countless arrows were fired from behind Hancock. They were shot by the warriors of Kuja.
Trained through rigorous discipline, they had mastered the use of Armament Haki and were especially skilled at attaching it to arrows to create explosive arrowheads.
Following Hancock's assault, their rain of arrows formed a second line of defense, intercepting all of World's attacks.
"Empress, this was just a greeting. If you don't want them all to die here, you'd better come over with them obediently!"
As soon as the words were spoken, a group of pirates holding chains appeared on the ship's deck. Seeing them, Hancock's already fiery temper ignited completely.
"You attack my territory and dare speak to me in that tone? A relic from thirty years ago. Don't overestimate yourself!"
Most of Hancock's physical prowess lay in her legs, and her jumping ability was exceptional. With a single leap, she crossed the stretch of beach and landed directly on World's ship.
"Perfume Femur!"
Her long legs swept past the group of pirates. Normally, just seeing those legs would leave most pirates dumbstruck, but at this moment, Hancock brought nothing but deadly peril.
At the moment of contact, those pirates were turned into stone by Hancock's ability, and that was just the beginning. If they had only been petrified, Hancock could have restored them.
But she was furious now. So as she turned them to stone, she simultaneously shattered them into pieces, meaning there was no hope of restoration.
"Kill her!"
"Wait, World, weren't we going to use her as a hostage to get to Marineford?"
Seeing World suddenly change his mind, Byojack sounded agitated.
"Nailing her corpse to the deck works just as well. Do it!"
"You think you can handle me with these kinds of men? Do you look down on me that much? It seems thirty years of freezing has left you ignorant—Shichibukai are chosen for their strength! Love-Love Beam!"
A pink heart-shaped wave swept across the deck, wiping out the pirates completely. In less than a minute, only stone statues remained.
"What now, still just going to stand there and watch? So, you're the kind of person who relies on this trash? Looks like Granny's worries about you were completely unnecessary."
Hancock pointed her finger at World's forehead. With a loud bang, World's horned helmet fell off.
"Looks like you're not as useless as I thought. You sensed my attack, didn't you?"
Hancock didn't enjoy missing on purpose to tease her enemies. Her Pistol Kiss was aimed straight at World's head. But he had sensed it with his Observation Haki and dodged in time.
But this seemed to enrage World.
"Byojack, go activate that."
Grabbing his big brother off his shoulder, World threw him back into the ship's cabin.
"But World… "
"No but...I've changed my mind. It's better to just destroy it directly. Go activate it now!"
"Yes."
Byojack knew what World was doing was wrong, but World was his younger brother. Even if World was in the wrong, he still chose to help him; after all, World had originally set sail to realize his dream.
"More-More Tenfold Speed!"
The power of the More-More Fruit activated, and World's speed was greatly enhanced. In the blink of an eye, he appeared in front of Hancock.
Hancock kicked forward, but unfortunately missed. Under the tenfold speed boost, World instantly moved behind her, swinging his fists like hammers at Hancock.
"Perfume Femur Magna!"
Hancock bent her waist into an exaggerated arc to dodge World's attack, then took the opportunity to plant her hands on the ground and kick toward World.
"Your Haki isn't bad. Too bad someone like you willingly acts as a lapdog for the World Government."
"Someone like you has no right to comment on me! Has being frozen for thirty years ruined your brain?!"
World still had a solid foundation. His Haki was strong enough to resist petrification. Although the More-More Fruit only enhanced his speed, with absolute speed, power was also amplified.
Hancock wasn't the brute-force type, so she didn't gain much of an advantage in a direct clash with World. And tenfold speed was far from World's limit. This was merely his probing move.
"More-More Thirtyfold Speed!"
World's speed became ghostlike. At this point, the battle was beyond what the naked eye could follow. Hancock had to rely on Observation Haki to track him. On the ship's surface, only afterimages of their clashes could be seen.
As they fought, a mechanical rumble echoed from the ship, and a giant cannon gradually revealed its full form.
"Barorororo, do you see it? This cannon is powerful eno.."
Boom!
Before World could finish his sentence, the giant cannon he had placed his hopes in belched black smoke. Several holes had appeared in the barrel, and its warped interior had lost the ability to fire.
In a place World hadn't noticed, Olga was putting away the instruction manual she had just obtained from Queen. She had left the Kuja palace together with Hancock, but no one had noticed her whereabouts.
In fact, her movements had been even faster than Hancock's, but all she did was trigger the hidden mechanism left by the Beasts Pirates on the weapon. If possible, Olga didn't want to get involved in this matter.
Olga believed Hancock had the strength to deal with World, so she simply helped eliminate the weapon that could threaten Kuja's safety. Her abilities were special to begin with; someone like World couldn't possibly notice someone deliberately hiding like Olga.
But as he watched the cannon be destroyed, what little rationality World had seemed to collapse once again.
"Who was it…who betrayed me again?!"
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