"So lively."
"This battlefield called God Valley."
Bringing Gick up to a ridgeline, Ozz stood at the highest point and looked down over land drowned in fire and smoke.
"From here you follow Kuma and the others out, old man."
After a moment of silence he spoke to Gick at his side.
"These are the top monsters on the sea. Blink at the wrong time and you die. I honestly do not know how you were supposed to survive this in the original timeline."
That jab hit Gick right in the pride. He glared.
"Hey."
He could not deny the truth though. With the fighting about to explode in intensity he let Ozz spirit him away, unwilling but without a choice.
Before Gick left, Ozz waved and grinned.
"Head home and wait for news. I am not losing."
Without realizing it
not even Gick himself noticed it yet
the conviction he had carried aboard the Rocks Pirates that Rocks would be the strongest monster in the world and become king had already started to tilt.
Right now he wanted to witness Ozz reach that summit with his own eyes.
He smiled back at Ozz, warmth and excitement plain on his face.
"Of course. You are my grandson. Being the strongest in the world is only natural."
…
The God Valley battlefield had split into several fronts.
Garp and Roger versus Rocks.
Saint Garling versus Newgate.
The other Rocks executives, a swarm of Marine officers, the knights of God, and the rest of the Roger Pirates were locked in chaotic melees.
"Linlin. What happened to your wounds?"
Smashing a Marine grunt away with a spiked club, a young Kaido glanced at Charlotte Linlin's torn torso and asked.
"Nothing. Just a little mishap."
She had planned to fetch a powerful Devil Fruit for her sworn little brother. Now that plan was ruined and she had no intention of telling Kaido why.
For now Ozz mattered far more to her than a gifted kid brother.
Everyone was killing for treasure or for old grudges. In that frenzy almost no one noticed that one figure had yet to appear on the main stage at all.
Boom.
A deafening blast ripped the air. The earth bucked. Shockwaves snapped at cloaks all around.
Roger and Garp were blasted backward by a single titanic strike, plowing through trees and ridgelines before they skidded to a halt.
They were scuffed and winded.
Rocks was not unscathed either. Those two peak, fruitless monsters pressured him to the edge. Even he could not take advantage.
He wiped the blood from his mouth.
The face that never knew fear twisted with fury as he swept his gaze around.
The Rocks Pirates were sandbagging across the board. One guy had even vanished outright.
"Can someone tell me where Ozz went."
Rocks was livid.
He had crossed blades with Ozz already and knew the truth. The kid was no weaker than Rocks had been in his own youth, and that teleportation fruit made even a Devil Fruit slayer like him feel trouble.
If Ozz would fight at his side, what of Garp and Roger.
The entire world would tremble beneath two monsters that broke the scale.
Yet every time Rocks offered his hand for real, spoke his ambition frankly, and laughed as he said
"Come with me, Ozz. Let us take this world."
Ozz was unmoved. At best perfunctory.
Now, in the critical hour, he had not even shown his face.
Ozz had in fact arrived and was walking toward the main front from afar.
He first ran into a group of Tenryuubito who did not look like pigs at all. Bubble helms gleamed over heads, but each one carried real presence.
Some wore white dress uniforms. Others wore armor. They fought pirates hand to hand and looked unhurried.
The God Knights. Nearly unkillable.
Ozz had never undergone that ritual so he did not share their immortality. He did not want it anyway.
His teleport recovery was plenty.
He watched those haughty knights cut down pirate lackeys and clash with pirate officers. He did not care. In the current order, aside from Garling none of them warranted a second look.
"Hey. You. You are a senior officer of the Rocks Pirates, right."
Ozz could not be bothered, but arrogance finds its mark. Some lower knight did not recognize him and only saw a Rocks executive to mouth off at. Feeling secure in his undying body, he jeered.
"Hm?"
Ozz did not even turn his head. He only shifted his eyes.
That alone enraged the red haired Tenryuubito knight.
"I am of the Figarland family."
He slashed at Ozz on the spot.
"Figarland."
That word finally sparked a hint of interest. The slash keened across the air and Ozz vanished before it touched him.
Before the knight could react a hand wrapped in black and crimson lightning erupted from nothingness and clamped around his throat.
"People from that family get exactly zero courtesy from me."
Boom.
A ring of air burst outward. A fist too fast to see doubled the unkillable knight over clutching his belly.
So called immortality worked on the weak. In front of Ozz there was no such thing as an unkillable man.
If it breathes he can kill it.
That flare of Conqueror's Haki drew eyes from every direction. Ozz's figure took shape on the field and the air itself seemed to get hard to breathe.
Had he just struck a Tenryuubito.
Saint Garling and the Marines went stone faced. The pirates roared.
Captain John swaggered up with a bottle in one hand and a sword in the other, grinning wide as he swigged.
"Dropped him in one. Ozz, be honest, did you sneak off treasure hunting just now."
He meant to banter, maybe fish for the treasure's location.
Ozz stood still. His expression was unreadable. Black gloves bloomed with storming Conqueror's lightning.
His answer was a black muzzle and scarlet eyes gone cold.
"You are the one who is mistaken."
"Who told you"
"that getting close to me would not get you killed."
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