Kaido charged in at the front, kanabo in hand, barreling through the shattered gate like a starving tiger unleashed.
A casual swing from him sent an entire cluster of Marines flying.
Even Marine captains, the elite among the ranks, were nothing in front of Kaido. Ants trying to shake a tree. A mantis trying to stop a chariot.
Bullets, blades, and spears struck his rock-like muscles without leaving so much as a scratch.
It was like he'd walked into an empty camp.
The Marines guarding the gate were shaken to the core. Faces drained white, fear locking their feet in place.
Their will to fight was simply crushed beneath Kaido's devilish aura.
In no time, Kaido had carved his way into G-1 Base.
Behind him, the pirates under Golden Lion Shiki surged in as well, pouring out in full force.
Even if their pirate ships had been blown apart by cannon fire, it didn't matter. If they took G-1, they'd have something better than pirate ships Marine warships.
The Navy's shipbuilding was first-rate. With their materials and manpower, a single warship cost far more than an ordinary pirate vessel.
So even when ships were destroyed, the pirates didn't feel a hint of pain.
Shiki's forces flooded through the gate like wolves and tigers, as if victory were already within reach.
"What a savage beast…" Shiki couldn't help but sigh as he watched Kaido massacre through the Marines, ferocity on full display. "If only that guy were under my command."
Shiki was ambitious. Of course he wanted monsters like Kaido at his side.
Around him, pirates swept past in waves, racing into the base.
Inside the outer wall was yet another wall.
Between the two walls stretched a strip of open ground, about a hundred meters wide.
Marines surged like white waves, colliding with the pirates in chaotic slaughter. Gunfire rattled nonstop.
And outside the walls
Admiral Sengoku called up to Tengetsu Ares in the sky.
"Ares! Do you dare come down and fight me!?"
"Fine by me!" Ares's massive form contracted in midair, returning to human shape as he dove straight down.
The wind screamed.
He fell like a meteor
BOOM!
The impact made the ground shudder.
Sengoku locked his eyes on him. The moment he dismissed his golden Buddha form, he hopped down from the wall, landing lightly on the ground.
Not like Ares's brutal, savage crash at all.
The instant Sengoku touched down
A pirate's eyes flared with greedy light. He raised a gleaming saber and brought it down, screaming in excitement.
"The Admiral's head is mine!"
If he killed a Marine Admiral, he'd become a famous pirate overnight!
But…
He was dreaming in broad daylight.
Sengoku didn't even lift his eyes. He turned slightly, then drove a punch into the pirate's midsection.
The man flew away like trash, crashing into others and sending bodies tumbling.
From start to finish, Sengoku's gaze never left Tengetsu Ares.
At the Navy's meeting, Fleet Admiral Kong had emphasized Ares's danger repeatedly.
And Sengoku understood it even better than most.
If no one stopped Tengetsu Ares, then even tens of thousands of Marines would be as fragile as ants.
Sengoku moved swift, clean, relentless threading through the battlefield.
Bullets and cannon fire were avoided with ease through the Six Powers. Without wasting effort, he cut down hundreds of pirates in passing.
"My opponent state your name!" Ares's voice boomed like a bell, vibrating through Sengoku's ears until his eardrums rang.
"Marine Admiral Sengoku!" Sengoku closed the distance, his Justice coat snapping in the wind as he moved.
The words "Marine Admiral" made Ares's blood surge.
Heat rolled through him. Battle-lust ignited in his bones.
His muscles swelled as if flooded with power, veins bulging like iron chains across bronze-hard flesh horrifying, monstrous.
"I've fought Zephyr and Garp." Ares's eyes burned bright. "And today I finally get to fight an Admiral. This is exciting."
He wanted to test the results of his recent training.
The time had been short, but his gains were real.
And there was only one way to measure growth
Battle.
It was as if the instinct to fight had been carved into his genes, set alight and roaring.
Gurgle… gurgle…
That was the sound of blood rushing through Ares's body.
As Sengoku pressed closer, Ares stepped forward
And vanished.
In a blink, he crossed dozens of meters, so fast that even Sengoku's eyes flashed with brief surprise.
"So fast… With that huge body, I thought speed would be his weakness."
"And yet his speed is terrifying."
HUM
Sengoku's arm turned black and glossy like steel in an instant. He threw a punch, the force behind it dense as a wave.
Ares answered with an Armament-coated fist of his own clean, orthodox, true Armament Haki.
This was the kind of fight he loved most.
Fist against fist.
BOOM!
A heavy, muffled impact rang out.
A monstrous force surged from Ares's knuckles, driving Sengoku backward again and again.
His boots hammered the earth, leaving deep footprints nearly sinking to his calves.
"So this is Ares's body…" Sengoku clicked his tongue, stunned despite himself. "Strong to a ridiculous degree."
Even with his Armament-hardened arm, numbness still spread through his bones.
"Marine Admiral," Ares said bluntly, "your punching power is lacking. You're not even as good as that guy Garp."
Sengoku's face darkened.
Mock him if you want
But why compare him to that bastard Garp!?
Ares followed through, launching another punch immediately.
This one was even more violent than the last. More savage. More overwhelming.
His Haki flared through his arm like a flame.
And something else something fluid seemed to rise from every corner of his body, gathering and surging into his fist like a tide.
The technique he'd just learned
Ryuo.
Ares wanted to feel, in real combat, what kind of destructive power Ryuo truly had.
As he threw the punch, the air itself rippled outward in rings, like the very atmosphere was being pierced by an unstoppable force.
"Ryuo: Tiger Vanguard King Fist!"
It was like a tiger bursting from its cage ferocious and unstoppable.
Sengoku didn't dare underestimate him.
This wasn't some ordinary pirate.
This was the 2.2 billion–berry monster Bloodhand Ares king of nightmares to countless powerhouses.
Sengoku went all out. No restraint.
He gathered Armament Haki onto his fist and met the Tiger Vanguard King Fist head-on.
BOOM !!
The instant they collided, the ground around them shattered.
Wild air currents whipped broken stone into a storm that blasted in all directions.
Sengoku's face tightened. Shock flared in his eyes
And he was launched backward.
He slammed through the battlefield, then crashed straight into the thick wall, leaving a crater in the stone as cracks spidered outward.
A warm rush rose in his throat.
A metallic, salty taste
Blood.
He forced it back down.
Sengoku's mind churned with questions.
"What was that power just now?!"
"Why did his Haki… pass through my fist and hit my body directly?!"
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