"Kin... Kin'emon... E... Everyone..."
Momonosuke, tucked under an arm along with Luffy, stared at his vanished vassals, the lingering shock of his near-death experience causing the young boy's eyes to roll back as he fainted from fright.
Monkey D. Dragon, who had subconsciously rescued him, wore an extremely ugly expression, his heart filled with regret.
He didn't know why, in a moment of impulse, he had saved this little brat instead of Sabo.
As a result of a moment's kindness, he had lost his second-in-command and chief of staff. The loss was simply too great.
Fortunately, he had successfully saved his son. Otherwise, losing his only biological son and his second-in-command at the same time would likely have caused Monkey D. Dragon to have an emotional breakdown.
"Well done. Worthy of the captain's son."
On the other side, Shanks, with only one arm, looked at Ace, who stood in front of everyone. Despite being unable to withstand the explosion, Ace was still full of responsibility, and Shanks couldn't help but look at him with admiration.
"Sa... Sabo... Ma... Marco..."
However, Ace, who had been saved by Shanks, stared blankly ahead.
Even though there was nothing in front of him, Ace could still see the image of Marco and the others disappearing.
Witnessing the death of his comrades once again, Ace suffered a severe blow.
A thick wave of hatred and killing intent surged from his heart.
At this moment, Ace finally understood what Link had meant earlier.
Facing an enemy without hatred and killing intent was just playing house.
When the enemy takes the life of someone you cherish, it is too late for regrets.
Now, Ace did regret it, but he had lost Sabo and Marco forever.
Seeming to notice that Ace was on the verge of an emotional collapse, Shanks frowned and reminded him, "Pull yourself together. The enemy is right in front of you. Do you want Luffy to follow in their footsteps?"
Hearing this, Ace was instantly jolted back to reality.
That's right, there was still Luffy!
If he lost Luffy too, then he would truly have nothing left.
He absolutely could not let Luffy be killed!
At this, Ace's unfocused eyes instantly became firm, his gaze filled with sharpness and killing intent as he stared at Link in the sky.
"Good eyes. Now that's what a revenger should look like~."
Link's words of praise, however, broke through Ace's defenses again, and he was about to use his Devil Fruit ability to charge into the sky.
At that moment, a hand suddenly appeared in front of Ace, stopping him.
Shanks, wearing a black cloak, looked at Link in the sky with a serious expression and said, "Let's end this here! Link, can you give me some face and let them all leave this place? I can guarantee that what happened today will never happen again. Wano Country is yours."
As a rational person, as long as Luffy was not dead and Nika was fine, Shanks would not fall into a rage.
In his eyes, Luffy was the most important.
Even the captain's son couldn't compare to Luffy in Shanks' heart.
With neither of them dead, it was the best news for Shanks.
So right now, Shanks' first priority was not to fight Link to avenge Luffy's comrades and Kozuki Oden's son, but to leave this place.
Just as the Akazaya Nine had been scared into a cold sweat before, Shanks also could not sense any aura from Link.
Any living person would have emotional and life fluctuations, which could not escape the perception of Observation Haki.
Even when a weak person perceives a strong one, they would feel a sense of insignificance, like an ant facing a mountain; the strong person's energy would be as vast as the sea.
But Link had none of these.
It was as if... Link and he were not in the same dimension!
More importantly, Shanks had secretly used Future Sight to see Link's upcoming answer.
But his Future Sight had failed.
Even the highest level of Observation Haki, Future Sight, had no effect on this man.
Shanks, who had previously thought that Link, the "World's Strongest Man of the New Era," was just something hyped up by Morgans, and that he had likely teamed up with others to take down those legends, couldn't help but overturn those guesses.
In this world, there really did exist a super-powerful individual who could crush another super-powerful individual.
Link, like Teach, was a freak the likes of which this sea had never seen before!
And this freak was stronger and more dangerous than Teach!
But Shanks, who had not witnessed the power of a god among men and was one of the few who could escape the erasure of a Truth-Seeking Orb explosion with Conqueror's Haki Coating, was still not afraid of Link.
If one super-powerful individual was not his opponent, then what about two, three, or even four?
As Shanks' famous line fell, Monkey D. Dragon, carrying the unconscious Luffy and Momonosuke under each arm, appeared beside Shanks.
Behind him, another group of people appeared.
At the head was Benn Beckman, a cigarette dangling from his lips.
Shanks, Monkey D. Dragon, Benn Beckman... and the barely super-powerful Ace, facing off against Link, made for exactly four super-powerful individuals.
Such a lineup, apart from the World Government, would require even the Marine Headquarters, which also had multiple super-powerful individuals, to mobilize its full force to face.
As for the Four Emperors' crews, unless the original Four Emperors united, none of them would be a match for this lineup.
However, despite having such a lineup on their side, Shanks and the others were all grim-faced. Except for Ace and Yasopp, whose son had been killed, the other three, Shanks included, even hoped that Link would allow them to leave.
The stronger one is, the stronger their intuition.
Especially since super-powerful individuals are at the pinnacle of the seas, even Shanks felt a sense of insignificance in Link's presence.
It was precisely because they couldn't sense anything that they felt so small.
This feeling, he had had it before when he was weak.
Clearly, Link was either faking it or had truly reached a level they couldn't comprehend.
If it was the latter, how terrifying would that be?
When the weak face the strong, human wave tactics are just cannon fodder that can be cleared away with a casual wave of the hand.
They could only hope that Link was the former, that even with the power to crush a super-powerful individual, he would still be wary of this lineup.
But the worst-case scenario had occurred.
"...Heh... give you face? Who are you?"
Link sneered, looking down from on high. "It's good that you're here. I can take care of you all at once, saving me the trouble of hunting you down one by one later."
After speaking, Link raised his hand and condensed four black rods. He casually threw them in four directions and whispered, "Ninja Art: Four Red Yang Formation!"
When the black rods embedded themselves in the ground, four red, transparent barrier walls instantly rose up.
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