"So slashing attacks don't work effectively—what about pure lightning strikes?"
After confirming that his opponent's defenses weren't easily penetrable through conventional means, Cavendish continued manipulating electrical currents while increasing his speed exponentially, determined to defeat the enemy before him using his own unique approach.
Facing Cavendish's relentless high-speed assault, King was beginning to feel a genuine headache developing.
He naturally possessed comprehensive intelligence about the Black Star Pirates and understood that the talkative prince opposing him was far from a simple opponent.
Most of the time, King felt confident competing with enemies across all aspects of combat, including pure speed.
However, it wasn't until he actually engaged Cavendish in direct battle that King truly comprehended how incredibly fast his opponent could become after integrating with the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's abilities.
If his enemy's only advantage were speed alone, King wouldn't feel concerned in the slightest. After all, velocity was merely one component of comprehensive combat strength, and King remained confident he could handle such limitations easily.
But after Cavendish had activated his Lightning Armor, not only had his speed reached supernatural extremes, but each of his attacks now carried the additional attribute of electrical discharge.
Even though King could rely on his Lunarian racial heritage's tremendous defensive capabilities to ignore most sword strikes and offset significant portions of lightning damage, that didn't mean he remained completely unaffected by the ongoing assault.
Cavendish's continuous high-voltage electrical current was still being transmitted through King's body with each successful contact. If the Wildfire hadn't been constantly expending his Armament Haki reserves to provide resistance, his entire nervous system would have become numb and completely unable to function.
Cavendish remained unaware of his opponent's internal struggles. He stubbornly believed that the magnificent Devil Fruit ability he had acquired would definitely enable him to achieve victory through persistence and tactical innovation.
Therefore, throughout his fierce battle with King, Cavendish kept adapting his combat strategies and unleashing various types of enhanced attacks against his opponent's seemingly impenetrable defenses.
Meanwhile, on another section of the battlefield, after hearing Quinn's strange voice echoing through the loudspeaker system and realizing that many enemies who had been rendered unconscious by Jerry's earlier Conqueror's Haki display were awakening ahead of schedule, Ace exchanged a meaningful look with Brook. Both fighters quickly confirmed that Cavendish, Deuce, and the others hadn't been adversely affected by this development.
"Brook, go provide assistance to the others!"
As Ace finished his instruction, Brook nodded acknowledgment and prepared to turn around and depart, but suddenly discovered that massive spider webs had appeared throughout the surrounding area.
"Planning to leave so soon? You'll have to get past us first!" Black Maria called out. The towering woman—whose upper body remained human while her lower body had transformed into that of a giant spider—brandished a long staff weapon topped with a spinning roulette wheel, positioning herself directly in Brook's path.
"Ah, beautiful lady," Brook began with his characteristic politeness, "I wonder if I might have a moment to properly admire your... ahem!" The skeleton suddenly caught himself, realizing this wasn't the appropriate time for his usual inappropriate requests. "Excuse me, lovely miss, but I really must trouble you to step aside for now."
Brook swung his cane sword in a fluid arc, and the supernatural chill of the underworld spread outward once again. Wherever the freezing aura passed, everything was instantly transformed into crystal-clear ice.
The enemy's spider silk proved no exception, crumbling to powder under the influence of his sword techniques.
"Damn you!" Black Maria's face contorted with fury as she gripped her weapon tightly and struck with tremendous force.
It was precisely because Brook's abilities almost completely suppressed all of Black Maria's techniques—and because the other Flying Six members had proven helpless against his supernatural attacks—that he had been able to contain several powerful opponents in this location during the earlier phase of battle.
Now that he had Ace's support, it would be relatively simple for Brook to extract himself from this engagement.
Just as Brook nimbly avoided Black Maria's assault and rushed toward the primary battlefield, Carina and Tama were quickly climbing onto Kotatsu's back in preparation for the next phase of their mission.
Looking at the enemy forces surrounding their position, Carina steeled herself for the upcoming confrontation.
"Excellent! Just take them down first! Muhahahaha!" The boastful voice continued echoing through the loudspeaker system.
"Lord Queen, you're the one who woke us up? Hahahaha!"
"Damn it, they actually knocked us unconscious like we were nothing! Now I'll show them how powerful we really are! Hahahaha!"
"Don't worry, Lord Queen—we'll definitely capture those intruders!"
The arrogant laughter emanating from the loudspeakers was exactly the deliberate provocation of Queen the Plague. His subordinates—the Pleasures and Waiters—responded enthusiastically one after another, their voices building tremendous momentum.
Surveying the situation where they found themselves surrounded by enemies from all directions, Carina maintained a serious expression and asked quietly: "Tama, how are we doing? Is everything working as planned?"
"Sister Carina, please have faith in me," Tama replied with quiet confidence, her eyes flashing with determination as she glanced at the figures rapidly approaching within the enemy ranks. "This is my own special ability."
"It's Lord Babanuki! Charge forward and knock them down in one decisive blow!"
"And Lady Speed, Lord Holdem are there too..."
"This is going to be an easy fight—charge!"
Almost simultaneously, the Headliners fighters and most of the Gifters suddenly burst forward at maximum speed, rushing toward Carina's group with obvious intent to overwhelm them through sheer numbers. The siege action involving hundreds of combatants naturally aroused tremendous enthusiasm among the Beast Pirates, and they began cheering loudly in anticipation of easy victory.
However, under Carina's still-vigilant gaze and amid the increasingly puzzled expressions of the Pleasures and Waiters, something extraordinary happened!
Nearly ten Headliners fighters and approximately five hundred Gifters suddenly changed their formation entirely. Instead of continuing their assault on Carina's group, they rapidly gathered around Tama's position, turned around collectively, and began systematically knocking down the surrounding Pleasures and Waiters one by one.
"What the hell is happening?!"
"Lord Hamlet! What are you doing to us?!"
"Lord Daifugo! Lord Babanuki! Have you lost your minds?!"
The situation reversed so quickly that everyone in the Beast Pirates stood stunned, voices rising in confused questioning and obvious alarm.
Faced with these desperate inquiries, the group of converted Headliners and Gifters offered no explanations whatsoever. They systematically established a solid defensive perimeter in the outer circle while those in the inner formation turned toward Tama and shouted in perfect unison: "Master!"
"Yes! Sister Carina, we did it!" Tama exclaimed from her position on Kotatsu's back, raising both arms in triumphant celebration.
Carina released a tremendous sigh of relief and nodded with obvious happiness: "Amazing! Tama, it was definitely worth the risk of infiltrating so deeply into enemy territory."
Tama gave Carina a brilliant smile in return before turning to address the assembled Headliners and Gifters with serious authority: "Hello, everyone! You must listen carefully to Sister Carina's commands, protect us properly, and help us defeat the evil members of the Beast Pirates!"
"Yes! Master, we promise to complete this mission!" the converted fighters responded with tremendous enthusiasm, their voices filled with genuine respect and absolute obedience toward Tama.
The reason for this spectacular development was that the Black Star Pirates had planned this operation extensively in advance.
After considerable discussion, they had arranged for Tama to prepare hundreds of her special dango beforehand. With the assistance of Jerry's Conqueror's Haki outbreak, Deuce, Brook, and the others would attract the attention of enemies who remained conscious, creating perfect opportunities for Carina and Tama to feed the control dumplings to specific groups of Beast Pirates members.
Although Deuce and the others had heard Tama describe her Devil Fruit's power and had witnessed the loyal Komainu that followed her constantly, they hadn't been entirely certain whether her dango could actually control members of such a powerful organization.
However, this doubt had been directly dispelled by Jerry's solemn assurance. After he had patted his chest and repeatedly guaranteed there would be no problems with the strategy, no one had raised further objections.
"Hahahahha! Magnificent! I knew you could pull it off!" Skull's distinctive cry pierced the air, breaking the brief silence that had fallen across the battlefield.
The revelation of Tama's mass conversion technique had just shifted the balance of power dramatically in favor of the Black Star Pirates, but the battle was far from over. Queen still commanded significant forces, and the conflict was about to escalate to an entirely new level of chaos and violence.