"Twin Puncture Spears!"
A killing chill swept across the battlefield as four ice lances shot forward, sharp enough to freeze the very air as they barreled straight for Jiang Lin.
"Hellhound!"
Behind them, Akainu's magma-clad arm surged forward, his right fist molten and seething.
"System Notice: Tremor-Tremor Fruit (augmented with Bird-Bird Fruit: Mythical Zoan, Model Phoenix) successfully loaded. Duration: 10 minutes. Cooldown: 30 seconds."
Facing the pincer assault from Aokiji and Akainu, Jiang Lin instantly activated his Devil Fruit cards. He thrust out his palm and struck the air itself.
CRACK!
The very atmosphere was shattered. Ice spears splintered on impact, and the wall of compressed air halted Akainu's blazing magma fist. Explosions of heat and frost tore through the plaza. The shockwave forced nearby Marines to scatter in a panic.
"Heh… good thing I copied Marco's fruit. Without its regeneration, just resisting Akainu alone would've pushed me to the brink."
Brilliant blue flames of the phoenix wrapped his hand, knitting torn flesh and burned skin in an instant.
"Brat! That power of yours won't save you. Give up quietly!"
Akainu advanced step by step, eyes glinting with murderous intent. The heat radiating from his body was suffocating.
Jiang Lin smirked. "Sengoku looked pretty panicked just now… don't tell me he's already turned into a transvestite?"
His mocking words drew his gaze past the Admirals—toward the Marineford plaza.
The battlefield was unrecognizable, reduced to rubble under Jiang Lin's earlier assault. Collapsed buildings choked the air with dust. From within the haze, shrill screams rang out as Marines scrambled—though many of those voices no longer belonged to men.
"I-I can't… this war is too terrifying!"
"No more battles! I don't want this anymore!"
As the smoke thinned, a shocking sight emerged: hundreds of Marines, still clad in their uniforms, but their bodies now unmistakably female, fleeing in panic.
"Heavens… all of this… was Jiang Lin's doing?"
The remaining male Marines trembled. They weren't spared because of strength—only because they'd stood outside the range of Jiang Lin's poison-laced, hormone-infused magma fists. Around them, more and more "female soldiers" clutched their new bodies and ran screaming toward the rear.
"Stand your ground!"
From the execution platform, Sengoku—his voice unnaturally high-pitched—clutched a Den Den Mushi and shouted desperately. "This is the enemy's trick to break your morale! Even if your bodies are changed, can't your sense of justice withstand such a paltry obstacle?!"
His words managed to halt a few shaken Marines, who staggered back toward the fight. But most, overwhelmed by the forced transformation, fled in droves.
"Then capture them. Bring them back, all of them!"
Sengoku's order was heavy with frustration. Already, thousands had been transformed. Such mass desertion threatened to shatter the Navy's defenses entirely.
"Jiang Lin… if I can capture Ivankov, your ability to sway the battlefield ends here."
Grinding his teeth, Sengoku glared down at Jiang Lin, locked in combat with the two Admirals. The once-fringe revolutionary Ivankov had now become one of the most pivotal figures on the field.
"Ivankov, fall back! Leave this to me!"
Jinbe stepped forward, intercepting Kizaru as the Admiral closed in on the Okama Queen.
"Jinbe… you'd stand in my way?"
Kizaru's tone lost its usual mockery; his expression was sharper, more serious.
"As long as I'm here, Borsalino—you'll never take Ivankov!"
The fish-man's eyes blazed. His stance was immovable, like a towering cliff wall before the golden light of the Admiral.
As Kizaru and Jinbe squared off, Jiang Lin's clash with the other Admirals reached its crescendo.
"Exhilarating!"
Bloodied, Jiang Lin burst forth from a lake of magma, blue phoenix fire mingling with crimson lava around his body, casting him in a radiant, almost divine glow.
"Brat… struggle all you like. It changes nothing. Defeat is inevitable!"
Akainu snarled, retracting his molten arm, fury etched across his face.
"You've angered me for the last time!"
Behind him, Aokiji's body reformed from shards of ice, steam rising where magma scars lingered. Even he had suffered under Jiang Lin's strikes.
"Great Eruption!"
Jiang Lin's right arm erupted into molten fury as he lunged, hurling a sea of magma at the two Admirals.
"Ice Age Pheasant Beak!"
A colossal ice bird soared from Aokiji's hands, crashing headlong into Jiang Lin's fiery torrent.
SSSSHHHHHH!
The sky sizzled with hissing steam as flame and frost tore at each other.
"Crimson Lotus Hound!"
Akainu lunged from Jiang Lin's flank, magma jaws snapping toward his side.
CRACK!
Jiang Lin's left hand slammed into the air, unleashing the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit. Shockwaves shattered the molten hound, reducing it to falling embers.
But before he could recover—
BOOM!
Akainu's blazing figure appeared at his back, his foot driving toward Jiang Lin's ribs.
CRRRAACK!
The air fissured under the pressure. Only Jiang Lin's quake shield kept the blow from landing clean.
"Die, brat!"
Akainu snarled. His leg ignited with magma and hardened with Haki as he swung it directly for Jiang Lin's skull.
"Not good…"
Jiang Lin's eyes widened. He had no time to counter. Even if he blocked, Aokiji's follow-up would strike immediately. Either way, he was cornered.
Then—
"Picking on a kid, huh? If you've got guts, try me instead, you damn magma whelp—and you, frozen brat!"
A massive figure stepped between them. Whitebeard, titanic and unyielding, swung his bisento forward, his fist crashing toward Akainu with the force of a world-shattering quake.