"Ara ara… so many powerhouses showing up at once. What a hassle."
Ice Pheasant's Beak!
Kuzan (Aokiji) guarded the severely injured Bogart with one arm while swiftly raising the other, unleashing the power of his Ice-Ice Fruit.
A massive crystal phoenix of ice burst forth, charging directly toward the rampaging mammoth rushing in.
Boom!!
The ice phoenix and the mammoth collided violently, producing a thunderous roar.
The ice phoenix shattered, and at the same time, Jack the Drought staggered on the frozen ground, dizzy and almost collapsing forward headfirst.
"If you want to protect that guy and fight us at the same time… how amusing."
Shiryu of the Rain let out a cold, cruel laugh, his gaze locking directly onto the gravely wounded Bogart.
To strike at the weak point, to finish off the wounded—this had always been his preferred method of killing.
Despicable, maybe. Effective, absolutely.
"Ara ara… Shiryu, former chief jailer… must you be so ruthless toward your old comrades?"
Kuzan's expression grew grim. Surrounded and pressured by so many powerful enemies, even he could not afford a single mistake. One misstep here, and he could fall.
His ice blade once again intercepted Shiryu's treacherous strike aimed at Bogart.
"Kuzan! Go help Vice Admiral Garp! Take me and get out of here! The Navy can't lose its hero!"
Bogart rasped through heavy breaths. In this state, he was nothing but a burden.
If Kuzan continued dividing his focus to protect him, the final result would be total annihilation.
Even if he hated admitting it… abandoning him was the only logical move.
"If I leave you behind, Garp will kill me later. Don't worry. Lord Imu and the Five Elders will defeat Higashino Araryū and Kaido of the Beasts. We just need to hold out a little longer.
Kakei and Gion have already fallen. I'm not abandoning you."
Kuzan answered with unwavering resolve, standing firm against King the Wildfire, Shiryu, and the others without the slightest hesitation.
Not far away, Black Maria had already called for Cracker, who was burning with revenge. Fuz-Fu handed Sasaki's frozen corpse to the Beasts Pirates' underlings to bring back to the ship, then joined Black Maria as they charged forward.
With that many combatants focusing on Kuzan, the danger might not be as bad as before. In fact… they might actually succeed in hunting down the Marine Admiral himself.
Civilians and Marines watching the live broadcast were all tense, watching so many powerful enemies close in on Kuzan.
But the shadowed barrier covering the main glacial battlefield had completely cut off the transponder broadcast. No one could see what was happening inside anymore.
So, the only visible action now came from the fleet engagement at sea.
The Green Bull—Aramaki—who Fleet Admiral Sengoku had ordered to rush to the battlefield, had flown off somewhere and hadn't been seen since.
Sengoku himself had already rushed toward the Holy Land, too busy to watch the broadcast. If he did, he'd probably be even more frantic.
As Sengoku reached the Holy Land, an intense battle had already erupted within Mary Geoise.
Trafalgar Law, along with PX-Bruno and S Bear, were running rampant and sabotaging everything they could.
Law, ever the schemer, even teleported outside the barrier and dragged the zombieified St. Garling back into the Holy Land, throwing the entire area into total chaos.
The acting commander of the Holy Knights, St. Pains, was forced to personally engage zombie St. Garling in fierce combat.
Originally, zombie St. Garling was not particularly strong. But after the Pirate King Zhi and Black Arm Zephyr fell into the hands of Araryū's crew, Gecko Moria gleefully obtained two extremely high-quality shadows.
Zephyr excelled in martial arts. Zhi excelled in Devil Fruit abilities and swordsmanship.
After testing, Zhi's shadow suited zombie St. Garling better, allowing his swordsmanship to reach terrifying heights.
Now zombie St. Garling, wielding Zhi's sword techniques, clashed evenly with St. Pains.
Perhaps St. Pains didn't want to damage the corpse. Whatever the case, they were evenly matched, much to St. Pains' growing fury.
Meanwhile, Ugaru and Mori, moving underground, slipped through the chaos and followed several Holy Knights to the barrier's control chamber.
"Get ready. Open the barrier and let the Araryū Pirates in."
Ugaru narrowed his eyes. The current chaos wasn't nearly enough. They needed more players involved to quickly locate the teleportation array that connected Imu to the G-18 Fortress battlefield—so they could sever it.
"Okay~"
Mori twirled his black mustache and fluttered his lashes flirtatiously at Ugaru.
Ugaru shuddered in pure discomfort, his fist clenching on instinct.
Mori suddenly raised his trident. Under the power of the Push-Push Fruit, the hardened red earth softened and rolled aside like melted candy.
"What's going on!?"
Black crows exploded out from the massive pit in the floor, sending guards shrieking.
"Enemy attack!!"
"Protect the control switch!"
"Black crows… is that the Revolutionary Army's North Commander, Ugaru!?"
Countless crows flooded the control chamber. Under the Holy Knights' Armament Haki strikes, some crows burst apart into clouds of coal dust.
Obsidian Spire!
Ugaru, appearing out of the coal dust behind the Holy Knights, passed straight through them. The coal dust reformed into gigantic spear-like pillars that impaled dozens of Holy Land guards at once.
Crowsoul Chain!
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Ugaru's true body dispersed into countless explosive crows, launching a ruthless assault against the two Holy Knights who had blocked the obsidian spears.
Even Admiral Fujitora would struggle to completely defend against this eerie technique.
The barrage of exploding crows made the Holy Knights roar in fury.
"I'm here~!"
Mori heaved the entire chamber floor upward like a small mountain, shoving the Holy Knights and guards out of the room.
Once the Push-Push power faded, the softened mass hardened again, sealing the entrance.
"Hurry, hurry—how do we open the barrier?"
Mori frantically searched the control panel. Ugaru appeared as coal dust beside him, looking at the countless buttons and switches—then simply flipped all of them and pressed everything in sight.
Outside the barrier, where Moria's group had been continuously bombarding it with suicide bat-ships and laser cannons, the barrier began to flicker.
"Heh-hihihi! It's breaking! Give it one final blast!"
Moria howled with glee. Lafitte, Bartolomeo, Burgess, and the others were already grinning, ready for blood.
St. Pains, still fighting zombie St. Garling, noticed the barrier flickering and roared in outrage.
"Montbard, you incompetent fools! How can you not even defend the switch!?"
His expression twisted in fury.
The massive barrier flashed several times—then shattered with a sharp crack and disappeared.
The voices of the Araryū Pirates flooded into Mary Geoise like a tidal wave.
Seeing the barrier fall, Ugaru immediately smashed the control panel to prevent the Celestial Dragons from simply reactivating it.
"Go!"
He grabbed Mori and slipped back underground. From here on… everything depended on the Araryū Pirates.
...
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