Next Bonus, 100!!
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Marineford, the Battlefield!
With the Encircling Wall activated, the pirates trapped within the harbor found themselves in a lethal kill box. Breaking out seemed impossible.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The Marines offered no quarter. The Mechanical Giants and the coastal artillery batteries unleashed a coordinated, devastating bombardment.
"Wipe them out!"
"Don't give them an inch of ground!"
Shells rained down, triggering a chain of violent explosions that bathed the ice in blinding flashes of light. Casualties mounted rapidly.
The Whitebeard Pirates returned fire, but their remaining artillery was laughably outmatched by the Marines' fortified positions. Their only viable strategy was a full-frontal assault, relying entirely on brute force and sheer numbers.
"Meteor Volcano!"
The ambient temperature spiked drastically.
Admiral Sakazuki, clad in his crimson suit and billowing coat of justice, stood majestically atop the high ground. He looked down upon the swarming pirates with absolute contempt.
He delivered a cold, merciless declaration.
"YOU PATHETIC TRASH! I'LL SEND YOU ALL STRAIGHT TO HELL!"
Massive fists of superheated magma, each dozens of meters across and trailing thick plumes of black smoke, plummeted from the sky.
To both friend and foe below, it looked like a meteor shower of pure, molten rock.
"Look out!"
"Incoming! Evade!"
The pirates scrambled frantically to dodge the apocalyptic bombardment.
Sakazuki's objective was clear: use his magma to obliterate the ice and incinerate the remaining pirate vessels. A scorched-earth tactic designed to literally melt the ground out from under the Whitebeard Pirates.
Desperate to protect his crew, one of the allied pirate captains planted his feet. Gritting his teeth, he channeled every ounce of his physical strength and Haki to intercept a falling magma fist.
"Dammit! How is it this powerful??"
He managed to hold the line for a few agonizing seconds.
Then, the terrible reality set in. His Armament Haki was rapidly degrading under the sheer kinetic force and the unimaginable, flesh-searing heat of the magma.
He was pushed back, his skin flushing a dangerous, boiled red, the hair on his arms instantly singeing to ash.
He was moments from being incinerated.
Fortunately, Marco the Phoenix swooped in. With a powerful kick, he deflected the magma fist, saving the captain's life.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
"AAAAAAAH!"
The meteor shower continued to detonate across the bay.
Countless pirates, their faces twisted in absolute terror, were engulfed by the molten rock.
Under Sakazuki's relentless area-of-effect assault, the Moby Dick—the flagship that had carried Whitebeard and his crew for decades—was finally destroyed.
"Akainu!"
Whitebeard roared, his voice trembling with fury. "If you dare to hurt my sons, you'd better be prepared to face my wrath!"
He swung his massive naginata, Murakumogiri, directly at the Admiral.
The freezing wind howled in the wake of the blade.
Sakazuki met the strike head-on, blocking the legendary weapon with a magma-coated kick. He held his ground, showcasing his own terrifying defensive capabilities.
"AAAAAAAH!"
Amidst the chaos, the grim reality finally pierced through Squard's shock.
Even though Whitebeard hadn't uttered a single word of reproach, his actions spoke volumes. Squard realized with sickening clarity that he had been entirely manipulated by that bastard, Akainu.
"I'm sorry, Pops! I'm so sorry!"
Consumed by a mixture of profound self-loathing and white-hot rage, Squard threw himself back into the meat grinder.
He hated Akainu, but he hated himself more. He hated that he had been so easily duped. He hated that he had turned his blade on the man who called him son.
He channeled that agonizing self-hatred into every swing of his massive sword, fighting with reckless, suicidal abandon, intent only on slaughtering every Marine in his path.
Whitebeard's direct entry into the fray drastically shifted the dynamic of the battlefield, pushing the war into a brutal new phase.
Countless Marines swarmed toward the Yonko like a tidal wave, launching desperate, suicidal attacks to bring the old man down.
Even the three Admirals were inevitably drawn into his orbit.
However, the Whitebeard commanders were far from finished.
Borsalino's attempt to engage Whitebeard was once again thwarted by Marco.
Kuzan found himself intercepted by the impenetrable defense of Diamond Jozu.
That left only Sakazuki to trade blows with Whitebeard.
There was no banter. No hesitation.
The moment they clashed, it was absolute, unbridled destruction.
"Great Eruption!"
Sakazuki met Whitebeard's advance with overwhelming force. Every single punch he threw carried the explosive power of an erupting volcano.
Whitebeard wielded a Devil Fruit capable of tearing the world apart.
Even an Admiral of Sakazuki's caliber found himself strained to the absolute limit.
The sheer, catastrophic power generated by their clash was terrifying. The collateral damage cleared a massive crater around them; no one, pirate or Marine, dared to step into the blast zone.
They were the living avatars of two of nature's most devastating disasters, clashing in a display of overwhelming, apocalyptic might.
With the Admirals effectively pinned down, the pressure on Luffy's vanguard decreased significantly.
Covered by the remaining division commanders, Luffy relentlessly closed the distance to the execution platform.
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High above, Ace watched the carnage unfold, a storm of agonizing emotions tearing him apart.
When Whitebeard and the crew had breached the bay...
When Luffy had fallen from the sky...
A suffocating, inexpressible weight had settled over Ace's heart.
Watching Luffy fall, only to drag himself back up, time and time again.
Watching Whitebeard take a blade through the chest.
Watching the men he had drank and laughed with being cut down, all to save him.
His heart was hollowed out by a profound, agonizing guilt.
He wanted to scream at them to leave. To stop throwing their lives away for his reckless mistakes.
But his voice was lost in the deafening roar of the war.
Suddenly, a massive figure stirred at the base of the Encircling Wall. Little Oars Jr., clinging to the very edge of life, dragged himself upright.
Because of his colossal size, his body created a makeshift bridge over the wall—a narrow, bloody path leading directly into the plaza.
Seizing the opening, Whitebeard deployed a final, hidden paddle ship from beneath the ice.
He ordered the remaining forces to board.
With Oars' agonizing final effort, the pirates trapped in the bay successfully breached the plaza.
Sengoku's face darkened.
The strategic plan to trap and annihilate the Whitebeard Pirates within the bay had officially failed.
"They've broken through," Garp noted bluntly. "That Encircling Wall is going to be more of a hindrance to us now."
He was right.
The battle had devolved into brutal, close-quarters combat. The Marines' overwhelming advantage in artillery and long-range firepower was now effectively useless.
Furthermore, the pirates were now backed against a wall. They had no avenue of retreat. Their only option was a desperate, all-out fight to the death.
But Sengoku hadn't earned the title of "Resourceful General" for nothing.
He had contingencies.
By breaching the plaza, Whitebeard had simply stepped out of one trap and into another.
Whitebeard's strategy was to act as the ultimate vanguard—to tie down the three Admirals single-handedly, creating the space his commanders and main forces needed to launch a surprise assault on the execution platform.
Sengoku deliberately played into this strategy.
For a prolonged period, he allowed the three Admirals to engage Whitebeard in a rotating, highly coordinated offensive.
While Marco and Jozu attempted to alleviate the pressure on their captain, the sheer chaos of the battlefield constantly demanded their attention elsewhere. They couldn't provide sustained, focused support.
Sengoku's objective was crystal clear.
Sever the tactical link between Whitebeard and his crew.
Subject the old man to a grueling war of attrition.
Drag him into a hole of continuous, high-intensity combat.
This was the Marines' ultimate trump card against anomalies like Whitebeard: drown them in numbers, exhaust them, and bleed them dry.
No matter how powerful a Yonko was, fighting two Admirals simultaneously was a losing battle. Fighting three was a death sentence.
And to ensure there were no further surprises...
Sengoku turned to the executioners. "Execute him. Now."
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