Numbers No.45, Fourtricks, Metapod Ability User. As everyone knows, Metapod’s signature move is Harden, so his training talent was basically all invested into defense.
Facing Garp’s earlier attack, he bravely chose to block it with his body. After stacking multiple Harden boosts, adding Tekkai, and finally Armament Haki, he pushed his defense to the absolute limit, but it was meaningless.
With a single punch, he was sent flying into the sea, and several people were still fishing him out. From another perspective, he had already lost his priority right to select a mate in this event.
“Meteor Fist!”
Grabbing a nearby rock, Garp hurled it in another direction, briefly opening a path for the others.
While the stronger officers on the island were busy dealing with Garp, the other members of SWORD were also advancing toward Koby, trying to rescue him as quickly as possible.
“Break!”
A pair of black bear paws flashed with sharp cold light as Briscola tore several Marines in front of him into pieces. However, the expected scene of flesh and blood flying everywhere did not appear; the torn Marines simply turned into countless lumps of clay.
“Logia-type? No… I used Haki.”
Numbers No.39, Pangoro Ability User. At first, he had also been part of the assault against Garp.
But after Boa Hancock joined the battle, someone like him, one of the Numbers in his thirties, could no longer keep up with their movements, so he switched to fighting other members.
Specifically, this happened right after Fourtricks was punched away.
“Briscola! Behind you!”
Boom!
Behind Briscola, a beast made of rubble swung its claw at him, but he turned around and smashed it into pieces with a single strike.
“I’m a bear, not a cat!”
“Found it, the real body is here!”
Hamlet, Numbers No.41, Zigzagoon Ability User. At this moment, he was in Beast Form. He hadn’t directly joined the fight, instead searching around the battlefield for something.
Garp’s punches had devastated the island’s terrain, turning what was once neat and orderly into chaos, providing others with plenty of hiding spots.
Most SWORD members’ abilities weren’t suited for direct combat. Whether it was Prince Grus’s Glorp-Glorp or Kujaku’s Whip-Whip Fruit, they relied on external objects to fight.
What had just fought Briscola were their fruit-created constructs, and Hamlet had now located where their real bodies were hiding.
“Cowardly b*stards, die!”
The fur on his body flashed with white light as dozens of Pin Missiles shot out from his body’s surface. But before the attack could land, a flash of blade light suddenly appeared in the distance.
“Watch your back, youngster.”
Dense sword flashes intercepted all of Hamlet’s Pin Missiles, and another Marine appeared.
Marine Headquarters’ Vice Admiral Bogard, Garp’s vice-captain, a Marine who had followed him for many years, and one of the few high-ranking officers in this operation.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
A burst of gunfire rang out, but no bullets were fired. As the melee unfolded, Hibari’s sniper bullet had already shot out. The special flower bullets made by Vegapunk turned the gunpowder in the pirates’ guns into flowers.
Looking at the flowers inexplicably growing out of their gun barrels, many pirates couldn’t react in time, but by then, a dense rain of arrows was already flying toward them.
Not only were there pirates from the Beasts Pirates here, but also the Kuja. Their persistence in using bows gave them a unique advantage at this moment. The flower bullets could transform gunpowder, but had no effect on arrows.
“The Kuja can fight too! Don’t let men look down on you, take them down!”
The snake on their backs served as powerful bows, and the explosive arrows coated in Haki blanketed the ground ahead with firepower. Although the walls formed from clay and buildings blocked the sharpness of the arrows, they suppressed the enemies so much that they couldn’t even raise their heads.
“We’ve found Koby! He’s being held over there!”
At this moment, Helmeppo also spotted Koby. With a clearer direction, they roughly found a breakthrough point. With Garp’s strength alone, the rescue squad gradually advanced toward Koby.
It was at this moment that Who’s-Who suddenly issued a baffling order.
“Stop! Retreat, let them pass!”
Within the Beasts Pirates, the hierarchy of strength was very clear. Someone like Who’s-Who, a single-digit Number, had almost absolute authority over the others. At his command, the pirates immediately made way.
Only Boa Hancock, still not used to it, didn’t react in time and clashed with Garp once more.
“Giving up?”
“Boa Hancock, you don’t understand us well enough. This isn’t giving up, it’s just that there’s no need to increase meaningless casualties.”
From the corner of his eye, he had already seen the shadow in the sky. The reinforcements of the Beasts Pirates had arrived.
With the pirates voluntarily clearing a path, Garp and the others quickly reached Koby. The cage imprisoning him was smashed by Garp, and they pulled him out.
“Koby, it’s great that you’re alright!”
“Why did you come here? This is too reckless. For just me, coming to such a dangerous place…”
“Enough talking. Think about how we’re going to retreat. These pirates don’t look like they’re letting us leave.”
Prince Grus interrupted Koby and Helmeppo’s greetings. He didn’t know why the pirates had stopped attacking, but every one of them appeared poised and ready, looking as though they would charge again at a single command.
“Let’s get back to the ship first.”
Whoosh—Boom!
Not many of them could fly, so if they wanted to retreat, they had to rely on the ship. But having gone deep behind enemy lines, they had already committed all their energy to breaking through the pirates’ defenses. No one had stayed behind to guard the ship.
Just as Bogard was about to fight his way back, a blue arrow of light descended from the sky, completely cutting off their retreat.
The massive blue arrow pierced straight through the warship’s hull and blasted a huge hole beneath it, causing the ship to plunge downward.
“Hahahaha! I told you, this is our territory! Did you think you could come and go as you please?!”
Who’s-Who laughed at Garp. In midair, Setsuna’s Aura Bow was already aimed at them. The arrow just now had destroyed their means of escape.
With Zeraora’s speed, she was the first to arrive near the battlefield. As for Zeraora, upon arriving, he sensed a somewhat familiar presence and went off to intercept the reinforcements.
“Vice Admiral Garp, that’s the current Duchess of the Minks, Beasts Pirates’ No.0. We’re in serious trouble.
It’s said that for the single-digit Numbers, each step forward represents a qualitative leap in strength.
That Who’s-Who is only No.4.”
Bogard tightened his grip on his weapon. If it were just one opponent, he wouldn’t be so tense. Although No.0 meant the strongest below the Calamities, they still had Garp.
But the other side represented reinforcements. There was no way there would be only one.
And just as Bogard had feared, the worst-case scenario unfolded. They failed to take Koby away before the Beasts Pirates’ reinforcements arrived. Setsuna’s arrival was only the beginning, not the end.
“Move aside, move aside! Don’t get in the way, you ba*tards!”
Following right behind was Page One. His jet-like flying speed was second only to Zeraora. Before Page One had even landed, Ulti had already jumped down ahead of him.
Landing together with her was Isuka, whom she had picked up along the way. The numbers No.6 and No.8 on them were extremely eye-catching, and behind them, the large No.5 on Page One’s chest, who had just landed, was declaring to the Marines that yet another single-digit Number had arrived.
“Is just this handful of people necessary for you to call for emergency reinforcements? Someone who didn’t know better might think the Marines had mobilized everything.”
“This is respect for that old senior. After all, he is the Marines’ Hero.”
As the number of arriving people grew, Who’s-Who relaxed and even began joking, no longer showing the caution he had earlier.
But the real heavy hitter had only just arrived.
“QUEEN Smash!”
Above the clouds, a Dragonite flew past. In the instant it passed, it dropped Queen down. After all, even for a large Dragonite, carrying Queen in flight was quite a burden.
As he descended from the sky, Queen had already transformed into Tropius form. His forelimbs were coated with Haki tempered countless times by Kaido, and with the acceleration of his wings and his own weight, he stomped toward Garp.
“Grus! The rest is up to you!”
“Leave it to me, Vice Admiral Garp. Cumulo-Glorpus!”
Clay surged forth like a tidal wave, wrapping around everyone except Garp, while Garp himself leapt up ahead of time to meet Queen in the sky.
“Galaxy Impact!!”
Black lightning crackled in front of his fist, and Garp’s punch was already coated in a deep black layer of Haki.
Boom!!
A human fist collided with Tropius’s fist. After a brief stalemate, both sides’ powers erupted completely. Garp fell back to the ground, but the calm expression he had before was gone.
Queen, meanwhile, canceled his transformation and landed on the island after that clash.
The immense force left two deep trenches beneath his feet, stretching all the way to the edge of the island. Just a little more, and Queen would have slid into the sea.
“Muhahaha! So this is the Marines’ hero? Nothing special!”
Queen seemed to be mocking Garp, but he had already hidden the arm he had used behind his back. Blood was continuously flowing from his fist, and his entire arm was trembling.
【Damn old geezer… he still has this much strength. My bones are shattered…】
“Looks like I really have grown weak. Is this all one punch can do now?”
A single punch from Garp could send someone as massive as Sanjuan Wolf flying, yet Queen had managed to endure the clash. Though he paid a considerable price, he ultimately withstood Garp’s powerful fist.
“Garp-san, you shouldn’t have come here.”
After just forcing Queen back, a chill suddenly came from behind Garp. Kuzan, who had arrived together with Queen, launched his attack at this moment.
“Ice Ball!”
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