An extremely cold current surged in from behind. In an instant, Garp was encased within a sphere of solid ice.
“This won’t do. Turning this island into this state will only delay things.”
A chill breath escaped from Kuzan’s mouth. At this moment, the ground beneath his feet had already turned into ice, not from deliberate effort, but simply as an effect of contact.
“Kuzan?!”
“Mr. Kuzan? Why?!”
If infiltrating deep into enemy territory was already a dual test of mind and body, then Kuzan’s appearance was a devastating blow to SWORD.
The former highest combat power of Marine Headquarters now stood on the enemy’s side, and was even raising his hand against them.
“What are you doing?! Why are you attacking Mr. Garp?!”
Kuzan had left the Marines long ago, and Marine Headquarters no longer concealed his whereabouts.
Yet many Marines still refused to believe that Kuzan had truly quit. They preferred to think he was acting under special orders rather than betraying them.
But Kuzan’s act of attacking Garp while he was under siege had completely declared his stance.
“Koby, honestly, if all this hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t even have known you got captured here.”
Looking at the rookie whom Garp had always kept by his side, Kuzan’s expression barely changed. He simply felt Garp was being far too overprotective, charging into an environment like this all alone.
To be honest, Kuzan would have found it more reasonable if Garp had defected during the Summit War. He truly couldn’t understand what about this Marine rookie was worth Garp valuing so much.
“You’ve probably heard the intel, right? Kaido and the others aren’t here right now. If you come barging in and cause a scene at a time like this, letting you walk away unscathed would be hard to explain.
Besides, you even scared our ‘Lord Queen’ half to death~”
Compared to SWORD’s panic, the pirates instead felt a surge of excitement.
The Marines’ strongest fighter, huh? Now he’s one of ours.
“Did you see that? Kuzan attacked that Garp.”
“Yeah, I saw it! Go for it, Kuzan! I believe in your skills!”
“But what did he just say about Lord Queen? Did anyone catch that?”
The pirates’ chatter was noisy. Their hearing might not have picked it up clearly, but Queen was different. Aside from his strength, he was extremely sensitive about his name.
“Kuzan! What nonsense are you spouting?! What do you mean scared half to death? I wasn’t scared at all!”
Queen’s voice was loud and full of vigor. Though it would have been more convincing if he weren’t currently taking medicines.
At this moment, his injured arm was still held behind his back, while his modified mechanical arm kept stuffing things into his mouth. Aside from Berry-based recovery items, there were even powerful buff-enhancing drugs.
If described in terms of stats, Queen had already entered an overhealing state.
“That’s what you said yourself. Has nothing to do with me.”
He had originally just been muttering to Koby, something few people could hear. But after Queen’s loud outburst, everything changed. At least the nearby pirates could now piece together what Kuzan had said.
“Garp-san, you’ve rested enough, haven’t you? This level of freezing can’t hold you.”
Kuzan’s gaze never left Garp. He understood better than anyone what Garp was capable of.
Crack—
Just as Kuzan said, Garp hadn’t lost his ability to move from that attack. But the moment he shattered the ice and broke free, the Beasts Pirates’ assault had already arrived.
All those people weren’t here just to watch. Queen had issued an emergency assembly order, so naturally they moved to attack the enemy. As for the other SWORD members, the officers didn’t even consider them worth their attention. They all set their sights on the big fish: Garp.
From the ground on the left, Page One burst out, his shark-fin arm raised high above his head, draconic power already coiling around the tips of his claws.
A bloodthirsty glint flickered in his eyes, the small scales on his body standing on end as he lunged at Garp like a shark locking onto its prey.
“Dragon Claw!”
At the same time, in front of Garp, Ulti arrived almost simultaneously. Her sharp axe-like fangs were coiled around her arm like a battle axe, the blade gleaming with the same luster as Page One’s.
As she swung her arm, accompanied by a piercing tearing sound, the blade carved through the air, creating an air slash. A coconut tree in the distance that had barely survived the earlier battle was cleanly severed in half.
“Dragon Claw Duet!”
Clang!
After a thunderous boom, Garp remained standing firmly in place. With one hand, he caught Page One’s descending shark fin, while his other hand swung a fist to meet Ulti’s axe-blade.
“When I was beating down pirates… you two hadn’t even been born yet!”
Boom!
Garp grabbed Page One’s arm and hurled him forward with immense force. Page One’s massive body was sent flying under the influence of Garp’s powerful strength, thrown straight toward Ulti.
After another thunderous boom, the siblings’ figures vanished from the surface. Instead of taking the force head-on, Page One used Garp’s momentum to burrow into the ground.
Meanwhile, Ulti activated a Protect barrier and slid down along with him. Seeing several cracks appear on the barrier, Ulti nearly cursed out loud.
“Damn it! An ol’ geezer who’s been fighting this long still has this much strength?”
“It’s normal since other than Who’s-Who and that Empress, no one else has really been able to trouble him. Sister, move aside a bit. I can’t dig out properly in this position.”
Both of them were thick-skinned and hardy type, so the fall didn’t do much damage. But the narrow light above made it clear that they had already reached the bottom of the island.
Before long, Page One and Ulti returned to the surface, and the battle against Garp continued.
“Kuzan, stop blocking us! Leave with us and come back to the Marines!”
“You’re just the same as ever, Garp-san, saying whatever you please. You really are quite blunt.
Unfortunately, neither of those is going to happen, Garp-san!
Ice Block: Pheasant Peck!”
The cold air condensed rapidly, forming a massive ice bird in front of Kuzan, which shot toward Garp.
“Galaxy Impact!”
Facing the incoming ice bird, Garp threw a punch straight ahead, shattering it and charging directly toward Kuzan.
Boom!
Their fists collided, and the resulting shockwave forced many people nearby to retreat.
“I don’t remember teaching you to become a pirate. Ace was like that, Luffy too—you all walked the path of pirates! Is the position of Fleet Admiral really that important to you?!”
“Garp-san, I used to admire you. Unbound by rules, saying whatever you wanted, doing whatever you pleased. That’s what I liked about you.
Now I’ll live according to my own will as well. That’s all!”
Kuzan’s body was covered in frost, yet his fists were coated in immensely powerful Haki. In their clash of fists, he did not fall behind. But at this level of battle, it became increasingly difficult for outsiders to intervene.
“You should know, Garp-san, that unless you intend to kill me, you can never defeat me. Are you prepared to kill your former top disciple for the sake of your beloved student?”
“Don’t delude yourself, you idiot. Even if those words weren’t meant to make you become a pirate, I taught you that people must live in the present!! A man lost in confusion is nothing but weak!”
Garp’s body erupted with a surge of monstrous strength once again, causing Kuzan to move a few steps backward, but in that fleeting moment, Garp had already seized upon his opening.
Garp’s outstretched hand seized Kuzan by the face without the slightest hesitation.
“Blue Hole!”
“Get out of my way! Anyone without a number, stay out of this battlefield. Go find someone you can handle!”
Kuzan’s body was hurled downward by Garp. This island, originally meant for a social gathering, had already endured far more than it should have. Just then, Queen, having recovered, had risen into the air.
His braids, tail, modified arm, and three laser cannons all locked onto Garp’s position.
Sunlight gathered on the leaves on his back, and a Solar Beam was already charged in his mouth.
“QUEEN Scorching Hell!”
With all restraints lifted, Queen unleashed his full firepower. The searing beams evaporated the moisture in the ground, the earth cracking visibly before turning to ash under the shockwaves of the explosions.
Moments later, the barrels extending from Queen had turned red-hot, entering an overheated state, and the laser cannons temporarily lost their ability to fire.
“Hey, hey! Watch it, you’ve got allies here! I’m made of ice, you know.”
“Aren’t you a Logia-type? Something like this shouldn’t affect you at all, right?”
Queen paid no attention to Kuzan, who had just climbed out from underground. If a Logia user could be blown to death, that would be a joke. At the same time, more fighters continued to gather around Garp.
“Interfering again and again with matters involving the Kuja. Garp, do you think the Kuja are easy targets?! Perfume Femur Magna!”
The moment the laser beams disappeared, Hancock had already appeared in front of Garp. Battles at their level had a complication. Unless there was perfect coordination, it was difficult to attack together.
Sometimes, not only would it fail to help allies, it could even hinder them. That was why only Ulti and Page One, as a well-coordinated sibling duo, chose to launch combo attacks. The others instead took advantage of openings between attacks, effectively forming a rotating assault.
Under Queen’s bombardment, Garp’s upper clothing had been almost completely burned away, revealing his muscular physique. But when Hancock’s kick aimed at his neck, her foot was stopped midair by a layer of Haki.
“Little girl, an ability as dangerous as yours is better not used on people!
Bogard! Take them and seize a pirate ship! Leave this place to me, I won’t let them get past.”
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