A fist comparable in size to a Giant’s came flying in from the side and struck Ryokugyu squarely in the face. Under normal circumstances, landing a punch like that on Ryokugyu would have been unrealistic. Anyone who had reached the minimum threshold of an Admiral would naturally have competent mastery of Dual-Colored Haki.
Who knew—if the version got updated one day, maybe even Conqueror’s Haki wouldn’t be out of the question. But right now, things were different.
While Mars was fighting Yamato, Ryokugyu had been feeling tremendous pressure from Queen. Right now, he really wanted to ask the Marine Intelligence Branch whether they had given the nickname “Iron Balloon” to the wrong person.
The other Marine Admirals had also fought the Calamities before, but the Calamities they encountered had yet to fully mature, and in terms of their abilities, both sides had ways to counter each other.
Ice against fire, magma against blue flames, lightning against light—their battles could still be described as evenly matched. But when it came to Ryokugyu, he finally experienced what it felt like to have his ability directly countered.
He could manipulate plants, and Queen could manipulate plants too.
His plants possessed all sorts of strange functions, but Queen’s ability was even more complicated. Aside from being unable to elementalize, Queen practically seemed to possess the “superior version” of his Fruit.
“I’ve never heard of a Brachiosaurus having such a ridiculous form!”
Ryokugyu thrust both hands into the ground. His arms transformed into trees and extended underground before bursting out beside Queen, two massive wooden hands slapping toward Queen’s head.
Leaves formed wings on his back, bananas grew from his chin, and he retained a long tail incorporating Brachiosaurus characteristics. Although he still had some features of a Brachiosaurus, anyone who wasn’t blind could tell that he had already become a “fantasy creature.”
“There are plenty of things you’ve never heard of! Only an idiot like you, who can’t see the forest for the trees, would stay that loyal to the World Government!”
The leaf-wings on Queen’s back flapped. Several broad leaves spun outward in every direction, their razor-sharp edges slicing through Ryokugyu’s extended limbs like razors and shredding the wooden sections into splinters.
Wood chips filled the air and blocked everyone’s vision, but the leaf blades continued flying toward Ryokugyu without losing any momentum.
And that was when Luffy’s punch smashed into Ryokugyu’s face.
“B*stard… Who was that?!”
Ryokugyu looked in the direction the fist had come from and saw a balloon-like man, still wearing his prisoner work badge, kicking off the air as he flew toward him. His fist had already retracted back into his bizarre body.
“Gum-Gum Kong Organ Gun!”
“Idiot! Our people were the ones who released you, and you’re attacking me together with the Beasts Pirates?! Can’t you even tell what’s going on at a time like this?!”
Saturn and Mars’s teleportation had been the first phase. Ryokugyu’s bamboo-copter entry was the second phase. The third phase consisted of the elite CP0 agents following behind them. Their objective was nothing complicated: release the prisoners in Udon and create some chaos inside Wano Country.
Given the World Government’s current situation, they had no way to simply send a large force directly into Wano Country. Without top-tier combatants accompanying the ships, approaching the Beasts Pirates’ inland sea was basically the same as throwing soldiers into the water to feed the fish.
Having Page One as the Groundbait Master* nearby is more than enough; the World Government had no intention of throwing their troops into the sea for nothing. Instead, the ready-made “forces” inside Udon became their target. [TN: It is a humorous Chinese internet slang term that is used to mock or self-deprecate anglers (fishermen) who spend immense effort, time, and money feeding the fish, only to catch absolutely nothing.]
With the guards voluntarily withdrawing from the central battlefield and forming a second defensive perimeter outside, CP0 really had managed to release quite a few prisoners.
Ryokugyu figured these people should at least possess a little common sense. The Beasts Pirates had imprisoned them, while the World Government had come here to attack the Beasts Pirates. Although freeing the prisoners wasn’t their actual objective, and aside from a few people like Garp, they didn’t care whether these prisoners lived or died, releasing them was merely a way to give the Beasts Pirates more trouble.
But surely these prisoners understood what taking part in a prison break meant. If they refused to help the World Government and were later captured again by the Beasts Pirates, their fate would definitely be even worse.
Ryokugyu had already taken it for granted that these people would be allies. Then this weirdo suddenly appeared and punched him for no reason.
“I don’t care about any of that! You were the one who attacked Hercules just now, right?! I’m gonna send you flying!”
“What Hercules? I have no idea what you are talking about, idiot!”
Ryokugyu’s arm scattered into countless soft blades of grass. The grass blades shot outward like flexible swords, knocking back every fist-shadow Luffy sent at him.
He was the user of the Woods-Woods Fruit, not some tree-man who had eaten Tree-Tree fruit. Flowers, trees, vines—all of them fell within the scope of his ability. Naturally, different kinds of plants could be used for different situations.
Countless blades of grass danced through the air before launching forward and knocking Luffy away. But during that brief moment, a blinding flash of light suddenly dazzled Ryokugyu’s eyes.
“You’ve got to be kidding me! Isn’t it midnight right now?!”
“Midnight? Let me tell you something! When it comes to our battlefield, we decide what the weather is!”
What happened if Sunny Day was used at night?
The move was originally meant to strengthen sunlight and thereby enhance other moves, functioning as a weather-type field move. But at night, although the sun was on the other side of the planet, Sunny Day wouldn’t simply stop working because of that.
The inexplicable bright light in the sky was the manifestation of this unreasonable ability. It was just that using Sunny Day at night required far more energy and preparation time than during the day.
The short period when Ryokugyu had been distracted by Luffy gave Queen exactly the time he needed to prepare.
“Kid, have you decided to defect to our side? Congratulations on making a wise choice. I’m starting to like you now. Your pirate crew can directly become special recruits under my personal command.”
Queen was very satisfied with Luffy’s performance just now. If Kaido had been here, he would have been very unhappy about someone interfering in his fight. The most likely outcome would be Kaido knocking out the person who interfered with one club swing before continuing his battle.
But Queen was different. Never overestimate Queen’s sense of integrity, because he didn’t have any to begin with.
Whether it was an ally or anyone else, weak or strong, he never minded someone helping him fight the enemy. Yamato had only told him to take down Ryokugyu. She hadn’t specified how he had to do it.
Of course, there was one condition: whoever intervened couldn’t affect his personal interests. For example, it couldn’t be Shayna or Yamato helping him, because that might cause Yamato’s promise to him to be invalidated.
And there was yet another condition beyond that. If Queen thought his life was in danger, then he wouldn’t care who came to interfere.
In that brief moment just now, his mind had gone through countless rounds of internal debate before finally settling on the situation most advantageous to himself.
While trying to recruit Luffy, a mass of scorching energy began gathering in front of Queen.
“Your trees are fire-resistant, right? Then try blocking this! I’m burning you to ashes today! Solar Beam!”
With Sunny Day active, Solar Beam no longer needed to charge and could be fired immediately.
Overall, night battles weren’t particularly suitable for Queen. Still, the effort he had spent activating Sunny Day earlier was worth it.
Power gathered from sunlight blasted from Queen’s mouth. The forest Ryokugyu had raised was instantly pierced through by the scorching beam. Although Solar Beam was one of the Grass type’s major moves, at this moment it displayed terrifying power comparable to a Fire-type move.
Because of Ryokugyu’s ability, the Udon quarry had undergone a sudden greening, with grass, flowers, and trees growing all over the ground. But under the illumination of Solar Beam, those plants quickly withered away, and Ryokugyu’s body ignited after being struck.
Under the raging flames, Ryokugyu’s body gradually shrank until it disappeared completely.
“So… so strong…”
Kaido had defeated Luffy far too quickly. The difference in strength between them had already reached a level Luffy found difficult to accept. After briefly exchanging blows with Ryokugyu, however, Luffy had formed a clearer estimate of the Admiral’s strength.
Seeing Ryokugyu’s body burned to ashes by a single move from Queen gave Luffy an even stronger sense of shock.
“That’s why joining my direct forces is such a rare privilege. I almost never personally recruit people—”
“Who said I was joining you guys?!”
Even though they were standing on a battlefield, Queen suddenly felt like the entire world had fallen silent. He could no longer understand what this person was thinking.
He didn’t want to join them, but he also hadn’t escaped with the rest of the prisoners. Instead, he had chosen to attack a Marine Admiral. Judging from what he had said, it seemed to be solely because of that Heracross.
He clearly wasn’t a member of the Beasts Pirates, yet he could care that much about a Pokémon.
From an omniscient perspective, not escaping was actually the most correct choice. But these prisoners had no idea what Wano Country’s current situation was. Luffy had genuinely given up an opportunity to flee.
“I overestimated you. Looks like you’re still an idiot who can’t read the situation. But now I’m actually interested in you.
So, what are you going to do now? Run away, or something else?”
“That guy isn’t dead yet. You seriously didn’t notice?”
Queen fell silent again. Luffy’s question made him feel insulted—both intellectually and in terms of strength.
“I don’t need you reminding me about something like that! I can take him down by myself! Once I finish this guy off, I’ll deal with you slowly.”
Queen had his own confidence. The Straw Hat Pirates weren’t some major risk. He had plenty of time to deal with them later. What mattered now was handling these intruders.
On the scorched ground, a seed took root and sprouted. A tender shoot rapidly grew at a visible speed until it transformed into Ryokugyu’s form.
“You pirates really don’t take people seriously… I’m a Forest Human who ate the Woods-Woods Fruit! Forests are a source of life that stand alongside the ‘sea.’ In other words, I am the forest itself!
“My vitality isn’t that fragile! If you want to kill me, you’ve still got a long way to go!
The power of sunlight… I’m going to show you that using a move like that was a complete mistake!”
Ryokugyu’s body began absorbing energy from the sunlight as well. Through photosynthesis, his stamina seemed to be recovering. This was also the drawback of weather moves. Once they were activated, they didn’t distinguish between friend and foe. The enemy could benefit from the field effect too.
But as Queen listened to Ryokugyu boast, a new idea suddenly occurred to him.
“Nature itself, huh…? Then try this! Plague Bullet: Household Emergency Edition!”
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