“Wahahaha!
Looks like our newcomer has run into a bit of trouble.”
At the edge of the plaza at the foot of Skull Mountain, Rocks ambled out from the tavern a little late, accompanied by the division captains and senior combatants of the Rocks Pirates.
Watching the battle unfolding in the square, no one rushed forward to stop it.
Instead, they all wore amused expressions, lingering at a distance to watch the show.
“Mamamama~ Rocks, didn’t you say there was only one newcomer?
How is there another one?
And from the looks of it, he’s putting on an even better show than that Oni brat.”
Standing tall at a towering eight point eight meters, with long pink hair, a striking, voluptuous face, and eyes shimmering like spring waters, the oversized beauty Charlotte Linlin stared with intense curiosity at Kaidou and Carlo, her gaze flashing with deep interest.
Rocks grinned.
“I don’t know either.
You’ll have to ask Newgate.”
With that, he looked toward the front.
A golden-haired giant of a man leaning on a massive bisento strode forward with heavy, thunderous steps.
“I’m not too sure either,” Edward Newgate said.
“By the time I reached Rocky Port, it was already mostly destroyed.”
Whitebeard hooked a thumb back over his shoulder.
“Those two back there were locked in a bloodbath, fighting like crazy.”
Hearing his explanation, a blonde man chomping on a cigar floated over without a single point of leverage beneath his feet, his body hovering in midair.
“Huh?
Rocky Port was destroyed?
What about Samuro?”
“Dead,” Whitebeard said, stepping up to Rocks and planting his bisento into the ground.
“What?
Dead?
Who killed him?” The blonde man’s brows knitted tightly, murder flaring in his eyes.
Whitebeard glanced at the floating blonde man.
“What’s this?
You actually care about a subordinate’s life?
That doesn’t sound like you, Shiki.”
Golden Lion Shiki let out a cold snort.
“One thing has nothing to do with the other.
I don’t care about his life, but Samuro was my man.
Killing my man without paying a price?
That doesn’t fly with me.”
Saying this, he floated higher, intending to fly toward the battle.
“Hee-hee-hee, Shiki, you’re as petty as ever,” chuckled Wang Zhi, a rotund man with multiple chins, letting out a bizarre laugh.
Hearing this, Rocks, who was watching the fight, darted a cool glance toward the Golden Lion.
“Shiki, don’t say I didn’t warn you ahead of time.
I don’t care if you push around the fresh blood.
But with high-potential newcomers like them, as long as they haven’t actively provoked you, you’re not allowed to go for the kill.
I still need them to grow so we can tear down the World Government.”
“Hmph!
I’m not your subordinate!” Shiki looked thoroughly displeased, but he stopped nonetheless, hovering in the sky as he looked down at the battle.
After warning Shiki, Rocks looked back at Whitebeard, his eyes filled with silent inquiry.
“Newgate, who is that white-haired brat?”
At his question, everyone nearby turned to look at Whitebeard.
Whitebeard shook his head.
“I told you, I don’t know him.
But he claims to be a Marine Lieutenant Commander…”
“A Marine?” Rocks paused, clearly not expecting that answer.
“What?
A Marine?
Newgate, why the hell did you bring a Marine to Hachinosu?”
“Wait, you said he’s a Marine Lieutenant Commander?
Are you kidding me?
What kind of Lieutenant Commander could hold off Ganzui for this long?”
The surrounding crowd erupted in an uproar.
Dazed by the noisy clamor around him, Whitebeard waved his hand in annoyance.
“I said I don’t know!
Stop asking me!”
“Wait a second…
Newgate, did you say he’s a Marine Lieutenant Commander?”
Suddenly, a shapely woman with a pink python wrapped around her waist spoke up.
“Yeah.
Is there a problem, Gloriosa?” Whitebeard nodded.
Gloriosa, former captain of the Kuja Pirates, handed over a newspaper.
“This is from two days ago.
Take a look.”
“A newspaper?” Whitebeard blinked, taking the paper and spreading it open.
The others crowded around out of curiosity.
Right on the front page was a somewhat familiar photograph.
In the picture, a well-built, white-haired young man stood alone before the ruins of a destroyed Marine base.
He held a gleaming golden chest in his hand, a wild, unreserved laugh plastered across his face.
The headline read—
*Marine HQ Lieutenant Commander Soros Carlo Commits Unforgivable Atrocity!*
*Publicly attacked Marine Base G2, stole the Heavenly Tribute intended for the World Government, along with a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit valued at one billion Berries.*
*The World Government and Marine HQ have issued a combined bounty of 500 million Berries on his head!*
Reading the news, the pirate leaders wore a variety of expressions.
Whitebeard was surprised by Carlo’s audacity.
Shiki sneered.
“A brat like this gets a 500 million Berry bounty?
Is the World Government blind?”
Linlin’s eyes sparkled.
“A Mythical Zoan?
He stole a Mythical Zoan Fruit worth a billion Berries?
If he’s willing to hand it over to Mama…”
Wang Zhi’s face brimmed with greed.
“The Heavenly Tribute!
This brat actually robbed the Celestial Dragons’ Heavenly Tribute!
Where did he hide it?”
Even Rocks was caught off guard.
“A Marine publicly attacking a Marine base and stealing the Heavenly Tribute…
That really is something rare.
Even I’m hearing of this for the first time.”
He looked toward the center of the field with deep interest, where Carlo was still locked in a fierce duel with Ganzui.
At that exact moment, a sudden mutation occurred at the center of the plaza, where waves of heavy explosions were erupting!
“Kreeeee!!”
Accompanied by a sharp, piercing avian screech, a magnificent pair of radiant golden wings snapped open straight through the roaring fire and dense smoke.
The golden wings were impossibly massive.
As they unfolded, they stretched so far that they cast a shadow over Rocks and the others watching from the edge of the plaza, blotting out the sunlight overhead.
Rocks, Whitebeard, and the rest couldn’t help but look up in awe.
The moment those wings spread, the surging flames and thick smoke stirred up by Ganzui’s explosions were instantly swept away, clearing the area in a single flap!
“What on earth?!”
While Ganzui was still frozen in shock, a pair of golden talons the size of houses lunged straight at his face.
Moving so fast they blurred into golden residual shadows, they locked him tightly inside before he could even react.
Then, the pair of brilliant golden wings rose high and slammed downward with terrifying force.
*BOOM!!*
In an instant, crushed stone and sand surged like violent tides.
An eighteenth-category tempest erupted across the plaza, tearing up the blue cobblestones paving the ground and blowing them away in a violent rush.
The terrifying storm swept outward like a raging torrent, forcing even Rocks and his commanders to squint as their bodies swayed backward.
At the epicenter of the storm, Kaidou and Marlon were caught off guard, sent tumbling like wooden gourds along the ground, flying outward alongside uprooted houses.
In the sky, wild winds howled as a brilliant, hundred-meter-wide golden bird rose toward the blinding sunlight like a divine bird out of mythology, shooting thousands of meters into the air in the blink of an eye.
Under the shocked gazes of countless pirates across Hachinosu, the giant bird hovered above the island, continuing its steep climb toward the heavens.
In a matter of seconds, the golden giant holding Ganzui in its talons burst through the sea of clouds, ascending to a height of ten thousand meters.
And then…
Before Ganzui’s terrified eyes, the giant bird opened its talons.
“NO!!”
Encased in heavy armor, Ganzui’s body plunged toward the earth with a deafening roar.
Terrified out of his mind, he thrashed his limbs frantically, screaming at the top of his lungs.
He desperately activated his bomb powers, trying to detonate the air beneath him to slow his descent.
But how could Carlo possibly let him have his way?
*Hummmmm—!*
In the majestic, golden vertical pupils of the divine Garuda, a red light far more blinding than the sun suddenly ignited.
In the next instant, two crimson, blood-red laser beams pierced through the sea of clouds like divine punishment, striking Ganzui straight in the chest.
The impact accelerated his fall by more than tenfold!
Like a falling meteor burning with bright flames, he hurled downward, howling toward the earth below!