Even though the Marine side was led by merely one Vice Admiral and one Admiral, the threat of this pairing far surpassed a standard duo of Admirals.
In the enemy camp, the only one they truly needed to be wary of was Whitebeard alone.
In the eyes of Garp and Sengoku, the rest did not pose any real threat for now.
At the bow of the World Government battleship, a figure landed right at the front with a whoosh.
Garp’s gaze cut through the rolling waves, locking onto the small black dot drawing closer and closer.
As the distance closed, a grin slowly spread across Garp’s face—the raw excitement of a hunter finally cornering his prey.
“Here they come.”
The distance between both sides shrank continuously as the salty sea breeze whipped against their faces.
Staring at the two figures standing at the bow opposite them, Whitebeard couldn’t help but frown: “Like I said…
the intel from those Kuja Pirates couldn’t be trusted.”
“Newgate, complaining now won’t do any good,” Stussy glanced across with a cold expression, her tone noticeably anxious.
“The most important thing is how we get out of here safely.”
“Get out?” Whitebeard gave her a heavy look, then glanced down at the deck of the speedboat beneath their feet.
“Take a look at our ‘gear,’ and then think about how naive that idea is.”
Indeed.
Their vessel was called a “speedboat,” and its only merit was that it was fast.
Other than that, it had no defensive foundation, no cannons, and no sail-adjustment controls.
And the World Government battleship?
That was a military vessel—fast, heavily armed, and heavily armored.
In terms of performance, it outclassed their speedboat many times over.
Not to mention a far more fatal issue: the effect of seawater on Devil Fruit users.
On a battlefield surrounded entirely by water, Whitebeard’s power was constrained, making an already bad situation worse.
“Bastards!” Stussy finally couldn’t hold back her temper.
“Didn’t they say our route had the weakest force?
How the hell did Garp and Sengoku end up here?!
The error in the Kuja Pirates’ intel is completely absurd!”
No one answered her.
Across the water, Garp had already spoken.
“Hey…
Newgate.” The sea breeze blew against him, whipping the cloak bearing the word “Justice” on his back.
Garp knocked his fists together with a dull thud, an unrestrained, excited grin on his face.
“Are you ready to welcome my fists?”
“Bastard, you’re celebrating a bit too early,” Whitebeard snapped back, before instructing Ron’s group: “Stussy, you take the helm.
We fight while retreating.
Kaido, Ron, Ochoku, you three assist me.”
Ron and Kaido nodded at the same time.
Ochoku, however, let out a dissatisfied grunt: “What’s this, Newgate?
Do you take me for one of your underlings?”
“Hmph, idiot,” Whitebeard retorted coldly.
“If you don’t want to get captured, shut your mouth.”
Ochoku opened his mouth, but in the end didn’t argue back, though his expression remained sour.
Whitebeard then set Murakumogiri down onto the deck, raised both hands, and grabbed violently at the air.
As his fingers dug into the atmosphere, it looked as if he had seized something solid, and then he pulled down hard.
Crack!
A crisp, shattering sound exploded in everyone’s ears.
In an instant, the air shattered like smashed glass.
Centered on Whitebeard’s hands, countless visible fissures spread out in all directions.
Immediately after, the sea churned violently.
Giant waves surged from beneath the hull, and the entire ocean seemed to tremble.
The World Government battleship began to rock violently, pitching side to side as the Marine soldiers staggered and grabbed the railings for support.
“Damn it,” Sengoku’s eyes narrowed.
“The power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit is still too troublesome.
Even on the open sea where we hold every advantage…
with just this one move, he still has the presence to turn the tide.”
“Hahahaha!” Garp laughed loudly.
“It really is a bit troublesome for us.
But out on the open sea, that’s a double-edged sword!”
Saying this, Garp raised his arm abruptly and swung it forward.
“Charge!
Once we catch up to them, the threat disappears!”
Sengoku agreed with that assessment.
As long as they closed the distance, Whitebeard wouldn’t dare use power on that scale again; otherwise, they would capsize their own boat.
“Hear my command!!” Sengoku ordered.
“All cannons, fire!
Maximize speed and chase them down!”
At the same time, the World Government battleship was pushed high into the air by a massive wave, its bow tilting up to expose the wet keel beneath.
BOOM—
With a deafening roar of propulsion, the warship dove forward from the crest of the wave.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Black cannonballs shot out from the barrels one after another, tracing fiery trails across the sky.
SWOOSH!
SWOOSH!
SWOOSH!
The cannonballs curved through the air, raining down toward the speedboat.
Whether they scored a direct hit was secondary; Sengoku’s real goal was to use the shockwaves and water spouts from the explosions to disrupt the speedboat’s course, forcing it to slow down or veer off.
“Ron, Kaido, Ochoku,” Whitebeard warned in a deep voice.
“Handle it as you see fit.”
With cannonballs of this level, the three of them were fully capable of dealing with them.
Whitebeard himself needed to conserve his energy to deal with the crisis that lay ahead.
“Leave it to me!”
Answering the call, Kaido had already coated his spiked club with Armament Haki, swinging it hard into the air.
Whoosh.
A shockwave detonated from the tip of the club, shooting straight up.
BOOM!!!!
A volley of incoming cannonballs was struck by the shockwave in mid-air and detonated instantly.
Plumes of black smoke blossomed in the air, leaving ugly scars across the blue sky.
Ochoku didn’t slack off either, unleashing an attack to intercept the cannonballs Kaido had missed.
“Hey, Ron, what are you doing?” Kaido jumped in shock.
Snapping back to his senses, he saw Ron leap straight into the sea.
For a Devil Fruit user, how was this any different from seeking death?
The moment Ron left the speedboat—no, the instant he leaped into the air—his body underwent a drastic transformation.
Dark red chakra poured out of him like flames, wrapping around his entire body.
Four dark red tails fanned out behind him, carving four arcs through the air.
In the blink of an eye, a massive, dark red four-tailed monster slammed down onto the sea surface with a heavy thud.
“He didn’t sink?” Kaido’s eyes went wide as saucers.
His mouth hung open, unable to squeeze out a single word for a long moment.
A Devil Fruit user standing directly on the sea surface, treating seawater like solid ground…
was this even logical?
“What are you trying to do, Ron?” Stussy froze as well.
“Don’t worry about me,” Ron’s voice rumbled out from beneath the vicious tailed beast cloak.
“Keep moving forward.
I won’t hold you back.”
The moment his words fell, he opened his mouth.
A dark red sphere of energy rapidly gathered and expanded within his jaws.
Targeting something in the air offered far better accuracy than firing across the surface of the sea.
“Not good.”
Sengoku’s pupils shrank violently.
He had no time to wonder what that creature was that had just transformed from a man into a beast.
“Garp, with me!”
“On it!”