“Whew…
How the hell does this place look anything like a ‘Little Garden’?
What part of it is supposed to be little?
They should’ve called it the Giant Tree Jungle!”
Aldo complained as he struggled to shove aside a massive fern leaf that was larger than his entire body.
The hot, humid air had already left him drenched in sweat.
His heavy boots sank slightly into the damp, decaying soil with every step, producing wet squelching sounds beneath his feet.
They had been traveling through the seemingly endless primeval rainforest for quite some time.
Enormous treetops formed a dense canopy overhead, blocking most of the sunlight and leaving the jungle beneath them dim and gloomy.
Strange insects chirped from every direction, while the distant roars of unknown beasts occasionally echoed through the forest.
RUMBLE—!
Several towering trees ahead, each so thick that it would take several men joining hands to wrap around the trunk, suddenly came crashing down.
Marcus, who had been clearing a path for the group, flicked his wrist and spun his long blade through an elegant flourish.
CLANG!
The sword slid smoothly back into the sheath at his waist.
“Stop complaining, Aldo.”
Marcus glanced back at him.
“Don’t you think carving a path through a place like this with our own strength makes it feel more like a real adventure?”
“Exactly.”
Fitch spoke from nearby.
He was carefully inspecting his firearm, making sure the jungle’s heavy moisture hadn’t affected the firing mechanism.
“If I ever manage to retire and return to the West Blue one day, I’m going to write a memoir.”
Fitch looked around at the bizarre prehistoric jungle surrounding them.
“I’ll record every strange and unbelievable thing we experienced while sailing these seas.”
“Huh?”
Aldo turned toward him with an expression that clearly said, Are you feeling all right?
“What are you thinking about, Fitch?”
He snorted.
“What pirate gets to retire peacefully?”
“When we finally get so old that we can’t swing a blade or fire a gun anymore, every bounty hunter who smells blood will come circling like vultures, hoping to trade our heads for Berries!”
Aldo rested his spiked club across his shoulder.
“I’ve already made up my mind.”
His grin widened.
“Since I chose this life, I, Aldo, am fighting until the day I die!”
“And if my bones end up buried somewhere beneath this sea, then so be it!”
He laughed proudly.
“That’s a man’s romance!”
“WAHAHAHAHA!”
A familiar, boisterous laugh suddenly thundered down from somewhere above them.
“There really are Diplodocus here!
Damn, this thing’s even taller than I imagined!”
“?!”
Aldo, Marcus, Fitch, and Isaac snapped their heads upward at the same time.
Their eyes widened.
At some point, without any of them noticing…
Sammy had climbed onto the head of an absolutely enormous creature.
It was a gigantic Diplodocus with an impossibly long neck, its head nearly reaching the middle layers of the jungle canopy.
The dinosaur lazily chewed on leaves growing high above the ground, apparently completely unconcerned about the tiny passenger sitting comfortably on its head.
“BOSS!”
Aldo shouted anxiously, his hand immediately tightening around the handle of his spiked club.
“GET DOWN FROM THERE!
THAT THING’S HUGE!”
Sammy casually patted the dinosaur’s rough skin.
THUMP.
THUMP.
“It’s fine.
Relax.”
He looked completely at ease.
“Basic biology, Aldo.”
“This thing eats plants.
It’s a herbivore, and it’s pretty docile.”
His gaze swept over the endless sea of trees before locking onto a distant area where something violent seemed to be happening.
Sammy’s eyes lit up.
“Heh.”
“Found it!”
He waved enthusiastically at the dumbfounded officers below and pointed into the distance.
“We’re heading that way!”
His grin widened.
“I just spotted something amazing!”
“You guys are definitely going to lose your minds when you see it!”
“Come on!
Keep up!”
With that, Sammy actually jumped straight down from the Diplodocus and immediately started moving in the direction he had indicated.
The four officers exchanged helpless looks.
Then, with no better option, they followed.
The deeper they traveled into the heart of the island, the more intense the tremors became.
BOOM…
BOOOOM…!
Terrifying, muffled impacts rolled through the jungle.
The ground trembled beneath their feet.
The pressure was far more intense than the volcanic rumbling they had heard earlier.
“W-What the hell is happening?”
Marcus instinctively grabbed the trunk of a nearby tree to steady himself.
“Is this an earthquake?!”
The earth beneath his boots felt as though it were jumping.
“No.”
Fitch tilted his head and listened carefully.
His expression gradually became serious.
“Listen.”
Everyone fell quiet.
Fitch’s eyes narrowed.
“That sounds like…”
He paused.
“…fighting.”
BOOOOM!
Another deafening impact shook the forest.
The sound was so enormous that every collision resembled two mountains of solid steel smashing into each other.
The metallic roar echoed through the jungle, painfully rattling their eardrums.
Even their hearts seemed to pound along with that terrifying rhythm.
“Hahahaha!
We’re almost there!”
Sammy was already running ahead of them.
Excitement filled his voice, and he showed absolutely no intention of slowing down.
The four officers suppressed their shock, exchanged glances, and hurried after their captain.
Finally, they pushed aside the last enormous fern leaf—
And froze.
Before them stretched a vast clearing, completely different from the dense jungle surrounding it.
But on closer inspection, it became obvious that this had never been a natural clearing.
The shattered remains of gigantic trees littered the ground everywhere.
Trunks had been snapped apart.
Vegetation had been flattened.
The entire area looked as though something unimaginably massive had repeatedly trampled and smashed its way through the forest.
And the culprits responsible for creating this battlefield…
…were the two giants fighting in its center.
They towered like living mountains.
Bronze-colored skin covered their enormous bodies, scarred from countless battles.
One wielded a gigantic battle axe that looked comparable to the mast of a warship.
The other swung an equally massive sword.
Every time their weapons collided—
BOOOOOOM!
A violent shockwave tore through the clearing.
Powerful gusts exploded outward, carrying sand, broken branches, leaves, and stones through the air.
Sammy and his officers could barely keep their eyes open against the force of the wind.
It was obvious that this earth-shaking battle was already approaching its end.
After yet another deafening clash of weapons, both giants suddenly roared. Follow the newest chapters on novelping.com.
Then…
They abandoned their weapons.
Two enormous fists swung forward at the same time.
BAM—!!!
Each giant smashed the other directly across the face.
The impact was so deep and heavy that it seemed to punch through the air itself.
Both enormous bodies swayed.
Then, like two mountains being demolished—
RUMBLE—!!!
They toppled backward simultaneously and crashed into the earth.
The entire clearing shook.
Another miniature earthquake spread through the surrounding jungle as a massive cloud of dust erupted from the ground like a sandstorm.
For several seconds, there was silence.
Then one giant spoke.
“Thirty-seven thousand eight hundred and fifty-two battles…”
The other answered.
“Thirty-seven thousand eight hundred and fifty-two draws…”
Another brief silence followed.
Then…
“GABABABABA!”
Both giants burst into loud, exhausted laughter while still lying flat on the ground.
“Gabahaha!
Brogy!”
One of them laughed.
“Looks like we’re tied again!”
“Gabahaha!
Dorry!”
The other giant answered just as cheerfully.
“Your punch is still as damn powerful as ever!”
Sammy and his officers stood motionless.
Even Sammy, who had already known what to expect, was completely stunned.
He had known from the manga that two giants lived on Little Garden.
He had imagined their enormous size countless times.
But imagination was one thing.
Actually standing here and seeing these ancient warriors with his own eyes was something else entirely.
Their bodies were comparable to mountains.
Their weapons were larger than buildings.
Every casual collision between them possessed enough force to shake the earth beneath Sammy’s feet.
No drawing, animation, or imagination could truly reproduce the overwhelming sense of awe that came from standing before something so impossibly huge and powerful.
For the first time since arriving on the island, Sammy felt genuinely tiny.
It was an indescribable sensation.
As though he were nothing more than an ant that had accidentally wandered into an arena built for gods.
Only now did Sammy truly understand what people meant by megalophobia.
That instinctive terror and awe born from confronting something so enormous that your own existence suddenly seemed insignificant.
Even Aldo, who normally acted as though there was nothing in the world worth fearing, stood completely speechless.
His mouth hung open as he stared upward at the two giants.
Even lying on the ground, their bodies resembled enormous hills.
Aldo swallowed.
When he finally managed to speak, his voice trembled despite himself.
“Th-These…”
He stared at the fallen giants.
“…are giants?”
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