"Hakoku!"
Brogy and Dorry struck in perfect unison. The instant their weapons collided, the air twisted violently and rippled outward.
As the pride of the giant race, their might was enough to stand at the summit of the sea. From their mountain-like bodies burst the most primal, most domineering force imaginable.
The shockwave they produced was ten times, a hundred times more terrifying than Elizabello II's King Punch, which required such a long charge-up.
This was an attack powerful enough to reduce everything within hundreds of kilometers to dust.
In the original story, the two of them worked together to kill a giant goldfish that fed on islands. That was a true island-destroying blow.
And they had appeared early in the story. Later on, when they fought together, they were even able to trade blows with several of the Five Elders and hold the upper hand.
Back to the present.
As they attacked together, ripples spread through the air like raging tides, and the invisible pillar-like blast shot straight toward Ares.
"Hahaha!" Ares' tiger eyes blazed with terrifying light, his expression wild with excitement. Blood surged through his veins like roaring rivers, producing a crashing sound.
"This feeling... it's been a while."
"No wonder Big Mom has always coveted the power of the giants. She even claimed that with the giants on her side, she could seize the Pirate King's throne. This is enough to send your blood pressure soaring and your adrenaline through the roof."
In Wano, Oden and the other daimyo were nowhere near enough to excite him at his current level.
The muscles in Ares' arm instantly swelled, and his broad, shield-like deltoid quickly turned crimson.
It looked like a massive scarlet spear.
Crackling scarlet lightning burst around that blood-red spear-arm, spreading in all directions.
Sizzle, sizzle!
"Crimson Armament, Ikoku!"
He threw a punch.
Visible waves of air exploded outward, and from a fist the size of a house came a terrifying shockwave.
On the island below, Brogy and Dorry's expressions changed at once.
Dorry grew tense. "Damn it, there's someone up there in the sky!"
"That feels like Conqueror's Haki. How could a monster like that show up in a place like this?" Brogy was stunned.
During the decades they had fought on this island, they had encountered quite a few pirates, but almost none had awakened Conqueror's Haki.
This place was nothing like the New World.
Boom!
The two colossal shockwaves collided. The empty air exploded into a gigantic white blast wave, like a planet blowing apart.
The aftermath scattered in every direction. Every cloud in the sky was instantly wiped away. As far as the eye could see, not a single cloud remained.
It was as if the heavens had been scrubbed spotless.
In the sky, the storm winds from that impact inevitably swept over Laboon. The gale sliced a tiny cut into his massive body, like a sharp blade.
Blood seeped out.
Laboon cried out in pain.
On his back, Olvia was nearly blown away. If not for Crocus and Dr. Kureha grabbing onto her, she would have been swept off by the hurricane.
Crocus opened his mouth and instantly got it filled with wind. His cheeks puffed up, and all that came out was a garbled howl. "Too strong! What kind of power is this?!"
"Those two are no ordinary giants," Dr. Kureha said, shielding her face with one hand. Even so, her skin still felt as though it were being cut by blades.
She could not help exclaiming, "If Laboon wasn't blocking most of it, the wind from the aftermath alone would be enough to kill us!"
Inside the explosion of air, Ares dropped from the sky like a meteor and smashed into the island.
Boom!
The earth shook violently, and smoke and dust billowed.
Brogy and Dorry both wore guilty, regretful expressions.
Dorry said in frustration, "How could someone be in the sky? Damn it, now we've accidentally hit somebody while hunting."
"I don't know who he is. He had some strength, but after our combined attack, there's no way he survived," Brogy said, already losing interest in resuming their duel. "Come on. Let's dig a hole and bury him."
The two of them started toward the spot where Ares had crashed, each step leaving a massive footprint behind.
This region had little vegetation to begin with because they fought here so often, but the two of them had not deliberately ruined the island's ecosystem.
Otherwise, after decades, the two giants could have easily eaten every living thing on the island clean.
But after only a few steps, both of them stopped.
They stared in disbelief at the figure emerging from the smoke.
"He didn't die?"
"He's still alive?"
Dorry and Brogy were both dumbfounded. They knew their own strength better than anyone. They could hardly believe that not only had this man survived their combined strike, but...
He did not even have a single injury on him.
At the same time, they noticed something strange about Ares' muscles.
Not strange.
Very strange.
Ares' muscles looked smooth as silk, while their own were much rougher.
More than that, every muscle on his body stood out in an explosive, sharply defined way. It was as if every inch had been forged to perfection.
Even the tiniest muscle group could be seen clearly.
Dorry and Brogy were shaken to the core.
What kind of training would it take to forge such distinct, thread-like, finely separated muscles?
Looking at the two giants who were five or six times taller than him, Ares raised his head and sighed in admiration, "They really are huge. Even compared to ordinary giants, they're far taller."
Ares was about as tall as a two- or three-story building.
Dorry and Brogy were nearly as tall as eighteen-story towers.
"Hey!" Dorry shouted. "Who are you? To survive a combined strike from the two of us, you must be one of the very few monsters on the sea."
Ares smiled faintly. "My name doesn't change no matter where I go. I am Ares."
High above, under his control, Laboon had already slowly descended into the sea at the edge of the island.
As a whale, Laboon needed contact with seawater to live and feed, so sometimes Ares and his group still traveled directly over the sea.
"Ares? Never heard of you..." Dorry shook his head.
Brogy wore the same blank look. "I can't remember anyone like you on the seas. Looking at how young you are, you're probably one of the new monsters who's only just risen to prominence."
They had been fighting on this island for decades. Back when they first arrived, Rocks probably had not even been born yet.
Whitebeard, Golden Lion, Charlotte Linlin, and all the other world-famous pirates had never entered Dorry and Brogy's awareness.
And besides, this island was filled with prehistoric scenery. Most people unlucky enough to wander here ended up in a dinosaur's stomach.
On top of that, the two giants were over twenty meters tall. A newspaper in their hands would be no more noticeable than a speck of dust.
There was simply no way for them to know who Ares was.
Ares' sharply sculpted face lit up with excitement.
"Hey!"
"Whether you know me or not, I know you. Red Ogre Brogy and Blue Ogre Dorry."
The muscles all over his body began to writhe and flush with blood, releasing a wild, beast-like aura.
"Come on, fight me properly and to your heart's content!"
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