"This is a probe! A probe! You don't get it, move it already, just let yours truly handle these guys!"
Queen had more or less figured out what exactly the Navy's Flying Dragon Team was. Those dragons' scales were enough to withstand ordinary guns and cannons, which made them hard to deal with for regular pirates, but for Queen they were a piece of cake.
Not to mention his Solar Beam and Laser Cannon—just his Energy Balls or the missiles he'd modified before would be enough to break those dragons' defenses. But he hadn't used them at all, even deliberately missing on purpose just to drag things out.
In Queen's eyes these flying dragons were all for show, but their intimidation factor was top-notch and their attacks looked scary as hell—a perfect tool for slacking off.
He'd wanted to find a Seven Warlords of the Sea to slack off with too, but Yamato was already slacking off with two of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, which barely counted as reasonable.
Among the remaining Seven Warlords of the Sea who could slack off, only Doflamingo was left. If he spent half the day tangling with Doflamingo right under Kaidou's nose without a clear winner, all that would be waiting for him was "special training."
Up in the sky away from Kaidou, at least he could relax a little.
Right at this moment, the flying dragon whose neck had been bitten off by the Eight-Headed Dragon finished regenerating. Its speed was much slower than the original Eight-Headed Dragon, but it had still broken through the limits of normal creatures, and just then a Laser blast shot up at it.
"See? It's not dead at all. Even if you've always been fighting alongside Big Bro Kaidou, you still have a lot to learn. Go play with those giants, leave this to me.
If that doesn't work, see that big green guy over there? That guy's a descendant of a Demon, you can go play with him too."
Queen tried to get the Eight-Headed Dragon to switch battlefields so he could keep slacking off, but he failed.
It wasn't that the Eight-Headed Dragon was hard to fool, it was that it had picked up some bad habits from Kaidou—like snatching away the opponents it wanted. In its eyes, these flying dragons were way more interesting than those giants and the like.
Ignoring Queen's words, the Eight-Headed Dragon charged straight at the Flying Dragon Team in the sky, snuffing out Queen's plan in its cradle.
"Damn it, even that thing won't let me have peace. If I'd known, I should've gone down before Miss Yamato."
Yamato had already taken the spot in the "Best Actor" group, costing Queen his chance to show off. Watching Yamato still coasting by, he suddenly felt a little jealous.
"Forget it, I'll just go find a few Vice Admirals to play with later. Hope those guys are willing to cooperate a bit..."
Watching the tsunami surging toward Marinfanto, Queen started plotting his next move. Shaina and King, meanwhile, were searching for clues that might be related to Blackbeard. The battle below hadn't stopped because of the sudden tsunami; instead, it had become even more intense.
...
"Brats! Use the tsunami to break through the encirclement! Oars! Get ready!"
Whitebeard's voice, full of power, echoed across most of the plaza. With Radio Snails inconvenient to use, yelling at the top of his lungs became the best way to communicate.
The tsunami was a crisis, but also an opportunity. For Marinfanto right now, the tsunami wasn't the biggest threat, because Kuzan was still dutifully serving as an Admiral of the Navy. With his freezing abilities, he could still keep the surrounding seawater in check.
But before he froze the tsunami, Whitebeard could make use of this wave.
Whitebeard smashed his fist down on the ice. The originally frozen sea surface cracked inch by inch, and just then the tsunami's impact reached the area. The once calm seawater, driven by the tsunami, surged toward the plaza.
Within the seawater, a coated pirate ship burst out along with the wave. This was a trump card Whitebeard had kept in reserve; from the very beginning, he'd left a hidden force beneath the sea.
Riding the massive wave created by the tsunami, the ship managed to cross over the Navy's encirclement wall. Although Kuzan froze the wave in time, that pirate ship still, with Oars' help, made it onto the top of the encirclement wall.
There was no helping it. Freezing the wave would give the pirates a chance to break through the encirclement wall, but if he didn't, that massive tsunami would be enough to wipe out every Junior Admiral and below in the Navy.
Because of its own weight, simply freezing the ice at the stern wasn't enough to stop the pirate ship; instead, it tipped over and leaned against the Navy's encirclement wall and the ground, giving the Whitebeard Pirates a proper foothold.
"We've got a breach! Brothers, move! Get Ace out of there!"
The Navy's encirclement wall had originally been a sheer vertical barrier, but with the help of the ice and the pirate ship, it had instead formed a small hill here, giving the pirates a chance to break through.
...
At this moment, Dues was no longer a member of the Black Spade Pirates. He'd joined the Whitebeard Pirates together with Ace and was now charging at the front with the pirates of the Second Division.
Jumping directly down from that towering steel wasn't realistic. The pirate ship from earlier had become the only passage for now, which naturally made the Navy's rear artillery focus their aim there.
The captains of Whitebeard were now intercepting the shells, keeping the route open for the pirates behind them.
But when they climbed up the encirclement wall along the ice, all they saw was a blinding flash.
"Oi, oi, I can't just let you pass like that. Yasakani no Magatama!"
"You flashy little brat, get out of my way!"
Yasakani no Magatama had only just begun to fire when it was forcibly interrupted. A terrifying Shock Wave forced Kizaru to break off and evade Whitebeard's attack.
But just as he pulled back, Whitebeard appeared in front of him again.
"Yata no Kagami!"
After a series of refractions, Kizaru slipped out of Whitebeard's attack range, the playful look in his eyes fading a bit.
"So this is... the young Whitebeard?"
"Gurararara, this is a power I haven't felt in ages. Sengoku! Hand over my son... now!"
Boom!
Whitebeard smashed his fist into the air. The ice in front of him shattered under his blow, massive ice boulders over ten meters wide pelting down toward the Navy below like a rainstorm.
"Hold steady!"
On the execution platform, Sengoku's figure grew larger and larger. A golden shockwave blasted from the hand of the Great Buddha Transformation Sengoku, pulverizing all the falling ice in mid-air.
"It's just a young Whitebeard. Even in his youth he couldn't destroy Navy Headquarters, and he won't now either! Concentrate your fire! They've only got one path!"
Kizaru was locked in a stalemate with Whitebeard, Garp was still torn, and Aokiji's powers weren't suited to dealing with the falling ice, so Sengoku had stepped in to clear them out.
As Sengoku activated his ability, the Navy's morale surged once more, and they launched a new round of clashes with the Whitebeard Pirates.
"Marshal Sengoku, it's about time. The Whitebeard Pirates are already inside the encirclement. I recommend we execute Fire Fist Ace immediately."
Akainu's voice came from the side. Having just finished dealing with the deserters, he now offered his own opinion on the current battle.