"Zehahahaha!"
The gigantic hand covered in chaos clenched into a fist and struck hard against Sage's face.
Boom!!
A powerful shockwave mingled with darkness formed twists, quickly enshrouding Sage, shattering the air and splintering the ground beneath him into fragments that scattered around.
The entire fortress split right down the middle, a giant fissure opening up in the crumbling pit, tilting with the sea, causing a mass of broken fortress debris to plunge into the ocean.
A nearby giant ability user stumbled and yelled, "Captain, you're hitting too hard! This fortress is our territory!"
"Call me King!"
Another giant grinned viciously, "Once the Calamity is dead, O'hara becomes our territory! Reading those thriving O'hara newspapers in Impel Down, living there would be perfect!"
"Exactly! Invade O'hara! We'll be like the Calamity and rule over O'hara's prosperity!"
The giants each showed expressions of anticipation and excitement.
In their eyes, with so many abilities carefully selected for specific release, along with Teach's strength, dealing with the Calamity, who is also one of the Four Emperors, is definitely possible!
They had summoned the entire Impel Down, along with those ferocious new stars from Paradise to the New World, combined with ability adaptation, the summoned absolute power.
Even those just force-fed new abilities by Teach showed a high degree of ability adaptation.
These results were achieved by sacrificing countless lives.
The Dark-Dark Fruit doesn't focus on ability compatibility; the compatibility between the user and the fruit doesn't need consideration—they are simply forced to use it, often leading to poor development.
However, Teach had methods, selecting giant captains with slight fruit attraction, based on this, he gathered everyone willing to consume these fruits.
They were experimented one by one; if poorly developed, they were killed and replaced, until a batch with the best development was chosen, assessed by their personality, quality, and strength to pick backup members.
Then, he killed those previously best-developed, transferred the abilities to them, confirming that just giving them the fruits ensures high development levels, thus prepped for the assault on G1 Fortress and battling Sage.
Sacrificing so many lives can't possibly yield no results.
The Calamity might be strong, but he's still human; they, too, held strong reputations before imprisonment and feared no one.
Losing means just a life, winning means gaining everything!
And they hold strong confidence in winning!
"Hey, Captain! Cheer up, it's working; we're definitely going to win; let's tire the Calamity out!"
Yet, a few noticed Teach's off expression amidst chaos, quickly smiled and said, "We already hold all the advantages now!"
Though spoken, Teach in the battlefield center couldn't smile at all, initially ready to grin, his expression frozen as things spiraled out of control, revealing sweat beads at his forehead—looking worse than crying.
His crew's words indeed matched his expectations.
No matter how strong, there should be a limit; Sage isn't someone entirely untouchable, at least from the info he knows, battling Akainu showed Sage struggling.
Teach understood Sage's peculiarity; despite each attack being intensely powerful, it never surpassed a boundary.
In physical combat, no one matched him, Teach admitted, but ability-wise, Sage wasn't invincible.
Diverse mysterious abilities—great miracles of the sea.
No matter how unique his physique, Haki's total can't change; facing so many abilities will ensnare Sage sooner or later.
And as he expected, Sage indeed weakened, yet after this punch...
The opponent didn't move!!
Not only wasn't he punched into the ground or sent flying, none occurred; amid chaos, the feeling was like punching flesh, yet his opponent's body was rooted deeper than the hardest iron of the sea, utterly unmoving!
Chaos gradually scattered, revealing Sage's form.
Teach's fist imprinted on Sage's face, making his head tilt slightly, his eyes locked onto Teach.
As for his body, not a single tremor.
As if the punch filled with ability and Haki felt ordinary, nothing special.
Chaos scattered, silencing surrounding giants' laughter, each revealing a grave countenance, carving a silent zone amid the noisy battlefield.
"Hey! I used all my strength!"
Teach forced a smile, "Even if he's holding on, there's a limit!"
"Is that so? Is this your full strength?"
As Sage spoke, blood trickled from his mouth; he extended a finger, pressing Teach's wrist, slowly shifting the rigid fist away from his face.