Luffy's movements were strange.
They were loose, exaggerated, almost childish—like something out of a picture book.
Onigumo's sword slashes and claw strikes, which should have been clean and decisive, kept missing by a hair. Even when they connected, Luffy's body twisted unnaturally and absorbed the impact.
In return, Luffy struck back without pattern.
A stretched punch from an impossible angle.
A kick that curved midair.
Each hit carried force far beyond what it looked like.
Onigumo felt his insides churn.
"What kind of monster… is this?"
Just as the pink dragon prepared another charge—
"Have you ever been kicked at the speed of light, Straw Hat?"
A lazy voice drifted across the battlefield.
Before Luffy could fully react, a flash of light burst beside him.
A blazing kick landed squarely on his head.
It was Borsalino.
Luffy's body shot sideways like a cannonball and slammed into the rubberized ground.
The elastic earth absorbed much of the force, but a huge bump instantly swelled on his head.
He popped back up almost immediately, still grinning, still laughing.
"Hee-hee-hee! Gum-Gum—Counterattack!"
He grabbed a towering rubber pillar, ripped it free, and hurled it like a whip.
The massive rubber mass curved through the air toward Kizaru.
But light was faster.
Kizaru's body dissolved into photons and vanished.
The unlucky one was Onigumo.
The rubber pillar smashed into him directly, sending the dragon crashing into the frozen outer plaza.
Before Luffy could follow up—
"Ice Age."
The temperature dropped sharply.
Kuzan stepped forward calmly, frost spreading from his feet.
In an instant, the rubberized ground froze solid.
White frost crawled across the battlefield. Elastic waves stiffened and locked in place.
Luffy reached down and tried to stretch the frozen ground—
Nothing.
He pulled.
It didn't bend.
The ice did not respond.
His awakened ability could influence the environment, but cold changed the nature of rubber itself.
The once-bouncy battlefield turned rigid and brittle.
Xiao, watching from afar, narrowed his eyes.
Cold.
That was the flaw.
Even if the so-called Sun God had overcome rubber's weakness to heat, extreme cold still made it stiff and fragile.
Kuzan raised one hand.
A massive ice spike formed instantly and shot forward.
It pierced through Luffy's shoulder and nailed him to the frozen ground.
The drums faltered for a moment.
The Marines erupted.
"Admiral Aokiji!"
"Admiral Kizaru!"
Their morale, which had been shaken by Nika's awakening, surged again.
Even if this was the Sun God of legend—
An Admiral was still an Admiral.
Above them all, Xiao's voice rang out casually.
"Only his shoulder?"
He leaned on his bat.
"An Admiral holding back against the grandson of the Navy hero? How touching."
The words cut deep.
The Marines hesitated.
From the side, Donquixote Doflamingo began to laugh.
"Fufufufu… So that's how it is."
"Two Admirals, and he survives. Rescues Ace under Fleet Admiral Sengoku's nose. Stands on equal footing with Whitebeard."
He spread his arms theatrically.
"What a brilliant script."
"The Navy hero's grandson becomes famous overnight. All at the cost of the Marines bleeding here."
His words spread like poison.
Some Marines glanced at Garp.
Some looked at Kuzan.
Doubt crept in.
Was this mercy?
Or calculation?
The battlefield did not pause—but something had shifted.
For the first time since the war began, uncertainty flickered within the Navy's ranks.
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