At the end of the day, this was simply the consequence of a Devil Fruit not being awakened and Haki not being strong enough.
The former aside—if one's Haki were sufficiently powerful, it could completely resist or even negate the effects of Devil Fruit abilities.
Maria Fang glanced expressionlessly at Smoothie, who was already paralyzed on the ground, unable to move. With a wave of her hand, countless spider webs shot out, instantly wrapping Smoothie into a large white cocoon.
With the second-in-command Sweet Commander dealt with, Maria Fang turned her gaze to the other side of the battlefield, where a brachiosaurus and the Animal Kingdom troops were wreaking havoc.
"Men! Crush them!"
With Kaido and King both absent, Queen, temporarily taking command, bellowed at the top of his lungs. His thunderous voice echoed across the battlefield.
"Kill!!!"
At the boarding point between ships, tens of thousands of pirates screamed wildly as they charged forward. Cannons roared, smoke filling the air.
"Take these bastards down!"
"Show them the true terror of Zoan users!"
Ignoring the piercing howls, Wano's main force surged forward to meet them head-on.
Zoan users, along with Gifters and Headliners raised on SMILE fruits, launched a beast-tide-like assault, charging like tigers descending the mountain.
These fighters not only possessed the monstrous physiques of Zoans but had also mastered Armament Haki, allowing them to fight the Beasts Pirates on even footing.
"What kind of monsters has Wano been raising…?"
Queen didn't personally enter the fray. Instead, he stood on high ground like a strategist, observing the situation.
Seeing his Zoan army actually being suppressed, he couldn't help but grumble.
The Animal Kingdom troops, together with the Haki-capable elites, numbered at least several thousand.
This was the Beasts Pirates' trump-card elite force.
Yet in this chaotic melee, they were merely holding a stalemate—and hadn't even managed to unleash a truly overwhelming charge.
More importantly, the ones fighting them weren't even Wano's core samurai corps or the Kuja Pirates.
Some reserve forces—like that Hancock from earlier—hadn't even shown themselves until the Beasts Pirates made their move, casually joining the battlefield only then.
In a core zone of the battlefield, fierce winds howled. In a place that had felt like a gloomy hellscape, snowflakes now drifted down strangely.
As some pirates stared in confusion, the falling snow suddenly flashed and rapidly converged into a black-haired figure. A long sword materialized along with the swirling flakes.
"Snowfall—Ten Thousand Blades!"
Countless invisible sword auras shot out in all directions, transforming into dancing snowflakes in the air.
They looked light and harmless—but when the flakes landed on Beasts Pirates soldiers, they instantly turned into razor-sharp blades.
Several figures were shredded before they could even scream, torn apart mercilessly.
The once-white deck was instantly dyed a glaring crimson.
Flesh flew, limbs scattered everywhere. In just a brief instant, over two hundred pirates were ripped to pieces by the rampaging sword aura.
Some who had lost arms or legs but hadn't died yet lay in pools of blood, letting out heart-wrenching screams.
"Bastard! It's you again! Snow Samurai—Yaoye!"
Queen watched with rage boiling over. Before he could finish cursing, a towering figure beside him let out a furious roar and charged out.
Massive tusks emerged as the man transformed directly into a prehistoric mammoth, stomping viciously toward Yaoye.
The deck groaned under the strain, shaking violently. Several unlucky souls were knocked straight into the sea by the tremors.
Facing the mammoth charging like a tank, Yaoye wasn't foolish enough to clash head-on.
His body exploded into a flurry of snowflakes, then eerily reassembled in midair. He slashed once, his blade cutting across the mammoth's back.
Clang!
Metal rang out.
The next moment, Jack let out a piercing howl of pain.
Yaoye landed lightly atop a sail, looking down at the mammoth below as if appraising merchandise.
"Thick hide, tough flesh, plus Armament Haki—pretty solid. But add Ryuo, and cutting you up isn't all that troublesome."
Seeing the newly appointed Drought Jack being suppressed, while King was still tied down by that great swordsman, unable to break free—
This battle was beyond frustrating. This wasn't the tempo of a victor at all!
Queen hardened his resolve. Not caring whether his own men were still below, he roared:
"Fire! Use the bio-weapons!!"
The pirates manning the cannons trembled.
Fire now? This was a massive melee below—wouldn't this blast their own men too?
"Lord Queen… should we notify our allies first?" a gunner swallowed nervously and asked.
Queen didn't give them a chance to argue. Seeing them hesitate, his voice rose again:
"Disobey me and I'll kill you myself!"
He had no intention of giving advance warning. Only a sudden strike would maximize the virus's spread.
The core Zoan elites were tough enough to survive. As for the expendable fodder that could be recruited anytime—he didn't care how many died if it meant winning.
The Beasts Pirates shuddered and could only steel themselves, swinging the cannons toward the densest clusters of fighters.
One by one, specially made plague shells screamed through the air.
They didn't explode violently upon impact. Instead, they burst with a dull puff, immediately spreading into eerie clouds of gas.
This move was vicious beyond measure.
Not only Beasts Pirates charging forward, but also Totto Land troops and Wano warriors locked in combat were instantly engulfed.
Sickly green luminescence bloomed across their skin. Then came agony—as if they were being burned alive.
The heat spread rapidly, like being thrown into a furnace.
Skin began to rot and rupture, blood spraying everywhere.
Within minutes, people were vomiting blood, eyes bloodshot and wide, dying miserably in extreme agony.
"Are they insane?!"
"What the hell is this?! Aren't we allies?!"
"It's plague shells! Queen's bio-weapons!"
"It's Lord Queen's masterpiece! Hurry—put on protective gear!"
"Damn it! Why didn't he say anything beforehand?! Help! I don't want to die!"
...
Countless poisoned fighters screamed hysterically.
In the chaotic pushing and contact, the virus spread like it had a mind of its own.
Watching the hellish scene below, even the pirates who fired the shells had trembling hands—this was too cruel.
But the instigator, Queen, laughed uproariously.
"That's right! This is the true terror of the Plague Disaster!"
So excited he was, he transformed straight into his massive brachiosaurus form, hopping a few times on the deck and making the bow tilt upward.
On another part of the battlefield, a girl in white wolf form spat out an ice shield to block an attack and yanked a dazed dinosaur beside her.
"Queen's gone crazy again! Xiao Pei, let's retreat—now!"
When conventional methods failed to break Wano's main force, indiscriminate viral warfare was indeed the fastest way to shatter the stalemate.
Seeing large-scale infection finally appear on Wano's side, Queen grinned ear to ear.
From his semi-mechanized body, rows of Gatling-like barrels emerged—each loaded with lethal bio-agents.
Cruel excitement gleamed in his eyes as he prepared to unleash another massive wave—when he suddenly noticed something.
From a flying yacht on Wano's side, a group of oddly dressed figures leapt down.
There were several hundred of them, all wearing identical tight combat suits in different colors.
What caught Queen's attention wasn't the outfits—but the strange devices they seemed to be equipped with.
The moment they jumped out, it was as if they were stepping on air, flying directly through midair.
As a scientist, Queen instantly recognized what he was seeing.
Those weren't ordinary clothes—they were high-tech suits fitted with flight modules.
"They've even got anti-grav gear? Perfect—I'll blow you and your ships to scrap together!"
Queen sneered as the Gatling barrels in his mouth swiveled upward, unloading every bio-weapon he had into the sky.
Facing the blanket of poison shells, the special unit showed no panic at all.
The soldiers in red and blue suits surged to the front, unleashing searing flames and violent lightning, detonating the bio-weapons midair.
The expected scene of viruses dispersing on the wind never came.
Instead, the massive toxic clouds from the explosions were intercepted by another team wearing purple suits.
Their suits suddenly generated tremendous suction, like whales swallowing water, vacuuming up all the plague gas—and then "digesting" it as if nothing had happened.
"Huh?! What the hell is this?! You absorbed my plague?!"
Queen's eager grin froze instantly, his movements stalling.
"Shirorororo! Once the virus composition is understood, absorbing a bit of toxin is easier than drinking water for a genius like me."
That arrogant laugh and narcissistic tone—Queen didn't even need to turn around to know who it was.
He immediately reinforced himself with powerful Armament Haki, whipping his massive brachiosaurus tail sideways.
With that monstrous strength and Haki, even mountains could be smashed like tofu.
Yet this devastating tail sweep was forcibly blocked by another powerful force.
Queen had no choice but to turn his massive body and look.
There, floating in midair on gas, was Caesar Clown, wearing a wicked grin.
Beside him stood the equally massive Black Maria .
Queen's face instantly changed.
He knew all too well how terrifying that monstrous woman was—she'd just been fighting Smoothie moments ago.
Now that she was here, didn't that mean Smoothie was already finished?
Even more shocking—when had she crossed the battlefield to reach the Beasts Pirates' main ship? And Caesar, that traitor, was here too!
Most crucially, Queen noticed the changes on Maria Fang.
Not just her awakened Zoan armor—she was also wearing the same strange combat suit as that special unit.
"Enemy! Get them!"
Several Headliners guarding the flagship screamed and charged.
The instant they moved, the white combat suit on Maria Fang's body suddenly turned pitch black.
In the next moment, her massive form vanished into thin air before everyone's eyes!
The charging Headliners froze. Before they could react, invisible attacks pierced their bodies in an instant.
Only when the air warped with light did Maria Fang's form reappear.
She casually shook off the arm-blades impaling the Headliners.
Within just a few breaths, their faces turned black—and they died as the poison took effect.
"Invisibility?!"
Queen shrieked, no longer daring to be careless. He immediately unleashed Observation Haki to cover the area.
Gritting his teeth, he stared at Maria Fang's suit.
"It's that outfit, isn't it?!"
That ancient spider Zoan absolutely did not possess the ability to vanish outright.
Combined with the earlier collective form-switching of the special unit, the answer was obvious.
Without question, those bizarre effects came from the special suits they were wearing.
"Shirorororo, isn't your reaction a bit slow, Queen?"
Caesar spread his arms exaggeratedly, his grin twisted with pride.
"This is the combat suit that idiot Judge dreamed of his whole life. Too bad—I beat him to finishing it."
He paused, mockery dripping from his voice.
"And its performance is several tiers above his half-baked theoretical concepts."
Originally, Caesar had planned to simply watch from the sidelines, waiting for Whitebeard's war to begin before stunning the world with his mechanical army.
But the moment he saw that familiar plague virus spreading, an old colleague from the science unit flashed through his mind—Queen.
Now enemies by position, yet remembering their shared obsession with bio-weapons was strangely ironic.
Of course, Caesar hadn't come to reminisce or plead.
He came solely to flaunt his perfect combat suit masterpiece right in front of his former colleague—and savor Queen's shock.
"Combat… suits…"
Queen's narrow eyes bulged as sealed memories rapidly reassembled.
Lightning, flames, invisibility, deadly poison—distinct colors marking distinct abilities.
That cursed sense of déjà vu—wasn't this exactly the Germa army comic setting Judge had ranted about?!
Queen stiffly twisted his neck, staring at the distant battlefield.
That unit in strange suits was now charging through the melee like wolves among sheep.
Flames and lightning wove into a net of death, crushing fodder troops with astonishing area damage.
The warriors in green suits displayed absurd strength, lifting Beasts Pirates' massive beasts overhead and slamming them down with sheer human bodies.
Even more horrifying was the white-suited unit.
Floating in midair, they scattered soft, dandelion-like orbs of light.
Wano's wounded soldiers, tormented by the plague, bathed in the light—and their injuries visibly healed.
Even Queen's prized Ice Oni virus was instantly suppressed and completely purged by this sudden healing power.
These Wano combat suits boosted power on par with strong Devil Fruits—and there were absurd numbers of them.
Witnessing this, Queen's fat face darkened like the bottom of a pot.
The possibility of instantly reversing the war with plague—completely gone.
What choked him even more was Caesar's undisguised flaunting.
Painfully, he had to admit that this black technology was indeed just a bit more advanced than his beloved cyborg enhancements.
Hiss—crackle!
The sound of electricity prickled the scalp.
Maria Fang's arms were instantly imbued with both flame and lightning. The three pairs of vicious spider legs on her back spread wide.
Terrifying purple-black venom dripped from the tips. Where it touched the deck, white smoke hissed as the wood was corroded into pits.
Her combat suit shimmered, instantly shifting into a dazzling interwoven spectrum of colors.
Clearly, this was the ultimate form combining multiple special enhancements.
Paired with the already terrifying physique of her awakened spider Zoan—
"Stop screwing around! Worst case, I'll just rip that skin right off you!"
Queen roared, his massive body undergoing violent mutation amid grinding mechanical noises.
His brachiosaurus form evolved again, transforming into a half-man, half-dragon killing machine.
"Wedding Reception Heat Fist!"
Queen's heavily modified mechanical right arm glowed red-hot, blazing claws wrapped in searing heat as he lunged at Maria Fang.
Two of Maria Fang's spider legs crossed fluidly in front of her, instantly weaving a high-density web shield.
Thump!
The blow that could shatter rock was forcibly blocked.
At the same time, Maria Fang's lightning-and-flame-wreathed arms shot forward like striking vipers, stabbing at Queen's vitals.
"Shirororo! Did you forget about me? I didn't come here to be a commentator!"
Caesar swung his arm. Invisible gas in the air was instantly weaponized.
Just as Maria Fang's attack landed, high-density gas clung like a curse.
BOOM!
A terrifying explosion erupted between them, flames shooting skyward.
Protected by the combat suit's memory-metal properties, Maria Fang was only pushed back a few steps by the shockwave.
Queen wasn't so lucky.
With a scream, he was blasted backward, smashing through the ship's inner wall and wrecking several precision devices before finally stopping.
"Damn it—this hurts like hell! Caesar, you bastard!"
This point-blank explosion hurt almost as much as taking a full-strength kanabo hit from Kaido in a rage.
"Trying to gang up and kill me?!"
Pain drove Queen's sanity closer to being consumed by fury.
"Correct—but the so-called 'teamwork' isn't just the two of us."
Maria Fang's massive silhouette flickered through the smoke. Guided by Observation Haki's keen sensing of life, Queen instinctively rolled sideways.
The next instant, the floor where he'd stood was corroded into a pool of black sludge.
Maria Fang's attack missed, and she followed through with a sweeping strike.
Within dozens of meters, the deck seemed lifted by an invisible hand, debris flying.
Yet the flying fragments didn't scatter—instead, drawn by spider webs, they formed countless sharp cages, sealing the entire space.
Flames ignited at Maria Fang's fingertips as she flicked her hand.
The spider webs caught fire instantly, as if enchanted.
In moments, the dark interior of the ship turned into a raging inferno.
Under the intense heat, strange white smoke began to billow.
"And what if, in this environment, you add attacks from something non-living?"
Queen had no idea what she was planning, but he didn't have time to ask.
He thrust out both arms, black rocket barrels aiming squarely at Maria Fang.
Just then, something shifted within the dense white fog.
A chilling dread shot straight up Queen's spine.
He instinctively tried to dodge—but his body was just a fraction too slow.
At the edge of his vision, a white, ghostly face with a goofy grin passed straight through his body.
At the same time, the battlefield below seemed to fall into a temporary stalemate.
And far above—tens of thousands of meters in the sky—the fierce duel between Tenma and Big Mom was reaching its most intense phase.
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