Dragon lay on the ground, lifting his head to look at the child in Maffey's hands, his eyes filled with regret and resentment.
"Wait..." he struggled to speak, "That child... is my redemption..."
"My redemption for participating in this insane game of genocide, for going along with it!"
"Give him... back to me..."
Maffey sneered coldly:
"Redemption? Ridiculous. You Marines are nothing but dogs of the Celestial Dragons."
She raised her rapier, preparing to kill Dragon:
"Farewell, young man."
The sword descended.
Dragon closed his eyes.
But the expected pain never came.
Instead, there was a roar that tore through the air.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY—!!!"
A massive Sword Qi, crescent-shaped, swept across the entire forest!
Wherever the Sword Qi passed, dozens of towering trees were severed at their roots, collapsing with thunderous crashes!
Maffey's sword stopped just an inch from Dragon's body.
She looked down at her waist.
There, a line of blood was slowly appearing.
"When... did..."
Before she could finish her sentence.
Her body split in half.
The upper torso slid off while the lower half remained standing.
Dragon opened his eyes to see Maffey's body severed at the waist, and... a tall figure rapidly approaching from the distance.
In the forest.
Whitebeard was rushing along his way.
The massive slash he had just unleashed that swept through the forest.
Originally intended to clear obstacles ahead, it had accidentally saved a Marine and also inadvertently affected his own comrades.
"Hey hey, Whitebeard, you almost hit me with that just now!"
Charlotte Linlin cursed as she caught up.
She was riding on Thundercloud Zeus, holding Napoleon in her hand, her face full of displeasure.
Whitebeard turned his head, looked at Linlin catching up, and grinned:
"I wasn't aiming for you. I was just cutting down those enemies. How many pirate crews have landed on this island anyway?"
"Don't lie to me!" Linlin shouted angrily, "I was almost killed by you! Why don't we settle this right here and now!"
As the two confronted each other, Dragon sat on the ground, watching Whitebeard and Charlotte Linlin running past not far away, thinking in shock:
"Wow... what's with these giant pirates?!"
"Newgate, you bastard, you were trying to kill me just now, weren't you?"
Another voice came through.
Golden Lion Shiki flew close to the ground, catching up from behind.
It seemed Whitebeard's earlier attack had indeed affected quite a few people.
Whitebeard looked at Shiki catching up and shrugged:
"Shiki? I didn't see you there."
"Bullshit!"
Kaido also caught up, carrying his spiked club, looking dissatisfied:
"Linlin, this isn't what you told me! Didn't we agree to cooperate? Why is Whitebeard even attacking you?"
Charlotte Linlin snorted coldly:
"You'll have to ask him about that!"
The four of them stood in confrontation in the forest.
Just then, a large group of pirates suddenly emerged from the forest to the right.
They weren't from the Rocks Pirates.
Instead, it was a makeshift alliance of multiple pirate crews, swarming out of the dense forest like locusts.
The captain leading them was a one-eyed man covered in scars. Wielding a serrated blade, he roared excitedly:
"Brothers! Look over there—they're officers of the Rocks Pirates!
Whitebeard, Golden Lion Shiki, Charlotte Linlin, Kaido! If we can take down even one of them, we'll be famous!!"
"Our bounties will triple at least! No, quintuple!"
"The entire New World will know our names!"
The pirates erupted into frenzied shouts.
In this era, reputation was everything.
If they could take down one of the monsters standing at the pinnacle, they would instantly rise to the ranks of great pirates, gaining unimaginable prestige and wealth.
But some of the more level-headed pirates swallowed nervously and muttered quietly:
"Hey, hey... you guys are really dreaming... That's Whitebeard we're talking about..."
"And Golden Lion..."
"Charlotte Linlin..."
"Kaido..."
"Any one of them could wipe us all out..."
But frenzy had already overwhelmed reason.
Thousands of pirates charged madly toward the four: Whitebeard, Golden Lion, Linlin, and Kaido.
Shiki, a cigar clenched between his teeth, watched the surging horde of pirates and sneered:
"Kekekeke... I thought these guys were after Shakky, but it turns out they're coming for us."
He blew out a ring of smoke, his eyes turning cold:
"Truly... they have no regard for their own lives."
Whitebeard lowered the Cloud Cutter he had been carrying on his shoulder. The massive glaive struck the ground with a dull, thunderous thud:
"Go home and sleep, you worthless scum!"
Before the words had fully left his mouth, he had already struck.
His right fist clenched, a white shockwave halo gathering at his knuckles.
The next second, he threw a punch!
Boom—
Crack! Crack! Crack!—
Space shattered like fragile glass!
White fissures spread forward in a spiderweb pattern, and the pirates at the forefront were directly blasted away.
"Lion: Thousand Slash Valley—!!"
Golden Lion Shiki swung both swords at once!
Cherry Ten and Withered Tree unleashed dozens of golden sword qi in an instant.
The sword qi poured down like a torrential rain, covering the pirates on the other side.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh—!!!
Amidst the flashes of sword light, bursts of blood mist erupted.
Kaido swung his spiked club, the Eight Precepts, Haki coiling around its shaft.
"Thunder Bagua—!!"
With a single downward smash!
Boom—!!!
The ground exploded into a ten-meter-wide crater, the shockwave spreading in a ring and sending all nearby pirates flying.
Charlotte Linlin brandished the Emperor Sword Napoleon.
"Might Country—!!"
A massive purple sword qi, stretching a hundred meters long, swept outward!
Everything in its path—trees, rocks, pirates—was cleanly sliced in two.
Thud! Thud! Thud—!!!
Severed limbs flew through the air, blood spraying like fountains.
The pirates who had been bisected at the waist did not die immediately. They lay on the ground, staring at their separated lower halves, letting out screams so piercing they sounded inhuman.
Whitebeard, Golden Lion, Kaido, and Linlin—the four of them joined forces in a counterattack.
In just a few seconds.
Thousands of pirates—annihilated.
Not far away, Maffey's upper body was still twitching slightly.
She had been bisected at the waist by a massive slash Whitebeard had inadvertently unleashed earlier and now lay in a pool of blood.
But because she shared Imu's undying body, this fatal wound did not kill her immediately.
Her eyes were filled with disbelief:
"What on earth are the pirates on this island doing?"
She could feel her body healing, flesh buds wriggling at the severed wound, but "revival" required time.
For now, she still couldn't move.
Opposite her, Dragon struggled to sit up, the wound on his right arm still bleeding.
"We're saved... but a child was taken..."
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