Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Deafening cannon fire suddenly erupted from the distant sea.
Kuzan, who had still been deep in thought, abruptly raised his head and looked toward the ocean.
The War Pirates fleet approaching the port had unexpectedly opened fire.
More than twenty ships unleashed their cannons simultaneously. In an instant, an enormous barrage of cannonballs filled the sky above the sea.
Crossing a distance of several thousand meters, the massive swarm of shells descended upon the port and the surrounding buildings without discrimination.
Rumble! Rumble! Rumble!
A series of massive explosions erupted.
The port and the buildings surrounding it were immediately engulfed by flames and thick smoke beneath the overwhelming bombardment.
"Arghhh!"
"No! The enemy found us!"
"Counterattack! Counterattack immediately! Sink those pirate ships!"
The Marines had been hiding inside buildings near the port, originally intending to wait until the War Pirates landed before launching their ambush.
However, the sudden bombardment completely caught them off guard.
Amid the violent explosions, many Marines were blown away together with the buildings they had been hiding inside.
The entire area instantly descended into chaos.
Piercing screams echoed everywhere while the Marines who had managed to escape the bombardment shouted in alarm.
The building Kuzan had been hiding in was also targeted by the artillery barrage.
Before the cannonballs could explode, however, an intense wave of freezing air swept out from inside the building.
Crack!
The incoming cannonballs were instantly frozen solid.
Whoosh!
Kuzan smashed through a window and leaped out of the building.
His expression was dark as he looked over the ruins surrounding him and the bodies of Marines who had been killed in the bombardment.
The next moment, a powerful burst of freezing air erupted beneath his feet.
Kuzan shot directly toward the sea in front of the port.
"Ice Age!"
His body landed diagonally against the surface of the sea.
However, instead of sinking, Kuzan immediately released an overwhelming wave of freezing power.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The freezing air spread outward like an enormous tidal wave.
Everywhere it passed, the ocean instantly froze.
The sea rapidly transformed into a vast glacier that stretched toward the War Pirates fleet in the distance.
The War Pirates, who had been preparing to launch a second round of bombardment, were forced to stop.
The bottoms of their ships were instantly trapped by the rapidly spreading ice.
"Ice Block: Pheasant Beak!"
Half-crouching atop the newly formed glacier, Kuzan exhaled a cold breath as he stared at the frozen fleet in the distance.
Without hesitation, an enormous amount of freezing air gathered around his right arm.
With a powerful swing, the freezing energy transformed into a massive ice bird and shot forward.
Screech!
The enormous ice bird let out a piercing cry as it flew across the glacier.
Carrying terrifying force and intense cold, it charged directly toward the War Pirates' No. 1 flagship.
Whoosh!
Just as the enormous ice bird approached, a burly figure shot out from the No. 1 flagship.
"Drink!"
The figure was none other than Mangu.
Gripping a massive spiked club wrapped in Armament Haki, Mangu landed heavily on the glacier.
He raised his weapon and faced the enormous ice bird charging toward him.
"Muscle Release: Fifty Percent!"
"Hellsplitter!"
The muscles throughout Mangu's entire body swelled violently.
His already powerful physique expanded, and his skin seemed to take on the hardness of metal.
Then, facing the massive ice bird head-on, Mangu swung his spiked club with all his strength.
Boom!!!
A deafening explosion shook the battlefield.
Violent shockwaves spread in every direction as countless fragments of ice were thrown through the air.
Beginning from its head, cracks rapidly spread throughout the massive ice bird's entire body.
In the next instant—
Crash!
The enormous ice bird exploded into countless pieces.
Two deep craters appeared beneath Mangu's feet as he crushed the glacier under the force of the collision.
Mangu had shattered Kuzan's attack with overwhelming strength.
However, he had not emerged completely unharmed.
The terrifying impact from the massive ice bird had caused several of his muscles to tear under the pressure.
At the same time, the intense cold had covered his body with a layer of frost, leaving him with minor frostbite.
"Paper Art: Spiral Lance!"
Laffitte stood tall on the deck.
His body leaped into the air as his sharp gaze locked onto Kuzan, who stood near the distant port.
He immediately thrust both hands forward.
Two high-speed spiraling paper lances shot out.
Whoosh!
The two attacks streaked through the air like blurs.
Crossing several thousand meters in an instant, the two spiral lances approached Kuzan from different angles, one targeting his head and the other his chest.
The lances had been compressed from an enormous amount of paper.
Their toughness was even greater than steel.
Furthermore, both attacks were coated in Armament Haki, making them fully capable of injuring a Logia Devil Fruit user.
Kuzan did not dodge.
He stomped his foot.
Immediately, an enormous wall of ice rose in front of him.
Boom! Boom!
The two spiral lances slammed into the ice wall.
The attacks possessed enough power to pierce through steel.
Yet when they struck Kuzan's ice wall, they were stopped after drilling only a short distance into the thick ice.
Whoosh!
At that moment, a golden beam of light shot out from the city behind the port.
In an instant, it crossed the battlefield and appeared directly above the War Pirates' fleet.
"It's scary, isn't it?"
A figure condensed from the golden light above the War Pirates.
Kizaru looked down at the numerous ships beneath him with his usual exaggerated expression.
"A pirate crew that hasn't even entered the New World has gathered so many capable fighters. It looks like it would be better to eliminate you all here."
As he spoke, Kizaru crossed his hands in front of his chest.
Brilliant golden light rapidly gathered between them.
"Yasakani no Magatama!"
The blinding golden light immediately transformed into countless dazzling light bullets.
Like a torrential rainstorm, they covered the sky above the War Pirates' fleet and rained down toward every ship.
Crackle!
At the exact moment the barrage of light bullets descended, brilliant lightning erupted from the deck of the No. 1 flagship.
Countless thunderbolts rapidly condensed into lightning bullets.
The attacks shot upward from below in the same manner, instantly colliding with the incoming barrage of light.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions filled the sky.
It was as though magnificent fireworks were blooming across the battlefield.
Golden flashes.
Blue lightning.
The two forces collided endlessly, complementing one another as though they had divided the entire sky into two separate worlds.
"Hm?!"
Seeing his Yasakani no Magatama being blocked—especially by such a massive barrage of lightning bullets—Kizaru's exaggerated expression immediately disappeared.
For the first time, his face became serious.
At the same moment, yellow sand began to swirl wildly.
As the golden light bullets and lightning bullets collided and dissipated, a massive wave of yellow sand swept out from the No. 1 flagship and surged toward Kizaru in the air.
"Desert Spada!"
As the yellow sand approached Kizaru, it condensed into an enormous blade of sand coated in Armament Haki.
The massive sand blade slashed downward viciously.
Whoosh!
It cut directly through Kizaru's body.
However, no blood appeared.
Instead, Kizaru's body dispersed into countless golden particles of light.
The particles rapidly descended toward the glacier nearby.
A moment later, the golden light gathered once more.
Kizaru reappeared completely unharmed.
"Hey, Crocodile."
Kizaru narrowed his eyes as he looked at the figure forming from the yellow sand in midair.
"You're one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea. Attacking a Marine like this will get your Warlord status revoked, you know."
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