"Come inside," Dalton offered as snow began to fall.
But Vivi and the others declined. "We'll stay right here," they said, their gazes fixed on the distant, towering mountain peak.
This group really does seem different from ordinary pirates.
"My apologies." Dalton sat down on the spot, expressing regret for the earlier gunshot attack. "Their reactive behavior towards pirates has a reason."
"A few months ago, a group of pirates calling themselves the Blackbeard Pirates attacked this country. King Wapol fled with all the doctors. This country was almost destroyed by pirates." Dalton looked at the spot where Luffy's back had disappeared into the snowstorm and told Vivi and Robin the tragedy that had befallen the country months ago.
"The Blackbeard Pirates?"
Upon hearing the name, Robin's pupils contracted imperceptibly, a flicker of gravity crossing her face.
As an information broker, she knew some intelligence about this recently risen yet exceptionally dangerous pirate crew.
Were they still nearby?
The man Robin spoke of had committed an act that, while commonplace in the pirate world, was also extraordinarily uncommon—betrayal. Common because it happened often, uncommon because the one betrayed was a Yonko, one of the Emperors of the Sea.
Just off the coast of Drum Island, on the icy sea shrouded by drift ice and chill, a strange raft—more a patchwork of several small boats than a proper ship—floated silently.
Next to it, the corpse of a massive dead Sea King could be seen.
At the bow, a man sat cross-legged, tearing into a huge beast leg without any pretense of manners. He was abnormally obese and burly, with dark skin and several missing teeth, making one worry he might shatter the remaining ones with each bite.
In terms of patience and ambition on the high seas, Marshall D. Teach dared call himself second to none.
And for the sake of his ambition, he could betray even the man who was like a father to him.
"Ze hahaha! Van Augur, did you spot something?"
Blackbeard wiped his greasy mouth, turning to look at a tall, slender man at the stern wearing a peculiar hat and holding a long-barreled sniper rifle. "Your muzzle just instinctively pointed that way. Did you find some good prey?"
He had stayed near Drum Island not only to resupply but also to hunt the former King of the Drum Kingdom, the Baku Baku no Mi user, Wapol.
Blackbeard was quite interested in that ability to swallow and assimilate. That kind of Devil Fruit power made him feel the possibility he envisioned was even greater. He wanted to study it.
Perhaps it could be combined with that insane future experiment of his.
But Wapol's ability was indeed useful. He even had a submarine.
Without a proper countermeasure, even an Admiral would have trouble stopping such a technological creation.
The sniper, Van Augur, slowly lowered his gun, pushing up his small, round sunglasses. "No, Captain. It's not the target. It's just... at that moment, my fate seemed to be plucked."
"From that direction came an extremely brief, yet exceptionally violent and ferocious aura. But it vanished quickly."
It was just his sniper's instinctive reaction.
"That direction... is Drum Island, right?"
Beside Blackbeard, a sickly-looking man in a gentleman's hat, the ship's doctor Doc Q, spoke up between weak coughs. "Cough... cough... What decent individual could possibly be on that island besides that Wapol fellow we scared out of his wits?"
"That Zoan-type Devil Fruit user did leave some impression, though."
"Tch."
Blackbeard scoffed, his face full of disdain. "That guy who ate the Ushi Ushi no Mi, Model: Bison? Ze hahaha! Such an ordinary Zoan is too pathetic to even look at."
A Zoan-type Devil Fruit?
Not even a dog would eat that.
He patted his round belly, a flash of greed and ambition in his eyes.
His target was the world's most powerful Devil Fruit.
The Paramecia-type, Gura Gura no Mi!
Compared to that, not just ordinary Zoans, even Mythical Zoans could hardly catch his eye.
"But if it caught Van Augur's attention, maybe something interesting really did come to the island? What a pity..."
Blackbeard rubbed his chin. Van Augur's intuition was usually sharp, but now was not the time for complications.
"Ze hahaha! Let's go, let's go. No need to waste time on the Baku Baku no Mi anymore. After all, we've got a super troublesome guy following our tail."
Unless absolutely necessary, Blackbeard didn't want to run into that guy.
Could he win?
That wasn't within his consideration. He was considering the subsequent impact.
On the other side, in the direction Van Augur had indicated, Luffy, carrying Nami, trekked through the snow. As expected, he soon encountered the enemies Dalton had warned about.
Agile and ferocious giant rabbits—a pack of Lapin.
Under normal circumstances, Luffy might have happily fought them. But now, even the slightest shockwave from a battle could worsen Nami's condition.
"I don't have time to fight you."
The facts proved that with some creatures, even if they could understand you, only fists could make them stop.
Seeing the Lapin closing in, Luffy's expression turned fierce. An aura mixed with terrifying killing intent swept out like a wave!
"GET LOST!"
The ferocious Lapin didn't even have time to howl before their eyes rolled back, fainting in droves across the snowfield.
However, perhaps because the force of Luffy's unleashed aura was too intense, or perhaps by coincidence, the snow on the mountaintop was shaken, triggering a chain reaction—an avalanche!
Snow, like a white tidal wave, came rumbling down with a deafening roar!
Luffy gritted his teeth, immediately entering Gear Second. Instead of retreating, he held Nami even tighter on his back. Then, his legs erupted with power. The elasticity of his Gomu Gomu no Mi granted him astonishing explosive force. Like an arrow released from its bow, he shot forward, meeting the avalanche head-on. At a near-vertical angle, he finally reached the base of the sheer cliff.
Cold.
No wonder they say Logia-type Devil Fruits, which can control natural disasters, are the strongest.
He began climbing towards the peak, his rubber hands and feet alternating as they dug into the icy rock wall, leaving deep marks with each powerful thrust.
When he finally broke through the last wave of snow and tumbled, utterly exhausted, onto the platform before the mountaintop castle, he was almost completely spent.
"Finally... made it."
"Tch tch tch. No one should be appearing here at a time like this."
A voice came. Luffy looked up to see an energetic-looking old woman wearing a tight outfit and a cape. Next to her was a talking reindeer wearing a hat.
"Doctorine, is he going to die?"
Luffy:
A talking... snack?
Chopper involuntarily shuddered.
For some reason, he felt this human's gaze was a bit... forward.
***
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