At that moment, the soldiers of the Marine Detention Unit aboard the cola-bottle–shaped battleship felt as if everything that had happened so far was nothing more than a dream.
While celebrating the smooth completion of their mission, they unexpectedly encountered the Spade Pirates.
Then came the power Roy displayed.
Truthfully, the Marines of the Marine Detention Unit had seen Roy's shockwave punches more than once.
But what he did just now...wasn't it a bit too exaggerated?
A single punch that nearly split the sea and crushed the famed "Fire Fist" Ace and his pirate ship made them wonder if they were really part of the Marine Detention Unit, a force notorious for its weak combat power.
But that wasn't even the end of it.
What they found hardest to accept was that, just after "Fire Fist" Ace and the Spade Pirates began to flee, yet another formidable figure appeared:
"The Lizard King"... to think he'd show up here." Fal's face was drenched in cold sweat, and even the usually carefree Hans nervously gripped the flintlock rifle in his hands.
They couldn't help but be nervous.
Although his reputation had dipped slightly after the death of the Sand Crocodile, a Warlord of the Sea was still a Warlord of the Sea!
They were one of the so-called Three Great Powers of the seas, a pillar suppressing the Grand Line.
Among them, "The Lizard King" Hanafuda was an especially senior figure, infamous for his brutality.
This great pirate, who had once rampaged through the New World, was rumored to have clashed with Yonko Kaido and earned his respect, becoming close friends.
It was precisely at this moment...
"Senior Officer Roy! Petty Officer First Class Hans! Sergeant Fal... The explosion just now was caused by a stray shell hitting the stern! The rear propeller and power furnace are destroyed. There's a hole in the bottom of the ship. And..."
A Marine hurried up from below deck. His face was full of anxiety, he reported.
"Mol and Lanster, who were responsible for adjusting the rear propeller and maintaining the power furnace, were injured in the explosion. Their survival status is currently unknown."
"What!?" ×2
Hearing this, Fal and Hans's expressions changed instantly.
They clenched their teeth, and their eyes filled with rage.
"Those damn pirates..."
Anyone with eyes could tell that Hanafuda's real target was the Spade Pirates in the distance, but his terrible aim had caused the shells to hit them instead.
This kind of indiscriminate cannon fire was the "Lizard King's" trademark.
And it was right then...
"Fal. Hans."
...that they heard Roy's voice.
When they turned around, they saw him standing with his back to them.
"I taught you long ago that where I come from, there's an old saying: When the mountain collapses before you and your expression doesn't change, only then are you fit to be promoted to Admiral!"
"What you should be doing now is having the others search the hold for Mol and Lanster, repair the hole in the hull, and take cover to ensure everyone's safety."
"Calmness is the first requirement in battle!"
Because he was facing away, Hans and Fal couldn't see Roy's expression.
But they could see the tightly clenched fist at his side and the bulging veins on it.
"Boss, calm down. I know about Mol and Lanster..." Hans didn't finish his sentence because Roy cut him off.
"I'm very calm, Hans." He raised a hand, tugged at his sleeve, and rolled his neck. "To be precise, I've never been this calm."
He looked at the ravaged deck of the battleship, then at the Marines behind him. As he had said before, Roy felt no particular sense of belonging to Marine justice.
On ordinary days, even if a pirate ship passed by, he usually couldn't be bothered to act unless it was his mission target or doing something that disgusted him. Pirates were worth less to him than a fat Sea Beast.
And the reason he chose to act against the Spade Pirates this time was naturally not for "justice."
His thinking was simple.
He would fight Ace, analyze the Mera-Mera Fruit, and damage the battleship a bit in the process, giving himself the perfect excuse to head to Water 7.
At the same time, he could test the power of the Great Buddha Fruit and assess his progress.
Even if Ace escaped and he failed to analyze the Mera-Mera Fruit, it wouldn't matter.
Unlike Sengoku, Roy held no hostility toward Ace, the son of the Pirate King, especially since Roy already possessed the Magu-Magu Fruit, a superior Logia to the Mera-Mera Fruit.
To Roy, the Mera-Mera Fruit's only value was adding one more entry to the Devil Fruit Encyclopedia's ability slots. In the short term, he didn't need it.
That was his purpose, nothing more. From start to finish, he had been confident that nothing would go wrong.
But now, things were different.
He naturally remembered Mol, a cheerful shipwright, and Lanster, an engineer with two daughters.
And as always...
Roy didn't care about Marine justice, but the Marines of the Marine Detention Unit were another matter entirely. They had lived and worked with him for eight years.
So...
"I'm very calm. That's exactly why I'm going to beat that guy to a pulp." He said coldly.
'This didn't sound calm at all!' Hans and Fal thought to themselves.
Seeing Roy's reaction, however, they couldn't help but be moved.
Still, they tried to persuade him.
"Boss, we know you're angry. We're angry, too, but the opponent is a Warlord of the Sea. It's better if we don't make a move against them..."
Before they could finish, they saw Roy smile again.
"Idiots. I taught you to observe carefully before acting." As he spoke, Roy's gaze was already fixed on the distance. "Look closely. This isn't a case of us attacking a Warlord. It's quite the opposite."
As he spoke, Fal and Hans finally noticed it, too.
The massive "dinosaur fleet" belonging to Hanafuda, which had been far out at sea, was now extremely close.
And those enormous pirate ships showed no sign of slowing down.
Being Marines, Fal and Hans could tell that for certain. Even if the enemy struck their sails and tried to slow down, it was impossible to stop at this distance!
They were going to crash straight into them!
...
At the same time...
"Admiral Hanafuda, are we really going to keep advancing at full speed?"
At the bow of the flagship of the giant dinosaur fleet, the Tyrannosaurus rex, a pirate wearing a dinosaur helmet looked at the towering Warlord beside him, his voice hesitant.
"..."
The "Lizard King," Hanafuda, stood next to him with his hands clasped behind his back.
His breathing was heavy, like that of a humanoid dinosaur.
At that moment, he completely ignored Roy's battleship, instead locking his gaze on the Piece of Spadille far in the distance.
By now, the Piece of Spadille had fled extremely far away. The only things still visible were the intense firelight trailing from its stern and hull.
"Using a Logia ability to drive a ship, burning stamina just to run away... Portgas D. Ace, that weak newcomer." He let out a cold snort as he passed judgment.
That's right.
He didn't actually know what kind of battle had just taken place here. When he and his fleet spotted the Piece of Spadille, they simply saw the ship fleeing from afar.
But at the very least, he knew one thing.
"Consuming his power like that, he won't get far. I'll catch up to him and tear him apart."
He bared his teeth in a savage grin.
"He destroyed one of my fleets transporting iron mauls, causing me to fail to meet the quota I promised Big Brother Kaido. That humiliation must be washed away with his blood."
"Dinosaurs are very vindictive."
"No, I really don't think dinosaurs are that vindictive." The subordinate beside him muttered inwardly.
'Besides, that's not even what I was asking.'
"Admiral, I mean, are we really not going to change course? The ship ahead looks like a Marine Detention Unit battleship."
The subordinate asked again. Then...
"Bang!"
...he let out a cry as Hanafuda suddenly kicked him, sending him flying.
"Idiot!" Hanafuda glared furiously at the subordinate.
"You said it yourself... it's the Marine Detention Unit. It's not Garp's battleship, an Admiral, or an elite force. They're weaklings!"
"I'm a Warlord. I only cooperate with the World Government. If weaklings get in my way, I'll crush them!"
He sneered coldly.
"Might makes right. The destruction of the weak is only natural!"
That was the creed he had always believed in.
"Yes, sir!" The other pirates on deck hurried to carry away the unconscious subordinate.
However, before they could act...
"Bang!" "Bang!"
The entire pirate ship suddenly jolted violently. Its speed dropped noticeably, and repeated collision sounds came from below.
The pirates were thrown off their feet by the tremor and hurriedly scrambled back up.
"What's going on!?"
"What happened?"
They shouted in confusion as they rushed to the railing.
Then...
"So cold!"
They suddenly felt a biting chill. They saw what their ship had collided with...
Ice was forming and spreading across the sea beneath them.
"How is there ice here?"
They were completely baffled. But they knew what to do next.
"Admiral, don't worry. We'll take care of it immediately."
But as they spoke, they turned around and realized their admiral wasn't listening at all.
At that moment, the "Lizard King" stood rigid on the deck, his body tense, his eyes transformed into vertical, reptilian pupils, like a beast on full alert.
His gaze was fixed on the cola-bottle-shaped battleship not far away.
And there...
"Bang!" "Bang!"
A figure leapt from the battleship.
"Geppo."
Hanafuda recognized it instantly. It was Geppo.
At this moment, the Marine coat on that figure fluttered fiercely in the wind.
And on his left fist…
"Buzz!!"
Golden radiance and violent shockwaves erupted.
But unlike before… this time, within that pale golden glow, there was clearly a faint trace of blue.
Freezing cold surged along with the shockwaves. And the floating ice forming across the surrounding sea was precisely the result of that shockwave's overflow.
Just a mere spillover of power was already producing such an effect… Hanafuda could almost imagine how terrifying the punch itself would be.
"Turn the rudder immediately!" He roared at once.
But clearly… it was already too late.
In the very next instant, Roy, moving through the air above the sea with Geppo, had already thrown his punch!
"Ice Shockwave Fist · Eternal Frost!"
(End of Chapter)
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