In war, momentum and will—those unseen forces—sometimes matter more.
With Luffy crashing into the battlefield and tanking Kizaru's attack, the pirates' momentum clearly surpassed the Marines'. The line began pushing toward the scaffold.
The great bird in the sky swooped down and dropped a group into the melee.
The Straw Hats officially joined the war. Zoro and Sanji appeared beside Luffy almost at once, left and right, blasting away the Marines attacking him.
Brook and Franky followed, the three of them forming a solid defensive line.
A Marine raised his rifle, sighted on Luffy, and was about to fire—when a round ran up his barrel from the muzzle.
His rifle blossomed open, and he himself was blown away. He wasn't alone; several nearby Marines with guns or cannon suffered the same fate.
The fastest to pick up Haki among the Straw Hats wasn't Luffy but, surprisingly, Usopp—albeit only Observation Haki.
Usopp fully inherited his father's talent and awakened and mastered Observation Haki quickly under special training.
With the slingshot and rounds Charles made, Usopp was already a formidable sniper.
Though her knees were shaking, Nami held position beside him with Robin and Chopper, letting Usopp fire without worry.
The brightest of the bunch was the Merry. The Merry refined heaps of fallen weapons on the field into its body—so a Gundam loomed over the battlefield.
Each of the giant robot's arms was a six-barrel gatling. It gave the Marines a demonstration of what "great compassion: 3,600 rpm in a single breath" looks like.
Under the Merry's firepower, Luffy's path instantly cleared.
The Straw Hats' performance lit a fire under the Whitebeard Pirates. The push forward went even more smoothly.
The Marines, of course, noticed, and began shifting strength toward the Straw Hats' direction.
The barrels on the Merry's arms were severed in neat lines—that was Vice Admiral Momonga's slash.
The Merry had shown tremendous destructive power, but it still couldn't match a Marine Vice Admiral.
Even so, its weapons and armor could be reforged on the fly. It didn't fear a battle of attrition.
The cut barrels warped into a huge warhammer that slammed toward Momonga, and the two plunged into a fierce fight.
Without the Merry's fire support, obstacles multiplied in Luffy's way. And someone on the field found him especially offensive.
"Straw Hat brat, you bastard!"
Moria roared, driving a horde of zombies forward. Before they could even get close, a surge of seawater rolled in and swallowed them.
Zombies feared salt above all. A soak in salt-rich seawater made them spit out the shadows inside them; they turned back into ordinary corpses and collapsed.
"Fish-Man Karate: Shark Tile True Punch!"
Alone now, Moria had no time to react before a blue fat man stepped in front of him and planted a heavy punch.
Watching Moria go flying, Sengoku called coldly from the scaffold, "Jinbe, do you intend to betray the Marines?"
Jinbe snorted. "I was never a Marine subordinate to begin with. Old Man Whitebeard is the one to whom I owe a debt of gratitude. The Warlords? I quit!"
Luffy and the others had already sprinted past behind Jinbe. Moria went to give chase, and Jinbe blocked him.
Seeing Luffy draw ever closer to the scaffold, someone finally lost patience.
"If we let pirates get near here, Justice will lose face!"
Akainu snarled, stepping out as his arms turned to searing magma. Droplets scorched black pits into the stone beneath his feet.
"Meteor Volcano!"
Magma roared skyward and burst into a rain of molten shells that fell on the battlefield, with the Straw Hats as the priority target.
Just as the magma bombs were about to fall on Luffy and the others, a flying slash ripped past.
In the instant it swept through, crisscross cuts appeared on every magma bomb, as if each had been slashed several times at once.
Mihawk lifted his eyelids and showed those razor-sharp eyes.
He could feel it—the one who launched that strike was absolutely a mighty great swordsman. He was curious who it could be.
"Who is that…?"
"The Pirate King's right hand!"
"The Dark King, Silvers Rayleigh!"
…
The last arrival's name was too great; he was recognized the moment he appeared.
On the scaffold, Sengoku frowned. The Straw Hats' intrusion had created trouble, but it was still broadly under control.
Rayleigh was different. He was a true powerhouse who could tilt the balance of the war.
Unlike Sengoku's headache, the pirates' morale surged.
The Dark King Rayleigh—a legend of the previous era. The Whitebeard Pirates, in particular, had dealt with him more than a few times.
As an opponent, he was a nightmare; as an ally, he was utterly reliable.
Whitebeard's lip curled. Rayleigh was an old friend. Given Ace's identity it wasn't surprising Rayleigh would show—but having such help was still cause for joy.
Kizaru sighed. He had to move now. He'd hoped to slack off; no one would let him.
Rising, he turned to light and closed with Rayleigh.
"Amenomurakumo!"
Light formed a straight sword in Kizaru's hand, and it crashed against Rayleigh's raised blade.
So much for Zephyr's charge that Kizaru was "lopsided"—he had no real weak point. He could even cross swords with Rayleigh without falling behind.
The two were true high-end combat power. Their duel drove the war toward its climax.
The Whitebeard Pirates recognized the Straw Hats' impact and rushed to support, letting Luffy close another stretch toward the scaffold.
From on high, Akainu could clearly read the battlefield—and saw the pirates' formation shifting.
The situation was plainly bad for the Marines, yet it drew a smile from him.
"With the line pressed so far forward, the rear is hollow," Akainu murmured where no one could hear.
Whitebeard frowned. The advantage so far hadn't gone to his head—instead, he sensed a hidden danger. But he couldn't place its source.
Then he heard footsteps behind him.
"Squard, what are you doing here? Didn't I send you to tear open the outer Marine line?"
The newcomer was the captain of one of Whitebeard's allied crews, the Great Whirlpool Spider, Squard.
He was Whitebeard's son. Even at his unusual silence, Whitebeard had no guard up. Not until Squard came closer and closer.
"Squard, what are you doing!"
At the voices around him, Whitebeard turned slowly to see Squard's face twisted with hate.
Squard had his longsword raised, its tip aimed at Whitebeard's back.
The blade had not pierced Whitebeard because a red-haired girl had appeared at some point and caught the sword in her slender hands.
"Gramps, you're way too careless in the middle of a war!"
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