At the port, Fleet Admiral Sengoku, transformed into a giant golden Buddha, was locked in fierce combat with the Dark King, Silvers Rayleigh.
The port that the Marines had only recently rebuilt was already in ruins as the two clashed. None of the buildings near the docks remained intact.
Not far from the battlefield where Sengoku and Rayleigh fought, Marine officers and Roger Pirates battled each other relentlessly.
Neither Sengoku nor Rayleigh unleashed their full power, wary of harming their own men or comrades. Their clash was more a display of force than a battle to the death.
But when the mysterious tsunami appeared on the sea, both sides, Marine and pirate alike, tacitly chose to stop fighting.
It was only natural. When the tsunami hit, it wouldn't matter if you were a pirate or a Marine, everyone would die.
Before the overwhelming force of nature, humans were just too small and powerless.
"Is that Whitebeard?!"
Though Sengoku couldn't yet see the Moby Dick atop the wave, his Kenbunshoku Haki had already sensed the mighty aura riding the tsunami toward them.
He had faced Whitebeard before, back when they both fought during the era of the Rocks Pirates. That man's Gura Gura no Mi powers had left an unforgettable impression.
To raise a tsunami at the drop of a hat, who could stand against that?
That moment then was just like this moment now.
Gazing at the endless wall of water, Sengoku's face grew grim.
"All units, retreat!"
"Avoid the tsunami at all costs!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Sengoku abandoned the fight against the Roger Pirates. Saving Marine lives was the priority.
Gathered here on Lodestar Island were the Marines' best: elites from Marine Headquarters, elites from all four seas. If these forces were decimated, forget about holding the New World, the Marines' grip on the Four Seas would be shaken to the core, plunging the world into chaos.
And that would mean the loss of far more than just a few hundred or thousand lives.
As Sengoku gave the order to retreat, Rayleigh also shouted for his comrades to flee to higher ground.
In an instant, Marines and pirates who had been fighting just moments before scattered like startled birds and beasts, each showing their true skills as they raced for the central mountain of Lodestar Island.
The cries of retreat replaced the shouts of battle.
The Marine officers fled at astonishing speed, but the ordinary Marines, relying only on their legs, had no chance of outrunning the tsunami.
Many were abandoned by their superiors at the port. Some officers, unwilling to leave their men behind, grabbed what subordinates they could and hauled them toward safety.
Others, realizing their men wouldn't make it, stopped running, turned back, and stood protectively in front of their troops. They lit cigarettes, calmly watching the oncoming wave.
Sengoku did not run. He stood at the port, watching those officers who chose to stay, his face dark with frustration as he muttered through gritted teeth, "Fools..."
Then he turned, no longer looking at them, and faced the tsunami barreling toward him.
As the wave came within a hundred meters of the port, Sengoku leapt lightly into the air. Hovering midair, he raised his left palm and gathered power in his right.
When the wave was just about to crash down, Sengoku struck out with his palm.
Boom!
A deafening blast rang out across the port.
The shockwave blasted out a massive vacuum zone in front of Sengoku, splitting the tsunami open in a gap as tall as a mountain and stretching thousands of meters wide.
The wave had been pierced. Water slammed into the coastline, surging inland with terrifying speed.
For a moment, the coastline of Lodestar Island presented a strange sight. Everywhere else was submerged beneath a sea of water, but the port itself remained dry.
But Sengoku's strike couldn't erase the tsunami's force completely. As the wave's momentum faltered, massive amounts of water began to surge back toward the port.
The difference in elevation between the port and the inland helped funnel the water into a terrifying flood, rushing back toward the naval base.
The Marines who had just survived the tsunami cheered for Sengoku's incredible feat.
Their cheers didn't last long.
The flood came roaring from behind, carrying shattered wreckage as it bore down on the port.
"A... Admiral!"
"Flood... flood!"
Their joy turned to horror as they faced death once again.
Rayleigh and the others, who had been helping their crewmates flee, found their path blocked by the flood.
Rayleigh sighed heavily, drew his longsword, and slashed out a flying blade at the flood.
His slash split the flood in two. The torrent flowed past the port on either side, cascading back into the sea as twin waterfalls.
The flood's strength rapidly diminished. Just then, a great white ship sailed swiftly along one of the remaining channels and dropped into the harbor with a loud splash, sending up a spray of water.
Sunlight hit the spray, casting a brilliant rainbow over the naval base.
Clang... clang... clang...
Under the gaze of both Marines and pirates, the sound of footsteps echoed from the white whale-shaped ship.
A moment later, a giant man appeared at the bow, bare-chested, draped in a white coat, holding Kogarashi in his hand.
"Gurararara!"
"What a lively place this is!"
"I don't mean to interrupt. I've only come to take my brother back. So tell me, Marines, where is Kozuki Oden?"
The ship was the Moby Dick, and the man who stood upon it was none other than the captain of the Whitebeard Pirates, the legendary pirate, Edward Newgate.
His face broke into a radiant grin as he looked upon the Marines and pirates at the port.
But though he asked the question of the Marines, his gaze was fixed on the central mountain of Lodestar Island.
He muttered to himself, "Oden, what are you dawdling for..."
"Doesn't he know how much I hate waiting?"
Whitebeard hadn't spared the Marines so much as a thought.
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