Sengoku frowned, eyes on the Vivre Card drifting slowly in his palm.
Before they set out, Fleet Admiral Kong had been explicit: once the target was located, the Vivre Card had to be destroyed.
After a beat of thought, Sengoku steeled himself and crushed the paper to dust. He turned to Zephyr. "You hold here. I'll take a unit ashore to scout."
"If anything changes, signal me at once. I'll do the same. It's possible John and Wang Zhi have already found the treasure I need eyes on it."
Zephyr nodded. "Go. With me and Garp here, Ares won't escape."
That Sengoku knew was the point. Garp alone was a storm; with Zephyr anchoring, there'd be no leaks.
Sengoku snapped an order, and a detachment of Marines followed him into the island's jungle.
Above, the blood-pounding fistfight raged on.
Garp's mouth bled at the corner, but he looked every inch the iron-boned warrior, arms swelling with coiled muscle. His hard, domineering fist rocketed toward the hulking Tengetsu Ares, Haki flaring like a bonfire.
Ares met him head-on, eyes gone scarlet, a beast-king in a berserk trance. His crimson forearms hissed white steam; steel-forged fists crashed into Garp's.
BOOM
The impact hurled them both back only for the two to launch again in the same heartbeat.
"Scarlet Armament Adamantine Wolf Fist!"
"Fistbone Falling Star!"
Another detonation. The shock gale stabbed out in all directions like a storm of knives.
"So good!" Ares grinned, the hard lines of his face lit with mania.
He'd eaten plenty of Garp's knuckles by now. The pain only stoked his bloodlust, fanning his ferocity until it howled.
Mad joy burned in those predator's eyes as he jeered, "More!"
"Only repeated hammer blows can temper my body!"
"Anything that doesn't kill me only makes me stronger!"
"My dream is to make my body surpass the Supreme Grade Blades!"
His voice cracked across sky and sea, rattling hearts.
Ares believed it after a thousand tempers in battle, his body would eclipse even the finest swords ever forged. He had never doubted it.
"This this is the fight I've always wanted!" Garp roared back, eyes blazing with the same reckless glee. "Ares, that monster physique of yours damn it, it's addictive!"
He meant the fight.
Even with Roger, most duels were steel-on-steel Ace, the Supreme Blade rather than today's pure, bare-knuckle carnage.
Garp's punch ripped out, the air around his fist collapsing, a vacuum popping in its wake.
Ares bared his teeth. Power howled off him; red-black lightning crawled over his devil's frame, crackling.
Scalding blood surged through cable-veins, flooding his arms with unstoppable force.
"Scarlet Armament Red Dragon's Flame!"
KA-DOOM
One punch, and heaven and earth shook an end-of-days shock that made lesser souls feel small.
On the deck below, Marines wrestled the listing warship through gale and surge. The duel above belonged to gods.
Zephyr's face was set. "Garp is strong his Armament is the best of us… but Ares's unique scarlet Armament has grown with him. It's getting terrifying."
He remembered all too well their bout a year ago the way that eerie crimson Haki not only carried Armament's traits but packed a searing heat that seeped in with every clash, gnawing at you from the inside.
"I thought Garp could take him solo. Now… I'm not so sure." Zephyr's voice was heavy.
"Worse, Ares hasn't even touched his Devil Fruit. And his body… his body's durability far outstrips Garp's."
"Most men die outright if Garp lands clean. The tough ones leave with broken bones. Even me." He watched Ares eat two, three dozen of those same punches and look like it was nothing. "What has that brat done to himself this past year?"
Zephyr didn't rush in. He waited waited for Ares's state to dip. Strike then, and the damage would stick. That was how you captured a monster.
…
Meanwhile, where Ares fought like a wildfire, things looked grim for John and Silver Axe.
The sea was carpeted with Sea King corpses: necks torn out, bodies crushed by a monstrous eel's coils. The water ran red, the reek drawing more predators by the minute. The melee had become a bloody mountain range rising and falling with the swell.
Perched atop one carcass, the snake-haired woman fixed her icy slit-pupils on John and Silver Axe. Her voice was bitter with killing intent.
"Interlopers. However you breached these waters, if you've come for the treasure you die."
The word die left her lips and the serpents in her hair bared fangs, spitting that eerie blue blaze.
John and Silver Axe burned Observation Haki, bodies moving on instinct as they twisted away from the laser-like streams.
"Silver Axe, this won't hold!" John panted, sweat pouring, breath ragged. He'd already been cut up by the Slardar-like sea fiend; now this woman was grinding them down.
Silver Axe's chin was caked with dried blood. He grimaced. "What do you want me to do? She pops a damned shield we can't crack. And those snakes one hit and you're stone. We've lost one axe entirely. Half my armor's turned to chalk."
With Silver Axe out of ideas, John could only sigh. "Let's hope Wang Zhi finds Ares fast. If anyone can break that shell, it's him."
Neither had a winning line left. Hope, thin as spider silk, was all they had.
They didn't know Ares was trading meteors with Vice Admiral Garp and wouldn't be coming.
As their stamina bled away, danger surged.
"Hmph." The gorgon snorted. "Let's see how long you last. When you drop, I'll feed what's left to the Sea Kings."
Her snakes slithered forward again, fangs glinting, a new volley hissing in their throats.
John clenched his jaw. "Silver Axe we jump."
"Jump?!" Silver Axe's eye twitched. The sea around them was a writhing field of Sea Kings, some the size of fortresses.
He knew John's angle: the woman was a Devil Fruit user salt water would end the chase. But dropping into this…
He winced. "We jump, we're lunch. I'm not getting eaten and dumped out as you know by a Sea King!"
The gorgon paused, her laugh cold and sharp. Those reptilian eyes mocked them. "Go on, jump."
"I dare you."
"I'll watch you go over and watch you slide down a Sea King's gullet."
Her goading rooted them in place.
John lifted his empty flask, swiped his tongue along the rim, savoring phantoms of liquor. It was something to do, if not a plan. "So? Jump, or not?"
"…" Silver Axe stared, helpless. "If I die, I'm dying in a warm bed, not in a Sea King's belly."
"Afraid?" she purred. "Here's a mercy ten seconds. If you don't jump, I turn you to stone and keep you as a statue."
"Ten."
"Nine."
"Eight."
"…"
John and Silver Axe traded a look. The countdown sounded like a death knell.
"Three."
"Two."
"One."
"Two-Sword Style Moon Over the Tower!"
"Silver Axe Monkey Plucks the Star!"
On one, both men blew every ounce of strength they had left, lunging in perfect sync. John's twin blades swept for the gorgon's waist one good cut to take her in three. Silver Axe raised his weapon two-handed, will blazing.
"Filthy eyes die!"
Her pupils jittered like clock hands, quivering with fury. She spat two words:
"Demon Shield."
Tinnnng
Tonnnng
THUMP
Their strikes bounced off the blue shell that flowered around her, the rebounding force hurling both men away. Blood sprayed from their lips as they crashed back atop a Sea King's carcass.
The gorgon's gaze pinned Silver Axe, voice a rasp of hatred. "Foul-mouthed worm. Feel fear. I'll start with one foot."
Her serpents uncoiled, stretching. A dozen ringed him in an eyeblink, fangs hooked, tongues flickering.
Cold poured into Silver Axe's bones. He saw the teeth, the open throats and panic ripped a scream from him, pride forgotten.
"Help!"
"I'm gonna die!"
"Somebody help me!"
The snakes reared
and a shout cracked the air, hauling him back from the edge.
"Halt!"
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