For a heartbeat, time slid back more than a year.
The first time Wang Zhi met Ares.
That kid feared neither heaven nor earth, talked about challenging Rocks himself, and declared, straight-faced:
"How do you forge a person into the world's sharpest, hardest blade?"
The room had erupted howls of laughter from every corner.
Because to everyone, it was impossible. A man, harder than a Supreme Grade blade? Absurd.
And yet…
Wang Zhi looked back, a smile tugging at his mouth. "What was impossible… you're making it possible."
"You even have the right and the strength to challenge Captain Rocks now."
"Out on these seas… no one's laughing at that dream anymore."
A year, a little more gone in a blink. Unreal. And still hard to believe.
Then, the sky split.
"Armament Black Arm: Secret Art!"
Zephyr's fist blasted a shockwave you could see with your eyes. It hammered into Ares's iron body. Flesh as tough as steel rippled like flowing water.
A Fist Shock.
Ares's own speciality an ultra-high-level technique, all bite and breaking power.
Ares went tumbling, a meteor punched from the heavens, and crashed into the island with a concussive roar.
"After him!"
Zephyr snapped the order. He and Garp exploded forward, speed pushed to the limit, streaking toward the crater.
On the raft, Kaido nearly lost his mind. "Faster!"
"Catch up!"
"Faster!"
Veins stood out on Slardar's temples as he drove through the chop, face twisted, water or sweat streaming. "This is my fastest!"
He was a sea demon and swift as any fish beneath the waves, but the sea was raging, every swell stealing speed. And he bore the weight of a whole raft dozens of men, and one seven-meter "small giant" named Kaido.
No matter how he strained, he couldn't outrun Zephyr and Garp.
Meanwhile, on the island…
A squad of Marines gathered, faces pinched with dread and confusion.
"What just fell out of the sky?"
"Looked like… a person…"
"Don't be ridiculous wait. Garp was fighting Ares up there. Don't tell me "
Dust thinned. The ground revealed a titanic, man-shaped crater.
Bottomless. A black maw.
Cheers ripped through the Marines.
"Look at the size that has to be Ares! Vice Admiral Garp took him down!"
"Rocks' cadre or not, you meet Garp's iron fists, you kneel!"
"Vice Admiral Garp, as expected he put down 'Bloodhand' Ares!"
Elsewhere, the duel between Redfield and Sengoku stuttered to a halt as the sky-born impact shook the ruins.
Joy broke over Sengoku's face pure, irrepressible. He muttered, "So quickly? Garp's finished him already faster than I expected."
His eyes sharpened as he turned back to Redfield. "You're not getting away today."
Excitement thrummed in his chest. If Zephyr and Garp arrived, the three of them could collar Redfield together.
Capture Ares and Redfield both, and the Marines' prestige would soar to heights unknown pirates cowed, Rocks' strength clipped.
A double triumph.
Redfield watched the newfound light between Sengoku's brows and let a wry smile curl his lips.
"Sengoku…"
"That was the famed Rocks cadre, Ares, who fell, wasn't it?"
Sengoku snorted. "Correct. You'll share his fate soon enough."
"Enjoy the rest of your life in Impel Down."
He raised a hand to strike only for Redfield to halt him with a word.
"The same fate?" Redfield chuckled. "Funny. All I can hear is a heartbeat loud and steady like a war drum. Just like the papers say."
"Ares really is a monster."
The word stabbed Sengoku. His face tightened. "A heartbeat?"
"Don't tell me "
From the pit, something moved.
Sengoku's expression darkened; a chill premonition skittered down his spine. "He's still conscious."
"That life force… outrageous."
The sound swelled, and so did the presence bestial, savage, pouring up from the dark. It was like an ancient brute waking in the deep.
A crawl ran up Sengoku's back. Cold sweat beaded and broke across his skin.
"Heh…" Redfield's laugh cut sideways. "Sengoku, looks like you're in trouble."
"In my senses he's… terrifying. A rabid, blood-mad beast."
Schadenfreude glinted in his pale, elegant features and something else, a flicker of curiosity.
Bloodhand Ares the comet that rose through Rocks' crew. How terrifying are you, really?
Around the crater, Marines stiffened as that demon-god aura rolled over them icy dread in their marrow, thought slowing to a crawl. Breaths came short, ragged.
Sweat ran cold.
That infernal presence burned like a hellfire, the heat of its rage prickling skin, making them small.
A giant hand slammed onto the rim with a boom. The ground shivered.
Dust geysered.
Hearts jammed into throats.
Another arm rose roped with devil's muscle, black and lustrous as mirror-polished iron.
Finally, through the drifting grit, two blood-red eyes opened like a predator crouched in the smoke.
"I feel strong ones."
"Come "
"Fight!"
Ares vaulted free and hit the earth like a falling hill, the thud rolling across the ruins.
Defiance carved his face; his aura towered.
He threw back his head and roared to the sky:
"This fight "
"ISN'T OVER!"
Mad, magnificent will flooded from him; the iron bulk of his body threw off a killing pressure that bent the air and squeezed the lungs.
Black-crimson lightning crackled round his frame.
The primeval fiend Tengetsu Ares took the field.
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