Plop.
A Marine's legs gave out beneath him. He collapsed, trembling, and stammered:
"Mon… monster…"
"Monster…"
Several others broke at once bolting in blind panic, all discipline gone. Marine or not, they only wanted to get as far from the thing in the pit as possible.
Then
A giant Vice Admiral, over ten meters tall, lit up with excitement. "Now's my chance!"
He charged with a cleaver as long as a mast, steel flashing, vaulted high, and brought the blade down at Ares's shoulder.
"Die, monster!"
Clang
The cut landed on a shoulder knotted like a hill of muscle and rang like steel on steel.
The giant's face drained. "Impossible!"
"My blade how did it not even break skin?!"
For a heartbeat, his worldview tilted. He was a giant; his power could hew a warship in half. But on the body of Bloodhand Ares
No penetration. None.
Ares's hide held. The giant's composure didn't.
A split-second later, his eyes bulged, blood veining the whites. Horror spread across his face.
A lattice of fractures spidered across his sword from the point of impact, racing down the mirror-bright edge.
"You're joking how "
Crack… crack
Bang
The weapon burst apart in his hands, fragments knifing into the earth all around.
Ares finally lifted his head. Those blood-red eyes fixed on the giant like a reaper's gaze. His features hardened. He raised one palm and snarled:
"Beat it!"
Whump
The slap hammered into the giant's waist. A sickening series of cracks rolled out the sound of massive bones giving way.
The giant's body went skidding end over end, bowling through trees, gouging a trench a hundred meters long before he stopped.
Marines all around swallowed hard, a cold hiss of breath passing through the ranks.
Ares's eyes flashed murder. His voice boomed:
"I've got no interest in weaklings."
"Now GET LOST!"
A torrent of presence tore out of him dragon-rampant, tiger-fierce. His corded bulk radiated a force so violent it felt tangible, painting the world a blood-red hellscape.
Even the sky and earth seemed ready to bow beneath that feral surge.
One by one, Marines rolled their eyes back and dropped like dominos thud, thud, thud.
It felt like an eternity. It was two, maybe three seconds.
"What a terrifying aura… brutal, savage like a true king of beasts."
"It set every hair on my body on end…"
"An outrageously dangerous man. No wonder he joined Rocks and, in under two years, became a cadre Bloodhand Ares."
Redfield's expression tightened. Of all the killing intents he'd ever felt, Ares's was among the most vicious like a normal man realizing a tiger had fixed its gaze on him.
Sengoku didn't spare Redfield a glance now; all his focus cinched to the warrior whose boiling battle lust had locked onto him.
His face went slate-dark. Teeth clenched. "Ares… this is monstrous."
"His aura's stronger than before and even a giant's blow couldn't scratch him. He shattered the blade instead. That body is beyond obscene."
"What are Garp and Zephyr doing?"
"Garp being unreliable, fine but Zephyr is there!"
Two of the Marines' strongest, and Ares was still rampaging? Ruthless.
Sengoku had thought with their power, taking down Ares should be straightforward.
Reality disagreed. After a whole day of fighting, Ares's presence hadn't dipped it had grown. It made no sense.
Was he on some kind of berserker elixir? An aphrodisiac for war?
Ares's gaze blazed, pupils spitting red light. He let out a hungry bellow. "Hey, Marines "
"And you with the umbrella over there come together!"
"Come on!"
"Don't stop the fight. I'm not done!"
Umbrella? Redfield blinked. That was him.
…What?
So Ares wanted a piece of the Marines and of him. He was a pirate! Weren't they supposed to team up against the Navy?
Redfield stared, momentarily at a loss. Then he shouted, "Oi, Bloodhand Ares let's join forces and take the Marines "
"What do you say?!"
He looked at Ares, eyes alight with expectation.
"Silence!" Sengoku barked, panic knifing through his composure.
If the Red Count and Bloodhand Ares joined hands… disaster. Facing either one was a life-or-death wager. Both?
Don't joke. Even with Rocks himself, that could tip the scales.
Ares answered first:
"No."
"I said you all come at once."
"If you won't, then I will!"
Arrogant to the bone.
There was only one thing in his eyes battle. Battle. Battle.
He launched the instant the words left his mouth, a big cat exploding from cover.
Every dark-gold muscle block writhed up like a coiling python. His fist, the size of a boulder, swelled with a blood-red sphere of compressed Armament menacing as a miniature sun.
He hit Sengoku like a wolf on a stag, arms churning, fists thundering down.
The golden Buddha surged palms fanning out in a blur, a wall of hand-shadows rippling like a practiced kata.
Whud
Whud
Whud
The collisions came like drumbeats.
Sengoku's face changed; shock widened his eyes. "Ares what technique is that?!"
The storm of blows drove him back step after step; each golden foot stamped pits into the earth as he retreated tens of meters and still Ares pressed him, unrelenting.
Every punch carried ruin raw, domineering power ran up through Sengoku's palms and shook his insides till they lurched.
Brutal.
Brutal beyond measure.
Redfield could only stare. "Holy Rocks' man is this savage?!"
"He's forcing Admiral Sengoku's head down the instant he closes?!"
Redfield had crossed hands with Sengoku and knew the measure of him. Even with his own peerless Observation Haki, he couldn't smother Sengoku like this.
It was insane.
So this was a muscleman's war pure, hot-blooded, and blindingly direct.
And it was a revelation.
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