"Lunarian bastard... You did it on purpose!"
Hongo gripped his longsword tightly. Without hesitation, he abandoned Kaido and charged straight toward the Flame Disaster—King.
"Your whole plan was to make Yasopp lose control, to strip him of his Observation Haki!"
As one of the Red Hair Pirates' elite officers, Hongo wasn't a fool. After the initial shock and fury, the true outline of the plan dawned on him.
King hadn't finished Yasopp off immediately after severing and incinerating his arm. On the surface, it seemed like an act of mercy—offering a warrior his final dignity. In truth, it was all a calculated setup. Verbal taunts, psychological pressure, every word finely tuned to destroy Yasopp's composure.
Losing his dominant right arm—and with it, the title of World's Strongest Sniper—had left Yasopp shaken. Though he forced himself to stay calm on the battlefield, he was walking a mental tightrope.
Then, King delivered the final blow—not with his sword, but with his tongue: casually revealing that Ragnar possessed the highest level of innate Observation Haki, the kind that could commune with all things.
That truth crushed Yasopp's mind completely.
He didn't go berserk, but the emotional upheaval was enough. Even the most advanced Observation Haki—capable of glimpsing the future—fails under emotional instability.
"Exactly."
King raised his sword with a cold, unreadable face and clashed with Hongo.
"But do you really think Yasopp was the true target?"
Despite his injuries, King effortlessly parried Hongo's furious strikes, even finding the breath to speak in between.
That sentence pierced Hongo's chest like a blade.
"You... you're not aiming for him!"
Suddenly, Ben Beckman's earlier shout rang in Hongo's ears:
"Ragnar was never after Yasopp... His target was the Captain!"
Realization struck like lightning.
The Flame Disaster had been a decoy—his true blade danced toward Red-Haired Shanks all along.
Terror gripped Hongo. He trembled, not from injury, but from understanding.
Flame Disaster King was a pawn. The true mastermind was Ragnar.
A wave of dread swept over the Red Hair crew.
They knew better than anyone—no one cherished their crewmates more than Shanks.
Yasopp's loss—his arm, his title, and ultimately his life—was just the opening move.
Now, with one devastating truth after another falling on Shanks like cannonballs, could their Captain maintain his composure?
Even without his left arm, even stripped of future sight—Shanks was still a Yonko, a living calamity. But Ragnar... he wasn't part of the 99%. He was in that terrifying 1%.
"Ragnar!!!"
Before any of the commanders could shift their eyes toward the Emperor's battlefield, Shanks' roar shattered the skies.
It wasn't a scream—it was a declaration of war from a god of the sea.
BOOM!!!
Shanks' rage erupted in a wave of Conqueror's Haki.
Like a storm condensed into human form, his fury tore across the sea and sky.
The heavens responded.
Torrential rain halted instantly
Thunder and lightning vanished in fear
The howling winds ceased without a whisper
Above him, the black clouds didn't retreat. But they didn't challenge his Haki either. It was as if the New World sky itself held them in place—as shields, protecting the heavens from the wrath of a Yonko.
Yet it wasn't the clouds that bore the brunt.
It was the sea below.
Where once the waves churned in fury, they now lay flat.
Not calmed—oppressed.
The sheer force of Shanks' unleashed Conqueror's Haki flattened the ocean itself. Within its sphere of influence, not a single wave rose.
The sea that had swallowed Yasopp's body... was now a mirror, a frozen reflection of its master's rage.
However, the king's wrath was far from spent.
Flattening the sea was only the beginning — not the end.
BOOM!
At that moment, Red-Haired Shanks gripped his saber in his right hand. His gaze, more savage and overwhelming than that of the massive Sea Kings themselves, pierced through the storm-wracked battlefield.
He didn't need to move.
Just by unleashing his Haoshoku Haki, an unfathomable torrent of will exploded outward — a wave of royal might that swallowed the battlefield whole, like a mythical deluge that drowned all life and land beneath the heavens.
This was the king's spirit — the greatest Conqueror's Haki in the world.
Even the seasoned commanders of the Red Hair Pirates, veterans who had stood beside Shanks countless times, found themselves choking on their breath. Uncontrollable emotions surged forth — trembling, dread, and deep, soul-level unease.
Under such crushing pressure, even those with immense strength found their bodies refusing to respond — paralyzed, not by force, but by sheer awe.
Kaido's forces fared even worse. Flame Disaster King and the others were directly targeted — Shanks' will had chosen its prey.
In the entire battlefield, only Kaido and Ragnar stood firm, their wills unshaken amid the king's storm of dominance.
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