Watching Whitebeard's chest smoking profusely, Meiser frowned and said, "He's really too old now."
Even though he had just healed the wound that had been pierced through, he couldn't restore this man to his peak condition.
After all... his organs were truly in a state of decline.
"Oh~"
"It seems the Whitebeard Pirates will be wiped out here today," Borsalino remarked.
"Not necessarily."
As soon as he finished speaking, Meiser quickly crouched down, intending to use Earth Release Technique to move Whitebeard elsewhere.
However, Borsalino, who had noticed this, didn't give Meiser the chance to activate his ninjutsu.
"Whoosh~"
Transforming into a streak of light, Borsalino instantly appeared beside Meiser and fired a Laser Beam directly at his head.
"Thump!"
With a single strike, Meiser's head was blown apart!
"Poof~"
Meiser's body, prevented from completing his ninjutsu, twisted violently before disappearing.
When he reappeared, his body had already returned to its original state.
"So it's not that simple after all," Meiser said with a furrowed brow.
"Can't let you rescue Whitebeard now~" Borsalino stated.
From this moment on, his mission had changed.
He didn't need to attack other pirates or deal with Whitebeard.
His only task was to stick closely to the Blood-Eyed Ninja and prevent him from doing anything unnecessary!
"Tch, what a pain," Meiser spat out.
With such a fast opponent clinging to him, it was truly difficult to accomplish anything.
At that moment, Sengoku from a higher position picked up a Den Den Mushi and shouted, "Quickly, everyone attack together and take down Whitebeard!"
"Charge!!"
The Marines, upon receiving the order, immediately roared and rushed toward Whitebeard.
"Thrust!"
"Thrust!"
"Thrust!"
Several Commodores appeared before Whitebeard and without hesitation plunged their swords into his body, piercing him completely!
"Die, Whitebeard!"
A Commodore roared, raising his cannon and firing directly at Whitebeard's head!
"Boom!!"
Dust covered Whitebeard's head as the man slowly began to fall backward.
"Pops!!"
Seeing this, the pirates' eyes instantly turned red.
Then, with twisted expressions of rage, they charged toward the scene.
Just then, Whitebeard halted his backward fall and roared, "Don't come any closer!!"
"Huh?!"
Hearing Whitebeard's words, the pirates froze in their tracks.
Why wouldn't Pops let them rescue him?
"Do these fools think they can kill me like this?!" Whitebeard slowly straightened his back and bellowed, "I am Whitebeard!"
As he spoke, Whitebeard infused his Naginata with Haki and fiercely slashed it toward the ground before him!
"Boom!!"
The strike created a massive vortex, violently sending all the Marines who dared attack him flying through the air!
"Ahhh!!"
"Mon... monster!!"
The Marines' eyes filled with terror as they stared at the man who remained terrifying even while wounded.
Huff...
...Huff...
After accomplishing this, Whitebeard began panting heavily, struggling to regulate his condition.
Seeing this, Sengoku declared, "He's already severely wounded! Don't be afraid!"
"Marshal Sengoku is right! Whitebeard is at his limit!" a Marine rear admiral shouted.
"Don't be scared! Take him down!"
"Ooh!!"
The Marines, their morale restored, roared as one.
However, this time they didn't charge directly at Whitebeard, instead cautiously inching toward him as if fearing he might suddenly strike.
Witnessing this, Whitebeard burst into loud laughter.
"Gurararara!"
"Sengoku!"
"Do you really think you can defeat me with these cowardly rats?!" Whitebeard lifted his head to look at Sengoku. "Don't make me laugh!"
"I am Whitebeard!!"
Hearing Whitebeard's roar, the recently emboldened Marines immediately retreated a step, clearly afraid of being attacked by him.
Seeing this, Sengoku's expression darkened.
"Damn Whitebeard..."
"Gurararara!!" Whitebeard laughed heartily. "A mere fatal wound isn't enough to kill me!"
With that, Whitebeard planted his naginata firmly on the ground and continued, "Anyone who isn't afraid to die, come and try me!"
As the main commander of this assault on Marine Headquarters, Whitebeard understood his importance perfectly.
After all... he was the spiritual symbol of the entire Whitebeard Pirates, their central pillar!
If he died, the pirate crew's morale would plummet to rock bottom!
When that happened... his children would face certain doom, so he absolutely could not die!!
Perhaps recognizing the determination in Whitebeard's eyes, Sengoku said, "Trying to hold on until Ace gets rescued?"
"Heh, I won't give you that opportunity!"
After a cold laugh, Sengoku turned to the communications soldier behind him. "Where are the executioners?"
"Get them here now!"
"Marshal Sengoku, we don't—"
Before he could finish speaking, two executioners came rushing over, led by a Marine.
Seeing this, Sengoku sighed in relief and said, "Send them up immediately!"
"Yes!"
After issuing the command, Sengoku turned back to Whitebeard. "Let's see how you handle this now!"
But unfortunately, Whitebeard paid him no attention this time, instead focusing his gaze on the Marines blocking his path.
Clearly, this man intended to eliminate as many Marines as possible to create opportunities for his children before he lost the ability to move!
"Even wounded like that, he still possesses such formidable combat power..." Borsalino remarked. "Truly worthy of the title 'World's Strongest Man,' this Whitebeard!"
"How truly... terrifying~"
Though his tone sounded somewhat teasing, Borsalino was genuinely praising Whitebeard this time.
After all... this man had already suffered numerous fatal wounds!
To still unleash such formidable combat power in this condition truly lived up to that title!
This... was a genuine monster!
Meiser, noticing Whitebeard's gaze, understood something.
He thought to himself: "So he's already resolved to die..."
No wonder this man had said those words to him when they were on the encirclement wall.
It seemed he had already understood his fate back then.
Thinking this, Meiser sighed silently.
In that case... he could only respect Uncle Whitebeard's choice.
"Come to think of it, making an exit on such a grand battlefield might not be a bad thing," Meiser murmured inwardly.
After all... this was the World's Strongest Man!
Such a man would never accept waiting for death on a sickbed.
Having realized this, Meiser completely abandoned the idea of going to Whitebeard's side and turned his gaze toward the execution platform.
"With most of the Marines' attention focused on Whitebeard... this is an opportunity!" Meiser thought.
"Oh~"
"Planning to make a move on the execution platform?" Borsalino took two steps to block Meiser's line of sight. "I won't let you succeed."
"Is that so." Meiser sneered. "Then try stopping me."
Fine, he'd stay here and keep Kizaru occupied!
Holding back one Marine Admiral would significantly reduce the pressure on the others.
As for the execution platform... he'd leave it to his clone and Luffy's group.
With this thought, Meiser glanced toward Luffy's position and noticed a somewhat familiar figure.
"Hmm?"
Looking at the figure that had appeared near Luffy, Meiser wondered: "Is that... the hair-manipulating vice admiral?!"
He hadn't expected this guy to recover so quickly after being poisoned and still participate actively in this war.
Following Meiser's gaze, Borsalino raised an eyebrow. "Vice Admiral Onigumo, huh."
"So that's his name, Onigumo," Meiser said. "Then the other one must be Doberman."
He remembered the mohawk-headed man calling both their names.
"Mm," Borsalino nodded.
Meiser fell silent for a moment before remarking with some admiration, "To restore his mobility so quickly... it seems you Marines have exceptional medical experts."
"If we didn't have skilled doctors, we'd have been finished long ago," Borsalino replied. The Marines had a complete medical system capable of handling most problems, with poison treatment being one of their specialties - after all, Impel Down housed quite the poison expert!
"Fair point," Meiser acknowledged.
He wondered how the other Marine, whose arm he'd severed, was doing now.
Shaking his head, Meiser summoned his Susanoo and materialized his TimePiercingSpearOfToki.
"Alright, let's begin the next round!" Meiser declared.
The moment he finished speaking, Meiser charged rapidly toward Borsalino!
The next instant...
"CLANG!"
"BOOM!!"
A leg infused with Haki slammed into the TimePiercingSpearOfToki, creating a terrifying shockwave!!
"Blood-Eyed Ninja...."
Sengoku glanced toward the battlefield where Meiser and Borsalino were engaged, murmuring, "It's good that someone is keeping him occupied, saves him from causing trouble everywhere."
As for that clone of the Blood-Eyed Ninja?
A clone without an undying body posed no significant threat—just destroy it!!
With that thought, Sengoku shifted his gaze to Onigumo, who stood before Meiser's clone and Luffy.
"Blood-Eyed Ninja!" Onigumo glared coldly at Meiser's clone and said, "You deserve to die!"
"Hmm?"
Looking at the Navy Vice Admiral blocking his path, Meiser remarked, "It's you."
"That's right, it's me." Onigumo snarled, "I survived!"
Although his strength had diminished due to the poison, at least... he could still personally kill this bastard!
"Survived..."
Hearing Onigumo's words, Meiser fell silent for a moment before tentatively asking, "So, that means the other one died?"
"Yeah, Doberman has already passed on." Onigumo said coldly, "But I will carry his will and take you down!"
As he spoke, Onigumo manipulated his hair to pick up the weapons on the ground, preparing to use his signature Eight-Sword Style Swordsmanship to slash this bastard and the Straw Hat Boy to pieces!
"Who is he?" Luffy asked, puzzled, as he looked at Onigumo.
Why did the two seem so familiar?
"Back when we were at Enies Lobby, we encountered the Marines' Buster Call, remember?" Meiser explained. "There were five Navy Vice Admirals on the Buster Call warships."
"This guy was one of them."
"A Navy Vice Admiral from Enies Lobby?"
A question mark popped up above Luffy's head—had that really happened?
Why didn't he remember?
"It's normal that you don't know." Meiser said. "After all, you were busy fighting Rob Lucci at the time and didn't have time to notice anything else."
"Rob Lucci?"
"That guy with the pigeon!"
"Oh, him." Luffy showed a look of sudden understanding and nodded. "That makes sense."
That battle had indeed been extremely dangerous, so it was normal that he hadn't paid attention to anything else.
"Bastards, how long are you two going to keep chatting?!" Onigumo roared.
As his voice fell, the man used Shave and vanished from his spot.
When he reappeared, he was already in the air above Meiser and Luffy.
However, he didn't direct his attack at Meiser but instead aimed it at Luffy.
After all... the Meiser standing here was just a clone!
"Die, Straw Hat Boy!" Onigumo shouted, "Eight-Sword Style: Spider Flash!"
As he spoke, Onigumo infused Haki into his eight weapons and slashed down at Luffy without hesitation!
"Clang!"
"Wh...what?!"
Seeing Bartholomew Kuma suddenly appear in front of him and block the attack, Onigumo's pupils contracted sharply.
"Bartholomew Kuma..."
Feeling the force transmitted from the other's arm, Onigumo's expression turned grim.
"He's all yours, Kuma." Meiser said.
Upon hearing this, Kuma said nothing, merely nodding silently in response.
"Damn it, do you think relying on him can stop me?!" Onigumo roared angrily. "Don't underestimate—"
Before he could finish speaking, he noticed a glow building in Bartholomew Kuma's mouth, clearly preparing to attack him with a Laser Beam.
Sensing the lethal threat, Onigumo immediately used Moonwalk and vanished from his position.
The next moment...
"Whoosh~"
"BOOM!!"
The terrifying Laser Beam struck the area where Onigumo had just been, instantly blasting out a massive crater!!
"Whoosh~"
"Click~"
Landing on the ground, Onigumo quickly activated Shave and dashed to the side, intending to intercept and kill Meiser and Luffy.
But unfortunately, Bartholomew Kuma wouldn't give him that chance.
Just as Onigumo activated Shave, Bartholomew Kuma's body moved as well.
The colossal figure caught up to Onigumo in the blink of an eye and then slammed a palm down at him!