With Iron Will activated, Diarmuid didn't feel any pain despite his severe injury. So his movements were completely unhindered. As he plunged his sword into Redfield's shoulder, he used his other hand to grab Redfield by the neck and pull him in close, their bodies pressed together.
"Fleet Admiral!" Diarmuid roared.
"Nice work!" Kong's voice boomed back, and his body shot into the air, his fist flying down toward both Diarmuid and Redfield.
"Army of Origin: Fist of Victory!" Kong roared.
The punch carried the might of a thousand armies, completely engulfing both Diarmuid and Redfield. Diarmuid was holding Redfield in a death grip, and his Gravity-Gravity Fruit power was being used to its fullest, pressing down on them both. With a top-tier powerhouse like Kong launching the attack, neither of them could dodge!
Diarmuid wasn't too worried about Kong's punch. He knew he would get hurt, but he didn't think Kong would kill him.
Besides, he had just been beating up his boss—the Fleet Admiral. He'd gotten his chance to land some hits, so what if the Fleet Admiral was a little petty afterward? He had just offended the highest-ranking officer in the Marines, so it was only natural for him to take a punch as a form of apology.
With the Fleet Admiral's punch coming down on him, he felt that this whole thing would be over soon enough.
The punch, imbued with immense power, slammed into Redfield's back. Redfield's face twisted in pain, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood mixed with pieces of his internal organs. He was clearly severely injured by this attack!
The powerful force shot through his body, and Diarmuid also coughed up a mouthful of blood. He could no longer hold Redfield down. His legs gave out, and he was thrown backward like a ragdoll.
Before he could hit the ground, Kuzan appeared behind him and caught him. Ice burst from his hands, and in the blink of an eye, he had frozen Diarmuid solid. This wasn't Kuzan trying to harm Diarmuid; it was an emergency measure.
Diarmuid was clearly in critical condition, having been almost sliced in half by Redfield and then taking the full force of the Fleet Admiral's punch, even with Redfield in front of him. Freezing Diarmuid was a way to stop his injuries from getting worse until a doctor could get to him.
On the other side, Kong breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Kuzan had sealed Diarmuid. He had held nothing back with that last punch to ensure Redfield couldn't fight back.
As for being petty about Diarmuid's attacks? Not in the slightest. As Fleet Admiral, he was broad-minded. In fact, he admired Diarmuid's decisiveness. He didn't hesitate at all because of Kong's rank.
Kong pulled a severely injured Redfield out of the shattered ice with an angry look in his eyes. "Redfield, in the name of the Marine Fleet Admiral, I declare you are captured!"
Redfield was in a terrible state. One of his arms was self-amputated, Diarmuid's Nagasone Kotetsu was still stuck in his shoulder, and Kong's final attack had severely damaged his internal organs. He truly had no fight left in him.
He knew he had lost this time. But he never expected to lose so badly. If it weren't for that strange Marine kid, how could he have lost so miserably?
Redfield was unresigned to this defeat. But he still maintained his elegance. A grim smile appeared on his lips as he said with some defiance, "You were just lucky this time, Kong…"
Kong couldn't be bothered to argue with him. He threw him onto the ground and said, "Kuzan, do it."
"Yes," Kuzan quickly replied.
With that, Redfield was also frozen solid, finally in the hands of the Marines. At last, this sudden, but short, battle had come to an end.
Kong himself felt it was a bit unbelievable. When he had first seen Redfield, he had a feeling that he might have to fight for days. But here he was, not even a whole afternoon had passed, and the Aloof Red was already defeated?
But he didn't dwell on it too much. Kong swept the thought from his mind and looked at Kuzan. "How's Commodore Diarmuid?"
Diarmuid had just performed a great service!
Kuzan shook his head. "I don't know. He was still breathing when I froze him, but just by looking at him, I can tell his injuries are very serious."
"My fault. I punched too hard," Kong said, a little guiltily.
"Diarmuid would never blame you, Fleet Admiral," Kuzan said honestly.
Kong nodded. He didn't doubt that. In his opinion, Diarmuid was also a ruthless man who didn't hesitate to attack even the Fleet Admiral. He was a man who understood the big picture and would surely understand why he had to punch so hard. He wouldn't blame him. But deep down, he still felt a little guilty.
"Send him back to the battleship for treatment immediately! Make sure he doesn't die!" Kong said in a low voice.
After arranging everything, the battleship broke the ice and headed toward the G-1 Marine Base to see what had happened. At the same time, Kong also sent a report back to headquarters.
....
Marineford, Marine Headquarters.
Sengoku breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that the Fleet Admiral was fine and that Patrick Redfield had been captured. He hung up the Den Den Mushi. But there wasn't much joy on his face; in fact, it was quite serious.
"Sengoku-san?" a voice called out to Sengoku. He looked up. It was Rosinante. Two years had passed, and Rosinante had matured a bit.
"It's nothing, Rosinante. Your paperwork is done. You can go report for duty," Sengoku said with a smile.
Rosinante looked at Sengoku with some concern. He could feel that Sengoku was a little down. But he didn't ask anything else. Rosinante nodded and left the office.
After he was gone, Sengoku picked up the teacup on his desk. He looked at his reflection and softly muttered, "The Fleet Admiral won't die before I do… is that right?" He had just learned about Diarmuid's situation and felt that he was partly responsible.
Two days later, Garp's dog-themed battleship arrived at the G-1 Marine Base.
The base had indeed been taken down by Redfield just before the Fleet Admiral's battleship arrived. This confirmed Kong's belief that Redfield had truly become much stronger than before.
The fact that he was able to fight him to that extent after taking down the G-1 Base was proof enough. This also made him glad they had captured Redfield.
Under Kong's command, the G-1 Base quickly returned to normal operations. Garp temporarily took over as the person in charge.
Kong had no interest in continuing his patrol. What was the point? So, after a few words with Garp, Kong's battleship turned back. Diarmuid, still unconscious, was taken back to Marineford for further treatment.
At the same time, news of the Marines' capture of Redfield swept across the world like a tsunami. The news naturally didn't say that Fleet Admiral Kong had happened to run into Redfield right after he destroyed G-1. Instead, it was reported as a major operation led by the Fleet Admiral to capture Redfield, which ended in a huge success!
Two years ago, the world knew that the Marines had crushed Golden Lion Shiki's massive fleet in the New World.
At the time, the Marines were peerless. However, in the time that followed, the Marines hadn't made any big moves in the New World. They had been fighting steadily, and while they had some achievements, they weren't particularly eye-catching.
But after almost two years of silence, the Marines had once again created a huge news story.
They had captured Redfield, a pirate on the same level as Shiki, Roger, and Whitebeard!
In the New World, the Marines' prestige rose once again!
Unlike the Edd War Sea battle two years ago, this event took place right in front of the G-1 Marine Base. No other factions were there to get details, and there was no third-party involvement. So, many people didn't suspect the Marines of exaggerating. They actually believed it. They had no choice but to believe it.
Just look at the front-page photo in the newspaper—how miserable did the famous pirate Redfield look? His arm was cut off, a sword was stuck in his shoulder, and his whole body was covered in injuries. He looked like he had been ambushed by the Marines. It was even rumored that the battle, from start to finish, didn't even take an afternoon.
One could imagine how many enemies he had faced… It was a truly miserable defeat!
But it was a shame that while the Marines' prestige in the New World grew, there was no immediate gain. Unlike the bigshots like Shiki, Redfield had always been a lone wolf with no territory. So, after his capture, all the Marines gained was public opinion and a boost in morale. No chaos was caused in the New World.
In the sky, on Merveille, the island that led to the sky, was Shiki's great hideout. Shiki was staring intently at the photo of Redfield on the newspaper.
"Boss, is something wrong?" Dr. Indigo asked curiously. Shiki had been staring at the photo for two or three minutes.
"Rodriguez Diarmuid," Shiki suddenly said. He then looked through the text in the newspaper for a moment and finally found a sentence in an inconspicuous corner.
'Rear Admiral Kuzan and Commodore Rodriguez Diarmuid fought bravely.'
"It was that kid after all. Looks like he's grown up," Shiki said with a smile. He recognized the sword stuck in Redfield's shoulder at a glance: one of the 21 Great Grade Blade, Nagasone Kotetsu. He had seen the owner of that sword in the North Blue, an immature Marine kid. Now, that kid seemed to have become much stronger.
Shiki was simply impressed. He didn't think about it any more than that. He had no idea that the Gravity-Gravity Fruit he lost during the Edd War had been eaten by this very same Commodore Diarmuid. If he did, he might have paid a lot more attention to this kid.
——————
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my patreon ——— patreon(.)com/JuanFiction [remove the parentheses ( )]
There are over 100 advance chapters available for you!