Kaido swung his kanabo, thunder and lightning snapping along its surface.
A "youth version" of Thunder Bagua—still full of overwhelming momentum.
He stomped down—
Whoosh!
His tall figure flickered, arriving right in front of the Marine.
"So fast!"
That Vice Admiral never expected a "small-time pirate leader" to move at that speed.
But he was still a Vice Admiral—his reaction wasn't slow.
He raised both hands—
Shing!
His longsword was instantly dyed black with Armament Haki.
Bang!
The black blade and the black kanabo slammed together, the impact instantly drawing the attention of dozens nearby.
"How is that possible? Romu's squad leader has this kind of strength?!"
"I remember now! This Kaido… he's the 'strongest warrior' who defected from the Vodka Kingdom!"
"And someone like that is only a squad leader under Romu?!"
"Romu being a freak is one thing—why are his subordinates freaks too?!"
Seeing the Vice Admiral get stopped, the Marines began studying Kaido more carefully—and recognized his wanted information.
The pressure in the area surged.
A Vice Admiral being held back by a squad leader…
That wasn't just embarrassing—it was unacceptable.
"Get out of my way!!"
The Vice Admiral roared.
Energy surged across his body as Armament spread through every muscle fiber.
His wrist spun rapidly.
The black sword moved like an extension of his arm, stabbing out countless afterimages in an instant.
Blood splashed.
In the blink of an eye, Kaido's body was punctured with several clean, shining sword holes.
"Ugh—!"
He collapsed to the ground.
"Tch."
The Vice Admiral's voice was cold.
"You're not even worth remembering."
He flicked his sword downward, flinging off the blood in a clean arc.
No stain remained.
He looked satisfied—then turned toward the next pirate.
"You—"
A voice interrupted him, abrupt and low.
"My opponent is you."
The Vice Admiral snapped his head around.
Kaido—who should've been down—was standing again, kanabo in hand.
"Not dead?!"
The Vice Admiral blurted it out.
And in the next moment, under his stunned gaze—
Kaido's wounds began sealing shut.
The holes closed.
Flesh reknit.
"Remember this, Marine."
"My name is Kaido."
"Squad leader under Captain Romu."
His huge pupils flashed with savage light.
He raised his kanabo again and smashed forward.
The two clashed once more.
"Ha—! I knew Kaido wouldn't go down that easily!"
"That regeneration… he really is Captain Romu's picked man!"
Kaido's showing ignited the squad's morale.
Romu's twenty-one men charged harder, blades howling.
These weren't random pirates.
They were the most elite recruits—people others had tried to poach privately during the newcomer evaluations.
Then Romu trained them for three months.
Even the "doctor" among them was strong enough to carry a bounty near ten million.
Before long—
That Marine unit was wiped out.
The twenty-one regrouped with Kaido and beat the Vice Admiral to death in a storm of blows.
Romu's team won their first engagement in spectacular fashion:
Twenty-one pirates killed fifty-nine elite Marines— including a swordmaster Vice Admiral.
Not far away, Sakazuki's trio watched it all unfold, faces heavy.
"Damn… even Romu's subordinates are this strong?!"
"So scary… especially that horned guy. That regeneration isn't normal."
"Tch… let's deal with these cursed trees first."
Sakazuki fumed, Borsalino stared in shock, Kuzan went quiet.
Different expressions—
Same conclusion:
In their minds, Romu had been elevated to the same tier as their teachers—Zephyr—and even monsters like Sengoku and Garp.
Meanwhile, Romu vs. Sengoku continued.
Romu sprang from the ground and landed back on the wooden giant's shoulder.
He was strong—
But relying on raw physique and one aspect of his fruit wouldn't be enough to suppress Sengoku completely.
"ROAR!"
The wooden giant pounded its chest.
The wooden dragon hissed.
Under Romu's control, green light thickened across both.
Because the Marines had been delayed—because Flower-Tree World was still feeding—
Romu's recovery hadn't slowed.
If anything, as casualties rose, the forest absorbed more… and returned more.
Romu clenched his fists, feeling power so full it nearly overflowed.
His brows lifted.
His fighting spirit didn't dim at all.
"So what if you figured it out?"
"You're still my fuel."
No taunting.
No wasted words.
At this stage, there was only one thing left:
Fight.
Romu drove the wooden giant forward again.
Armored: Dragon Fist—fully charged.
The ground trembled violently.
A black dragon-shaped shockwave smashed Sengoku back into the earth once more.
Palm after palm followed, pounding like falling mountains.
Rocks exploded outward.
Marines and pirates on the edges had to defend desperately just to avoid being shredded by flying debris.
Then—
A powerful golden shockwave erupted from the pit, flipping the wooden giant into the air.
"Hmph!"
Sengoku's low growl followed immediately.
He clasped his golden palms together and slammed toward Romu.
Romu's energy was overflowing—he didn't dodge.
He met it head-on.
Boom!!
The wooden giant's black palm collided with Sengoku's clasped golden palms.
Golden Buddha-flame and green radiance surged together. Lightning-like arcs crackled through the energy.
Sengoku's eyelid twitched.
"Stronger again…"
"Power, speed… everything."
A violent airwave blasted upward, tearing apart freshly gathered clouds again.
Both were thrown back and crashed down.
Sengoku's crater was over ten meters deep.
The wooden giant's impact gouged out an even larger one.
From inside the pit, Sengoku rubbed his golden chest, expression grim.
This time, it wasn't just his arm going numb—his whole body felt rattled.
He wasn't surprised.
He'd already sensed it: Romu's energy had risen again.
And worse—
Sengoku's own "invincible momentum" was thinning.
At the start, he swung with peak stamina and absolute conviction.
Now, even using the same output, his spirit wasn't as sharp.
And he couldn't fully suppress the destructive force behind Armored: Dragon Fist.
He surged upward again.
But Romu's wooden giant was already standing, mouth and dragon-maw lighting with orange glow.
Boom!
Twin orange beams blasted toward Sengoku.
Sengoku's golden gaze sharpened.
"Then I'll pierce it."
He extended his palm—nine fingers curled in.
Only the index finger remained straight.
He compressed Buddha Shock into a single line.
A technique that concentrated everything—turning scattered Buddha power into a piercing spear.
Slash!
A thin golden beam shot out, meeting the orange column head-on.
Even from far away, Kong turned sharply.
He knew that move.
Because when Sengoku developed it, he'd tested it on Kong's own famed defense.
Kong had confidently accepted—
Then dodged at the last second.
That penetration was too terrifying to face directly.
Kong had called it:
The strongest spear in Marine offense.
Garp nodded grimly.
"That's Sengoku's strongest shock. Romu can't block that."
Zephyr, Whitebeard, Shiki and others all felt that extreme piercing pressure and looked over.
And then—
Under countless eyes—
The golden line didn't "collide" with the orange beam.
It stabbed through it.
Like red-hot steel through ice, it split the orange column cleanly and flew straight at Romu's forehead.
That distance—
There was no time to dodge.
"Romu!!"
"Captain Romu!!"
Whitebeard and Kaido both shouted, but the moment they moved their opponents tangled them again.
And then—
Romu's lips moved, calm and precise.
"Armored—Row-Arrange Ogre Mask."
In an instant, the wooden dragon surged up, transformed, and locked into place in front of Romu—
Becoming a massive, fanged, demon-faced mask.
Less than a millisecond later—
The golden piercing beam slammed into the mask.
A shriek of tearing metal echoed across the battlefield.
For several seconds, hundreds of meters of golden beam poured into that mask.
Then the light faded.
A scorched black mark sat at the mask's brow—
But it hadn't been pierced.
It held.
"…Blocked?!"
"How?!"
"The Marines' strongest spear got stopped?!"
"What is that thing?!"
Kong, Garp, Zephyr—everyone froze.
Even Sengoku's eyes widened, staring at the blue-green, fang-bared mask in disbelief.
His most offensive technique…
Stopped by a "shield."
On the wooden giant's shoulder, Romu lowered the mask, shrinking it in his hand.
He brushed the scorch mark lightly—
It vanished.
The mask reformed into a long wooden dragon again, coiling around him, hair and cloak stirring as if in a silent storm.
Romu stood atop a hundred-meter wooden titan with a dragon at his back.
Like a god given shape.
"Don't stop."
"I'm just getting warmed up."
Boom!!
Romu, the dragon, and the wooden giant moved together.
Power spread outward and made the entire region quake.
Orange beams.
Dragon shockwaves.
Mountain palms.
Romu's own Haki-coated body.
He bombarded Sengoku relentlessly—like his attacks cost nothing at all.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The world shook. Clouds churned.
From a distance, people could only make out a golden figure being blown back again and again.
"Even Sengoku's Buddha form is being suppressed…"
Tsuru, Conqueror's Haki flaring as she watched, sucked in a cold breath.
Rayleigh beside her could only murmur, stunned, as the land fractured and roared.
The Marines began to worry about Sengoku.
And that distraction—
Gave Rocks' commanders their first breathing room in a long while.
With Rayleigh subtly holding back, Whitebeard began forcing Tsuru, CP0, and the Vinsmokes into retreat again.
No exaggeration:
Romu alone had the presence of an entire army, and by pinning Sengoku, he warped what had been a balanced battlefield.
On the ground, Kaido watched Romu chasing Sengoku through the sky, eyes shining with worship.
He slammed his bloodied kanabo onto a trembling Marine's head and barked proudly:
"See that?! That's my captain—Romu!"
"And I'm Kaido, squad leader under Captain Romu!"
"This war—Marines, you're finished!"
But the moment he finished shouting—
A meteor-like object wrapped in black flame fell from above.
Boom!!
It slammed into the ground less than a hundred meters away, shattering rock and blasting a shockwave outward.
"What the hell?!"
"A meteor?!"
Kaido didn't even have time to process it.
The shockwave swallowed everyone nearby—pirates and Marines alike—launching them into the air, Kaido included.
Dust exploded upward like a storm.
Then—
Before Kaido and the others could even hit the ground—
Three figures burst through the dust and arrived at the impact center.
"Garp… your fist is as brutal as ever."
"Taking that head-on— even Rocks wouldn't walk away unshaken."
"Don't get careless."
The sudden development dragged the entire battlefield's attention over.
Everyone turned.
Because the next moment would decide something big.
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