Chapter 85: Skypiea – Usopp's Explosive Sacrifice & Nami's Shattered Dream"This boring trial… it's time to end it."
Shura's pupils shrank to pinpricks behind his goggles. The long spear in his hand emitted an ominous hum—the Heat Dial loaded inside the blade was pushed to its limit. The metal spearhead gradually glowed bright red, distorting the surrounding air with intense heat.
"Let me show you…" He swung the spear violently toward the ground. "…what a real 'String Trial' looks like!"
BOOM!
Hanegane dove sharply downward. Shura leaped onto its back, looking down at everyone from above.
"Gan Fall!" Usopp shouted.
The old knight charged in on Pierre at full speed, lance aimed straight at Shura's throat. "Just a relic god discarded by the times…" Shura sneered viciously and suddenly yanked his left hand.
"What?!"
Countless nearly invisible string clouds suddenly appeared! They had already densely covered the entire battlefield. Now, under Shura's control, they tightened like living things!
Gan Fall's charge trajectory was forcibly twisted. Shura seized the opening with his flaming spear—pssh!
The burning blade pierced straight through Gan Fall's abdomen; flames exploded inside his body!
"Gahhh—!"
With a cruel flick from Shura, Pierre neighed desperately trying to catch his master—but Shura swept him away with a backhand strike, then delivered another fatal thrust. Both rider and mount plummeted like meteors.
Man and bird crashed heavily right in front of Usopp and the others.
"Sky Knight!! Pierre!!" Chopper's heartbroken cry tore through the air.
Usopp struggled desperately but found he couldn't even move his fingertips. At some point, hair-thin string clouds had wrapped his entire body.
"From the moment you stepped into this area…" Shura slowly descended amid the flames. "…every step you took was weaving your own noose."
He raised his left hand. Glowing thin lines like a spider web appeared across the entire battlefield—on the ground, trees, even in the air. All those seemingly casual earlier attacks had been to set up this invisible web of death!
"Now…" Shura pointed the glowing red spear tip at the immobilized Usopp. "…time to settle the score."
Just as the spear was about to pierce Usopp's chest, Usopp suddenly took a deep breath, his chest inflating dramatically.
"Air Burst!" With a furious roar, he exhaled a highly compressed blast of air.
The gas expanded violently between them with a deafening explosion. The shockwave instantly shattered the string clouds binding him.
"Impossible?!" Shura staggered back several steps; fragments of his goggles rained down from his face.
He stared wide-eyed in disbelief at the now-free Usopp: "How could someone trapped by string clouds possibly attack?! You… you're a Devil Fruit user?!"
"That's right!" Usopp backflipped to gain distance, proudly slapping the strange device at his waist. "I'm the Bomb Man who ate the Bomb-Bomb Fruit! Even the air I exhale can become a bomb!"
Usopp quickly pressed the button on his waist launcher. A rope with a metal claw shot out—"whoosh!"—and hooked onto a high tree branch.
The instant the rope went taut, Usopp was yanked upward like a kite.
"Abandoning your friends to run?" Shura sneered coldly, flipping onto Hanegane's back. "Hanegane, pursue!"
The giant bird spread its sky-covering wings and soared upward with its master. The sharp spear tip gleamed coldly in the sunlight and easily pierced Usopp's abdomen.
"Gah!" Blood sprayed from Usopp's mouth, tracing a tragic arc through the air.
But his blood-soaked hands clung desperately to Shura's collar, knuckles white from the effort.
"Run? No way…" Usopp painfully raised his head, forcing a crazed grin. "I deliberately chose high altitude… so I wouldn't hurt them…"
Shura's pupils suddenly contracted. His Mantra screamed warnings; the shadow of death enveloped him. He frantically activated the Heat Dial in the spearhead; the tip flared with terrifying red light. Usopp screamed as his wounds worsened—but it was too late.
"Art… is an explosion!!"
With the gravely wounded Usopp's final shout, his body erupted with light brighter than the sun.
A world-shaking roar echoed across the sky. Scorching shockwaves tore the clouds to shreds. Almost the entire God Island could see the mushroom cloud rising from this spot.
When the smoke cleared, only half a charred spear fell from the sky. Usopp—covered in blood—plummeted straight downward like a bird with broken wings.
"Usopp!!" Chopper's cry tore at the heart.
Chopper and Karoo struggled desperately; the string clouds cut deep into their flesh, blood staining fur and feathers red.
At that moment, the shockwave from the earlier explosion loosened the string structure. The two little ones finally broke free.
Karoo raced across the lake—stepping on the heads of sky sharks drawn by blood and the explosion—made a round trip to the Merry, grabbed Chopper's medical box in his beak, and rushed back.
Then, under Chopper's emergency treatment, Usopp, Gan Fall, and Pierre were successfully stabilized. Only after that did Chopper treat his own and Karoo's wounds.
Half an hour later, Usopp—wrapped like a mummy—finally opened his eyes. He looked at Chopper and Karoo (also fully bandaged), then at Gan Fall and Pierre (mummified in the same style), and weakly grinned: "Looks like… we all survived…"
"Wahhh… Usopp… it's all my fault for being too weak… if I were stronger, you wouldn't have gotten hurt so badly…" Chopper's blue nose twitched; huge tears plopped down. His hooves clutched the bandages tightly, voice full of self-blame.
"Idiot!" Though pale, Usopp forced a smile and reached out to pat Chopper's head. "Didn't you just save my life?"
He coughed twice, pretending to be casual: "You're the most important ship doctor on our crew! Protecting you is only natural, right?"
Chopper's tears slowed a little, but his eyes were still red: "But…"
At that moment Karoo also came over, his bean eyes sparkling with moved tears—clearly deeply touched by Usopp's bravery and self-sacrifice.
Usopp glanced at him and added: "…Of course, pets and emergency food supplies need protecting too."
Crack.
Karoo instantly petrified, as if you could hear his heart shatter.
"I wonder how Luffy and Sol are doing…" Chopper wiped his tears and looked into the distance, worried.
Meanwhile, at the same time—
"Sol! Why?! Tell me why! Where's my gold?! Where did my gold go?!" Nami's hands clamped around Sol's neck, shaking him furiously, her eyes burning with rage.
"F-First… let go…!" Sol's face turned blue; his tongue nearly lolled out. He struggled, slapping at Nami's arms.
"Ah! Sorry sorry!" Nami finally realized and quickly released him, even patting his back to help. "I got too excited…"
Sol gasped for air, then after catching his breath pointed at the surrounding ruins: "Look carefully—these buildings were originally covered in gold. They were just pried off."
Nami froze, then looked closely. Sure enough, the walls showed clear marks where gold had been scraped away.
Her expression shifted from fury to shock: "Wait… you mean this is the legendary Golden City Shandora?!"
Sol nodded: "Exactly. Except now it's just a pile of ruins."
Nami clutched her face, pain making it hard to breathe: "My gold… my dream… all gone…"
At that moment, a deafening explosion echoed from the distance. Both turned to look.
"That direction… it's where we started!" Nami's face changed. "This is bad! Usopp and the others are in danger!"
Sol's eyes sharpened: "Nami, we need to hurry back first."
Nami no longer cared about investigating the missing gold. She immediately sprinted toward the explosion: "Sol! Hurry up!"
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