With Yamato charging straight toward him at full speed, Queen realized his usual tricks weren't going to stop her anymore. Gritting his teeth, he finally decided to bring out the technique he was proudest of.
"No choice! I'll have to use that move—my greatest masterpiece, the ultimate body modification!"
He slammed both hands against the ground and immediately transformed into his complete Brachiosaurus form. Then, to Yamato's confusion, Queen stretched his head and tail perfectly straight until his entire body was rigid like a line.
Yamato naturally saw an opening.
"If you're going to stick your head out like that, then take this—Thunder—!!"
"Brachio Snake!"
Queen's tail smacked hard against the wall behind him.
In the next instant, his head, neck, and tail all launched out of his torso at once, leaving behind an empty Brachiosaurus body squatting motionlessly where it had been.
The sight was so utterly ridiculous that Yamato's raised kanabo froze in midair.
"…Bagua! Wh-WHAT?!"
Queen's head flew through the air with his absurdly long neck trailing behind it, while his tail whipped around from the other direction. Before Yamato could recover from the shock, Queen had wrapped himself around her body from multiple angles and completely restrained her.
Queen had successfully caught her.
Unfortunately, that immediately created a new problem.
He looked down at Yamato trapped in his coils and began calculating furiously.
He couldn't squeeze too hard, because what if he injured the baby she had supposedly been talking about?
But if he held her too loosely, someone as strong as Yamato would break free immediately.
That left only one option.
Queen painstakingly adjusted the pressure.
A little tighter.
No, too much.
Loosen it.
Then tighten it slightly again.
After several awkward adjustments, he finally settled on what he considered the perfect amount of force.
"Mwahahaha! Give up!"
Queen sounded immensely pleased with himself.
"There's no way you can escape the crushing coils of an ancient ruler like me!"
Yamato gritted her teeth. The restraint around her kept tightening and loosening just enough to prevent her from finding leverage, which only made the situation more infuriating.
Queen continued proudly, "I can keep you trapped here all day, but my body can be controlled through voice commands!"
He jerked his head toward the empty Brachiosaurus body sitting nearby.
"That means it can keep rampaging across the battlefield without me! So you might as well surrender!"
"Damn it… I'm not giving up…"
Yamato struggled again, but still couldn't break free.
"Well, if that's how you want to play it, I'll just send my body after somebody else."
Queen sighed theatrically and turned his head, preparing to issue a command.
Then he noticed a small white figure floating beside his abandoned body.
"Huh?"
Bella was circling it curiously.
"What's this? A dinosaur?"
She had already seen several dinosaurs while fighting the Flying Five, and the whole battlefield had been exciting her to no end.
Now she had found an enormous Brachiosaurus body with a perfectly convenient empty opening where its head and tail were supposed to be.
How could she possibly not play with it?
Bella immediately transformed into her ice-crystal combat form and darted inside.
Crystal spread through the empty spaces, forming a brand-new Brachiosaurus head and tail until Queen's abandoned body looked complete again.
Queen's detached head went completely rigid.
His jaw dropped so far it looked ready to dislocate.
His body.
His beautiful body.
The masterpiece he had spent countless years modifying—
was now trotting away with cheerful little steps under the control of an ice cloud.
"W-W-W-WAIT!!"
Queen screamed so loudly his voice cracked.
"COME BACK! GET BACK HERE!!!"
"THAT'S MY BODY! MINE!"
But all he had left was a head, a long neck, and a tail wrapped around Yamato. There was absolutely nothing he could do except watch helplessly as Bella ran away with his proudest creation.
The horrifying possibility that he might spend the rest of his life as nothing but a head attached to a tail finally broke him.
Queen instantly released Yamato and began wriggling after Bella like an enormous snake.
"Kid! Give me my body back!"
Bella turned Queen's stolen Brachiosaurus body around.
"Huh? Mister, this is yours?"
She spun around once, clearly delighted with her new toy.
"Can Bella borrow it for a little while? There are dinosaurs all over that battlefield, and Bella wants to play with them too!"
"I'll give it back later!"
Before Queen could respond, Bella activated Mirage.
Light warped around the enormous Brachiosaurus body, causing its outline to become hazy and indistinct.
Queen's eyes widened.
"Why did Stealth Black activate by itself?!"
The moment the words left his mouth, he realized his mistake.
Wait.
No.
That wasn't Stealth Black.
False alarm.
Unfortunately, his body had heard something else entirely.
"Stealth Black activate."
The internal voice-control system obeyed.
With a faint hum, the Brachiosaurus vanished completely.
The outline that had merely been distorted by Mirage disappeared from sight altogether.
Queen nearly screamed himself hoarse.
"WAIT! I WAS JUST TALKING!"
"I DIDN'T TELL YOU TO TURN INVISIBLE!"
His eyes were practically popping out of their sockets.
Then inspiration struck.
Queen remembered the final image he had seen before his body disappeared—the ice-crystal head Bella had created on top of it.
A vicious grin spread across his face.
"That's it!"
"Brachio Launchers! Blow off the Brachiosaurus head attached to my body!"
If he shattered Bella's ice head, then the body would become his again.
Easy.
Exciting!
Two missiles instantly launched from the completely invisible Brachiosaurus.
Queen couldn't even see them.
A pair of whistles approached.
Then—
BOOM! BOOM!
Both missiles slammed directly into Queen's actual head.
The explosion sent him rolling several times across the ground.
"…What the hell?!"
Queen coughed out a cloud of black smoke and screamed furiously.
"BRACHIO LAUNCHERS! I meant the head attached to my body!"
"Not MY head!"
"Learn the damn difference!"
Unfortunately, his invisible body received another voice command.
"Brachio Launchers."
Two more invisible missiles fired.
Queen heard the incoming whistle and had just enough time for his expression to collapse.
"No, wait—"
BOOM! BOOM!!
Queen's head bounced across the battlefield again, trailing smoke.
"Cough… I…"
His voice cracked.
"…I, the great Queen… have been critically wounded?!"
Meanwhile, the completely invisible Bella was having the time of her life.
She drove Queen's Brachiosaurus body across the battlefield, charging left and right with absolutely no concern for what—or who—happened to be in her path.
Elsewhere, Jack had already transformed into his mammoth form and was facing Ashura Doji, ready to bring their battle to its conclusion.
"Don't think two little cuts are enough to hurt me!"
Jack swung his enormous trunk.
"I'm Jack the Drought!"
The words had barely left his mouth when—
WHOOSH!
Something completely invisible slammed into the mammoth at full speed.
Jack was launched through the air in a graceful arc before smashing deep into a distant rock wall.
Inside Queen's stolen body, Bella briefly looked back.
"Huh?"
"Did Bella just hit something?"
She couldn't see anything behind her.
So she immediately lost interest.
"Oh well!"
"Bella should hurry and find those dinosaurs!"
Her excited voice drifted across the battlefield.
"Everyone, look! Bella's a dinosaur too now!"
Ashura Doji stood alone in the middle of the suddenly empty battlefield, sword still raised even though his opponent had vanished.
He slowly looked toward the distant cliff, where Jack's enormous mammoth body was embedded in the rock.
Then he looked in the direction where some invisible monstrosity had just thundered past without leaving so much as a silhouette behind.
Ashura Doji remained silent for a long time.
This battle was nothing like the one he had imagined.
Back when he followed Kozuki Oden into battle against Kaido, everything had been tragic, heroic, and deadly serious.
So why the hell had the battlefield turned into this?