"Vice Admiral Garp!!"
The sudden turn of events made Koby freeze for a moment. Instinctively, he tried to do something to help Garp, only to realize there was nothing he could do.
"It's all my fault, it's all my fault that Vice Admiral Garp ended up like this—"
"Don't flatter yourself, Koby. That guy was coming for me in the first place. It's just a minor injury. Keep moving, Galaxy Divide!"
Garp threw a punch forward. The overwhelming shockwave punch blasted a gap through Kuzan's ice wall, revealing the pirate ship docked along the shore. But this path didn't seem to be a shortcut to survival.
On the distant horizon, black-backed flags fluttered in the wind. The Jolly Roger of the Beasts Pirates declared their master to this sea. Only now did the true main force arrive by ship.
As the vessels cut through the waves, one after another, the ships gradually revealed their full silhouettes.
The pirate ships of the Beasts Pirates had arrived.
"Brother Who's-Who! Are you alright?!"
Several people hurriedly dragged Who's-Who to the side, intending to treat his wounds. That was the advantage of numbers. Those around him weren't just reserves or spectators, but ready-made field medics as well.
"I was fine, but if you guys make any more bigger movements, I won't be! That old geezer's fists certainly pack a punch."
Leaning against a pile of rubble, Who's-Who coughed up a few more mouthfuls of blood. After taking the medicine handed to him by someone nearby, he finally suppressed the discomfort in his body.
"Lord Who's-Who, this dosage isn't enough. You—"
"That's enough. It's not like this is life-or-death. If you always rely on medicine, what happens if your body builds resistance? When it's time to really risk your life, you'll be done for."
Refusing the additional medicine his subordinate offered, Who's-Who explained his reasoning. Though the medicines were highly effective, he relied on his body's own recovery ability most of the time.
Only in emergencies would he use large doses to grant himself a second life. That had always been his style. To maintain combat sensitivity, he wouldn't even use anesthetics in most situations.
"Where's Dobon?"
"Over there. He hasn't woken up yet."
"This time we really owe him. Without him drawing attention, taking down that old geezer Garp wouldn't have been easy."
By now, his men had already wrapped him in bandages. If nothing else, these pirates who constantly fought on the front lines were all first-rate at bandaging.
If Garp had been in his prime, Who's-Who's first reaction upon seeing him would've been to run. He would never have chosen to fight him.
Even now that Garp was old, Who's-Who had treated him with the utmost caution of his life.
"Too bad he's got too many burdens. Otherwise, if we wanted to keep him here, we'd have to trade a few lives for it."
Glancing at Koby nearby, Who's-Who instead felt that Koby was the true MVP of the entire battlefield. Without Koby, Garp wouldn't have delivered himself to their doorstep.
Without Koby, Who's-Who wouldn't have devised this tactic either. It was precisely because he noticed how much Garp cared about Koby that he had Dobon attempt to ambush him.
The power didn't have to be enough. The attack could miss. But the commotion had to be loud. Everyone on the battlefield had to notice. That was Who's-Who's requirement for Dobon.
In terms of ability, Page One would've been far more suitable than Dobon. But Page One wasn't so easy to fool. Getting him to act as bait would've been troublesome, not to mention he was still caught up in the large-scale melee over there.
If Garp hadn't left himself wide open to protect Koby, Who's-Who would never have found such an opportunity. Even after being struck by Kuzan's Ice Spear and then stabbed by Who's-Who himself, Garp's punch had still nearly taken half of Who's-Who's life.
"What exactly was this old man capable of in his youth? I'm really curious… What are you guys going to do?"
Seeing several pirates around him actually pick up their weapons and walk toward Garp, Who's-Who felt puzzled.
"Brother Who's-Who, that old ba*tard's already like that. We want to see if we can take his head."
"Yeah, that's the Hero Garp! If we can take him down, our names will definitely spread across the seas, right?"
"Stop dreaming! Are you idiots? Even if that old geezer stood there without both hands, he's not someone you can handle. You aren't even Numbers, where do you get the courage for this? Cough, cough… Damn it, you're pissing me off."
After a string of coughs, Who's-Who's not-yet-healed bones nearly shifted out of place. He had to rely on Seimei Kikan to carefully control his body and stabilize them. He had his own calculations in doing so.
Simply stalling for time would bring him no benefit. With Kuzan and Queen entering the fray, Garp had already been marked as destined to lose in Who's-Who's mind. After all, even the ever life-cherishing Queen had come out, what that meant was obvious.
If they let Garp escape after the emergency assembly order had been issued, none of them would fare well once Kaido returned.
Having already seen the outcome, Who's-Who wanted to increase his importance in the process, to make himself an indispensable formula in solving the whole equation.
Highly utilitarian, but that was Who's-Who's nature. He had no grand ambitions; everything he did was for himself.
It had been the same when he joined CP9, and the same when he defected after things went wrong.
Now, it seemed he had succeeded. No one could deny the effect of that stab.
He could understand that his underlings had the same thoughts as him, but to accomplish something like that, they needed to have some real ability.
Of course, reality had already answered on Who's-Who's behalf. It wasn't just the few pirates beside him who had seen Garp wounded. There were always those who couldn't suppress their ambition and charged forward, only to be sent flying one after another, the most direct proof.
"No way, he's been stabbed in the abdomen and pierced through the shoulder, and this old ba*tard still has that much strength?"
"No. He's already weakened. It's just that the gap between you and him is too great."
Who's-Who could clearly see the changes in Garp. Supporting the other SWORD members came at a cost.
Queen's heavy firepower, the Ulti siblings' joint attack—
The drain on stamina, the erosion of Haki; normally these weren't obvious.
But the two wounds on his body caused the accumulated toll to erupt at this moment. If earlier Garp could temporarily repel Queen with a single punch, now he needed two punches to achieve the same effect.
"So the legendary hero is nothing more than this. How much longer can you hold on, Garp?"
The powerful recovery ability of a Zoan-type was at work on Queen. Sunlight turned into specks of energy, absorbed by the leaves on his back, and finally converted to restore his stamina.
"Dealing with you is still no problem."
Pulling the claw blade from his abdomen, Garp's wound sealed back together, stopping the bleeding.
"External wounds are easy to mend, but what about inside? The hero of old will ultimately fall here."
Though he said that, Queen didn't rashly advance. He even pulled Ulti back beside him.
"What are you doing?"
"A cornered beast still fights. That old guy's almost at his limit. If he makes a desperate counterattack, you two brats won't be able to withstand it."
"He's right. Those battleship bags were all punched out one by one. Garp-san, you personally trained a troublesome disciple."
Kuzan stepped to the front. At this final moment, he chose to do it himself.
"You've already been expelled from my tutelage, you foolish disciple."
The battleship bags were Garp's training method. Without using Haki, he would simply punch those decommissioned battleships. At the abandoned shipyard near Marine bases, countless fist marks belonging to Garp were left on the battleship armor.
From middle age onward, Garp's life hadn't gone smoothly.
[My son went off to become a revolutionary, and even founded the Revolutionary Army!]
[My grandson actually wants to become a pirate!]
When he was in a bad mood, Garp would either punch mountains or hammer warships. Now, his former top disciple had also completely turned against him.
Kuzan's right fist began to elementalize, his entire hand turning to ice. With Haki wrapping around his palm, he assumed a punching stance strikingly similar to Garp's.
"Ice Glove!"
"Honesty Impact!"
The two punches crossed. Each struck the other square in the face. Centered on the two of them, a terrifying shockwave erupted, blasting away some pirates who had been itching to move.
"Hmph, that's the price of greed. I already told you, this isn't your battlefield."
Watching his subordinates get blown away, Queen felt no pity. Instead, he thought they had brought it upon themselves.
There were too many wolves and too little meat here. Standing on the sidelines, it was inevitable they would entertain thoughts of picking up scraps.
But Queen had already said it. This wasn't a battle they could participate in. If they wanted to covet something better, they had to be prepared to bear the consequences. This was simply the price they paid.
"Hey, you're still good, right?"
Looking at Kuzan sitting on the ground to the side, Queen couldn't help but ask.
"Of course. If I couldn't stand up from something like that, I wouldn't have stood in front of him in the first place."
Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth and nose, Kuzan stood up again. Nearby, Garp also forced himself back to his feet. Blood slid down from the corner of his eye, but Garp didn't bother to wipe it away, letting it flow across his face.
Compared to the superficial injury on his cheek, the wounds on his body were far more serious. The injuries left earlier by Who's-Who and Kuzan had reopened during the recent clash, and Garp's hand pressed against his abdomen.
"You're already this badly injured and you can still stand? Garp-san, it seems you still want to fight. Surrender. You no longer have any chance of victory."
"Just minor injuries. What nonsense are you spouting, brat?"
"Is that so? Then I guess I was worried for nothing."
"You've already made your decision, and you're still saying such indecisive things. Kuzan, what are you thinking?!"
The blood within Garp surged violently, as if a new force were gathering. At this moment, Garp was squeezing out the last of his body's potential. In just a few breaths, he burst forward once more and arrived in front of Kuzan.
A punch shot toward Kuzan's face.
"I just want to respect the elderly and care for the young, that's all."
Kuzan offered a joking excuse that Garp clearly didn't believe. As he spoke, Kuzan retreated slightly, and a layer of ice armor formed over his arms.
Having experienced their previous clash, he didn't take Garp's punch head-on again. Instead, he sidestepped and threw a punch toward Garp's elbow.
"I've got more than just these fists!"
Kuzan's attack shifted the trajectory of Garp's punch. At the same time, Garp drove his knee toward Kuzan's chest.
Kuzan's body scattered into a flurry of ice shards, avoiding the blow through voluntary elementalization. But just as he reformed his body, Garp's leg swept toward his head.
"Garp-san, I didn't know you had some kicking skills too."
Garp said nothing. All he wanted was to carve out a path for the other Marines in this brief window of time.
And Kuzan quickly understood why Garp rarely mentioned this.
At Garp's level, both fists and legs were deadly weapons. But compared to the fists he had honed for decades, Garp's kicking techniques were clearly inferior.
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