After hearing Ozz's words, Sengoku felt slightly relieved.
Not taking a stance was, in a way, good news.
"Gurararara… what a nasty bastard."
Although he had failed to bring Ozz's strength over to his side, Whitebeard did not seem especially regretful.
He had never fully counted on Ozz in the first place.
Because…
he was Whitebeard!!!
"Wait for me, Ace."
"Pops!!!"
With his bisento planted into the ground, Whitebeard drew both fists in before his chest. A shattering crack split through the air.
"That's…!!!"
Crack crack crack crack crack!!!
A monstrous tsunami, large enough to swallow all of Marineford, was forced into being by that one quake-infused punch. Countless warships pitched violently.
"A seaquake!!! He shook the ocean itself!!!"
Other than the true powerhouses who had strength to rely on, chaos instantly broke out among the ranks in the face of that natural disaster.
Ozz yawned.
Having long since seen far higher-level battles, his only evaluation of this opening spectacle was that it was merely decent.
"Your turn, Kuzan."
"Tch…"
Hearing that, Kuzan, who had been about to move anyway, instantly became unwilling.
What was this supposed to be? As if he were taking orders from Ozz!!!
Though as a Celestial Dragon, Ozz technically did have the authority to command an Admiral, this was the first time he had spoken to Aokiji so directly.
"I was going to move anyway!!!"
With the others around him still holding position, Kuzan had no choice. He was one of the few capable of completely neutralizing a tsunami on that scale.
Still, before acting, he had to mouth off at Ozz first.
Then, gritting his teeth, Kuzan leaped forward.
"Ice Age!!!"
The tsunami froze into a colossal sculpture of ice. Then, after Whitebeard punched Aokiji down into the sea and he played his part, the ocean itself froze into the battlefield.
And with that, the great melee began.
Cannons roared into the sky. Waves of men charged.
The commanders and officers, the backbone of both sides, clashed head-on.
For Ozz, though, the warm-up before the climax was still missing something.
After all, it was not yet time for the final boss to take the stage, so his gaze drifted lazily across the battlefield instead.
"That one… I think he showed up in a special?"
This "low-level fight," one that Ozz could not bring himself to care much about, was hell itself to ordinary people.
A single move from a strong fighter, even just the aftershock, was enough to kill them instantly.
Ozz's mind wandered in boredom.
The Warlords found nothing strange about their boss acting like this. They each continued to slack off and spectate in their own way.
Hancock stared dreamily at Ozz's profile as he zoned out.
Then Hawkeye stepped forward.
"Oh?"
Doflamingo let out a soft sound, drawing the attention of the other Warlords.
Even the Marines near them broke into cold sweat at the sight of that figure moving out.
"'Hawkeye' Dracule Mihawk, the world's greatest swordsman, the one rumored to have wounded Kaido!!!"
"Could it be that one of the Seven Warlords is finally…"
Even the Admirals looked over. After all, Mihawk was a fighter not inferior to them.
"Oh, how rare…"
"So the second-in-command of that man is actually moving now. Is he showing his stance?"
Even Doflamingo could not help but speak up.
"Hey, hey, hey, Mihawk. Ozz hasn't even made a move yet. Aren't you getting ahead of yourself?"
But Mihawk only stared coldly forward. His eagle-like eyes shone with icy light.
"This has nothing to do with sides. I simply want to test…"
He slowly raised his gaze.
"…how much distance still lies between me and the man once called the strongest in the world, the one who once contended against Ozz."
As for Mihawk's appearance, Tashigi, as a lover of famed swords, immediately provided the explanation.
"That black blade… Yoru, one of the Supreme Grade swords. A blade fit only for the world's strongest swordsman!!!"
Standing high above the battlefield, perhaps sensing a target worthy of a strike, a pair of razor-sharp eyes seemed to open across Yoru itself.
Black blade in hand, Mihawk raised it high. Threads of black-red lightning curled around it.
Not his full strength, but still a slash worthy of proving his caliber.
He cut downward.
A brief tearing sound split the air.
A slash that stretched a thousand meters into the distance formed instantly, splitting the sea and racing toward the heavens as it carved toward Whitebeard.
Everyone stared in absolute shock at that absurd slash. No one would have doubted it if told that it could cleave Marineford headquarters itself in two.
It looked impossible to stop.
But someone dared try.
Just before it could strike the Moby Dick, a figure rushed forward, his whole body glowing with crystalline light.
"Aaaaah!!!"
The massive green slash, threaded with strands of black-red lightning, struck Jozu head-on.
And then…
"Puhah!!!"
Not only Mihawk, but even Yoru's own gaze seemed fixed on that figure. Yet the disdain in those eyes showed clearly enough that the result had already been foreseen.
The slash had been blocked.
But Jozu, his entire body transformed into diamond, dropped to one knee with a wound across his chest exactly like Zoro's, coughing up mouthful after mouthful of blood.
At this point, even one of Mihawk's ordinary slashes was not something a Yonko commander could answer casually.
After that one cut, Mihawk lowered his blade.
Because he knew that unless he slaughtered every one of Whitebeard's commanders first, Whitebeard himself would never personally take one of his slashes head-on.
"Well now… every single Whitebeard commander looks like a monster in his own right."
After Aokiji, Kizaru the acting monkey joined the field too, casually firing off a Yasakani no Magatama that mostly outlined the target.
Marco kicked him away, sending him crashing in a burst of light into Marineford's own structures.
Then Kizaru reappeared where he started, clothes still neat and proper.
And then Akainu stepped in as well.
The three Admirals all entered the fight. The commanders went out in full force. The future king of deserters was already wondering whether he should run.
As for Whitebeard, Sengoku, Ozz, and the other true deciding figures of the war, they still remained where they were, quietly observing the flow of the battlefield.
"Ace!!!"
At that moment, a grotesquely enormous figure appeared, larger even than the giants.
The instant he showed up, he drew every eye.
Little Oars Jr.!!!
"I've come to save you, Ace!!!"
He strode through the bay, heading straight for the execution platform.
With one hand propping his head up, Ozz had been wondering when the other groups would finally show up, when suddenly he noticed a giant shadow falling over him.
His expression did not change.
His pupils slowly lifted.
"Hey. You're blocking the sunlight."
With just one look, the sky-filling giant Oars rolled his eyes back and collapsed to the ground under the stunned gaze of everyone present.
The Warlords, who had just been about to act, could only quietly stand down again.
"Fufufufu… he really picked the wrong moment to disturb that one's mood. What a sloppy exit."
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