"What... what is that?!"
A tremendous roar shook the entire battlefield. Luffy, pumped full of one last dose of Tension Hormones and sprinting toward the execution platform, instinctively looked up.
That single glance made his pupils quake.
"It's a dragon!!!"
"What?!"
From within the storm clouds thick with lightning, a giant claw slowly emerged, followed by an enormous dragon's head.
Its massive body coiled through the sky above the war, exuding overwhelming pressure.
"So it's Kaido."
Ozz Dotor looked up as well, watching the excited dragon with mild interest.
At the same time, he casually kicked Luffy, who had been trying to charge into the range of his battle with the three Admirals, sending him flying right beside the execution platform.
He had never planned to let Ace die anyway. If someone was going to do the rescuing, Luffy might as well do it.
Only after this war,
there would no longer be a great pirate known as Fire Fist Ace.
What would remain would only be Roger's nameless son, Portgas D. Rouge's child, at most the eldest of the three brothers.
But not Pirate Ace.
"Worororororo!!! Since even a man like you called this 'a somewhat lively war,' of course I had to come take a look!!!"
His laughter rolled down like thunder from above.
The giant dragon gradually descended,
then plummeted in a free fall and smashed straight into the ground, leaving behind a massive crater.
The surrounding pirates and Marines were stunned. After a brief silence,
two huge hands slowly rose out of the smoke.
Ozz Dotor arched a brow.
"Heh. What, did Shanks fail to stop you?"
The smoke cleared.
Kaido stood there with bulging muscles, one scar across his chest and another piercing wound through it, holding his head and laughing wildly, liquor still staining the corner of his mouth.
So he came here drunk?
Looks like last time, he had not fully kicked the habit.
"Red-Hair? That guy really did try to block me, so I left Jack behind and flew here alone!"
"Fighting him isn't even close to as exciting as this!!!"
Relying on Jack?
Would Jack end up clinging to Shanks' ship after Kaido left?
The thought amused Ozz Dotor greatly.
As Kaido made his stunning entrance and casually chatted with Ozz Dotor,
the Marines watching nearby overheard every word.
"So the Emperor Red-Haired Shanks really intercepted Kaido?!"
"And Kaido came alone. Thank god it wasn't the entire Emperor crew!"
Some of the soldiers were already celebrating,
but a Vice Admiral walking up cut them off.
"Don't relax too soon!!!"
"The reason those monsters in the New World are called Emperors isn't because their crews are so united...
it's because every single Emperor possesses the power to wipe out a Buster Call and stand against an Admiral!!!"
Kaido, of course, had also noticed Whitebeard.
When he saw how miserable Whitebeard looked, teetering on the edge of death, he froze for a second.
Then...
"Waaaaah!!!"
"Whitebeard, you bastard, are you really about to die too?!"
"You damn fool, does that mean I'll never get to fight you freely again?!"
"Waaaah!!!"
Caught up in his emotions, Kaido burst into tears on the spot. As his mood surged, draconic features slowly emerged across his body.
Human-Beast Form.
The Drunken Dragon state.
"Whitebeard, old man, since when did you start coughing blood from getting shot by these Marines?! What kind of joke is this!!!"
In an instant,
violent black-red lightning erupted wildly from Kaido's dragon-man form.
His Conqueror's Haki condensed so heavily it might as well have become real, and everyone around him rolled their eyes back and collapsed unconscious.
"You can't just go around unleashing Conqueror's Haki all over this battlefield!!!"
"Hm?!"
"Hell Hound!!!"
Just as Kaido started throwing a drunken tantrum, a giant magma fist trailing black smoke blasted straight toward his face.
"Good!!!"
The Kaido who had been crying moments ago instantly broke into a delighted grin. His kanabo was immediately wrapped in black-red lightning.
"Thunder Bagua!!!"
Two top-tier monsters of Emperor-Admiral class collided head-on the moment they met.
The earth split apart.
The shockwave of their clash rippled outward, shaking land and sea alike.
"Kaido, you bastard!!!"
Sengoku's eyes were practically splitting apart from rage.
"Gurararara... looks like the Navy's got itself a real headache now, Sengoku."
Whitebeard's hands glowed with pale-white vibration waves. Even covered in wounds and illness, he still fought with huge, reckless swings, as if he no longer cared whether he lived or died, smashing against Sengoku's Buddha shockwaves.
The more pirates that came, the more chaotic the battlefield became.
And the more chaotic it was,
the better the chance of rescuing Ace.
From the corner of his eye he glanced toward the execution platform.
Luffy was almost there.
Mihawk had been about to move again, only for Crocodile to block him with a hook.
"What are you doing, Crocodile?"
"You still don't get it, Mihawk?"
Crocodile, blood still smeared across his face, spoke in a dark, smoky tone with his cigar between his lips.
"Saving Fire Fist Ace was Ozz Dotor's intention from the very beginning."
Hearing that, Mihawk actually paused.
He had been watching the giant dragon in the sky, the same one he had once cut, and had not noticed Ozz Dotor's casual kick earlier.
"Kaido!!!"
Among the Seven Warlords, another figure instantly flared with rage at the sight of that familiar silhouette.
Moria.
But in a battlefield of this level, the Moria who had long since become a washed-up shut-in could not interfere at all. He could only be blocked by a Marine Vice Admiral.
Some Warlords were fighting each other.
Some were standing back and watching coldly.
Kuzan remained fixated on Ozz Dotor alone.
The Navy's mid and lower ranks were being held back by Whitebeard's own mid and lower ranks.
And because of that, Luffy really was getting closer and closer to the execution platform.
"So while the big shots are all occupied fighting, you're trying to sneak onto the platform, huh?"
Borsalino, seeing this, was just about to turn into light and head over to kick Luffy away.
Then suddenly,
he heard the click of a bullet being chambered.
He froze for an instant, his pupils shifting slightly.
A gloved hand had appeared behind him without him even noticing, holding a gorgeous, long black rifle to his head.
"Don't move, Kizaru."
"The real show hasn't even started yet, so why are you in such a hurry to slack off?"
Ozz Dotor, having just teleported out of Kuzan's attack range, stood there with a cigarette in his mouth, one hand aiming the black rifle directly at Borsalino's head.
Cold sweat instantly broke out across Borsalino's forehead.
For a man of his level to feel it,
that could only mean one thing.
Death.
"How terrifying."
"As expected of the man they call Black Spear."
Ozz Dotor held the gun to Kizaru's head while glancing up at the sky, as if sensing something.
Borsalino found himself curious, but before he could ask, Ozz Dotor suddenly said:
"About time. They should be arriving soon."
...
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