Things were not unfolding the way anyone had imagined.
Originally,
the Blackbeard Pirates should have made their grand entrance at the end of the Summit War as the ultimate winners, shocking the whole world.
But now...
"Hah... hah..."
Teach was panting heavily, looking utterly battered.
If not for the Dark-Dark Fruit's ability to suppress creations born from the Gasha Gasha Fruit, they would have already been sunk on the sea before ever reaching this place.
Even after escaping to Marineford on a raft, the Blackbeard crew still looked shaken, their eyes bloodshot.
"Those two monsters!!!"
The group finally spotted by everyone at the harbor
was none other than the Blackbeard Pirates, who by all rights should have appeared here as one of the Seven Warlords.
But for some reason, they all looked terrible.
"That's a Warlord!!!"
"And there are major pirates from Impel Down too!!!"
"Why are they coming to Marineford now? And what happened to all those wounds?"
"It looks like they ran into something truly horrifying."
Among the Blackbeard crew, Hades was covered in blood and seemed to be at the end of his strength,
yet he still turned to look back toward the sea.
"Do not think a few relics of the old era can defeat me that easily!!!"
His voice was loud and full of spirit.
The Blackbeard crew's faces turned green.
That damned Hades still had the energy to shout like that?
And yet, this was exactly what Teach admired about him. His head was hard enough, and so was his strength.
If Hades had immediately wilted when facing monsters from the old era, Teach would have thought he had judged him wrong.
A man like that would not be worthy of becoming the future right hand of the King.
Still, even if he appreciated that unbending kingly bearing, Teach had no choice but to speak up.
"Zeh... Zehahahaha, Hades, now is not the time to clash with those old monsters still at the peak of their strength. Marineford is where our opportunity lies!!!"
Teach had thought it through well.
At this moment, Marineford was like a gigantic furnace of war.
If they could use the chaos here to stall those two monsters while they schemed for the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, they could kill two birds with one stone.
Teach's plan was sound, and a vicious grin appeared on his bloodstained face,
but before he could enjoy it for long, he realized the area around him had been swallowed by shadow.
His smile slowly stiffened.
Then, without warning, a massive crater exploded open behind him.
The thick smoke blocked the Blackbeard crew's vision, and an annoyed voice came from within it.
"That bastard Ozz Dotor. I was just getting warmed up with a good fight!!!"
A dragon tail casually swept through the air, and the gale it generated instantly blew away all the smoke.
The Blackbeard crew stared at the tall, terrifying creature before them.
"Th... this is..."
Even the prisoners of Infinite Hell, criminals whose very existence was meant to be erased from history, turned pale at the sight of the World's Strongest Creature.
"One of the Four Emperors, Kaido of the Beasts!!!"
"No one ever said a monster like this would show up at Marineford!!!"
Even Teach, who had seen storms far greater than most and wanted to become the King of the World, broke out in cold sweat at the sight of dragon-man Kaido wrapped in black-red lightning.
Damn it!!!
How had they encountered a monster like this the moment they landed?!!!
The Blackbeard crew froze in fear.
Only one man stepped forward.
"So you are one of the Four Emperors, Kaido???"
Clang.
A powerfully built man with broken sunglasses raised his twin axes. Flowing Armament Haki wrapped around the blades, and Conqueror's Haki spilled out from his body as he stood right in front of Kaido.
"Hm?"
Kaido looked at the man before him and was first surprised.
Gaban?
No, not him. But this was a man with talent no less than Gaban's.
And there was a certain familiar aura of power about him.
Seeing such a promising newcomer, Teacher Kaido immediately burped drunkenly, his mood soaring.
"Hey!!! Kid, want to join me?!"
"Jack's place among the Three Calamities can be yours!!!"
One of the Four Emperors, Kaido,
had extended an invitation.
"The only one I will ever follow is the King of the World!!!"
"Worororororo!!!"
"The King of the World? What a bold thing to say!!!"
Kaido's pupils flickered.
That had been the ultimate goal pursued by his former captain, Rocks.
"Stop daydreaming, brat!!!"
Kaido grabbed Hades by the collar and lifted him into the air.
"Open your eyes and take a good look at this battlefield of top-tier monsters!!!"
Then Kaido did not even bother glancing at the trash around Blackbeard. He looked straight out toward the sea.
"I can feel it... the scent of strong men and slaughter!!!"
At that moment,
with the surge of a towering wave, a steel warship split the ocean apart and came charging straight toward Marineford from the horizon.
At the front of the vessel were two figures, one standing and one seated.
The one standing was exceptionally large and powerful, wearing a black military-style uniform from who knew where, earmuffs over his head, his presence like an abyssal demon.
The other sat by the ship's edge, aged in appearance, but elegant and unfathomable.
"That is exactly why I say people like you and Ozz Dotor, who've trained your Observation Haki to the absolute extreme, are a real headache..."
As a man who wanted to become the strongest in the world, Bullet had once considered attacking Redfield, the old legend.
But Redfield's Observation Haki had reached such a terrifying level that it gave him the same frustration he felt when facing Ozz Dotor.
If Redfield did not want to fight him,
then there was nothing Bullet could do about it.
"Do not be so impatient. There are stronger relics of the old era gathered at Marineford now, including that monster from Roger's ship, the one who is my kind."
Redfield's expression remained calm,
his vampire-like aristocratic eyes fixed on the smoke-covered island in the distance.
"That is... Kaido?"
Bullet's eyes locked onto the overwhelming dragon-man figure far away, and in an instant he forgot all about the Blackbeard crew he had been chasing for so long.
"Treat it as a bit of entertainment before I go to war with Ozz Dotor."
Like a demon from hell, Bullet's Conqueror's Haki exploded outward and crashed toward Kaido.
In his dragon-man form, Kaido's draconic pupils instantly narrowed to slits when he sensed that murderous pressure and that Conqueror's Haki.
Then excitement flooded him.
"You are... Douglas Bullet, the Demon Heir?!!"
"Worororororo!!!!"
"Looks like this won't be boring after all!!!"
Calmly watching as the two monstrously powerful figures collided, Redfield turned his gaze into the distance.
"Just as I thought. Quite a few old friends are here..."
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