The moment the Necron host pierced into the troposphere, the Pacifista units—already fully prepared—greeted them with a storm of anti-air fire.
Thus began the true opening act of large-scale army combat!
The Pacifistas' long-range weapons had originally been designed based on Kizaru's light bullets, once powered directly by his energy.
Though Kizaru no longer possessed his Devil Fruit ability, this ranged attack system had been preserved when Roya reforged the Pacifistas—no longer requiring external energy, but fueled by the natural circulation of life-matter within their own bodies.
The result: greater firepower, and vastly longer endurance.
Pale-blue photon bolts burst densely across the heavens, as though a new ocean had been poured into the sky.
Blending with the Necrons' sickly necro-green glow, the colors stained the firmament into a ghostly cyan, laced with flickering phosphorescence—a sight eerily surreal.
For the Praetorians, such bombardment posed no true threat—their defenses were far beyond breach.
But for the Necron Warriors, it was already a grave danger, enough to wound or even destroy them.
The key was sheer volume—there were simply too many photon bolts!
No matter how they adjusted their descent vectors, they could not avoid being struck again and again by the endless barrage.
Under such relentless fire, even the Necron dynasty's hardened core troops could not endure for long. Falling less than a kilometer, most of them were blasted apart into fragments.
Before long, the only forms left plunging earthward were the Praetorians—and the scattered remains of the Warriors.
The sight left Dragon deeply unsettled.
The balance of power on Pirate Star had shifted too rapidly. The Revolutionary Army no longer had the force to contend as they once had.
Though Dragon quickly resolved to follow Roya's path forward, the Revolutionaries were far looser in structure than the pirate crews.
Their numbers of elite warriors and top-tier combatants could not compare.
Their strongest—Bartholomew Kuma—was now a direct subordinate of Roya. And even if they tried sheer numbers, they were fewer than even Buggy's Express Company.
It left their position awkward, dangerously marginal. They needed to seize this battle as a chance to prove their worth—or else fall further and further behind, until catching up became impossible.
In this new order, falling behind meant vanishing into irrelevance, swallowed by the void of the stars.
For Dragon, proud and unyielding, such an outcome was unacceptable.
Desperate to seize the moment, he bellowed to Kuma:
"Oi! Kuma! Leave some meat for the brothers, damn it!"
But Kaido was already there—leaping hundreds of meters into the air to meet the nearest descending Praetorian.
And he called down with mocking scorn:
"Did you forget? These things don't die."
Dragon froze—then realized with a start that, in his haste, he had indeed forgotten the Necrons' nature.
So long as their ghostly green flames endured, the Necrons could not be considered slain.
The shattered Warriors, limbs and torsos strewn everywhere, were not corpses—they were only evading the Pacifistas' barrage through disassembly!
A thunderous boom resounded.
Kaido had already driven a rising punch into a Praetorian's jaw!
The blow's force was so ferocious that even the Praetorian's warship-grade bio-metal could not withstand it. The reinforced alloys of its neck tore open, fissures spiderwebbing from chin to crown—nearly shattering its skull outright!
The green necro-flames within its eye-sockets quivered violently, jolted so hard that sparks tumbled from the neck wound as if its very soul-fire were about to be snuffed out.
And yet, the Praetorian ignored the ruin of its cranium, swinging its arms wide to crush Kaido in a deathly embrace—like a mountain of steel bringing down a suffocating "fatherly hug."
Kaido only laughed darkly. Reaching behind, he drew forth a massive spiked club, even larger and thicker than his old weapon—by half again its size.
Bio-metal's comparative lightness made it possible. Accustomed to his old weapon's weight, Kaido had simply commissioned a larger, more brutal version.
Club in hand, his expression grew even more savage.
Pinned in the Praetorian's grasp, Kaido struck in rapid succession, ramming the spiked club a dozen times into the creature's chest and abdomen.
The swings were short, confined by the embrace—but the power behind them was nothing short of monstrous.
In mere moments, the Praetorian's torso split apart like a burst sack, chest and gut exploding under the barrage. Its arms managed to close, but Kaido had already torn his way free through the ruin of its chest cavity.
And then, with a final backhand strike, he smashed the club squarely into the back of its skull.
For an instant, his Haki surged and withdrew, churning the Praetorian's brain-pan into chaos.
A sharp crack split the air. Its head, already webbed with fractures, burst into shards—fragments spraying outward.
The green fire within flickered, then vanished, extinguished like a candle flame bereft of fuel.
The Praetorian's massive frame plummeted earthward. Though residual flames still licked its shell, it was plain to all that its soul-fire had lost vitality.
It was like brain death in a human—its body persisted, but it was no more than a husk, a lifeless puppet.
With that first kill, Kaido and the Beast Pirates roared, their morale surging as they hurled themselves upon their chosen targets.
And at the same moment, the Warriors who had been shattered into fragments suddenly reconstituted their bodies, reforming their hundred-man squads, and came crashing down upon the streets!
Though their numbers had been reduced by a third in the descent, though the impact alone had obliterated nine of every ten… still nearly two hundred thousand Necron Warriors landed intact!
Two thousand squads spread across the city, plunging the fight instantly into the most brutal form of battle—urban street warfare.
"Conserve your stamina and Haki! Breach the skulls, then strike with Haki to finish them!"
The Supernova Legion had long since, under Squard's guidance, prepared tactics for fighting the Necrons.
Now their officers shouted the battle orders loud and clear, leading their warriors headlong into the streets against the landing host.
Their crimson armor blazed like molten magma flooding through the avenues, their burning faith a searing tide consuming the Necron legions!
Please drop some power stones support me at my
PS: Access the complete/finished chapters/series at Patreon: NanamiTL