The energy that erupted inside their bodies was so violent that it felt as though it might tear them apart and rebuild them from the inside out.
Their eyes instantly lost their natural color, turning completely black—deep and unnerving, like bottomless pits.
At the same time, entirely different energy signatures burst from their bodies.
Visible ripples spread through the air around them, making the atmosphere itself tremble.
To stand any real chance against a monster like Kaido, the Marines had chosen their simulated abilities carefully.
Most had selected powers suited for large-scale interception and defense—primarily Logia-type abilities or unusual Paramecia powers capable of controlling the battlefield.
Against an enemy this overwhelming, ordinary methods simply would not be enough.
They needed abilities that could create even the slightest opening in an otherwise hopeless situation.
"Ice Wall—Absolute Zero!"
With a furious roar, one Vice Admiral who had chosen an ice-based ability stepped forward.
His eyes locked onto the incoming wind blade.
He slammed both hands against the ground.
In an instant, freezing power erupted outward.
A colossal wall of ice rose from the earth like a towering mountain, thick enough to dwarf nearby fortifications. Bitter cold spilled from it in waves, freezing the surrounding moisture into a pale mist.
The massive structure planted itself directly in the path of Kaido's attack.
"Rock-Iron Bulwark!"
Almost simultaneously, another Vice Admiral shouted.
His chosen ability transformed both arms into enormous metallic shields, their surfaces gleaming with a hard, cold luster.
Several captains who had also taken the Super Green Blood serum moved into position beside him, activating similarly reinforced defensive abilities.
Together, they formed a layered barrier in front of the second wind blade.
"Warped Barrier!"
Even one of the captains had been fortunate enough to receive an ability resembling the Barrier-Barrier Fruit.
He focused every ounce of strength into the transparent defense forming before him, attempting to bend the incoming wind blade away from Marineford altogether.
Sweat poured down his forehead.
He did not dare lose concentration for even a second.
Then the attacks struck.
BOOM! CRACK—!!!
Kaido's enormous vacuum blades slammed into the combined defenses.
The towering ice wall shuddered violently.
A deep fracture tore across its surface.
Countless shards exploded outward like a blizzard of glass, glittering coldly beneath the sunlight.
The metal bulwark fared little better.
It screamed beneath the pressure, producing an ear-splitting grinding noise as sparks burst from every point of contact.
The warped barrier twisted violently.
Its surface rippled and distorted like a sheet caught in a hurricane, threatening to collapse at any moment.
The difference in raw power was immediately obvious.
These were abilities the Marines had acquired artificially through the serum.
And compared with Kaido's overwhelming strength, they were still far too weak.
But no one backed down.
They gritted their teeth and held their positions.
Several officers coughed up blood the instant the impact reached them.
Crimson mist sprayed through the air, proof of the terrible backlash their bodies were enduring.
Yet their wills did not break.
They kept pushing.
They had numbers.
They had multiple abilities.
And for this brief window of time, they could force those borrowed powers beyond their normal limits.
Some officers threw themselves directly into the attacks, using their bodies and defensive abilities to absorb the impact.
Others redirected portions of the wind blades.
Still others layered their powers together, grinding away at the attacks bit by bit.
The process was ugly.
Brutal.
Chaotic.
Several officers were blown backward and smashed into the ground.
Others were cut open by the edges of the wind blades, blood soaking their uniforms.
But they got back up.
They kept fighting.
And through sheer desperation, coordination, and numbers—
they stopped both of Kaido's attacks outside Marineford's main defensive line.
The fortress survived again.
Barely.
High above, Kaido looked down at the battered officers forcing themselves back onto their feet.
A trace of irritation entered his enormous dragon eyes.
"Tch…"
"What an annoying bunch of ants."
He had expected them to break.
Instead, these Marines were using the serum to drag strength out of bodies that should already have been at their limits.
Standing on Kaido's broad back, Bullet reacted very differently.
His grin widened.
The more desperate the resistance became, the more excited he looked.
"Now this is getting interesting!"
He threw his head back and laughed.
"Kuzan!"
Bullet's eyes burned with battle lust.
"Looks like your men have more guts than you do!"
Below them, the Marine officers had managed to withstand Kaido's second round of attacks through nothing more than the temporary strength granted by the Super Green Blood serum and their willingness to die defending Marineford.
But that resistance only made the two monsters above them more eager to continue.
The tension across the battlefield rose sharply.
The next attack would almost certainly be worse.
And there was another problem.
The Super Green Blood serum could grant enormous power in a critical moment—
but its side effects were just as terrifying.
...
The Super Green Blood serum came with a terrible price.
Once someone used it, they would fall into an extreme state of weakness for an entire day afterward, to the point where even basic movement could become difficult.
Worse still—
every use inevitably shortened the user's lifespan.
It was a gamble paid for with one's own life.
But for the officers standing here, defending Marine Headquarters and preserving what remained of the Marines' justice and pride mattered more than the consequences.
No matter how desperate the situation became, they refused to let Kaido rampage through Marineford and destroy the very heart of the Marines with impunity.
Every officer who had swallowed that dark serum knew exactly what they had signed up for.
There had never been any illusion about the cost.
The murky liquid was a double-edged sword.
It granted them tremendous power for a short period of time—
while savagely consuming the very life force keeping them alive.
As the serum surged through their bodies, violent energy tore through their veins like a raging flood.
Every pathway felt as though thousands of needles had been driven into it at once.
The agony was enough to make their bodies tremble uncontrollably.
Sweat poured down their foreheads and soaked through their uniforms.
And this was merely the beginning.
Once the effects wore off, they would enter an entire day of crippling weakness.
Their physical functions would plummet.
Their strength would disappear.
Men who had once been powerful Marine officers might temporarily become weaker than ordinary soldiers.
And even that was not the cruelest part.
Every time they used the forbidden serum, a piece of their already limited lifespan was permanently burned away.
There was no recovering it.
No undoing it.
For any warrior who still dreamed of becoming stronger and living long enough to see the future, the price was enormous.
But when Kaido's destructive wind blades came screaming toward Marineford like the scythes of death—
when they looked behind themselves and saw countless comrades who had fought and bled beside them, along with the fortress that represented everything they had sworn to defend—
all hesitation disappeared.
What did lifespan matter then?
What did tomorrow matter if Marineford fell today?
The only thing left was the will to protect it.
Vice Admiral Onigumo suddenly coughed up a mouthful of dark blood mixed with sharp fragments of ice.
The frozen droplets scattered across the ground.
He was forcibly using the serum to reproduce the Ice-Ice Fruit's freezing power, and the backlash from forcing such an unnatural ability through his body was vicious.
He could feel his strength draining away at an alarming rate.
More disturbing still, there was a frighteningly tangible sensation that something deeper was being consumed with it.
His life.
His body was burning through years he would never get back.
Yet there was no regret on Onigumo's face.
Only a vicious, resolute glare as he stared upward at Kaido.
"If it means stopping that monster…"
Blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
"…then what's a little lifespan supposed to matter?!"
There was only one thought left in his mind.
Stop Kaido.
Whatever it cost.
Nearby, Vice Admiral Doberman was in equally terrible condition.
The rock-hard skin created by his simulated defensive ability was already covered in dense fractures.
They spread across his body like cracks running through parched earth.
His muscles trembled.
His bones screamed.
He looked as though his entire body might simply collapse if the pressure increased even slightly.
Still, Doberman forced himself upright.
His eyes remained locked on the enormous Azure Dragon looming in the sky.
"The Marines…"
His voice was hoarse.
"…can die in battle."
He clenched his teeth.
"But we will not be humiliated to death on our own doorstep!"
The declaration carried exhaustion and pain—
but also unyielding pride.
Captain T-Bone and the officers fighting beside him were faring even worse.
Their overall strength was lower, which meant the backlash from forcing the serum's abilities beyond their limits struck them much harder.
Their jaws clenched.
Veins bulged across their foreheads.
Sweat streamed down their faces.
The recoil ravaged their bodies like waves pounding against already cracked stone.
For some, it felt as though countless blades were carving through their insides.
Several officers could no longer remain standing.
Their legs buckled, and they dropped to one knee with heavy thuds against the rubble-strewn ground.
But they refused to collapse.
Their muscles shook violently.
Every breath was dragged painfully from their lungs.
Still, they forced their heads up.
Their eyes remained fixed on Kaido.
There was no fear in those gazes.
Only dignity that refused to be trampled—
and a willingness to fight until death.
They knew they were not Admirals.
They did not possess the strength to stand against Kaido head-on and trade blows with him as equals.
But at this moment, none of that mattered.
If raw strength was not enough, then they would pay the difference with something else.
Their health.
Their future.
Their lifespan.
Whatever remained.
They had chosen to burn it all as fuel.