"I really didn't expect this. Even that bastard Red-Hair couldn't resist sticking his nose into this…"
After hearing Hawkins's explanation, Moria and the other captains in the group chat could not help but suck in a cold breath.
Red-Haired Shanks. Although the Red Hair Pirates had now lost their title as one of the Emperor crews, Shanks's strength was still the real deal—firmly at Emperor level.
And thanks to the Straw Hat Pirates' internal information, they knew very well just how powerful Shanks was. Even among the former Emperors of the Sea, he had been one of the strongest.
Top-tier Observation Haki. Top-tier Armament Haki. Top-tier Conqueror's Haki. Top-tier swordsmanship. Top-tier physical combat…
Red-Haired Shanks was exactly like the nickname of his pirate crew—the Iron Wall Pirates. He was an existence with no weaknesses whatsoever.
There were only two possible ways to defeat him.
The first was to crush him head-on with even more overwhelming stats and power.
The second was… when the gap in strength was not too large, to use a special Devil Fruit ability to launch an unexpected attack and seize victory.
"Good thing I didn't stubbornly try to fight Elbaf with the Moonlight Pirates alone. Otherwise, I would've embarrassed myself completely!"
At this moment, Moria felt the importance of a smart brain more than ever.
If not for Carina's plan, which had dragged every member of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet into the water, this battle would have been over before it even began.
However…
"Red-Haired Shanks, huh~ Even with my power, even if I enter Pokémon-ization, I may not necessarily be his match…"
"But if he's only an ordinary top-tier Emperor…"
Moria did not lose confidence just because Shanks had joined the enemy camp. Instead, a thoughtful look appeared in his eyes.
In the past, he definitely would not have had the guts to continue fighting Elbaf when it had the backing of a top-tier powerhouse like Red-Hair.
But now, he had the entire Straw Hat Grand Fleet as his support.
Although Moria felt that this matter would be extremely troublesome, he did not think it was impossible to accomplish.
"So, does anyone want to take a shot at that Emperor?!"
Moria took the initiative to ask the other captains in the group chat.
Clearly, although he was the main organizer of this incident, he was very self-aware and voluntarily gave up the powerful enemy known as Red-Hair.
And soon after his voice fell, a voice quickly popped up in the group chat.
"Hmph! He's just a remnant of the old era! A mere Red-Haired Shanks—I don't believe he can withstand the power of my barriers! Leave this Red-Hair to me!"
It was Barto!
Moria's eyes flashed. He had not expected the first person to reply to be Barto.
In truth, Barto's combat strength was not exactly among the very top of the many captains of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.
The power of the Barrier-Barrier Fruit was indeed powerful, capable of blocking nearly ninety-nine percent of all attacks in the world, whether physical or elemental.
However, once the power of the Barrier-Barrier Fruit was excluded, his physical combat ability was actually far inferior to many of the other captains in the Straw Hat Grand Fleet.
There was no helping it. When it came to physical combat, Barto really had no advantage among the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, where experts were as common as clouds.
Especially now that these captains had also mastered many Pokémon powers, such as Psychic-type or Ghost-type abilities. Their moves could completely bypass the power of Barto's Barrier-Barrier Fruit and directly damage him.
But…
If his opponent was Red-Hair, then perhaps Barto's barrier power really could produce some miraculous results.
"All right…"
Without much hesitation, Moria was just about to speak and directly hand this battle opportunity—one that could spread a person's fame across the world—to Barto.
But just then, Buggy, who had not joined this operation because of matters related to Wano Country but had been secretly lurking in the chat the entire time, suddenly spoke up and interrupted Moria.
"Wait a second, Hawkins!"
Buggy's tone carried a hint of disbelief as he continued,
"Have Shyarly describe that mysterious man beside Shanks again!"
"Hm?" Hawkins sounded puzzled, but he still raised his head and looked at Shyarly beside him, who had also heard the voice message.
Shyarly thought back for a moment, then took the initiative to lean closer to Hawkins's Personal Terminal. Her moist, tender lips parted slightly as she said,
"He was a very strong man wearing sunglasses! His weapons were two axes! And for some reason, Shanks seemed to respect him a great deal."
"And I don't know why, but I also feel an inexplicable sense of familiarity from him."
"Heh… Of course you'd find him familiar."
As soon as Shyarly finished speaking, a bitter laugh immediately came from Buggy's side.
"Because when you were little, you met that man once!"
"Met him once?" Shyarly looked confused.
Buggy immediately said, "Have you forgotten?! Back then on Fish-Man Island, you once made a prophecy for Captain Roger!"
"At the time, that man was right beside Captain Roger."
"And he is the man known as the Pirate King's Left Hand—Mountain Eater Gaban!!!!"
"What!?"
Buggy's words instantly swept through the chat group like a violent storm, stirring up a wave of uproar.
"Gaban?! That legendary pirate said to stand alongside Pirate King Roger's vice captain, Rayleigh?!"
"Heavens, why would a guy like that appear in Elbaf?! Did he join Red-Hair's crew and come to protect Elbaf together with Red-Hair?!"
"No way! That bastard Shanks has no qualifications to command Uncle Gaban!"
"But now that you mention it, after Uncle Gaban left the Roger Pirates, he's been living in seclusion the whole time. No one has ever heard any news about his whereabouts."
"Looking at it this way, it's very possible that after retiring, he's been living in Elbaf all along. That would also explain why he appeared among Elbaf's defending team."
"But in that case, doesn't that mean there's now one more Emperor-level powerhouse we have to face?!"
No one doubted the strength of the Pirate King's Left Hand, even if he was already an old man past seventy.
Law directly reminded Moria in the group,
"Moria, I think we need to change the challenge plan we worked out earlier!"
At first, Moria had never imagined that Elbaf would produce so many powerful fighters.
At most, they had only counted the imprisoned Loki as a Marine admiral-level combat force.
A Marine admiral!?
Two or three years ago, that level of strength had absolutely been enough to make the vast majority of pirates in the world tremble in fear.
But now, within the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, which possessed Pokémon powers and had massive resources to increase its strength, that could only be described as decent.
Nothing more.
But the appearance of Shanks and Gaban forced them to become careful.
An Emperor of the Sea might not necessarily be stronger than a Marine admiral, but they were definitely not soft persimmons that just anyone could pinch.
"That makes sense!"
For once, Moria did not refute someone else's suggestion. Instead, he followed Law's words and continued,
"Given the current situation, it's obviously no longer possible to use that ridiculous plan from before, where we randomly sent out fighters!"
"I believe we now need to investigate the full list of all combatants on Elbaf's defending side to ensure we can arrange an absolutely foolproof battle lineup."
Although Gaban's involvement had struck Moria's heart like a heavy hammer, as stated before, he had boundless trust in the potential of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet!
"In that case…" At this moment, Hancock's voice also rang out from the group chat. "Should we take the initiative to contact Hajrudin and ask him to provide Elbaf's defending lineup?"
Right!
There was still Hajrudin!
The moment he heard this, Moria's heart suddenly tightened.
But immediately after, he heard Hancock hesitate and say, "The only question is whether this counts as cheating."
"Cheating?!" Moria quickly scoffed and retorted, "We haven't even blamed them for bringing in an outsider like Red-Hair, who has practically nothing to do with this! We're only asking Hajrudin about information that we'll find out soon anyway. How could that count as cheating?!"
"That is true."
Under the current circumstances, Hancock immediately accepted Moria's argument.
As for Moria, he directly minimized the voice chat screen and privately messaged Hajrudin through his Personal Terminal, asking about Elbaf's defending situation.
What Moria had not expected was…
In less than a minute, Hajrudin immediately sent back the list of Elbaf's defending members.
He even emphasized the news that Red-Hair and Gaban had joined, warning Moria and the others to be extremely careful.
After all, Hajrudin simply did not want to abandon his identity as a warrior of Elbaf. Also, although he did not have the authority of a prince, he did possess a prince's bloodline. No matter what, he could not openly help outsiders oppose Elbaf.
But deep down, Hajrudin naturally very much hoped that Elbaf could come under the banner of the Straw Hat Pirates!
Only after truly joining the Straw Hat Pirates could one understand just how generous the Straw Hat Pirates were toward their subordinates.
Just take Hajrudin himself as an example. Originally, his strength had at most been that of a pirate with a 300-million-Beli bounty.
But how long had it been since he joined the Straw Hat Pirates? His strength had already advanced by leaps and bounds!
He did not dare say anything else, but at the very least, he now felt that he was not inferior at all to the two Giant Warrior Pirates captains he idolized—Dorry and Brogy!
So, in order to let Elbaf fall into the embrace of the Straw Hat Pirates as soon as possible, he could only reluctantly play the role of this mole!
In the blink of an eye, Moria sent the intelligence Hajrudin had passed along into the group chat.
And just like that, during the nearly twenty minutes before the Straw Hat Grand Fleet's fleet was about to arrive at Elbaf's Underworld Harbor, the intense discussion in the entire chat group never stopped for even a single second.
Fortunately, in the final few minutes, Moria made the final decision and settled on a lineup that he believed was fairly reliable.
And at this moment, the Straw Hat Grand Fleet's warships had officially landed on Elbaf.
...
...
"They're here! They're here!!!"
"Is that the Ancient Weapon Pluton?! The Straw Hat Pirates actually handed such a terrifying weapon over to their subordinates? Do they trust Moria that much?!"
"Moria—is he that guy who looks like an onion? There's no way he's human, right?! Why does looking at him make me think of the word 'demon'? An onion-shaped demon!"
"Stop arguing, stop arguing! Stop spamming comments! You're blocking my view of Lady Empress's beautiful legs! Slurp, slurp! Good thing I brought a high-speed camera and prepared the route in advance. I'm going to put this clip of Lady Empress getting off the ship at my bedside and loop it forever!!! Slurp, slurp!!!"
"Brother from just now, remember to exercise restraint and take care of your body! But the Empress's legs are truly beyond words. Anyone who can look at them and not get excited is definitely that!"
"You bunch of vulgar bastards. The next battle concerns the direction of the entire world order, and you still have time to look at a woman?!"
"Hey, no way, bro! You can actually resist the Empress's beauty? Are you really a man?!"
"Tch, I'm not a man in the first place. This lady is a delicate, unmarried maiden! Ah—!!!! It's Prince Cavendish!!! My Prince Charming, you've finally appeared!!! I want to have your babies!!!"
"…After all that, it was just a lovesick daydreamer. What a waste of my time."
"..."
"..."
Under the camera's lens, one pirate crew after another from the Straw Hat Grand Fleet disembarked from their respective ships and walked toward the center of Elbaf's Underworld.
For a time, audiences all around the world boiled over with excitement.
Those with the means to do so were frantically leaving their voices on the video feed that supported scrolling comments. All kinds of outrageous text once completely covered the entire screen.
Fortunately, thanks to Red's reminder, when Morgans developed the scrolling-comment function, he had also launched a comment-blocking function to go with it.
So it did not affect anyone else's viewing experience.
Very soon, every member of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet entered Elbaf.
Even though this was the massive island that had nurtured the giant race, it was now occupied across nearly one-third of its area by the enormous group of pirates.
"So that's the Straw Hat Grand Fleet? What a terrifying presence!"
Looking at the pirates pressing toward the center of the island like black clouds, most of them were barely tall enough to reach the instep of an adult giant.
Yet anyone present with even a slight degree of Observation Haki ability could sense it.
Among these pirates, not a single one was truly weak.
They were only weak relative to the world's very top powers.
But if they were scattered across the seas, every one of them would be a person capable of standing on their own.
Thus, even the experienced and knowledgeable Gaban could not help but sigh at this moment.
"As expected… of the Straw Hat Pirates!"
Thud!!!!!!!!!!
A heavy tremor like thunder suddenly rang out. Before anyone knew it, the Straw Hat Pirates' forces had already arrived opposite the giants.
Clearly, the giants' side held an overwhelming advantage in size.
Yet for some reason, at this moment, they instead felt as though they were the weaker side.
So much so that at this very moment, they could not help but lower even the sound of their breathing, and the wild, unrestrained smiles they usually wore had vanished from their faces.
Seeing this scene, Moria immediately grinned. Compared to the giants, he might be small, but compared to humans, he was still fairly huge. He walked out from the crowd, raised his head, and met the gaze of Elbaf's elder, Jarul, directly as he smiled.
"Well then… as agreed, our people have all arrived. I wonder, Elder Jarul, have you already selected the participants for this defense battle?"
(End of Chapter)