"Help! Someone—save me!"
Panicked screams tore through the battlefield one after another.
"These trees are draining our life force! Don't let them touch you!"
The pirates watched in horror as thick, writhing vines lashed out, coiling around their crewmates. The moment the tendrils tightened, vitality was siphoned away at a terrifying speed. Faces withered. Bodies collapsed. Anyone caught was reduced to a husk in seconds.
Realizing the consequences, the Big Mom Pirates scattered, scrambling to avoid the snapping vines.
The weaker-willed Homies, however, weren't quick enough. Several were seized mid-flight, their animated bodies shriveling as their borrowed life force was sucked dry. Their shrill, pitiful cries echoed through the suddenly overgrown battlefield.
"What are you panicking for? They're just trees!" someone roared. "Open fire! Blast them to pieces!"
Cannons were wheeled into position without hesitation. A deafening barrage erupted, cannonballs slamming into the massive tangle of vines.
Smoke engulfed the forest.
Then it cleared.
The vines were still standing.
Only faint scorch marks and shallow dents marred their surfaces—barely scratches.
"This… that's impossible…"
The pirates stared in disbelief. The sheer durability of those trees defied reason.
"Out of the way! I'll cut them down!"
A towering pirate stepped forward, gripping an enormous broadsword. With a furious roar, he brought the blade crashing down onto a vine.
Clang!
The steel shattered on impact.
The vine didn't even split—only a thin white mark lingered where the blade had struck.
"Are these trees made of iron?!" someone shouted. "How are they this hard?!"
Even members of the Charlotte Family couldn't hide their shock.
This was the power of Marine Admiral Ryokugyu.
In mere moments, he had transformed the battlefield into a dense, suffocating forest—a green hell that swallowed ships, pirates, and hope alike.
At the forest's edge, bark twisted and split, forming a massive face embedded within the trees.
Aramaki.
His wooden visage looked down upon the struggling pirates with cold disdain.
"You dare look down on my power?" he sneered. "If you think this forest is anything like an ordinary one, then you're gravely mistaken."
The vines creaked as they tightened around fresh prey.
"Every single tree here is as hard as steel. And each one has been infused with my Armament Haki. Do you truly believe rabble like you can cut them down?"
"What?!"
"All of them have Haki?!"
"That's absurd! No one has that kind of Haki reserve!"
Disbelief spread like wildfire through the Big Mom Pirates.
Aramaki's laughter boomed across the forest.
"Gyahahahaha! Trash like you could never comprehend the might of a Marine Admiral! Despair! Once I finish dealing with that old hag, I'll drain every last drop of life from your bodies!"
Just then—
A blazing figure descended from above, landing heavily atop a thick vine.
The air hissed.
"Lord Oven!"
Cheers erupted from the surrounding pirates.
Charlotte Oven stood tall, his body radiating terrifying heat. The temperature around him spiked instantly, the air itself warping from the intensity.
He smirked up at the wooden face.
"Then let me see for myself," Oven declared coldly. "Whether your forest is stronger… or if my heat can burn it all to ash."
The instant his boots touched the vine, the surface blackened.
A deep scorch mark spread outward, the wood sinking and cracking beneath the overwhelming temperature. Heat capable of melting steel now poured into the living forest, searing through it without mercy.
Steam exploded into the air.
"As expected of Lord Oven!"
The pirates behind him erupted in cheers, their morale surging as flames began to challenge the green tide.
—
High above the battlefield, the sky itself had become their arena.
Marco and Kizaru collided again and again in flashes of blue flame and golden light, their clashes bursting like miniature suns over the sea.
Yet as the battle dragged on, Marco's sharp eyes began to narrow.
Something was wrong.
Kizaru—and the ten Marine warships below—weren't truly engaging. They fought, then withdrew. Advanced, then retreated. There was no decisive push, no killing intent aimed at ending the fight quickly.
They were stalling.
Kizaru wasn't trying to defeat him.
He was buying time.
"Tch…"
Marco clicked his tongue. Even with his speed now surpassing ten thousand in raw burst movement, it was still nothing compared to the mobility of the Glint-Glint Fruit. Kizaru was light itself—slippery, untouchable.
"Why do you keep running, Kizaru?!" Marco shouted, irritation finally surfacing. "If you won't fight me properly, I'll start sinking your ships!"
With a powerful beat of his wings, he pivoted sharply and dove toward the Marine fleet.
"Destruction—Black Flame!"
A spiraling torrent of pitch-black fire roared downward, crashing toward the nearest warship.
"Put it out! Hurry!"
"Damn it! It won't extinguish!"
The Marines panicked as the black flames spread unnaturally across the deck, devouring wood and steel alike.
A golden flash split the air.
Kizaru appeared beside Marco in an instant, his leg lashing out at light speed.
Marco's Observation Haki flared. His own leg, coated in Armament—and laced with a streak of Conqueror's—met the kick head-on.
Boom!
The shockwave rippled across the sky as both men were forced back.
When Kizaru landed lightly on a beam of light, his usual lazy smirk was gone.
Black flames clung to his right foot.
For the first time, a trace of genuine caution flickered in his eyes.
"How terrifying," he murmured, voice lower than usual. "To grow this much in just half a year… what exactly happened to you, Marco?"
Marco didn't answer.
"If you keep dodging me," he said coldly, "then I'll start with your subordinates."
Kizaru's gaze sharpened.
Armament Haki surged from his leg, forcibly shaking off the black flames. The embers fell into the sea below, hissing violently as they died.
"What a troublesome power… Is this your Devil Fruit Awakening?" Kizaru mused. "Your form has changed. Your Haki… it's nothing like Marineford. You're practically a different man."
He clicked his tongue softly.
"So this is the strength that defeated Big Mom. That black flame… it's dangerous."
When he had first been ordered to intercept the Phoenix Pirates, he hadn't expected much difficulty.
But Marco's growth since the Marineford War was monstrous.
Up close, it was even worse.
Marco fought recklessly—willing to trade blow for blow, trusting in his regeneration and those ominous black flames. Kizaru had already suffered a hidden loss at the beginning of their clash. If not for his speed creating distance instantly, things might have ended poorly.
Marco's gaze turned glacial.
"You can run," he said evenly. "But the rest of the Marines can't."
"If you don't want your fleet wiped out, then stop stalling—and fight me head-on."
With that, he ignored Kizaru entirely and shot toward another warship.
His plan was simple.
Sink all ten.
Kizaru could remain airborne briefly thanks to his Glint-Glint powers, supplementing with Moonwalk—but he wasn't a true flier.
Destroy the warships, and he'd erase Kizaru's footholds.
"Hey, hey, hey… your opponent is me."
Golden light gathered at Kizaru's fingertips. One laser after another lanced through the sky, streaking toward Marco's back.
Marco didn't dodge.
He didn't even slow down.
The beams struck him directly—
—and were swallowed by black flame.
Watching Marco ignore his laser barrage as if it were nothing more than sea spray, Kizaru's expression darkened.
Marco dove again.
He swept low over another Marine warship, and with a single beat of his wings, torrents of black flame cascaded down onto the deck.
The fire spread instantly.
It clung like tar.
It devoured like a living curse.
"Put it out! Put it out!"
"It won't go out—why won't it go out?!"
The Marines scrambled in panic, but the black flames only spread faster, crawling along wood, iron, and rope alike. Within seconds, they reached the ammunition stores.
Boom!
An explosion tore through the ship, followed by a chain reaction of detonations. Fire erupted skyward as Marines leapt into the sea to escape the inferno.
"Damn it! Even Admiral Kizaru can't stop him?!"
"During Marineford, Marco wasn't this strong!"
"How did he become a monster in just half a year?!"
Shock rippled through the fleet.
High above the chaos, Marco hovered calmly, blue-and-black flames flickering around his transformed body. He glanced at Kizaru, whose face had grown increasingly grim.
"If you want to stop me," Marco called out coldly, "then fight me properly. Stop dodging and hiding."
Then he turned once more toward the remaining ships.
Kizaru's jaw tightened.
An Admiral of the Marines—mocked like this?
The black flames were unlike anything he had encountered. Their heat was extreme. Their persistence unnatural. Even light itself seemed reluctant to pass cleanly through them.
Worse still, Marco himself was different.
Stronger. Faster. High Haki quality.
Nothing like the man who had stood at Marineford.
If all ten warships were destroyed under his watch—even if the mission technically succeeded—the aftermath would be ugly. Criticism. Accountability. Perhaps even demotion.
For the first time in a long while, Kizaru hesitated.
------------------
AN: Check out my P@treon For +60 extra chapters.
Thank You For your Support!!
[email protected]/noviceauthor777
-----------------------
To keep the chapters coming - Support with POWER STONES.
For Every 100 power stones - 1 BONUS chapter.