Roger was watching Ares as well, sighing with emotion. "That guy's physique… it's even more powerful and terrifying than before."
"And his fighting style now isn't just copying like it was back then. He's using a way of fighting that actually suits him."
In their sight
Ares was covered in bloodstains. The edges of his blue dragon scales were dyed red, and across the full, solid muscles of his chest and abdomen, streaks of blood ran like crimson threads following the chiseled lines of his body like exposed veins.
It made your scalp prickle just looking at him.
"Yeah." Rayleigh suddenly understood. "Back then, most of his moves were imitations of other people. But now…"
"It's completely different!"
He still remembered it clearly. Back then Ares wasn't only copying other people's techniques he had even stolen a portion of Rayleigh's own swordsmanship mid-fight.
Scopper Gaban murmured, "I think the current Ares is even scarier. If he truly creates a combat style that belongs to him…"
"His strength is going to become even more terrifying."
On that point, everyone silently agreed.
Real monsters all had their own way of fighting something tailored to themselves.
One after another, members of the Rocks Pirates arrived and stopped short, baffled and confused.
Captain John swept his gaze around and exclaimed in disbelief, "Why the hell are Whitebeard and Linlin fighting each other?!"
Wang Zhi suddenly realized. "So it's Ares… No wonder the Marines suddenly stopped. They rushed over to reinforce Saint Saturn of the Five Elders…"
Silver Axe grinned. "Ares is getting nastier and nastier. He even grew his hair back out what a change."
…
They all talked at once, voices overlapping.
But Rocks' face was dark. He roared, "Listen up, all of you! Ares is a traitor to the Rocks Pirates! If he hadn't led the Marines to God Valley…"
"The Roger Pirates and the Celestial Dragons would've been ours already!"
With Rocks' words, a dangerous aura spread out instantly, and the others shut their mouths at once.
"Bullshit!"
In the sky, Golden Lion Shiki snapped back, furious. "You're the scheming bastard who tried to get rid of me and Ares now you're turning it around and blaming us? Disgusting!"
Rocks' eyes flashed red as he sneered at Shiki. "What? Planning to join hands with the Marines and wipe out the Rocks Pirates?"
"So you can crown yourself king?"
"Flying Slash!"
A brilliant, dazzling golden slash dropped from the sky.
Rocks' arm turned pitch-black in an instant.
He smashed it with a single punch.
At the same time
On the other side, Kong the Steel said to Sengoku, "Sengoku, go reinforce Saint Saturn. I'll deal with the Rocks Pirates with the others!"
"Yes!"
Buzz
Golden light erupted from Sengoku's body. In an instant, he transformed into a massive golden Buddha, leapt high, and slammed a palm toward Ares' back.
A white sphere of light burst from that gleaming palm packed with an overwhelmingly terrifying shockwave.
Ares' tiger eyes widened, and he threw his head back laughing.
"Hahahahaha Sengoku, perfect timing! Those two cowards don't fight worth a damn!"
"Divine Dragon Tail Sweep Mount Tai Press!"
Whoosh
A dragon tail covered in scales, stained blood-red, snapped out. Power surged through it, and it roared with cutting wind as it smashed Sengoku's shockwave apart.
Boom!
The explosion thundered.
Sengoku immediately sensed something off.
"He turned the tail's cut… into a slam?!"
The feeling was completely different.
Not only was the momentum massive Sengoku could also feel the overwhelming, crushing force carried inside that tail.
At that moment
Ares was burning with excitement, another spark of inspiration flashing through his mind.
"Lift heavy like it's light… lift light like it's heavy. If I explode power at the instant of contact like the King's Punch, and combine it with the Eight-Impact Fist…"
He began thinking about how to merge all those techniques into his own fighting.
One man against three.
At this moment, Ares truly looked like a real War God.
Even with Sengoku added in
They still couldn't bring him down, not with that freakishly abnormal body of his.
The battle fell into a stalemate.
Meanwhile, on another battlefield
Kong and Garp attacked Rocks together. Facing two men without Devil Fruit powers, Rocks' Yami Yami no Mi seemed unable to fully unleash its value.
But that didn't mean the fruit was weak.
And every so often, Golden Lion Shiki would stir up chaos and throw the situation into further disorder.
The war was brutally intense.
Under Zeff's command, the Marines fought the God's Knights and clashed with the Rocks Pirates.
For a time, the Roger Pirates were reduced to spectators.
But after Rocks issued an order, Linlin stopped her infighting with Whitebeard and entered the battlefield.
The situation changed instantly.
And Roger who had already been attacked once by Rocks also led his men into the war, holding back Linlin and Whitebeard.
The fighting…
Stretched from day into night, then into day again.
Over and over, for two or three days.
When Kaido finally returned
As far as his eyes could see was ruin.
The world was devastated.
The ground was littered with the corpses of Marines, pirates, and God's Knights alike.
It was horrific.
Countless powerhouses were covered in wounds and blood.
And Ares was no different.
He looked like a blood-soaked demon god crawled out of hell.
Dried blood crusted on his skin. With every movement, ash-like flakes of blood would shake loose and scatter.
"Ares, big brother!!"
Kaido charged into the fight, gripping a massive kanabo. He forced Saint Saturn back, then hurriedly reported, "Big brother Ares, the slaves have all been sent onto the warships!"
Then, his face tight with worry, he urged, "If you keep fighting like this, you won't be able to hold out!"
Kaido had followed Ares all the way. He knew Ares had already taken heavy damage at Marine G-1, then absorbed Slardar's pain at God Valley
And after that, he'd fought powerhouse after powerhouse for days and nights without stopping.
If it were anyone else, they would've died long ago.
And yet Ares was still fighting, relying purely on his terrifying physique.
But even so…
Kaido could tell Ares' injuries had accumulated to an unbelievably dangerous level. He didn't know how much longer Ares could last.
In the end…
The outcome wouldn't be pretty.
Kaido pressed again, "Big brother Ares, don't forget our grudge with that bastard Rocks isn't settled yet!"
In an instant
The red light in Ares' eyes vanished. He regained his calm, and his gaze flicked toward Rocks mid-battle.
Seeing Ares come back to himself, Kaido continued, "If we leave those slaves on the warships and don't handle them, they'll all starve to death without food."
"I've had Slardar intimidate them and keep them in line, but dragging this out isn't a solution…"
Those slaves mattered. They were tied to Ares' future.
After weighing it, Ares nodded.
"We're leaving."
The moment Ares decided to withdraw, Garling was about to move to stop him
But Saint Saturn barked, "Garling, let them go! If that man wants to leave, we can't stop him. And with Kaido there too, we can't hold them."
Garling was furious, his expression twisted with unwillingness. He snorted coldly.
"That bastard has two Devil Fruits on him!"
"We're really just going to let them leave?!"
In that instant
The entire battlefield fell silent.
Everyone's gaze locked onto Ares.
Many eyes gleamed with greed.
Like starving beasts.
Rocks' eyes widened. His teeth ground hard.
"That bastard grabbed two Devil Fruits?!"
"Ares… what kind of damn luck is that?!"
At the same time, he cursed the World Government viciously.
"Those useless World Government trash can't even hold onto Devil Fruits! Letting Ares steal two of them…"
"Utterly worthless!!"
His fists clenched, cracking loudly.
He never imagined that not only would he fail to seize even a single Devil Fruit
But Ares would end up taking two instead.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, you like the story? Wow, who knew. Go ahead, drop a review and throw some power stones maybe I'll be motivated to keep going.
The story's already ahead on Patron. Go there if you want to catch up faster!
[email protected]/_theon
Change @ to "a"