"Two-Sword Style: 720-Pound Phoenix!"
At that instant, countless bullets and shells came roaring toward the group, but they did not succeed. Sharp flashes of sword light passed through them while they were still in flight.
Zoro violently drew the two swords at his waist. In an instant, it seemed as though he had cut every bullet. The sharp bullets split down the middle and perfectly avoided everyone in the Straw Hat Crew.
Boom, boom, boom...
Many of the shells exploded immediately after being cut apart. Although they did not explode beside the group, the shock waves still reached them.
"Marimo! What are you doing?!" Sanji shouted. The wind from the explosions blew his hairstyle apart, and even the cigarette between his lips was blown away for a moment.
Nami could not help saying, "You're both so unreliable. Never mind—the electric grid is right ahead! Stay close to me!"
Luffy's Conqueror's Haki was certainly convenient, but it was not as effective against machines. Ahead of them was an electric grid surrounding the entire Alubarna. Usopp could walk through the sky, so he had no problem, but none of the others could fly. To pass through safely, they had to rely on Nami.
Nami spread her hands. In the next moment, arcs of electricity danced between her fingers. Controlling violent lightning with such precision was extremely difficult. Even though she was a demon, beads of sweat covered Nami's forehead.
The electricity in her hands rapidly spread, and in the blink of an eye it enveloped everyone. At the same time, Luffy glared again, releasing Conqueror's Haki once more. More than ninety percent of the Cartel soldiers closing in on them fell unconscious!
Using Conqueror's Haki consumed stamina as well. Releasing it at full power twice in quick succession was somewhat difficult for him in his current condition.
Besides, there was no need to use Conqueror's Haki again. After two rounds of filtering, the people now approaching were all "strong" enough to resist its effects.
Conqueror's Haki was convenient for clearing out fodder, but that was all it could do. At this early stage of using Conqueror's Haki, Luffy could only affect people much weaker than himself.
"Rain of Light!"
Usopp summoned his reishi bow. In the next moment, countless reishi arrows poured down like a rainstorm, forcing back the Cartel soldiers charging from around them. At the same time, Nami led everyone straight through the network flashing with electric current!
The current Nami created seemed to merge with the current in the electric grid. Everyone passed unharmed through the gate crackling with frightening electricity. However, after they crossed it, Nami could not help panting heavily. "I need to sleep for three days and three nights!"
As a demon, Nami needed to eat humans. If she did not, she had to recover her energy through sleep.
Nami naturally did not eat humans, so she often slept for long periods, especially after a battle. She had barely rested during this period, and now that Alubarna was finally right before her eyes, she was reaching her limit.
"Stop!"
Bang!
A man broke through the dense Rain of Light Usopp had fired. He looked somewhat shocked and held what appeared to be an ordinary pistol, yet he had fired seven shots in less than a second!
The seven bullets flew toward Luffy. It was obvious that he had identified Luffy as the greatest threat among them.
Conqueror's Haki was practically the natural enemy of the Cartel army. After all, ordinary people made up most of the Cartel's organization. Even after undergoing Cartel training, they could not possibly become strong enough to resist Conqueror's Haki.
Therefore, the others did not matter. Luffy had to die!
The bullets he fired seemed to possess a special power. They were like Haki, yet also like telekinesis, and perhaps a combination of both. In any case, the bullets were black, pure black, and anyone looking at them could feel their hardness.
The man had appeared too suddenly. The group had not expected someone wielding a pistol to fire bullets with such power, so they hesitated for a moment. Usopp shot an arrow, but the bullet pierced it effortlessly.
Not good!
Everyone's expression changed. The power needed to pierce Usopp's arrows so easily could not be underestimated, let alone the fact that the man had fired seven at once.
Even though the group kept moving, the bullets seemed to have tracking devices attached to them, or perhaps the man had predicted their movements in advance. Every one of them struck exactly where Luffy was standing.
At the critical moment, Nami grabbed Luffy with one hand and pulled him behind her. In the next instant, all seven bullets struck her body!
"Nami!"
Sanji and Luffy shouted. As he looked at Nami, who had been struck by seven bullets, he saw blood flowing from seven bullet holes. Since they were similar in height, it was obvious that the man had aimed at Luffy's vital points.
The seven bullets had mainly been aimed at the head and heart. Even Luffy would certainly have died if they had struck him.
The bullets possessed both penetrating power and tremendous destructive force, making them extremely suitable for dealing with someone like Luffy, whose body was made of rubber.
"Idiot, I'm a demon. These injuries are nothing..." Nami endured the pain. Her complexion was poor. Bullets could not kill her, but they could hurt, and demons could still be injured. After seven bullets entered her body, she felt that her recovery ability was not as fast as it had been before.
Her condition was therefore somewhat poor, but she still said quietly, "Get inside the city first!"
Chopper jumped directly from Usopp onto her body and prepared to remove the bullets. At that moment, Luffy nodded. After spending so much time together, he understood Nami's vitality. These injuries truly were nothing serious to her, though they had still shocked him.
"Koza?!"
Igaram saw the man at that moment. His expression became complicated, but this was naturally not the time to discuss it. Luffy immediately stretched out both arms, extending them forward again and again. "Everyone, hold on to me!"
He shouted and hooked both hands over Alubarna's wall. His body then began to contract rapidly, apparently intending to use the recoil to launch himself and everyone else onto the wall!
Since Igaram was with them, the Alubarna defenders naturally did not fire at them. Instead, they kept sniping at the Cartel pursuers below.
A massive sandstorm happened to appear ahead. Apart from the man pursuing them, the sandstorm buried or blew away all the other Cartel pursuers. For a time, almost no one remained around Luffy and the others!
But the man named Koza was still there. Seeing that his previous shots had been blocked by a woman, he was slightly surprised, then fired again!
This time, there was only one shot!
A headshot!
Koza aimed the shot at Luffy's head. It was fast—unbelievably fast, much faster than the previous seven-shot burst. The bullet came from the same gun, yet this shot traveled far more quickly than the earlier ones.
The bullet had only just left the muzzle, but in the next flicker of time it was already in front of Luffy's head.
Bang!
Clang!
The two sounds rang out almost simultaneously: the sound of the gunshot and the sound of the bullet striking its target.
The sound of a bullet striking someone?
Yes. The instant Koza fired, Luffy covered his head in Armament Haki. His head became pitch-black, and under the hardening effect of Armament Haki, it was harder than steel!
Yet Koza's bullet could pierce even steel. The equally black bullet struck Luffy's head, producing a crisp sound. Luffy cried out in pain, and then...
The bullet actually overcame Luffy's Haki!
A depression appeared on the right side of Luffy's head. His black Haki looked as though the bullet were about to pierce through it. It was as if he had been hit by some massive object, and his entire body flew backward.
The others were holding on to Luffy's body. They had been just about to reach the top of the wall, but now that Luffy had been knocked away by the powerful force, they tilted and fell with him.
Just as they were about to plunge downward, countless hands suddenly emerged from the wall. Each hand stretched forward and pulled, catching the falling group!
"Ma'am..."
Cobra had been worrying about the Straw Hats. He froze when he saw this scene, then noticed Robin approaching from somewhere.
Robin nodded to the king in greeting. "I heard the gunfire and cannon fire outside suddenly become much quieter. I thought the Cartel had withdrawn, so I came out to look. I didn't expect to see this."
Crocodile glanced at her, his gaze somewhat cold, but he said nothing. At this point, he no longer expected Koza to kill these people.
In any case, he had already helped the Straw Hats once. Helping them one more time did not matter.
Crocodile activated the Sand-Sand Fruit again. In an instant, the area below was filled with a haze of sand. Koza, who was about to fire again, was suddenly blinded. The sand also seemed to have extremely strong moisture-absorbing power. Anyone it touched would have the water drained from their body.
Although he was extremely unwilling to accept it, Koza knew that the Warlord of the Sea Crocodile had made his move. He was not yet a match for this Warlord.
At the same time, Robin used the Flower-Flower Fruit to send Luffy and the others up one by one.
"That hurts!"
Robin's hands lifted Luffy up. He held his head and grimaced. Zoro warily watched the people nearby, Sanji guarded Nami, and Chopper worked on removing the bullets from her.
Igaram rushed directly to Cobra's side. Seeing the king he had been separated from for so long, he wept openly.
"Your Majesty, I..."
His voice choked. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Princess Vivi!"
Princess Vivi had gone with him to seek reinforcements, but the Cartel had discovered them, and the princess had fallen into its hands.
"Alas, it was all fate..." Cobra sighed. He looked at the subordinate and old friend who had accompanied him for decades. "Vivi chose to leave on her own. You cannot be blamed."
After saying that, he looked toward Robin. "Ma'am, thank you very much for your help just now."
"As someone taking shelter here temporarily, Your Majesty need not say anything more," Robin said calmly.
Her public identity in Alubarna was that of a writer named Nico Klaus. She had come to Alabasta to research the history of the desert nation.
Because of the Cartel rebellion, however, she had become trapped in Alubarna. Her public identity did not know Crocodile.
"Were you the one who brought us up just now?" Luffy looked toward Robin.
Robin smiled faintly. "You should be reinforcements, right? Helping you is the same as helping myself."
"That's right! That despicable guy... I'm definitely going to knock him away!"
"Ah, his name is Koza." Cobra shook his head, his expression complicated. "He used to be a good child, but in the end he also chose this path.
"Actually, Koza isn't the only one. Long ago, weren't the people who joined the Cartel all ordinary people?
"But circumstances forced them to rely on the Cartel to survive."
Whenever this happened, Cobra would remember the figure of the man who later became the Pirate King: Roger. If not for Roger's battle with Aatrox, Alabasta would never have fallen into its current state.
The battle between Roger and Aatrox made the kingdom's environment even worse. They fought from Yuba all the way to the Santo River, destroying large regions along the way and even changing the environment in many places into something extremely harsh!
To clear a battlefield for them, Alabasta had also carried out a massive population relocation, moving the people from across the nation to the north. Such a large-scale relocation had likewise drained the people and the treasury.
After the war ended, the World Government never cared about the country's survival. Step by step, Alabasta became what it was today.
The root of everything was Roger, and the World Government's coveting of the entrance to Hell.
But if Roger had not existed, perhaps Aatrox would still exist to this day. No, if Aatrox still existed, perhaps the world itself might no longer exist.
It was precisely because Aatrox had fought in this country that Cobra understood the destructiveness of that demon.
Others did not know the truth about that battle, but he did!
That was the terrifying demon powerful enough to make the Marines, the Black Order, the Roger Pirates, Whitebeard, and even the Shinigami join forces!
"Thank you for bringing Igaram back. May I ask who you are?"
Cobra hurriedly asked the question that concerned him most at present.
"My name is Monkey D. Luffy, and I'm a pirate!" Luffy's head still hurt, as though he had suffered a concussion, but that did not stop him from answering. "They're my friends!"
Pirates...
Cobra was somewhat disappointed, though not entirely. After all, Crocodile was also a pirate, yet he had been helping defend Alubarna all this time.
Compared with the Marines, who remained motionless, pirates now seemed incredibly lovable in Cobra's eyes.
Crocodile glanced at them and said in a deep voice, "Your Majesty, let's return to the royal palace first. It looks as though the Cartel will not launch a second attack in the immediate future."
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