"Heh... heh-heh-heh..."
Hearing Gaban's words, Ron finally could not help lowering his head and laughing.
"Heh-heh-hahahahaha..."
His laughter suddenly grew louder.
"Hahahaha..."
"Hahahaha..."
By the end, Ron had thrown his head back and was laughing wildly.
Rayleigh frowned and said in a deep voice, "Hey, what are you laughing at? What's so funny?"
Ron's laughter slowly faded. His gaze fell on the three of them, and he spoke unhurriedly. "Isn't it funny? Listen to what you said earlier. So righteous. So solemn. So full of justice."
"And in the end? Even you realized it yourselves. You're pirates."
Ron gave him no chance to interrupt and continued, "As pirates, can you guarantee there is no innocent blood on your hands? Do you dare? When morality benefits you, you don't even mention the word. When it disadvantages you, you turn around and come preach loyalty and righteousness to me?"
"In the end, you're just a bunch of hypocrites trying to have it both ways."
Roger, Rayleigh, and Gaban were stunned speechless by Ron's retort.
"You bastard!" Gaban was the first to react. "What the hell are you saying?"
"Shut up," Ron snapped. "Did I not scold you enough? And who do you think you are? The ones who cooperated with the Kuja Pirates were us, the Rocks Pirates. What does that have to do with your Roger Pirates? What are you yelling about?"
"Have you been licking boots so long that your brains stopped working? Or did I give you too much face? Chattering nonstop like that?"
Swish!
The instant blade light erupted, Roger had already drawn his sword and leapt into the air with a ferocious expression.
Conqueror's Haki wrapped around the blade. The air was compressed until it let out a piercing whine.
His figure traced an arc through the air as he descended from above.
Ron's gaze sank, and he snorted coldly. Could not win with words, so he used force? The future "Pirate King," the man said to be impossible to truly hate, had a scope only this large?
"To be honest, I'm really grateful you refused to let me onto your ship."
The moment Ron whispered that, Nine-Tails Mode instantly activated. Golden, flame-like chakra covered his entire body. At the same time, he drew the long blade at his waist, and Conqueror's Haki wrapped around it.
Boom!
A deep, heavy roar exploded. A terrifying aftershock instantly poured outward.
The earth trembled violently. With Ron at the center, cracks like spiderwebs appeared in an instant, rapidly spreading in all directions as the ground collapsed.
At the center where the two weapons clashed, Conqueror's Haki compressed the air into a visibly distorted sphere. It kept expanding, contracting, and expanding again.
At the same time, in a tavern in town, Whitebeard was holding a bowl of unfinished wine and still complaining about why Ron had not woken up yet. Suddenly, his movements stiffened.
His gaze snapped toward the west, and his pupils contracted slightly.
Kaido, seated on the other side of the table, also belatedly raised his head, his expression turning serious.
"Such... strong Conqueror's Haki." Kaido's voice was lower than usual. "Who is it? Did Rocks come back?"
"No..." Whitebeard slowly stood, taking his naginata from beside the table. "It's not Rocks. That bastard's Haki is much more domineering than this."
With that, Whitebeard walked outside.
"Where are you going?" Kaido also stood, grabbing his kanabo as he followed.
"To take a look. I don't know what happened."
"Wait for me. I'm going too!"
"Hey," the bartender leaned halfway over the counter and shouted, "you two haven't paid yet!"
"Put it on Rocks' tab," Whitebeard's voice came from the distance, growing farther away.
"Oh." The bartender nodded obediently.
"Why the hell aren't you chasing them?" The owner rushed to the counter and smacked him on the head.
"He said to put it on Rocks' tab..." the waiter said, holding his head with an aggrieved expression.
"Idiot!" The owner struck his head again in frustration. "No matter how you look at it, those two were freeloading!"
Back on Ron's side, Ron's Conqueror's Haki was still far behind Roger's.
But with the support of the Sage Body and Nine-Tails Mode, Roger was not gaining much of an advantage either.
Crackle, crackle.
The two streams of Conqueror's Haki continued to clash. The air between them warped and twisted, emitting an electric hiss.
At the same time, Rayleigh and Gaban had already moved to Ron's flank.
Two figures leapt high, one from the left and one from the right.
"Hey, kid," Gaban said as he swung his twin axes, coordinating perfectly with Rayleigh's long blade. "How are you going to handle this?"
At the critical moment, golden chakra arms extended from Ron's left and right arms.
Boom! Boom!
The chakra hands instantly caught Rayleigh's long blade and Gaban's twin axes.
But the price was enormous. Under the double impact, the ground beneath Ron collapsed again. Stones and earth sank like quicksand, and half his body was buried in the crater, leaving only everything above his waist exposed.
"What the hell?" Gaban was clearly startled by the arms Ron suddenly extended, his brows shooting up. "He can grow arms anytime and anywhere?"
"It is unexpected," Rayleigh agreed from the side, though the strength in his hands did not diminish in the slightest.
"Hah!"
Seeing Ron distracted by Rayleigh and Gaban, Roger seized the chance and suddenly exerted force. The Conqueror's Haki on his blade surged, shooting upward like black flame.
That power pressed Ron's blade until it bent slightly, letting out a groan under the strain.
At the same time, Rayleigh and Gaban pulled back their weapons, adjusted their posture in midair, and launched a second wave of attacks.
This round was faster and fiercer than the last.
Their coordination was flawless. Roger suppressed Ron from the front, while Rayleigh and Gaban closed in from both wings, sealing off every path of retreat.
Ron frowned. Without the slightest hesitation, the Nine-Tailed Fox descended.
Boom!
A massive golden fox rose straight out of the crater. As its body expanded, the surrounding ground tore open with several enormous cracks.
Nine gigantic tails unfurled behind it, and seven or eight chakra arms extended from both sides of its body.
Roger, Gaban, and Rayleigh clearly hesitated for an instant. They had not expected Ron to still have a "beast form."
Ron, transformed into the Nine-Tailed Fox, did not hesitate. He punched straight at the three of them.
This sudden change forced the three Roger Pirates to switch from offense to defense.
But the instant they blocked, Ron's chakra hands suddenly opened their palms, then clenched their fingers, trying to grab them in one motion.
Roger and Rayleigh reacted even faster. The two slipped away just before they were caught, brushing past the gaps between the chakra fingers.
But Gaban was one step slower. A chakra hand clamped tightly around his waist and dragged him in front of Ron.
"Screw you. Have three."
Ron cursed. With a thought, the chakra arms extending forward each condensed a Tailed Beast Bomb.
They were not huge, but they were not small either. Three chakra arms moved at the same time, shoving the bombs at Gaban from the left, right, and above.
"Gaban!"
Roger and Rayleigh's pupils contracted violently at the same time. They both sensed the danger and launched even fiercer attacks.
"Ron! Stop it!" Roger roared hoarsely.
Boom!
A dazzling beam of light lit up the whole world like the sun. What followed was a deafening explosion.
The violent aftershock spread in every direction. The ground was lifted layer by layer like a wrinkled cloth, and everything was thrown into the air.
Rolling smoke shot upward, forming a huge mushroom cloud.
From within the smoke, a golden figure shot out at high speed.
Ron had already returned to humanoid Nine-Tails Mode.
Splurt.
The instant he landed, blood spilled from his mouth. Earlier, he had been too focused on stuffing Gaban with Tailed Beast Bombs and had not placed much emphasis on defense, so he took one hit each from Rayleigh and Roger.
But... it did not matter.
With the Sage Body, his injuries were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"Ron!"
A furious shout exploded from the center of the smoke. The surrounding dust was blown away by a powerful gust, revealing three figures inside.
Roger stood at the front. Several bloody cuts marked his face, and the killing intent in his eyes was more than ten times stronger than before.
Rayleigh stood beside Gaban and did not look much different from earlier.
Gaban's upper body, however, was stained red with blood. The fact that he could still stand meant he was only injured and had not lost his ability to fight.
"Shit," Ron cursed under his breath, the blood at the corner of his mouth still unwiped. "If you had given me a little more time, I would have given you something bigger."
Whoosh! Whoosh!
From high above, two figures descended and landed heavily beside Ron.
Whitebeard first glanced at Ron, then raised his head and looked forward.
When his gaze landed on Roger, he was visibly stunned.
"Roger?" Whitebeard muttered. Then he looked at Ron and asked, "What happened? Are you all right?"
"I'm fine," Ron replied.
"What happened?" Kaido gripped his kanabo and watched the three in front of them with vigilance, his tone carrying anger. "Why are Roger and his people attacking you, Ron?"
"Heh..." Ron sneered and wiped the remaining blood from the corner of his mouth. "They came out of nowhere to condemn me. As Shakky's lapdogs, they've already succeeded."
Whitebeard's brows tightened slightly. He did not ask further. He simply turned his gaze back to Roger, his expression grave. "Roger, you bastard. What do you think you're doing?"
Roger looked at Whitebeard and was silent for two seconds before slowly saying, "Newgate... you and I can be considered old friends, half enemies and half companions, can't we? For my sake, I hope you won't interfere. This is a grudge between us and Ron."
Ron subconsciously looked at Whitebeard. He did not know who Whitebeard would help.
After all, he and Whitebeard had not known each other long. What friendship could they have?
Whitebeard and Roger, meanwhile, had crossed blades on the sea for years, respected each other, and appreciated each other.
One relationship was counted in days. The other was counted in years.
There seemed to be no need to hesitate over the choice.
Ron lowered his gaze and even began thinking about how to escape.
But then, a large hand suddenly landed on Ron's head.
To be honest, Ron became a little stressed. If Whitebeard had used even a little more strength, he would have transformed into the Nine-Tailed Fox on the spot.
Then Whitebeard's voice fell from above Ron's head. "What are you saying, Roger? This brat... I see him as my little brother."
"Exactly! Roger, you bastard, we're all members of the Rocks Pirates. We're the comrades here. You're just an outsider!" Kaido also shouted noisily.