Very quickly, Sakazuki and the others moved into action separately.
Thanks to Sakazuki being a Magu Magu no Mi (Magma-Magma Fruit) user, even though his development of the fruit wasn't at its peak yet, he still took less than two minutes to activate the magma under the sea.
All it needed now was a vent, and an unimaginable natural disaster would erupt.
Then he quickly kicked off the air with Geppo (Moon Step), rising back up to Carola's side.
Over on Dragon's side, he hadn't been idle either.
He pushed the power of the Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Typhon (Dragon-Dragon Fruit, Mythical Zoan, Typhon Form) to full, using hurricanes to create a low-pressure wind belt, squeezing countless clouds together into one mass, constantly forming, constantly generating a massive impact force that drove the waves higher and higher.
Seeing that Dragon was almost done setting everything up, and without even greeting him, Carola directly reached into the black hole behind him and took out several tons of Power Rock, tossing them into the mouth of the volcano without hesitation, then grabbed Sakazuki and dove into the black hole.
Seeing this, Dragon didn't sit around either.
He directly borrowed the rebound of the shockwave, turned into wind, and drifted away high into the sky, fleeing far from the area.
The instant the Power Rock fell into the crater and made contact with the magma—
"Rumble, rumble!"
World-ending explosions roared one after another.
Because of the enormous impact and the low pressure, a temporary vacuum formed around the volcanic cluster.
In the very next second, colossal waves rolled outward in layers, one after another spreading off into the distance.
A gigantic tsunami was born.
Because the preparations had been extremely thorough, along with the outbreak of the tsunami, a violent storm also poured down, spreading from near to far, covering the entire Edd War Sea.
Time returns to the present.
Golden Lion seemed to have his head completely clouded by desire.
He turned a blind eye to the obvious changes in the sky, still burning with rage and eager to clash with the Roger Pirates.
The weather? What use is a change in weather?
As long as he could fly, no matter how bad the weather got, it wasn't a problem.
What Shiki never expected was that there would come a moment when he couldn't use his ability.
That was exactly what happened.
After having his rhythm interrupted by the heaving waves once, he truly stopped caring about the weather, and continued barking his orders,
"Brats, open fire! Sink the Oro Jackson!"
Unlike Shiki's reaction, over on the Roger Pirates' side, Roger absolutely did not take these sudden waves as simple waves.
He immediately called for his veteran navigator, Scopper Gaban.
While blocking the incoming cannon fire, he quietly spoke with Gaban,
"Gaban, what's going on? This weather feels a little off."
"It's definitely not normal. A massive tsunami probably just erupted not far from us, and it's going to reach us very soon."
Gaban stared at the rising and falling sea surface and analyzed it seriously.
Then he raised his eyes and glanced at the distant sky, adding,
"It's not just that. There's also going to be a huge storm with it."
"Can we dodge it?!"
Roger wasn't afraid of natural disasters. On the contrary, he felt a faint excitement.
It wasn't blind arrogance, but confidence in his crew.
"Who do you think I am? Roger, if even one person falls into the sea, I'll count that as my loss!"
In his own field of expertise, Gaban was absolutely confident.
All the more so when there was a child of the sea—a Fishman like Sannel—aboard their ship.
As long as Sannel cooperated well, this sea battle might even end up turning into an opportunity for them.
"Heh hahahaha! That's exactly what I'd expect from you, Gaban! Then let's fight seriously!"
With Gaban's firm answer, Roger was much more at ease.
He immediately stepped up onto the prow.
Facing the barrage of cannonballs, he drew his beloved blade and unleashed a single technique—
"Kamusari (Divine Departure)!"
While destroying all the shells in front of the ship, the slash didn't stop there, charging straight toward one of the Flying Pirates' ships.
Of course, the New World was full of powerful people, and the Flying Pirates weren't just Shiki alone.
In the past few years—especially this last year—countless strong pirates had chosen to join the Flying Pirates.
Under normal circumstances, if nothing else interfered and the Flying Pirates clashed with the Roger Pirates here, then if Roger wanted to escape alone, he could probably just barely get away himself, but everyone else in his crew would be doomed.
That was one of the reasons Shiki was confident he could rule the world.
But reality often refuses to go the way people want.
The waves rose and fell faster and faster, to the point that ordinary pirates standing on deck could barely keep their footing.
But this didn't affect monsters like Shiki and Roger in the slightest.
After several rounds of artillery exchanges yielded no clear advantage on either side, they simply dropped all pretense and went straight into a full-on brawl, boarding each other's ships.
Roger leaped onto Golden Lion Shiki's flagship, while the strong fighters on Shiki's side jumped aboard the Oro Jackson to battle there.
However, whether it was because Roger had given orders or not, on the Roger Pirates' side, only Roger and Rayleigh went over to the enemy's ship. Everyone else stood their ground on their own vessel.
As for the Fishman Sannel, his fighting style left the enemies scratching their heads.
It looked like a very light hit would send him flying off the deck and into the sea.
Right as the battle between the two pirate crews reached its most intense moment, a streak of blue lightning flashed across the battlefield and landed on an ordinary warship belonging to the Flying Pirates.
The lightning figure was, of course, Doflamingo arriving at the scene.
He opened up his Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki), and at an unbelievable speed filtered through all the information until he found what he wanted.
Almost instantly, Doflamingo had located his target.
"Found you. Looks like you're not just a simple hostage like your old man said."
As for how Doflamingo was sure the person he'd found was Julian's son, he could only say that when two people in this world looked that alike, if they weren't related, there really wasn't much else that could explain it.
Let alone two Fishmen who looked that similar.
In his perception, Doflamingo saw something surprising—he saw Kritos, Julian's son, leading the other hostages in open rebellion against their Flying Pirate guards, and the kid didn't seem weak at all.
That really piqued Doflamingo's curiosity.
No matter how you looked at it, Julian's son shouldn't have wound up as a hostage.
But reality was reality.
Doflamingo could only sigh that maybe most people in the pirate world really did have something wrong with their heads.
Something that looked completely unnecessary to him counted as "dreams" and "adventure" in their eyes.
Of course, they were still one of the Flying Pirates' fleets.
There was no way there wouldn't be strong fighters left behind on guard duty—there was more than one, in fact.
For someone as outnumbered as Julian's son, getting defeated was only a matter of time.
Knowing clearly how the situation would develop next, Doflamingo didn't want to waste too much time on this small matter.
He directly revealed himself and blocked the three strong fighters surrounding Julian's son.
The gap in power meant the three of them were never going to be his match.
And since Doflamingo didn't intend to cause a huge scene and draw too much attention, after forcing the three back, he simply grabbed Julian's son and quickly fled the battlefield.
Using his speed advantage, he tossed the kid onto a fairly large island nearby, then immediately returned to the battlefield again.
By the time Doflamingo made it back to the battle, the massive tsunami carried by the storm had already arrived.
It had even smashed apart several of the Flying Pirates' ships.
The Roger Pirates, on the other hand, were doing comparatively better.
Borrowing the storm and the tsunami, they managed to dodge every wave with eerie precision, always ending up in safe spots.
Doflamingo could also see that while the Oro Jackson was dodging, it was quietly pulling farther and farther away from the battlefield.
(End of Chapter)
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