The frozen battlefield of Marineford was a canvas of absolute devastation. Thick, gray smoke rose from the crater where Little Oars Jr. lay motionless, his colossal body shattered by the merciless impact of Bartholomew Kuma's *Ursa Shock*. For a fleeting moment, a heavy silence fell over the plaza. The Marine soldiers held their breath, their eyes wide with a mixture of awe and terror, while the pirates stared in numbed horror at their fallen vanguard.
"Oars Jr. is down!" a Marine communication officer screamed into his Transponder Snail, his voice echoing across the plaza. "The demon giant has been neutralized!"
A collective roar of triumph erupted from the Marine ranks. Hundreds of swords and rifles were thrust into the air as morale surged like a tidal wave.
"We did it! Push them back!"
"Don't let them step another foot onto the plaza!"
But the celebration was brutally cut short.
The ice beneath the fallen giant groaned. A low, guttural sound like the grinding of continental plates vibrated through the frozen sea. Crimson blood pooled rapidly around Oars Jr.'s shredded armor, but his massive, scarred fingers twitched. His teeth ground together so hard they cracked, a trail of red spilling from his lips.
"A... Ace..." Oars Jr. wheezed, his voice a ragged shadow of its former thunder.
Through sheer force of agonizing willpower, the demon giant began to push himself up. His enormous shoulders trembled under the weight of his own colossal frame, the wounds on his chest tearing open further, spraying blood into the freezing air. He didn't care about the pain. He didn't care about the Marine artillery re-aligning their sights on him. His failing vision was locked entirely on the execution platform.
"OARS! STOP! PLEASE, JUST STAY DOWN!" Portgas D. Ace screamed from the scaffolding, his voice cracking with pure, unadulterated anguish. Tears streamed down his dirt-streaked face, splashing onto the cold steel of his Seastone cuffs. "Don't do this! Don't throw your life away for me!"
"I promised..." Oars Jr. growled, his massive legs shaking violently as he forced his body upright, a towering monument of pure defiance. "I promised... I'd make a path... to save you..."
From the designated section of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, Donquixote Doflamingo watched the display, a manic, sadistic grin stretching across his face beneath his sharp, pink sunglasses. His shoulders shook with silent, ecstatic laughter.
"Fufufufufu... Look at him go!" Doflamingo cackled, his fingers twitching in the air like a mad puppeteer. "The undying loyalty of a beast! It's truly... a magnificent comedy!"
With a cruel flick of his wrist, Doflamingo crossed his fingers in a swift, sharp motion.
"Parasite String: Leg Cleaver."
An invisible, razor-thin filament of sky-string sliced through the atmosphere with a high-pitched whistle. It tore through the freezing air, striking Oars Jr.'s left leg just below the knee. The cut was so clean, so instantaneous, that the giant didn't even realize it had happened until his massive body suddenly tilted sideways.
*SPLAT!*
A geyser of dark blood erupted as Oars Jr.'s colossal leg was severed completely from his body. The detached limb crashed onto the ice, sending a shockwave through the plaza.
"WHAT?!" Gecko Moria roared from nearby, his eyes bulging out of his onion-shaped head as his ecstatic grin turned into a mask of pure fury. "Doflamingo, you brainless flamingo! What do you think you're doing?! You're ruining the corpse! A giant zombie without a leg loses half its combat value! Kishishishi, no, curse you!"
"Fufufufufu! Calm down, Moria," Doflamingo mocked, not even looking back. "He was moving too slow anyway. I just sped up the inevitable."
"Get out of my way! If you won't let me have him pristine, I'll take his shadow and pierce his heart myself!" Moria shrieked. He extended his arms, his shadow detaching from his body and transforming into a swarm of jagged, razor-sharp bats. "Brick Bat!"
The shadow bats coalesced into a massive, pointed spear of solid darkness. Moria lunged forward, driving the shadow spear directly through Oars Jr.'s massive chest. The giant gave one final, choked gasp, his hand reaching out toward the platform one last time before his eyes rolled back, turning entirely white.
The colossal body collapsed forward with a world-shattering *BOOM*, throwing up a massive cloud of ice and crimson snow. Little Oars Jr. was dead.
"NOOOOOOOO!" Ace wailed, his head slamming against the wooden platform, weeping uncontrollably.
All around the base of the giant, the Whitebeard Pirates erupted into tears. Rough, battle-hardened New World captains wept openly, clutching their weapons. "Oars! Wake up! Please, Oars!"
Hovering a few dozen yards away via his spinning aerial flower, Tenjin watched the final moments of the giant. The childlike excitement that had filled his eyes during the battle vanished completely. The green steam trailing from his body grew volatile, and his fists clenched tightly enough to draw sap from his bark-covered knuckles.
He dropped out of the sky, landing heavily on the shattered ice right in front of the Warlords' platform.
"Hey," Tenjin muttered, his voice dropping its usual hyperactive pitch, replaced by a cold, dangerous edge.
Doflamingo glanced down, his grin widening. "Oh? The little Marine brat who wanted to play with the big monster. What's wrong, kid? Did your toy break?"
"You think this is funny?" Tenjin asked, walking forward, his boots crunching on the bloody ice. He pointed an accusing, trembling finger at Doflamingo. "That giant fought with everything he had. He had a code. He had honor! And you just... you cut his leg off while he was already dying just to put on a show! There's no honor in what you did! Don't you dare laugh at a great warrior like Oars!"
Doflamingo's grin turned incredibly cold. He stepped down from his ledge, his pink feather coat fluttering in the wind. "Honor? In a war? Fufufufufu! Don't make me laugh, boy. The Marines preach justice, the pirates preach freedom, but at the end of the day, whoever wins this war becomes Justice! This is real life, brat. Don't get emotional over a corpse."
"I don't care about your philosophy," Tenjin spat, his body exploding into a massive surge of green energy. Layers of dense, pitch-black Dead Wood wrapped around his limbs, and the ground beneath him fractured as massive tree roots burst through the ice. "I'm going to kill you right here."
"Bold words for a rookie," Doflamingo whispered.
Before Tenjin could even raise his wooden fist, Doflamingo's hand twitched. "Five-Color Strings!"
Five invisible, razor-sharp filaments tore through Tenjin's body at hyper-velocity. The strike was so blindingly fast that Tenjin couldn't even react. In an instant, his torso, arms, and head were cleanly severed into dozens of distinct pieces, collapsing into a heap on the ice.
"Fufufufufu! What a disappointment," Doflamingo mocked, turning his back on the pile of severed limbs. "Another emotional child who thought a Devil Fruit made him invincible."
*BOOM!*
Out of absolutely nowhere, a massive, haki-infused leg caught Doflamingo directly in the jaw. The impact detonated with a thunderous shockwave, shattering the stone wall behind him. Doflamingo was sent skirling across the plaza, his boots tearing up the ice before he finally stabilized himself, spitting a mouthful of blood.
He looked up, his glasses slightly askew, to see Boa Hancock standing gracefully in a martial arts pose, her long dress fluttering, her eyes burning with absolute disgust.
At the same time, the pile of Tenjin's "severed" limbs began to sprout fresh, green vines. The pieces dissolved entirely into wood and leaves before reforming a few yards away into Tenjin's completely intact, uninjured body. He gasped for air, his Logia regeneration pulling him back together, though his face was pale from the shock of the attack.
"Hancock..." Doflamingo growled, adjusting his sunglasses, his veins bulging on his forehead. "What the hell do you think you're doing? We are on the same side today. Why are you attacking me?!"
Hancock turned her chin up, looking down on him with such extreme arrogance that she was practically looking at the sky. "Silence, insect! For some strange, inexplicable reason... I simply felt like beating you up. My beauty excuses all of my actions!"
"You crazy wench..." Doflamingo hissed, his fingers tensing up.
---
Up on the execution platform, Fleet Admiral Sengoku pinched the bridge of his nose, his golden cloak trembling with absolute rage. "WHAT ARE THOSE IDIOTS DOING?! We are in the middle of a war with the Whitebeard Pirates, and the Warlords are fighting amongst themselves?!"
Standing on the deck of the Moby Dick, Edward Newgate stared at the lifeless body of Little Oars Jr. for a long, heavy moment. His eyes closed briefly, a silent prayer for the brave young giant who had given everything. When his eyes snapped open, they blazed with the fury of a sea god.
He slammed the butt of his massive bisento into the ship's deck, the shockwave echoing across the entire battlefield.
"Don't let Oars' sacrifice be in vain!" Whitebeard's voice boomed, carrying across every inch of Marineford. "He carved a path right into the plaza! Use his body to get over the walls! Surge forward, my sons!"
"OHHHHHHH!"
The Whitebeard Pirates erupted into a frenzy of grief and rage. Ignored by the threat of death, thousands of pirates swarmed over the fallen giant's back, using him as a bridge to bypass the Marine's defensive fortifications. The vanguard broke into the plaza, and the battle escalated into absolute pandemonium.
In the western sector of the frozen bay, far from the chaos of the giant, a localized storm of pure swordplay was unfolding.
The air hissed with the scent of ozone and cherry blossoms.
Vice Admiral Gion moved like a lethal phantom. Her long, slender blade, Konpira, gleamed under the cold Marineford sun. Every strike she delivered was a masterclass in elegant, high-tier swordsmanship, her Marine cloak billowing gracefully behind her.
*CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!*
Defending against her relentless assault was Vista, the 5th Division Commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, famously known as "Flower Sword." Operating with dual sabers, Vista danced backwards across the ice, a flurry of red rose petals manifesting in the air with every parry and counter-thrust of his blades.
"You really are as formidable as the rumors say, Vice Admiral Gion!" Vista laughed, his characteristic mustache curling upward as he blocked a vicious, overhead descending strike that split the ice beneath his feet.
"Save your compliments for the impel down cells, pirate!" Gion replied coldly.
She twisted her hips, executing a flawless, low-angle sweep. The blade of Konpira scraped against the ice, unleashing a massive, crescent-shaped flying slash of compressed air. "Rabbit Leap!"
Vista's eyes widened slightly. He crossed his dual sabers, coating them in a dense layer of invisible Armament Haki. "Rose Rondo!"
He deflected the flying slash upward, the energy beam soaring into the sky and cleanly slicing a Marine battleship's mast in half a mile away. But Gion was already in his blind spot. She re-appeared instantly via Soru, her blade thrusting directly toward his throat with terrifying piercing speed.
Vista tilted his head by a fraction of an inch. The tip of Konpira grazed his cheek, drawing a thin line of blood. Capitalizing on the close proximity, Vista spun on his heel, both sabers swinging in a horizontal cross-cut designed to bisect her waist.
Gion parried with the scabbard in her left hand and her sword in her right, the impact generating a violent shockwave that shattered the ice around them into a perfect circle.
They bounced apart, landing gracefully several yards away, both breathing heavily. Their long, cinematic duel had drawn a perimeter of empty space around them; ordinary soldiers and pirates knew better than to step into the meat-grinder of their choreography.
Vista lowered his sabers slightly, wiping the blood from his cheek with the back of his hand. He looked around the battlefield, noticing the pirates surging over Oars' body and the shifting tides of the war. A soft smile appeared on his face.
"I've had a truly wonderful time exchanging slashes with you, Vice Admiral," Vista said smoothly, his tone respectful yet final. "Your swordsmanship is beautiful. But... there is a certain man with eyes like a hawk on this battlefield that I desperately wish to test my blades against today. So, I think it's best we end our little dance here."
Gion's eyes narrowed, her grip tightening on Konpira. "You think a war is a game where you can just walk away when you're bored? You're not going anywhere, Flower Sword!"
She leaped forward, her blade manifesting a faint, pink aura of high-grade Haki, ready to unleash a definitive execution technique.
But before her blade could connect, a high-pitched yell cut through the air.
"Get in there!"
Haruta, the 12th Division Commander, dropped from the sky, his single-edged saber clashing directly against Gion's Konpira. The impact sparked violently. Simultaneously, Rakuya, the 7th Division Commander, swung a massive, spiked iron flail wrapped in chains directly at Gion's flank.
Forced to adapt, Gion executed a swift backflip, her blade parrying Haruta while her scabbard deflected the heavy iron flail, forcing both commanders back.
"Go, Vista!" Haruta yelled over his shoulder, a grin on his youthful face. "We'll hold down the lady! Don't keep Hawkeye waiting!"
"Much appreciated, my brothers!" Vista called out.
With a flash of his dual blades, Vista slipped through the gap in the Marine line, his figure vanishing into the sprawling chaos of the plaza, leaving Gion to glare furiously at the two commanders standing in her way.
---
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