Ren and Garp's battle affected quite a few people around them. Though Garp relied solely on his fists, his powerful Armament Haki gave him a degree of ranged striking capability.
This was different from the ranged clashes of Conqueror's Haki infusion, but that was beside the point. What mattered was—the power was absolutely devastating!
"Smash! Swing!"
Zephyr's arms turned pitch black as he swung them furiously. His two arms left afterimages in the air, and a storm of devastating punches rained down on Byrnndi World!
Byrnndi World resisted with difficulty. He felt like both his arms were about to be ruined.
The Mocha Mocha Fruit could multiply the mass and speed of objects, but it couldn't multiply the strength of his Armament Haki.
If his Haki were strong enough and his body tough enough, he might have been able to accelerate his own fists a hundredfold—then he'd have the power to fight back.
Unfortunately, high-speed, rapid-fire punching would instantly tear his arm muscles to shreds and even shatter his bones.
"Smash, Tornado!"
After a brief flurry of attacks, Zephyr quickly retracted his fists and began gathering power. Then, his right fist—charged with every ounce of his Haki—slammed into Byrnndi World with a crushing blow!
"BOOM—"
Byrnndi World couldn't withstand the force at all. In an instant, Zephyr sent him flying. He crashed into the ground, shattering a massive area of rock!
The broken boulders surged upward like waves under the shockwave before raining back down.
Inside the crater, Byrnndi World had already started rolling his eyes back.
'Looks like this World Destroyer is about to make an early exit from the New World stage.'
Even while fighting Garp, Ren could still spare attention for what was happening over there. After all, with their level of strength, neither could win in a short time.
Both of them had enormous health pools—taking a few punches from carelessness wasn't a big deal.
But if Zephyr freed up his hands, things would get troublesome.
If he teamed up with Garp to come after Ren first, that would still be manageable—Ren could stall even if he couldn't win. But if Zephyr went to support Sengoku, Ren would start worrying about Molly's safety.
Just then, Ren noticed a red figure slipping through the shadows, heading deeper into the cavern.
That was Redfield.
No one but Ren had noticed Redfield's presence. Partly because Ren's Observation Haki was also very strong, and partly because the other man's Observation Killing was likely blocking everyone else's Observation Haki—though he apparently hadn't used that technique on Ren.
Seeing Redfield rush into the cavern, Ren guessed that John had likely slipped inside at some point. So he abandoned any intention of continuing to tangle with Garp and the others.
He kicked Garp away, and just as the man was about to counterattack, created an ice wall to trap him. Then he dashed toward Molly.
With his silver hair, white kimono adorned with cherry blossoms, and a fluffy white tail trailing elegantly behind him, Ren moved with the grace of a creature chasing the moon.
He reached out and wrapped his arm around Molly's waist—she had been about to swing her blade at Sengoku—and with his other hand, he took her sword.
In an instant, the blade was covered in frost, and massive icicles enveloped the sword.
By this time, Garp had already broken through the ice. In truth, the ice wall had only held him for a few seconds before he shattered it with sheer brute force.
Now the burly man was charging toward Ren like a raging bull, and Sengoku was ruthlessly raising his palm, preparing to attack.
Ren was not afraid in the least. He swung the frozen shadow blade through the freezing current he'd released, and a barrage of icicles shot toward them!
These icelines were as relentless as machine gun fire, yet harder than anything. Forget flesh and blood—even steel would be torn to shreds like confetti in an instant under this bombardment!
"Time to pull back, Kaido. It'll be trouble if Zephyr frees himself up," Ren offered a helpful reminder, though in reality he was aiming for Kaido's back.
He planned to have Kaido carry him deeper into the cavern.
He casually placed his hand on Kaido's dragon horn, just barely holding back from saying, "Let's go, Mantis Shrimp."
Kaido in his dragon form knew Ren was right. He didn't linger in the fight—turning his head, he strode on his flame clouds and dove into the cavern.
"King, let's go!"
He roared, calling out to King, who hadn't yet processed what was happening.
"Don't think you can escape!" Zephyr had taken some time to slap Seastone cuffs on Byrnndi World. Seeing Kaido and the others about to leave, he immediately moved to pursue.
"Wait, Zephyr!" Sengoku hurriedly called out to stop him.
"Don't pursue them!"
"What's going on, Sengoku? You're not thinking of letting those guys go, are you?" Garp forcefully smashed the ice off his body.
He noticed that both his arms were somewhat red and swollen—he wasn't sure if it was from the freezing or from being pelted by those icicles.
Sengoku, still in his Great Buddha Form, was not only gleaming gold but also significantly larger than both Garp and Zephyr. He pursed his lips, his gaze fixed on the depths of the cavern.
Clearly, he was privy to more information than the other two.
"Don't worry about them. Barring any surprises, they won't be able to escape."
"We just need to round up the pirates here."
Since Sengoku had a sharper mind, he had implicitly been groomed as a successor by the current Fleet Admiral Kong. As a result, he clearly knew more of the inside story behind this operation.
For instance, he was fully aware of the traps within the cavern.
The Marines obviously wouldn't set up a trap only to sacrifice two of their admirals and a hero in the process. In truth, they had never planned to go deep from the very beginning.
John's treasure wasn't even here.
To be precise, no one knew where John's treasure was—except John himself.
In fact, the rumors circulating on the seas earlier were true—the incident where John was attacked by his own subordinates.
Those people felt that John's recent fortunes hadn't been great. Not only had he offended Inazuma, the biggest weapons dealer on the seas, but he'd also developed friction with the terrifying Flying Pirate Crew.
Most crucially, he had lost a leg, which greatly diminished his authority.
As a result, quite a few subordinates began harboring thoughts of rebellion.
The outcome, of course, was that he slaughtered every one of those ungrateful wretches.
It was precisely because of this incident that John decided to ally with the World Government—otherwise, his situation would only grow worse.
However, though he had agreed to hand over the majority of his treasure, to prevent the World Government from burning bridges once they got what they wanted, he couldn't reveal his secret right away.
That was his bargaining chip with the World Government.
Therefore, for the World Government to obtain the treasure, they had to ensure that John stayed alive.
[
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