Bab 279: Straw Hats vs God Knights, Legendary Opponents.
_________ POV Narration _________
The recording resounded throughout the Holy Land, as well as the Red Line surrounding it.
In an instant, the pained cries of a woman filled the ears of everyone present. Everyone on Enel's side immediately realized what that was about, and Aokiji immediately started doing his job.
The seas all around the island froze solid, not just the surface, but everything to the depths.
Even so, enraged sea kings still gathered all around them, piling up underneath the flying islands of the Sky Army, they were going to make their presence known.
Aokiji ramped up his powers to the maximum, freezing anything in sight down to the bone, but the sheer number of sea kings was impossible for him to handle alone, and eventually, one of the Sky Islands was brought down.
The Sky Island in which Nefertari Vivi was also present, commanding one of the cannon stations alongside the revolutionaries.
Countless Sea Kings jumped to the skies, and many started coiling around it. Under Shiki's somewhat divided control, the island itself tried to pry away from their grasp, but it was unsuccessful.
The entire island would have surely been crushed, if not for the powerful roar of an ancient being resounding in the distance, distracting the Sea Kings from their plight.
The figure of a gigantic elephant, with legs longer than most islands, appeared on the horizon.
Zunesha, one of the remnants of a lost era. On his proud back he carried the Mink race, but he wasn't alone.
It took a few seconds for Aokiji's eyes to focus, but Zunesha was pulling along a gigantic boat as well. And on that boat were... Fishmen and Merfolk?
'King Neptune is sending us his support, huh?' The Ice Admiral thought as he continued to freeze the seas around the Holy Land, doing his best to prevent the Sea Kings from interfering with the fights on the land.
Thankfully for him, he wasn't going to have to do that for much longer, as a loud voice was broadcasted from among the merfolk.
"P-please stop!" The voice seemed meek, but it carried a mystical rhythm within it, immediately calming down all of the Sea Kings, who were now just confused.
"I am safe! So, please! STOP!" Her voice carried a lot more confidence this time, and the currents reverberated even further, as all of the Sea Kings stopped in their tracks completely.
Now that the real Poseidon made her presence known, the Sea Kings were able to discern the fake cries from earlier, and managed to disregard them, returning to the depths.
"Crysis averted huh..." King Neptune looked at the surrounding seas with a calm gaze.
'Still, we better hope Enel and Luffy succeed, otherwise, our race is bound to become extinct due to our involvement here...'
Back on land, Brook advanced towards the bunched-up God Knights at a rather leisurely pace.
He didn't let the cries bother him, having already been filled to the weapons that the World Government possessed. It was someone else's job to deal with the fake Poseidon.
The God Knights were also focusing on him, having been alerted to his presence, especially after witnessing him cleanly decapitate one of their own with relative ease.
But such a thing was not going to happen again, as they were now well aware of the danger he posed, and weren't going to be caught off guard.
Still, all it took was for one of them to blink in order for Brook to appear by his side.
This time, however, one of the God Knights managed to react in time, raising his katana to meet with the cane sword of the skeletal musician.
"Hoh?∼" Brook's skeletal features shifted for a moment, but he seemed otherwise unphased.
The one that he had initially attacked also made a move, taking out a pair of daggers and swiping them at his skeletal body.
Brook took a floaty step backward and chuckled a bit at their efforts.
"I guess I was a bit brazen to take you all by myself... I'll have to take you seriously now." As soon as those words left his sharp teeth, the very atmosphere around him became colder, with the enemies in front of him experiencing the full brunt of it.
But they were all masters of Haki, so they had no problem withstanding the deathly cold. Currently, there were only 7 of them still standing.
The one Sanji took out was likely dead, his jaw turned into shrapnel that scrambled his brain, and the one Brook decapitated was most definitely dead.
"Who would have expected some rookie pirates to be this powerful..." One of the remaining God Knights muttered as he gripped his tree-pronged staff into his hand.
"Still, he's just one dead commoner... We'll take him out before running to assist Saint Peter." The one wielding knives spoke this time, the gears in his head turning as he looked over the Saint that had asked for their help in the first place.
Out of everyone present, he likely had the most difficult time, which was granted mostly due to Whitebeard countering his very existence.
"You people are filled with flesh and desire... But these old bones may not be as alone as you think."
The moment he said that he pointed his cane sword to the ground and stabbed it, immediately freezing the area surrounding him and the God Knights.
In an instant, a burst could be heard as one the Knights was hit straight in the head by a strange pellet.
It pierced the skin, then immediately tried to plant its roots into his brain, he managed to defend himself with Haki fast enough to avoid dying thankfully.
But he couldn't quite defend himself from the following shot, despite trying to.
BANG*
This time from a rifle, it rang out loudly and immediately pierced his skull, a bullet enhanced with haki.
"Close but no cigar, seems this one goes on my roster, son."
"Bah! You just got lucky, my pellets are a lot stronger! The roots just needed some time to pierce the skull properly..."
Two voices could be heard bickering in the distance, one younger than the other.
One had curly brown hair, whilst the other had curly black hair. One had a rather flat nose, while the other had a long and pointed one.
From afar, it was somewhat difficult to tell that they were related, but they were in fact, father and son.
Yasopp and Usopp, the two of them had finally reunited, and after the son had gotten over the abandonment, they got along like peas in a pod.
One trait they had in common? They were both absurdly efficient and deadly snipers...
"Shit, Saint Morg, Saint Lip, go after the two of them!"
The God Knights immediately mobilized, Morg and Lip bursting forth, walking on air as they rushed towards the father and son duo in the distance.
Alas, they didn't make it that far.
"Monster Point!"
That was all they heard as their entire vision was overtaken by a gigantic humanoid reindeer demon.
They barely managed to kick off of each other to avoid being squashed into the ground, but the sheer shockwave of that monster's palm smacking the ground sent shivers down their spines and sent them flying further.
"NO FAIR! Get back here!"
What some would interpret as a childish voice normally, this time sounded like a demon's scowl to the God Knights.
"Don't tell me... That hat..." One of the God Knights seemed to realize something about the beast, a spark of recognition appeared in the corner of his pupil as he turned and looked at the demon with a confused gaze.
"Cotton Candy Lover, Tony Tony Chopper?" Morg was the one to make that realization, having already studied all of the portraits of their enemies in detail in preparation for the war.
"What?! That thing is supposed to be the cute pet of the Straw Hat group?! Whatever, I'm killing it!" Saint Lip scowled when hearing that, he immediately pointed his spear towards Chopper's gigantic body.
He immediately rushed forward, the point of his spear blackened in a healthy coat of haki.
A spark could be heard as it slightly poked into the Demon's fur, and the Saint smiled, aiming to pierce further into the beast's heart.
"Mean!" Unfortunately for him, that was the last thing it heard, as his eyes barely managed to catch the movement of the two gigantic hands that clapped together to snuff out his existence.
Just like that, Saint Lip became a stain in Chopper's palms, which he wiped on the concrete with a disgusted scowl.
"M-monster..." Saint Morg said as he took a step back, only to receive a direct blow to the back of the head.
"STRONG RIGHT!"
A manly voice shouted out as he got clobbered over the head, sent tumbling to the ground and rolling away.
He had defended himself with Haki, but it seemed that his opponent also had armament, which was concerning.
The man who had just clobbered him over the head was none other than the bulky cyborg/shipwright of the Straw Hat crew... Franky!
"Shit, how have they all grown this much!?!" Another of the God Knights cussed out as he rushed to aid Saint Morg, whilst the others were stuck facing off against Brook and defending from Yasopp and Usopp.
In the war briefing, the Straw Hats were considered too inconsequential to be brought into discussion too many times, with only Luffy being mentioned, but he was considered only slightly stronger than an Elder.
But now it seemed that the entire crew was set out to prove them wrong.
As even a single one of them seemed capable enough to injure an elder, and certainly capable enough to fight on par with the God Guards.
Injuries to an elder were thankfully inconsequential, as they were able to heal themselves through their strange rituals and powerful devil fruits, but the second part was still concerning.
Saint Morg was still reeling when he turned around, happy to see that his comrades were coming to rescue him, only for his neck to get twisted in a fraction of a second
"Dos Fleur: Clutch!"
The perpetrator was none other than Nico Robin, who decided to change her Mondus Operandi from snapping people's spines to just twisting their heads and trying to unscrew them from their bodies.
With her mastery over haki, it was rather easy for her to do that to a God Knight who was still recovering his scrambled brains after Franky's powerful punch.
"Morg! Tsk, useless bastard!" The God Knight that had been rushing to help him couldn't help but curse out, as he was now stuck in between enemies.
He dodged numerous shots from Yasopp and Usopp, proving his skill. He also proved himself to be much faster than Chopper, avoiding the monstrous reindeer with a passion.
Unfortunately for him, he failed to account for one former warlord going by the name of Jinbe, who came out of the ground in front of him to deliver one blow.
"Five Thousand Tile True Punch!"
And one punch was all that he needed. The punch hit the Knight in the torso, and immediately shredded his organs apart and sent him flying back to the rest of his peers, guts spewing out of his spinal cord.
And just like that, 7 God Knights became 3, a pitiful outcome.
The three of them, however, decided to take on a stance that put them in some sort of formation. It caused a strange magical circle to appear below them.
Robin was the first one to try something, attempting to burst flowers out of her opponent's backs to kill them swiftly, but she realized that she could not use her devil fruit powers within that 'magical' circle.
Jimbe immediately advanced, winding up another punch towards them, only for the shockwave to be brushed off them, the circle seemingly forming a transparent bubble around them.
"Hoh? That is quite interesting..." Brook muttered as he also tried to pierce the bubble, his haki-enhanced blade only managed to force some sparks out of the dome, but the tip of his blade didn't pierce through.
'Magic? We had no reports of anything like this...' Robin couldn't help but cross her arms with a scowl as she tried to remember any reports about the World Government using circles like the ones underneath the Knights.
Nothing in recent memory stood out, unfortunately.
"Great... An unknown factor, exactly what we needed..." Robin muttered, looking towards the sky with a concerned gaze as the thundering battle above still raged on.
'I hope they will make it out unscathed...'
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