Chapter 1220: The True Worth of the Seven Warlords and Their Deputies

Rain Shiryu, recently empowered by the latest update, was formerly the warden at Impel Down. Due to his bloodlust, he was imprisoned by Magellan in the sixth layer, and later joined the Blackbeard Pirates during the jailbreak chaos.

If not for Shiryu providing the antidote, the Blackbeard crew would likely have perished in Impel Down.

Yet, he still didn’t extend the life of the Blackbeard crew; under a Hakai joint attack, Shiryu became the sole survivor and has been drifting ever since.

Though he lost his left arm, being right-handed, the impact isn’t too significant.

Ambush is his forte, and gaps at the level of Navy Vice Admiral can be extensive; Maynard being taken down by Shiryu’s surprise attack is quite normal.

Supposedly, he doesn’t have major conflicts with the Navy, and ambushing Maynard here holds little significance since his intel has been largely disseminated.

Doing this serves no purpose except alerting the Navy.

Yet he still did it, for a very simple reason: he craved to cut someone.

To Shiryu, killing is akin to smoking and drinking; not seeing blood makes him internally restless.

He just happened to encounter Maynard reporting the situation and seized the opportunity for an ambush, though there’s also some of Shiryu’s resentment involved; he doesn’t harbor good feelings toward members of the Navy and World Government.

Shiryu never thought he was wrong from beginning to end; he only cut some convicts and obstructing prison guards, nothing warranting a fuss.

It’s just that Magellan always adhered to those so-called rules, believing that if prisoners haven’t violated them, Shiryu has no right to kill them.

So, if he isn’t forced to cut someone, he’d probably target those from the Navy.

If Shiryu killed in Impel Down out of his loathing for pirates, Magellan could somewhat understand. Initially, Magellan indeed chose to overlook it.

But as Shiryu began indiscriminately killing and even spared not the prison guards, Magellan realized this guy purely enjoyed slaughter, thus locking him away.

“Not enough yet… A no-holds-barred arena should allow me to cut to my heart’s content.”

Shaking off the blood from his blade, Shiryu sheathed his sword and moved toward the arena; as for what happens to Maynard, it no longer concerns him.

If he died, he deserved it; if not, he’s just lucky—that’s Shiryu’s current thought.

Meanwhile, Pika also began his work.

“Lord Pika, the arena has been damaged again; please lend a hand to repair it…”

“How is it damaged again?”

Customarily, the arena would also get damaged, but a simple repair would suffice, never really requiring him; yet today, after four matches, there have been two total breakdowns.

Without utilizing his Stone-Stone Fruit powers, quick restoration is impossible.

“It’s the Eight Treasures Army’s Chinjao… Lord Pika, this is beyond our control; we can only rely on you.”

“Damn it, even Diamante lost, yet the competition continues. What on earth is Dofla’s plan…”

Muttering some complaints, Pika still activated his ability to help them repair the arena; after all, it’s part of Doflamingo’s plan, and he has the obligation to assist him in carrying it out.

…

“With Lord Pika’s help, the arena was swiftly restored, and the Zone E battles now began. This match also gathered quite a few renowned people: bounty hunter Jean Ango! The professional killer brothers from Magala Kingdom. The former warden from Impel Down, Rain Shiryu, and… one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea! Until recently, a colleague of our mighty king, the owner of Buggy Express, Star Clown Buggy!”

Crowds surged onto the arena from different directions. Unlike Dagama’s tactic of bribing other contestants, Buggy’s supreme luck seemed to take effect, with about a quarter of the nearly two hundred participants being Buggy’s underlings.

“Hahahaha! Fellows! Go and fight to ensure I advance smoothly; go clash with this bunch!”

“Oh!”

Buggy’s underlings brimmed with confidence, for to them, it appeared Buggy intentionally gave them a chance to shine; only one person wasn’t too pleased.

“Why… did you drag me here?”

Mr.·3 looked dejected. He was comfortably seated in the audience, yet right before the match started, Buggy’s underlings ran up, claiming they signed him up and forcefully dragged Mr.·3 to the arena.

“Can’t help it, you know Mohji and their strength; someone trustworthy, aware of the real circumstances, and able to protect me here. You’re the only one I can rely on, 3.”

“Buggy, you really trust me that much…”

“Of course, this is the camaraderie we forged in Impel Down, facing those Prisoner Beasts, that diarrhea bastard’s toxins, confronting the fifth layer’s military wolves—I’ll never forget these.”

“Stop it! I don’t buy what you’re saying! If things go awry, I’ll immediately surrender; don’t even think about dragging me down!”

Despite the moving words from Buggy, Mr.·3 resisted them, remaining steadfast and unaffected. Given this situation, the Zone E arena officially commenced.

“Candle Fortress!”

As soon as the match began, Mr.·3 immediately used his ability to craft wall-like defensive structures at a corner of the arena, where he and Buggy took shelter.

“It’s not over yet, Candle Arms!”

Mr. 3 waved his hand grandly, and instantly Buggy’s men donned a layer of candle armor, with long spears, shields, and swords in their hands, forming a fully armed army in no time.

“That’s it, go on, boys, take down all the enemies for me!”

On the city wall, Buggy laughed arrogantly, and under his command and encouragement, his subordinates charged forward, quickly dispatching a large number of enemies with the advantage of numbers.

“Buggy’s subordinates have formed a terrifying army, is this the trump card of the Seven Warlords of the Sea? But our King is still a bit stronger. So far, Buggy, like Elizabello II before him, has not taken action. I wonder if he has some big move like the King’s Fist up his sleeve as well. Let’s wait and see!”

Buggy’s subordinates were, after all, organized, and Mr. 3’s candle armor was exceptionally sturdy, knocking many contestants out of the field. In such a situation, others also started to team up, planning to first clear out Buggy’s group who did not follow the code of martial virtue.

But at this moment, someone was sneaking around, picking up the weapons they had dropped on the ground.

And then throwing the picked-up weapons at others, the raider Jean, a bounty hunter from the New World, who claims to be a sniper, but his way of sniping is throwing others’ weapons.

“So many bounty targets, I really want to take all you guys and exchange for bounties… It’s all because of this annoying Seven Warlords system…”

Members of the Seven Warlords and their subordinates are not wanted, even if given to the Navy they can’t be exchanged for bounties, so looking at those under Buggy’s protection, Jean could only look on with envy.

But soon he found his target – Shiryu.

Jean’s intelligence-gathering ability is absurd, and to prevent panic, the World Government chose to cover up the events in Impel Down, not even the Navy is conducting large-scale arrests of those fugitives.

Yet besides the breakout group led by Luffy and others at the time, even exactly which prisoners from LV6 escaped was well known to Jean, who has been tracking their whereabouts.

Now seeing the ringleader Shiryu, Jean was quite excited, watching as Shiryu slaughtered other contestants. He seized the opportunity and threw several weapons at Shiryu in succession.

But before those weapons could even touch Shiryu, they were sliced apart by Shiryu’s backhanded swing.

The gruesome scar on the left face coupled with the splattered blood made Shiryu resemble a demon. Seeing someone dare to take the initiative to attack him, he immediately turned to attack Jean.

“Shiryu! You are one of the few level 6 escaped prisoners wanted by the World Government, prepare to return to your home! I’m going to make my name by capturing you!”

“Capture me? Very well, the blood of an arrogant person like you should indeed be sweeter.”

Pshhh!

Before the words fell, Shiryu had already passed through the hail of weapons thrown by Jean and reached him, swinging Thunderstorm diagonally from top to bottom with one slash.

“So weak, can’t even manage a death throe before perishing?”

Looking at the nearly bisected Jean, Shiryu’s face was full of disdain, feeling that this person wasted his mood, then immediately turned his attention to Buggy directing from the candle wall.

“That’s right! Keep it up, boys, those two guys are almost done for! So what if they can combine? They’re still no match for Lord Buggy!”

“Hey, hey, you haven’t even made a move, okay? Where did you get the courage to say that?”

Mr. 3 fulfilled his duty of ridiculing Buggy, while below, a large number of Buggy’s subordinates had already pushed the Vanco brothers to the edge of the arena.

As the older brother, Kelly was short in stature and small in temperament but vicious in nature. If someone mocked him for being short, he would attack that person furiously, not stopping even if the opponent had passed out, he was not strong, but not weak either.

The younger brother Bobby was burly and an anomaly, able to ignore most attacks due to his physique. Even axes would break upon hitting him.

But he was exceedingly timid, preferring to take a beating rather than fight back.

Once the two brothers combined forces, even pirates with bounties over a hundred million weren’t their match, for Kelly possessed the Jacket-Jacket Fruit ability, and when he transformed into a jacket for his brother to wear, he could control Bobby’s mighty body.

Logically speaking, Buggy’s subordinates shouldn’t be a match for these brothers, but they didn’t give Kelly a chance to use his ability from the start, separating them with superior numbers and forcefully eliminating this unassuming yet capable duo ahead of time.

“Three’s armor is truly reliable, these guys can’t hurt me at all.”

A pirate praised Mr. 3’s ability, but this comment was like planting a flag on his back, a slash of Sword Qi swept by, and despite having Mr. 3’s armor, many of Buggy Express’s pirates fell.

The armor was cut through, and blood splattered, covering nearly half the field.

Seeing the approaching Shiryu, Buggy’s subordinates attempted resistance but were no match, and ultimately looked towards Buggy.

“Captain Buggy! Help, this guy is too strong for us!”

“Captain Buggy! Please save us, this guy just wants to kill!”

Faced with his subordinates’ pleas for help, Buggy had no choice but to pretend to be calm and step forward.

“Shiryu! You bastard, stop it, your opponent is me, the great Buggy!”

“Star Clown Buggy, taking the title of Seven Warlords of the Sea, you really think you’ve gained the strength of the Seven Warlords? You, who were only imprisoned on the first level, are too arrogant.”

“That… that’s because you don’t know the true fright of the great Buggy. Taste my ultimate move, the special Buggy Bomb!”

Buggy lifted his foot to trigger the mechanism to launch the Buggy Bomb, but he forgot one thing. Just earlier, for showboating and safety, he had Mr. 3 give him a set of candle armor as well.

At this moment, his feet were encased in candle, so this bomb, exploded on himself.