Chapter 985: Reinforcements!!! Reinforcements!!!

Chapter 985: Chapter 985: Reinforcements!!! Reinforcements!!!

Unzan Port, Urban District.

SWOOSH—!!!

BOOM—!!!

A dark silhouette was sent hurtling backward at a staggering velocity, shattering all atmospheric resistance. Several sonic rings of compressed air vapor erupted in midair sequence. The violent gale generated by its sheer speed sliced a deep, elongated trench into the ground below. In a fraction of a second, the figure crossed hundreds of meters before crashing violently into the earth.

The ground shuddered aggressively, collapsing into a colossal crater dozens of meters wide. Web-like fissures spiderwebbed outward erratically. The subsequent blast wave kicked up a towering wall of dust and debris, sending fragmented boulders whistling through the air like shrapnel. Their kinetic force surpassed that of ordinary bullets, punching straight through concrete walls over twenty centimeters thick.

"Heavenly Fire!!!"

"Zeus!!!"

RUMBLE— RUMBLE—

Following the initial crash, a dozen blinding pillars of lightning, each as thick as a water barrel, and a barrage of blazing fireballs the size of millstones rained down relentlessly. They wantonly obliterated everything within a several-hundred-meter radius, leaving the earth in a state of perpetual tremors.

It took a considerable moment for the apocalyptic bombardment to finally subside. As the smoke and dust gradually drifted away, the landscape stood utterly devastated, pockmarked with scorched, blackened craters.

"Cough..."

Zephyr struggled to push himself up from the ruined earth. Half-kneeling, he hacked up a large mouthful of fresh blood.

The jet-black Armament Haki coating his body receded, exposing a patchwork of horrific injuries. There were deep lacerations from bladed weapons, blunt-force contusions, severe burns from the hellfire, and raw, charred flesh from the lightning... an exhaustive array of trauma.

"Is that woman... a lunatic?"

Zephyr wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, drawing heavy, ragged breaths. He raised his head with a deeply solemn expression, staring at the titanic, unearthly figure of the woman standing in the distance.

In the world of the truly powerful, grand battles usually lasted for hours, half a day, or even a full day. When two sides were evenly matched and locked in a stalemate, fighting continuously for days and nights was a common occurrence.

For instance, years ago, Jinbe the Knight of the Sea and Fire Fist Ace had clashed on land for five days and five nights. Two years ago, Akainu Sakazuki and Aokiji Kuzan had waged a ferocious, world-altering duel for ten consecutive days to claim the mantle of Fleet Admiral.

If one could argue that Logia users fought that long because their elemental forms made them inherently difficult to pin down, then one could look further back. Decades ago, the former Fleet Admiral and current Commander-in-Chief of the World Government’s Armed Forces, Kong, had battled Patrick Redfield for ten days and ten nights before finally securing his capture.

Yet here, in less than two hours of combat, Big Mom’s terrifying raw might and her utterly frenzied offensive had already severely depleted Zephyr’s stamina and left him grievously wounded.

Granted, Zephyr’s overall strength was inferior to hers, but he was still a former Marine Admiral, a veteran who had once stood at the absolute pinnacle of the physical martial arts style. Furthermore, he now possessed the Paramecia-type Hard-Hard Fruit. While its offensive capabilities weren’t necessarily groundbreaking, his defensive thresholds had been exponentially enhanced. Despite that, he had still been battered into this state within such an incredibly short window.

"I really have grown old..."

Zephyr let out a soft sigh, a trace of bitter resignation in his muttered words. "No matter how much the body recovers, time is an undefeated enemy."

This marked the very first time Zephyr had engaged in a battle of such extreme intensity since restoring his severed arm and rejuvenating his physical form. His body, which had appeared to be back at its peak, finally began to falter under the strain. The disparity between his stamina consumption and his recovery rate was simply too vast.

The longer the battle dragged on, the more severe his exhaustion became. The cellular and muscular regeneration of his body had dwindled to practically zero.

Furthermore, while the Hard-Hard Fruit initially seemed to demand very little energy, it was actually a massive drain on one’s stamina reserves over prolonged use. Specifically, executing a deep, full-body hardening, and stacking that on top of the hardening of Armament Haki, drained his energy like open floodgates. Zephyr’s current physical threshold simply could not sustain a high-intensity battle over a protracted duration.

THUD! THUD! THUD! THUD!

Heavy, thunderous footsteps echoed from afar, drawing closer by the second. Charlotte Linlin’s massive frame tore through the distance like the wind, yet each stride she took caused the earth to violently quake. She crossed the four-hundred-meter gap in the blink of an eye.

"You miserable brat, Zephyr! I’m going to slaughter you! I’m going to tear you to pieces!!!"

Linlin’s crimson eyes bulged with pure, unadulterated murderous intent. She unleashed an infuriated, echoing roar, lifting her giant, flame-wreathed blade high into the air as she bore down on Zephyr with suffocating pressure.

WHIP—!

The giant blade cleaved downward. A fierce, scorching tempest whipped ahead of the strike, slamming violently into the exact spot where Zephyr had been standing a millisecond prior.

BOOM—!!!

The earth was instantly rent asunder by the catastrophic force, opening a fissure nearly a meter wide that snaked out over a hundred meters into the distance.

"Hah... Hah..."

Zephyr panted heavily, having successfully dodged dozens of meters away. Drops of fresh blood dripped continuously from his chin, staining the soil beneath his feet.

By this point, Charlotte Linlin was also breathing slightly harder, and a few noticeable lacerations marred her own skin. After all, her opponent was a world-class powerhouse in his own right. Fueling such a frantic, unceasing offensive had forced her to pay a non-negligible price.

"It’s useless," Zephyr said, wiping the blood from his lips as a calm, knowing smile surfaced on his face. "Nearly two hours have passed. A monster fully capable of matching you toe-to-toe is about to arrive, leading an army that is virtually invincible."

He understood the terrifying depth of the Chris Pirates’ true military might better than anyone. It comprised four top-tier executives, including himself, backed by individuals like Quiniel Vito and Smythe Betilla, whose prowess was only a fraction below their own.

Their network of allies was equally formidable, boasting several former and current members of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, including the Pirate Empress Boa Hancock, Donquixote Doflamingo, and Sir Crocodile. Had it not been for Edward Weevil’s personal blood feud with Zephyr, even he would have served as a potent vanguard for their forces.

Furthermore, with the financial backing of Gild Tesoro, their consolidated high-end combat power vastly outstripped that of the Big Mom Pirates.

This was especially true given the outcome of the Battle of the Fernal Archipelago just yesterday. The Big Mom Pirates had suffered an unprecedented, crushing defeat. From core executives and affiliated pirate captains down to the rank-and-file, their casualties numbered well over ten thousand. Even Charlotte Cracker, one of the Three Sweet Commanders and one of the only three top-tier executives left in their ranks, had been severely incapacitated, drastically crippling the Big Mom Pirates’ operational strength.

Cracker was definitively sidelined for the foreseeable future, leaving a gaping deficit in their top-tier vanguard. As long as Aeridar, acting as their ’King,’ could successfully check the enemy ’Queen,’ the Big Mom Pirates were mathematically guaranteed to lose this war.

"Shut your mouth! What invincible army?! It’s all absolute garbage!!!"

Linlin gnashed her teeth, glaring at Zephyr as her jaw ground together with a sickening, metallic screech. The ground beneath her feet began to spiderweb with cracks, unable to withstand the suffocating weight of her intensifying Conqueror’s Haki.

Suddenly, the thundercloud Zeus seemed to sense a shift in the atmosphere. He whirled around, his voice laced with sudden panic. "Mama, look over there—!"

Hearing his cry, Charlotte Linlin followed Zeus’s gaze toward the distant horizon. There, beneath the hazy, pale moonlight, a massive, sprawling shroud resembling a dark storm cloud was rapidly sweeping across the sky, casting a shadow over the land below.

POP.

In the next instant, the space directly in front of Zephyr rippled subtly. A silhouette materialized out of thin air like a phantom, causing Charlotte Linlin’s head to snap back around as her face contorted into a dark, venomous snarl.

"Big Mom..."

Aeridar bared his teeth in a cold, predator-like smirk, his voice dripping with absolute malice.

"You came incredibly close to pulling it off, didn’t you?"

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