Chapter 306: Total Wipeout?

"What's going on?! What on earth is happening out there?!" Drake's heart hammered frantically in his chest as a dark, intense premonition washed over his soul.

"This terrifying aura..."

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Suddenly, crimson light flashed wildly across his field of vision as the scouter display mounted over his face chimed in a frenzy of high-pitched alerts, leaving Drake momentarily disoriented.

"System, what's the situation here?!"

He called out repeatedly, yet the system offered absolute zero response, causing Drake's face to darken.

This damned system is doing this on purpose! Fine—if you're not in a hurry, I'm not in a hurry either! Let's see who breaks first!

CRACK!

The localized spatial domain shattered into fragments, and Drake vaulted smoothly out of his confinement. Expecting a barrier of this tier to hold him prisoner was pure delusion.

Yet the three massive, blinking red exclamation marks flashing across his display filled his chest with a ominous sense of dread.

He recalled that three exclamation marks indicated a critical, life-threatening danger warning!

Was it signaling Im's threat level?

If that were the case, it made total logical sense—Im's baseline combat mass was absurdly high; despite their continuous onslaught, they had failed to inflict genuine physical trauma on her.

"You actually shattered the spatial lock?!" The purplish, glowing eyes materialized once again within the swirling black fog.

Drake caught the distinct flicker of astonishment flashing through those dark pupils.

BOOM!

Without wasting a breath on dialogue, Drake executed a spatial warp, reappearing directly before the eyes. "Divine Lightning Descent!"

Sweeping his long sword through open airspace, a blinding burst of celestial thunder saturated the pitch-black void, arcs of electrical energy dancing across the darkness.

"DISPEL! Glacial World!"

Before the thunder had even fully dissipated, a wave of sub-zero frost erupted from his frame, freezing the surrounding dark fog into a solid block of ice.

"SHATTER!"

ROAR... KABOOM!

The frozen fog exploded into pulverized ice fragments as Drake broke through the enclosure. Down on the surface, Im was on the verge of driving a lethal strike into the fallen Luffy, but Drake's sudden escape interrupted her vector.

"Flying Flowers of the Celestial Realm!"

A dense canopy of flaming flower petals materialized in open airspace, swirling together into a massive tornado that lunged straight toward Im.

The floating petals carried both the searing heat of infernal flames and an absolute, overbearing sword aura capable of severing all creation!

Swirling dark fog rose to meet the offensive as darkness and fire collided in mid-air, casting violent ripples across space.

Suddenly, the black fog expanded exponentially, completely swallowing the sea of flaming petals whole.

"Vibration!" Drake drove a heavy fist straight forward.

A localized shockwave tore through open airspace, crashing violently against the black fog once more.

"Brat... just how many Devil Fruit abilities do you possess?!" Im's expression hardened into a grave, intense frown. She had lost count of the distinct powers Drake had deployed since the start of the engagement.

A technique mimicking high-speed spatial displacement.

An ability that seemed to manipulate physical objects at long range—she hadn't forgotten the invisible spatial pressure that had restricted her movements earlier.

And now, this absurd display of elemental control—lightning, ice, and fire.

No matter how one analyzed it, these abilities could not possibly originate from a single Devil Fruit!

"Tch!" Drake curled his lips, ignoring her interrogation entirely.

SWISH!

With a sudden, soundless blur, Im materialized directly before Drake, driving a heavy fist downward.

WHAT?! Drake's eyes snapped wide. Before his reflexes could register the movement vector, the heavy punch slammed squarely into his chest.

KABOOM!

The bedrock beneath his boots collapsed inward.

"Ugh... cough!" Forced onto his knees, Drake strained to raise his head, only for a heavy boot to slam down mercilessly onto his spine.

BOOM!

The ground cratered further under the crushing weight.

"DRAKE!" Luffy scrambled frantically to his feet, charging toward Im with both Armament and Advanced Conqueror's Haki flared to absolute maximum output.

Suddenly, a thick whip forged of dark fog lashed through the air, striking Luffy flush across his torso.

BANG!

"Luffy! Drake!" Ace and Sabo surged forward in tandem. Sabo had shifted back into his human form, summoning one massive, Haki-infused dragon claw after another in open airspace.

"ERADICATE!" A cold, lethal glint flashed in Im's ringed pupils. Before Sabo's flaming dragon claws could close the distance, they dissolved into lifeless ash.

"WHAT?!" Sabo stood frozen in utter shock. In that microsecond of hesitation, dense swirls of black fog wrapped around his frame in suffocating layers.

"BREAK FREE!" Sabo converted his entire physical body into roaring fire, expanding concentric rings of infernal flames to incinerate the bindings.

The surging flames initially showed signs of breaching the containment, yet within moments, the black fog compressed at absolute density, shutting down his escape vectors completely.

The flames were sealed entirely within the dark sphere.

"SABO!" Ace's pupils contracted to tiny points. Propulsion flames erupting from his boots, he charged forward like a fiery meteor, only for a pale hand to thrust out through the fog and clamp around the head of his spear.

"YOU...!"

With zero time for astonishment, Ace funneled every drop of his remaining stamina into the shaft of his weapon.

"GET THE HELL OFF ME!"

A boundless ocean of fire saturated the surrounding airspace. Breaking through the perimeter, Ace reached the dark sphere enclosing Sabo.

"Flame Sword Finger!" Ace concentrated his infernal flames into his index and middle fingers, unleashing a razor-sharp beam of fire that cut through atmospheric currents to slash at the black fog.

The flaming beam sliced through the dark barrier, and a flash of relief touched Ace's features—only for the black fog to suddenly web outward, coiling around the fire beam like a living parasite.

"NOT GOOD!"

Not only had he failed to sever the barrier, but his attack had been ensnared!

Dispelling his flames instantly, Ace's mind raced as he calculated alternate tactical vectors to rescue Sabo. Suddenly, a dark shadow materialized directly before his face.

So fast!

Lacking the microsecond required to execute a parry, Ace was hit by a brutal kick that blasted him over a thousand meters through the air.

HUMMM!!

Hovering high in open airspace, Im extended a single palm, absorbing dense plumes of black fog into her grip before driving her hand downward.

A colossal, alabaster palm materialized in the sky, blotting out the light as it descended toward the plaza floor.

"It's over!"

Under the horrified gazes of every soldier on the field, the gargantuan palm slammed downward with absolute kinetic weight.

"DRAKE! SABO!"

Trapped directly beneath the strike zone were the bound forms of Drake and Sabo. Ace and Luffy let out desperate, bloodcurdling yells, charging toward the coordinate simultaneously.

"Luffy!" Ace roared.

"GOT IT!" Luffy pushed his aura and movement velocity to their absolute physical limits, materializing beside Drake's coordinates within a fraction of a heartbeat.

"Recurrent Fire Fist!" Ace yelled at the top of his lungs, driving a tightly clenched fist straight upward. A colossal pillar of fire—encircled by expanding rings of infernal flames—soared into the sky.

This strike held zero reserves!

The towering flames shot upward, colliding head-on with the descending alabaster palm. Yet the kinetic weight behind the giant hand held a distinct advantage, steadily pressing the fire back down.

Ace poured a continuous torrent of fire from his hands, barely holding the crushing palm at a standstill.

"COUNT ME IN!" Luffy slammed both boots into the bedrock, his aura exploding into the atmosphere as he opened his Advanced Conqueror's Haki domain to its absolute limit.

A beam of crimson, crackling Conqueror's energy erupted from Luffy's fist, slamming straight into the giant palm.

Two against one!

Ace and Luffy locked in an all-out, maximum-output struggle against Im, shockwaves of raw energy cascading across open airspace in violent waves.

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

Deploying a rapid sequence of spatial warps, Drake materialized before the dark sphere enclosing Sabo. Coating his palm in spatial energy, he drove his fingers straight into the dark fog.

BOOM!

Drake cleanly carved a massive opening through the barrier. While the dark fog possessed the property to absorb and neutralize standard energy assaults, it possessed zero resistance against absolute spatial detachment.

"Sabo!" Drake reached into the breach, grabbing Sabo's wrist and yanking him clean out of the dark enclosure.

"Are you alright?"

Sabo offered a quick, confident grin. "I'm good!"

"Good!" Drake let out a soft laugh. Though this battle was proving extraordinarily difficult, this was the absolute first time the four brothers had fought shoulder-to-shoulder in two long years.

It had been far too long since they had stood together on a battlefield!

Involuntarily, their blood began to boil with wild, unyielding excitement.

"ALRIGHT! Let me show this monster what we're truly made of!" Drake tightened his grip on Canhong, his aura surging exponentially as his Advanced Conqueror's Haki domain flared to its absolute peak!

"What we're truly made of?" A cold, detached voice echoed directly beside his ear. Drake's pupils contracted to absolute dots as a sharp, agonizing trauma bloomed across his midsection, and he was blasted backward like a stray bullet.

High above, the giant alabaster palm expanded once more, driving downward with crushing weight.

"ACE! LUFFY!" Sabo bellowed, flaming wings instantly unfurling behind his back. Yet before he could take flight, Im materialized above him, driving a heavy fist flush into his chest.

KABOOM!

Sabo crashed into the stone like a falling meteor, causing the plaza bedrock to tremble violently.

Hovering high in open airspace, Im swept her dark cloak behind her, gazing down at the broken four brothers with cold, aloof contempt:

"Have you brats... severely overestimated yourselves?"