162 Chapter 152

[Miles Away From the Coconut Seal; September 7th, 1522]

Within the dark, cloudy night, Prominence was seen to be floating in the middle of nowhere in particular. All remaining members of the Grimheart pirates awaited their captain's signal while inspecting their surroundings in caution.

However, such a peaceful night wasn't long-lasting.

"Cave." Carmen stated with narrowed eyes as her palm lit up in flame.

Cavendish flipped his sword while replying coolly, "I know."

Below Prominence, down on the sea, many Marine warships have revealed themselves suddenly; it was none other than the troop led by Admiral Tokikake, also known as Chaton.

"The flying ship with wolf figurehead, and that jolly roger... it's the Grimheart pirates without a doubt, Admiral Tokikake!" One marine officer reported while all marine ships flashed their light at where Prominence lied, revealing it in sight.

Tokikake smiled casually while unsheathing his sword, "Let's go easy, yeah? The situation may be dire, and we have to quickly arrest them to join Issho, but acting rash will act against us."

Slowly raising his sword, Tokikake's sword found itself blocking Cavendish's sword, Durandal.

*CLANG*

"W-wha—" The marine officer immediately backed off with a shock, for if Cavendish's target was him instead, he would've been dead already.

"Hm... so you took Borsalino's fruit. That's going to be troublesome, isn't it," Tokikake grinned knowingly, "prince Cavendish?"

"Oh, Chaton!" Cavendish stated with slight amusement in his tone, "Wasn't expecting to see you as an Admiral here, my fan!"

"And I wasn't expecting that you will be a wanted criminal either when I last saw you."

*CLANGCLANGCLANG*

Tokikake, with astute eyes, blocked the incredibly fast strikes from Cavendish,

"Still unable to control that ghost within you?"

"Guahahaha!! I've conquered the demon within me a long time ago!" Cavendish replied confidently as his sword began to glow brightly.

Tokikake, whose face still seemed relaxed, leaped back and readied himself for Cavendish's strike.

As the two of them were engaging against one another,

"Fire!!!"

*BOOMBOOMBOOM*

All Marine warships were busy firing their cannonballs toward the Prominence above. Due to the high altitude that Prominence sat upon, only few cannons were able to aim, however, the marines continued to do their best to sink Prominence regardless.

Unfortunately for Marine, Carmen was standing on the rail of the ship, watching as the cannonballs approached them.

"Flame Arrow."

Around Carmen, the flaming arrows burst into existence out of thin air. Immediately after, they shot out toward each and every single cannonball, causing them to explode before managing to reach Prominence.

However, Carmen wasn't done.

Raising her hand up, Carmen clenched it. Just when she did so, the flames produced from the explosions began to swirl and cluster into one intense ball of flame.

"W-what is that?!!!" One marine soldier, who was staring up toward Carmen from down on the ship, couldn't help but exclaim in disbelief.

At the same time,

"It's time for the retribution!!!" Urouge grinned as he tightly grasped onto the huge cannonballs, before throwing them toward the marine warships down below.

"All marines, calm down! Cease the cannons, for they are only serving to empower the enemies! All capable officers, step forward and defend against Mad Monk's assaults!!"

Having watched Carmen and Urouge's techniques, the two Vice Admirals, Doberman and Stainless, swiftly ordered before leaping toward Carmen with their swords unsheathed.

Simultaneously,

*BOOMBOOMBOOM*

Many other lower-ranked marine officers stepped forth to block Urouge's cannonballs,

"This... ugh... is just like Vice Admiral Garp's Meteor Fist—"

*BOOM*

although they were knocked back by the pure strength that was packed behind it.

"Don't think that we will sit by and wait for you to strike, Flame Empress!" Apart from those marines, Doberman shouted as he rapidly flew toward the ball of flame with geppo, intending to shred it apart before it could result in a dire situation.

"Cien Fleur!"

Robin, who was standing behind Carmen and had her eyes locked onto Doberman, crossed her arms while producing a mass number of arms all over Doberman.

"Devil Child...!!"

The arms all over Doberman began to converge into thick, strong limbs before they were encased within the black hardening of the Armament Haki.

"Clutch!"

"Tekkai!!!"

Doberman focused on protecting his body from Robin's clutch, but due to placing all his focus there, was unable to operate geppo. In the end, he dropped from the sky into the water.

*Splash*

Stainless's eyes widened upon noticing that Doberman fell due to Robin's interruption, but gritted his teeth as he continued to advance toward Carmen's ball of flame alone.

Carmen's eyes narrowed as she brought her hand down,

"Inferno."

The ball of flame, at the next moment, blasted in a form of a laser beam.

Stainless quickly brought his Haki-imbued sword and began to struggle against Carmen's technique. However, much to his demise, Carmen's flame was simply too hot; his sword, although imbued by the Armament Haki, began to melt!

"The flame...!" Stainless realized. Carmen's flame was being supplied continuously; there was no end to it.

Before, the swirl of the flame prior to the generation of the ball of flame wasn't for a mere aestheticism. Carmen intentionally made the air dry and hot, in order to maximize her production of flame.

"Move the ship away from the attack!!!" One Rear Admiral, having realized at the same time, quickly order to men, "Vice Admiral can't hold by himself for longer!"

"As if!" Cavendish, who suddenly appeared with his eyes glowing in hollow blue, grinned maniacally as he swung his sword toward the Rear Admiral.

*CLANG*

Tokikake, at the next second, quickly appeared and blocked Cavendish's sword with his own, preventing the death of the Rear Admiral.

"Ah come on, prince Cavendish! I thought I was your opponent here."

Cavendish smirked, "I might as well take the advantage of fighting on the enemy's ground!"

Then, his sword brightened up in yellow light,

"Noble Phantasm: Durandal!"

Tokikake casually smiled. Surprisingly enough, the blob of mud was expelled out of his sword-holding hand, before completely encasing his sword as a whole.

The deck below was soaking up the mud that was dripping from Tokikake's hand.

"Muddy Trouble!"

*Clang*

The muffled sound of metal clanging to one another was heard, due to the thick layer of mud.

"Yuck! Mud?!" Cavendish, whose sword immediately burst in a flash of intense light, blasted the mud apart to pull it back.

"Haha! Caribou was it? You know, there was that weird pirate with a long tongue. He was killed some time ago, and I somehow attained this fruit! Tada, you weren't the only one, prince Cavendish!" Tokikake chuckled while explaining to Cavendish as if the latter was his good friend.

"Mud!!! Yuck, yuck, yuck!!! Stay away from me, you brown pig!!!" Cavendish frowned in disgust as he wildly swung his sword, trying to get rid of the remnants of mud on the sword.

"Hahahaha!!! Brown pig? Well, I indeed am Chaton!" Tokikake laughed uncontrollably with tears as if having forgotten the battle itself. Then, he suddenly stood upright strictly, "Oh s***. Right, I was on a mission."

Tokikake scratched the back of his head, "It seems that you have to die, prince Cavendish. You're too dangerous to be kept alive."

Cavendish, with his facial expression still in a deep frown, simply raised his middle finger while tightening his grip on his sword with his other hand.

*CLANG*

And now,

"Rear Admiral Gwaquantosiotelolestoli, we're out of the range of the Flame Empress's attack!"

Rear Admiral, who was sweating profusely from Cavendish and Tokikake's clash in front of him, nodded firmly.

At the same time, Stainless, who saw that the ships were out of harm, quickly jumped sideway using geppo, just as his sword has fully melted.

*TSSSSSSSSSS*

Carmen's laser beam hit the surface of the sea and generated the hot steam that covered the view of the Prominence from the Marine.

"To think Nico Robin was able to use Haki... what a surprise." Doberman quickly propelled himself out of the water with a grimace.

Then,

*BOOMBOBOOMBOBOOMBOOM*

"Hm?!" Cavendish turned to where the noise came from knowingly.

Tokikake's eyes narrowed, "A signal."

"Guahaha! Seems like I got to go already, Chaton! Hah, you have no idea how glad I am to get away from you!"

"Hahaha, as if! Muddy Mood~!" Tokikake shot out the sticky-looking mud toward Cavendish, trying to prevent the latter from escaping. However,

"Bye! Hope I never see you again!"

Cavendish flashed in the light before vanishing.

"...Well, damn."

Tokikake stood by and scratched the back of his head, for he knew that there was no way that he could be faster than the light.

Eventually, he placed his hand on his chin,

'I don't understand Sakazuki. He thought that we will be enough to defeat them? Why? Although the Grimheart pirates don't have forces like the other Emperors do, judging by their strengths alone... nah, there's no way that we will be able to pull out a win here.'

Tokikake had to make a choice, and eventually, he decided to go along with his intuition.

"Connect me to Admiral Issho, please~!"

____________

[Coconut Seal]

"Just as the rumour says, your Observation Haki surely is amazing." Carina remarked as she teleported from spot to spot at an incredible speed, filling Katakuri's view with nothing but purple flashes.

"I see that you ate a ridiculous fruit for yourself. Truly befitting of the name Phantom." Katakuri replied calmly as he created a hole in the middle of the body, just as Carina's knife went through lethally.

Carina, although confident on the outside, was frowning on the inside. Katakuri's fruit was a peculiar one, being able to convert his body into mochi like a Logia-type. Using such quality as his advantage, Katakuri, so far, managed to evade all of Carina's strikes.

However, Katakuri wasn't necessarily winning. Although Carina lacked behind in Haki, her natural-born reflex, along with the incredible speed granted by her fruit, was far superior to Katakuri; both of them weren't able to injure one another, even though the battle was so fast-paced.

*ZOOM*

Quickly teleporting once more, Carina dodged Katakuri's huge and spiky mochi-turned arm that was imbued by the Armament Haki.

*BOOOM*

Katakuri's strike hit the ground, creating a spider-web-like crack.

"Haa... since Rowan sent the signal, the fight shouldn't be long-lasting, right?" Carina muttered to herself while sighing. If continued like this, Carina knew that she'd lose. It was time to up the game.

Katakuri, whose eyes flashed in red to see through the future, raised his guard in caution all of a sudden.

And just as he did so, the knives that Carina held onto began to glow in rich purple.

"It's all about precision, which is related to one's mastery over the fruit."

Although Carina didn't bother to tell Carmen back then, she too developed a new method of using her fruit. The method was incredibly lethal, but at the same time, sipped her a huge amount of stamina just to maintain it.

It all began from one inquiry: if she can teleport something other than herself, then how about a 'part' of it? Instead of teleporting a person as a whole, just that person's arm. If that was possible,

her knives will be sharper than any other, won't they?

"Dimension Blade."

Around Carina's knives, the purple aura burst into existence and encased each and every single one of them.

Although Katakuri didn't face it yet, he could feel that it would be dangerous to let it touch him even once.

*ZOOM*

By quickly morphing his arm into mochi, Katakuri let Carina's knife slide past it.

*ZOOM*

Katakuri, with all his senses warning of an upcoming danger, decided to put his awakened fruit ability to its use.

"Defending Mochi!!"

From all his sides, the walls of mochi rose for the defending purpose. And just as he did so,

*ZOOOOOOM*

With the incredibly fast-paced purple flashes bursting in succession to one another, the mochi walls disappeared in a span of a second.

'She disintegrated my mochi walls by teleporting part by part...!' Katakuri, not even having realized that his scarf around his mouth fell down, gritted his teeth while leaping backward to dodge Carina's slash.

*ZOOM*

Ignoring the gap between the two of them, Carina appeared right in front of Katakuri all of a sudden, with all ten knives in her hands,

"Flash Style: Starry Night."

Katakuri found himself sweating profusely for once. All knives slashed and stabbed at an incredible speed, and along with the incorporation of teleportations, he had trouble trying to dodge all of them.

*PUK*

Then, one knife managed to stab onto Katakuri's back, causing his eyes to widen. Although he morphed into mochi, he had no time to open a hole. And,

Katakuri saw the chunk of his flesh being teleported elsewhere, with the moderate-sized bleeding hole on his back now.

"You concentrated your Armament Haki on your arm." Carina grinned with evident fatigue on her face, "Although I can't see the future like you, I still am able to change it according to my preference."

Katakuri, coughing out blood, fell to one knee as he produced mochi to fill the gap.

If the other siblings saw this scene, they would've been shocked that Katakuri was in such a state.

"Haa… perhaps I was too confident of myself." Katakuri stated as he stood back up, "Let us continue. My Observation Haki… I will now focus on no one but you."

Meanwhile, Dan was busy facing Queen, whose body now fully transformed into a huge brachiosaurus.

"Ancient Zoan I see. No wonder your defense is so tough."

Dan's whole body crackled in lightning as he lowered his posture,

"Let's see if you can handle this as well.

100 Million Volt: Speedster!"

Using the magnetic force from the sole of his feet along with the natural speed of the lightning, Dan shot out toward the massive body of Queen in an instant moment. Then, his fist, the only aspect of his body that has physicalized and hardened with the use of Armament Haki, slammed into Queen's body.

*BOOOOOOM*

"Heh, that kinda hurt, not gonna lie." Queen grinned as he stared down at Dan.

However, Dan was just starting.

"Aren't you underestimating the power of lightning?" Dan's fist, which was still in contact with Queen's body, opened to a palm.

"Max 140 Million Volt: Electromagnetic Impact!"

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Queen found his world spinning as his huge body was blasted backward. Dan's attack damaged him from the inside, and he acted too complacent, trusting in his cyborg body and tough property of Ancient Zoan fruit.

And just nearby the site where Queen has crashed onto, Alfred was seen to be standing around many pirates, whose eyes were crazed with bloodlust.

"Hand over the fruit, Butler!" One pirate desperately screamed while rashly running toward Alfred, but received a kick on his face and crashed into a wall.

"*Huff*... *Huff*..." However, Alfred looked pretty exhausted. He was facing off against the pirates of the New World all on his own, and while holding the treasure chest; he couldn't last for long.

'This fruit... what can it be?' Alfred needed to decide now.

'Shall I eat it, and gamble on what it may be, just like how captain went by in the past? Is this fruit truly worth the risk?'

Then,

*PUK*

due to the sudden attack of one pirate, the treasure chest was knocked up from Alfred's grasp to the sky.

Subsequently, the pirate jumped upward with his hand outstretched toward the chest, with the intention to eat the fruit.

At some distance away, Rowan, who was facing Kaidou,

*BOOOOOOOOOOM*

has his eyes widened as he abruptly turned his face backward.

"Alfred!!!"

Alfred, having heard his name, shifted his attention to Rowan, who was pointing upward.

"Captain..." Alfred nodded with determination before leaping up, "I heard you."

Kaidou, the second later, stiffened upon seeing through the future.

"QUEEN!!!!!"

However, Queen was busy fending off Dan.

"STOP GETTING IN MY WAY, you brats from the dead Whitebeard!!!!!!! The fruitttt, it's mine!!!!!!!" From far away, a loud scream was heard from Linlin, who blasted away Marco and Ace by the sheer voice alone.

Alfred, who kicked away the pirate above him, managed to take the hold of the chest. While in mid air, he quickly opened the chest and took out the fruit,

and bit on it.

"H-hey..." One pirate, who remained on the ground, exclaimed as he saw the fruit that Alfred bit onto, "that isn't the Tremor Tremor fruit!"

"What?! Then what is it?!!"

Alfred, landing back on the ground without any word, saw that the groups of pirates still remained in front of him with evident hostility.

"Whatever, kill him!" One captain of the crew shouted, "He killed many members of our family, and Grimheart or not, he has to pay!!"

Another pirate jumped up to Alfred with his knife in a reverse grip,

"Die!!!"