Ice Mountain!

Boom!

Nicholas's sudden increase in power forced Fujitora back two or three steps. Fujitora wasn't surprised by Nicholas's response, knowing his opponent had extensive combat experience.

As Fujitora regained his stance, Nicholas's next strike came swiftly, like a bolt of lightning. This time, before Nicholas's sword could fall, Fujitora countered by horizontally gripping his staff sword, infused with purple gravity waves, and slashing at Nicholas's blade.

Clang!

Their blades collided again, sparking fiercely.

"Hmm..."

Fujitora's brow twitched. In an instant, the purple gravity waves around his staff sword surged. Nicholas immediately sensed the sudden disappearance of resistance from Fujitora's side and withdrew his force, knowing that losing balance from an unopposed strike would be disastrous.

Just as Nicholas reacted, Fujitora's staff sword regained its strength, slashing back at him with renewed ferocity. Nicholas used this momentum to pull away, understanding that Fujitora's ability to manipulate gravity could easily disrupt his balance.

Nicholas knew that Fujitora's ability to alter gravity was deceptively simple but highly effective in battle. The sudden changes in gravity could throw off any opponent's rhythm.

But Nicholas was undeterred. After all, he was also a Devil Fruit user.

He wouldn't merely rely on swordsmanship against Fujitora.

"Ground Surge."

Nicholas narrowed his eyes, and lightning crackled beneath his feet, forming serpents that darted across the ice towards Fujitora. Fujitora, his blank eyes wide like a tiger's, countered with his formidable gravity, crushing the incoming lightning before it could reach him.

Kuzan watched in admiration. Fujitora's seamless blend of offense and defense was impressive.

"A true monster," he thought, recalling how Sengoku described Fujitora upon his joining the Marines.

However, Kuzan saw Nicholas as an even more terrifying presence.

"Not a single flaw..."

Kuzan kept searching for an opening, but Nicholas's exceptional Observation Haki left no room for error. Even under the combined assault from him and Fujitora, Nicholas didn't show a single weak point.

Nicholas's strength lay not just in his highly developed Lightning Fruit powers but also in his swordsmanship, physical prowess, and Haki.

Fujitora, in the heat of battle, knew this all too well. Nicholas was a versatile warrior with no exploitable weaknesses, making it almost impossible to defeat him through a slip-up.

So—

Understanding this, Fujitora chose the most straightforward approach: relentless offense. Using his Devil Fruit powers and his staff sword, he launched continuous, powerful attacks.

Nicholas, faced with Fujitora's ceaseless onslaught, felt a rare pressure.

"You've grown this strong..."

Nicholas was amazed at Fujitora's rapid growth in power.

Crack!

The sound of breaking ice echoed as the ice field beneath Fujitora split. A massive ice mountain, as large as Ohara itself, rose from beneath Fujitora, quickly ascending into the sky.

"What is that!"

The Marines executing the Buster Call stared in stunned silence at the enormous ice mountain that had suddenly appeared in the sky.

"Ara, ara, this is really reckless," Kuzan muttered with a serious expression, staring at the enormous ice mountain in the sky.

Nicholas, looking up at the massive ice mountain with Fujitora standing atop, could only smile wryly. Fujitora, having successfully "locked" Nicholas in place, took the straightforward approach. He restored the gravitational effect on the ice mountain and, worried it wouldn't be enough, doubled its gravity.

The gigantic ice mountain, now with supercharged gravity, plummeted downward at terrifying speed, drawing horrified stares from the Marines below.

"Run!"

Someone instinctively shouted, but no one responded. Run? Where could they possibly escape to from an attack of this magnitude? Most of the Marines were filled with a mixture of fear and confusion. The sight of an island-sized ice mountain crashing down reminded them of the infamous Golden Lion's tactics.

"Everyone, take shelter inside the warship!"

A vice-admiral on the ship understood the devastating impact of the impending shockwave and immediately ordered everyone to take refuge inside the warship. The Marines, snapping out of their daze, dropped what they were doing and rushed to the ship's interior, hoping its defenses would shield them from the worst of the impact.

Beneath the falling ice mountain, Nicholas's expression was grave. This attack, enhanced with Fujitora's gravity powers, was far more devastating than any attack the Golden Lion could muster. While he could evade it with his speed, he questioned why he should.

"Hey, are you planning to crush me too?" Kuzan, also within the attack range, looked up at the descending ice mountain with a shocked expression. The mountain's shadow covered a significant portion of the battlefield, enveloping Kuzan as well. If the ice mountain collided with the frozen sea below, he wouldn't be spared either. Though as a Logia user, such a non-Haki-imbued attack wouldn't harm him much, it was still an uncomfortable situation.

Just as Kuzan was grumbling, Nicholas took action. Lightning surged, and a massive figure formed within the crackling energy. In moments, a majestic thunder god, over a thousand meters tall, stood upon the ice.

Facing the colossal ice mountain, the thunder god drew a lightning-infused sword from its waist and raised it skyward. The blade crackled with electricity.

With a thunderous roar, the immense lightning sword, imbued with destructive power, slashed upward toward the descending ice mountain.

At the moment the lightning blade made contact with the base of the ice mountain, everything seemed to freeze. But it was only an illusion.

Boom!

A deafening explosion rang out as a circular shockwave burst from the point of contact, sweeping outwards with immense force. The colossal ice mountain shattered into countless fragments, scattering around the thunder god.

The shockwave, carrying ice chunks and crystals, swiftly extinguished the raging fires on Ohara and continued to surge into the distance with unstoppable momentum.