498. War of Punks

The war finally breaks on the sea near Punk Hazard. A naval battle occurs with all the ships shoot their cannons at their enemies. Explosions happen all over the place, making the violent sea of New World churn up.

The Straw Hat Pirates also shoot their normal cannon while defending their ship from the incoming cannonballs. They are also preparing their big cannon for a big attack. Franky is pumping the cola energy barrels while Usopp still shooting their normal cannon.

"USOPP! GET READY!"

"ALRIGHT!"

Usopp gets inside the ship's head, followed by Nami and Chopper who want to hide there. Sunny opens its mouth, taking everyone's attention as a cannon barrel comes out of it. Leo goes to the back of their ship and tells the ships behind them to move aside.

"MOVE ASIDE OR YOU'LL GET CAUGHT UP BY THIS ATTACK!"

They hear him, but they don't move because they are confused. After all, the attack should be aimed at the front, so they don't know how the ones behind will get caught in it. Leo clicks his tongue and turns his arms into flame.

"I will burn you guys if you don't move now."

He points his flaming arm to the ship's behind, ready to shoot his flame anytime. Now the ones behind understand that he is serious, so they move their ships out of the way quickly. Leo puts off his flame and gives them a thumbs-up before going to the deck.

Shortly after that, the cannon barrel in Sunny's mouth and the one behind glow brightly, gathering everyone's attention. Doffy who is already in a bad mood frowns even deeper when he sees that. He doesn't know what the Straw Hat Pirates will do, but he has a bad feeling about it.

His executives also have the same thinking, so they warn their men. But it's too late to do anything already by now. The Gaon Cannon is ready to be shot and Usopp doesn't hesitate to pull the trigger.

*BOOM*

A bright light shot out from the mouth cannon. It releases a powerful air pressure, so it would push the ship back if they didn't shoot another strong air pressure from behind. That's why the ships behind need to get away or they would get caught up.

A great explosion is created by Gaon Cannon's attack. It destroys a few ships instantly and breaks a few more, making them sink into the sea. No one on those ships can defend against that shot, or to be precise, they can't even see it coming.

Everyone is shocked by what they see. That cannon is just too powerful. It can't be used many times, but this is enough to lower the enemies' morale and boost theirs. The ones who are not in the alliance are also glad they decided to not fight each other and focus on their common enemies.

The war gets even more intense, but the Donquixote Family gets pushed back quite easily. Doffy is ordering them to retreat. He wants to take the war to the island, so they retreat from the sea quickly.

Just like what Doffy wanted, the war moves to the island. The alliance enters the island and chases the Donquixote Family to the center of the island. They don't realize that they are being lured here, but they also don't have any choice other than entering if they want to win this war.

Suddenly after everyone gets onto the island, Doffy executes his plan. He makes his Bird Cage to trap everyone on the island. Previously, he planned to do it as a last resort, but he changed that plan and activated the Bird Cage quickly.

It surprises everyone, even those on Doffy's side. But they know it's their boss's power, so they are not panicking and become ecstatic instead. Their dropped morale rises again with the Bird Cage being activated.

Battles happen all over the place on Punk Hazard as tens of thousands of people are fighting. Doffy and the executives aren't fighting yet. They are going to the big lab facility that also becomes their base.

"Should I use that gas and turn them all into statues, Joker?"

"You will turn our men into statues too, so don't. They just have more numbers now, it doesn't matter at all. We'll still defeat them even though they have more numbers. We simply need to change our plan a little. Trebol, release the Chokers."

Trebol smiles evilly and nods before leaving with Giola and Sugar.

"Pica, Diamante, you can start anytime you want. We don't need to wait for too long now."

"Good, straightforward. I will kill that Kyross now."

Diamante touches his chest. There is a big scar on his chest that was caused by Kyross's sword. It is the biggest scar Diamante has, so he is very displeased with it and holds a very strong grudge toward Kyross.

"What will you do, Doffy?"

"I will take our guests here. It's been a long time since I last saw them, Law and Corazon."

Doffy smiles widely, but then his smile stiffens when he remembers his last meeting with Corazon. It was years ago when he almost killed Corazon for betraying him by giving Ope Ope Fruit to Law and revealing their location to the Marines.

However what makes that day very memorable is not that, but Buggy's appearance. It was the first time he met someone he knew he could never win against. Just one punch from Buggy was enough to make him see death and it wasn't even Buggy's full power.

Since then, Doffy's goal has been to defeat Buggy because if he wants to be the King of the World, then he needs to pass a big wall named Buggy. But things weren't going well for him all these years. He tried to chase Buggy but the gap between them just kept getting wider.

"Caesar, you stay inside, don't ever leave this lab before we're done."

Doffy gives another order and gets up to leave the big lab facility. He climbs to the sky using his thin yet powerful strings. After reaching the top, he scans the whole island to see the situation and executes his plan.

"There you are, Law, Corazon."

Doffy grins widely before dashing towards Corazon's location. Corazon is fighting some cannon fodder when he feels that someone strong is coming to him. He looks at it and his eyes widen as he sees Doffy coming to him at a high speed from the sky.

Their distance is closed rapidly and Doffy reaches Corazon in a few seconds. Doffy swipes his right hand forward to catch and slam Cora's head. But he doesn't catch anything as Cora dodges it at the last moment.

Doffy frowns because he could see Cora's dodge wasn't a fluke. At his level, he can see whether someone's success is caused by luck or skill. Cora certainly dodged that with his skill, which means Cora could see and react to Doffy's attack very well.

"It seems that you have trained properly in all these years after we separated, Corazon. No need to hide that fake mute anymore, you can talk now. I know everything already."

"Long time no see, Doffy."

"Fufufufu, I can finally hear your voice again. Too bad that I won't hear it for too long. No one will hear it anymore after this war. You will be a real mute after you lose that pathetic life of yours."

"Pathetic? Are you talking about me or yourself? You say you would be the King, but that King on Marie Geoise has been defeated by the One True King, Clown Lord Buggy who interestingly enough is also your goal. He crashed all your dream and hope one by one."

Doffy's smile is gone and his veins pop out, showing how furious he is at those sentences. Corazon just smirks before he dashes at Doffy and sends a straight right punch at Doffy's chest. But his punch is stopped a few centimeters away from Doffy's chest.

He doesn't realize the thin strings that stop his punch before it gets stopped. Corazon suddenly throws his head back to avoid a kick from below. Then he crosses his arms and coats them with haki to block a thick string spear shot from Doffy.

"Good to see you are not the same weakling and coward as back then. Killing you now will be much more worthwhile, fufufu."

"Try it. You will lose before you can even kill me."

"Fufufufu, you will kill me? What a nice joke. You? Killing me? Seems like you learned how to joke too other than training so hard."

"I never said I am the one who will kill you."

Corazon smirks as he sees Doffy's smile gone. Doffy suddenly jumps high and a sword slashes on the spot he has just left. He looks to the side and grins again when he sees who it is before he stands on some strings in the air.

"Fufufufu, long time no see too, Law. Seems like the one Cora talked about is you."

"No matter who it is, I'll make sure today is your last day of having fun, Doflamingo."

"Ooh, so scary. Youngsters are so scary these days. Fufufufu, let's see how you will do what you said then."

The 3 of them are staring at each other intensely before they start to clash again. Meanwhile, the Straw Hat Pirates are still busy with the cannon fodders. There are too many of them here and they don't really know where to go without Law.

"They're like headless chickens, powerful headless chickens."

A black masked man is looking at them from the top of a high building afar from them. He has long blue hair and wears a long white lab coat. Behind that black mask is a too-familiar face. It's none other than Buggy.

He planned to not get any news about Straw Hat Pirates in New World. But his curious nature is too strong and he couldn't hold back. So he comes here alone to see how the kids are doing, especially Leo & Nami. He hadn't seen them for years, so he missed them.

When he arrived, the island had been covered by Doffy's Bird Cage. But it's not a problem at all for him. He just walks through the strings that chop his body apart. It's the 2nd time he does it as the 1st time was when he saved Corazon and Law.

If he wants, Buggy can cut this Bird Cage and save everyone. But this is not his war, so he won't join them unless it is truly necessary. Besides, he has another purpose here other than watching the war.

"SMILE, I wonder if an artificial devil fruit can also kill a devil fruit user if they eat it. Hmm, let's find a lab rat and try it."

Buggy plans to destroy SMILE to the core here. He can't let it spread after the Donquixote Family gets defeated. So he needs to destroy every piece and destroy the factory too.

"Caesar Clown, what an interesting name. Seems like he wants to compete with me as Clowns. Let's play with him then."

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