“Winch Smash!”
His body was equipped with technology similar to Germa’s, but neither Henry nor Sparking would prove effective against a Logia User; only the brute force brought by Winch Green can have a certain impact.
His left arm was reinforced with Haki, yet he chose to use his right arm to withstand Sakazuki’s attack in the earlier clash.
Logically, using his mechanized left arm would have been optimal, but he refrained from doing so.
The outer metal of his mechanical arm had already melted to a certain extent when he blocked Hell Hound earlier. Continued use risked damaging the drive components inside, hence he used the unmodified right arm to block.
The extended mechanical arm reached out to grab Sakazuki, the enlarged steel claws tearing through the air. The claw blade, coated in Haki, began to operate under the hybrid power system.
Through body modification, these mechanical arms have long become a part of Queen’s body, allowing him to receive feedback even without a sense of pain. However, the attack failed to yield the desired result, and the joints in his mechanical arm began to squeak.
Relying on his physical strength, Sakazuki clamped down on Queen’s mechanical arm. Lava began to seep out from his body, with waves of black smoke spilling out from Queen’s mechanical arm, dispersing in all directions.
Faced with an opponent like this, even Queen found it challenging to deal with. Despite the variety of equipment he carried, none of it had much effect on a Logia User. Whether explosive shrapnel or single-element attacks, they proved ineffective against magma.
These technological weapons crushed conventional arms with ease, yet had their limitations; Queen couldn’t imbue Haki into intangible attacks like electricity or lasers.
Even Tropius’ moves would have a hard time against magma. Akainu was always going to be quite a difficult opponent for him to handle. After all, he was the sole Marine Admiral who hadn’t pulled his punches during the Summit War, a monster who still left the other captains feeling helpless even after Whitebeard punched him to the ground.
That Queen could grapple with him now was already significant progress. Still, it didn’t matter—he isn’t the main force who is going to deal with Sakazuki. For now, all he needed to do was take the beatings.
He struck Sakazuki with his Haki-clad right fist, but Sakazuki paid no mind to it, as a more dangerous sound of thunder crackled near his ear.
Boom!
Queen’s fist slammed into the ground. Just moments before, Sakazuki’s body had completely turned into magma, effortlessly breaking free from his grapple with Queen. The magma flowed along the indentations in the ground, converging to one side before reforming into Sakazuki’s body.
Similarly, Zeraora’s attack missed as well. Speed alone doesn’t guarantee invincibility; otherwise, Borsalino would have long since become invincible. Relying on Observation Haki, Sakazuki had successfully dodged Zeraora’s attack.
While speed might not mean invincibility, it did allow for a higher frequency of attacks. Just as Sakazuki’s body was reforming, Zeraora’s kick was already aiming at his head.
Imbued with Haki, his attack managed to connect with Sakazuki’s physical form while dodging the counterattack with his agility. With his fists charged with lightning, he launched another barrage of attacks.
At this moment, Zeraora’s entire body was enveloped in lightning, having entered the Plasma Fists’ enhanced state. Unlike Queen, who was being suppressed earlier, their battle had reached a stalemate.
With his extremely fast speed, Zeraora dodged most of Akainu’s counter attacks, and the few unavoidable ones were blocked by Protect.
On the flip side, Zeraora’s attacks weren’t having much effect either. Sakazuki’s Haki and physique were both extremely powerful, and relying on his extraordinary physique, only a small trail of blood appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“Well done! Hit him! Hit him on the face!”
“Don’t give me orders! And don’t just stand there like an idiot!”
“Hehe, coming; it wouldn’t have been easy if not for such a huge commotion!”
Queen cheered from the sidelines, but was quickly met with a scolding. If this were an order from Arceus, Zeraora would fight to the death without complaint. However, he’d only come because Queen had asked for help. If it weren’t for all this trouble Queen stirred up, he’d be at home playing with his kids and spending time with his wife, not here in the middle of a battle.
It’s impossible for Queen to actually give him orders; he only showed up out of a sense of camaraderie.
If this weren’t in the heat of battle, he’d definitely teach Queen a lesson.
Queen, no fool himself, wasn’t just standing there like an idiot to watch. Though he hadn’t made any grand moves, his preparations were already in place.
Rumble!
The sky darkened, covered by thick clouds, with thunderclouds shrouding the entire island. This was the result of Queen’s recent actions—a large-scale Rain Dance had turned the whole island into Rainy Day.
Thanks to Sakazuki’s attacks, the island had long turned into a sea of flames, and the rising hot air made gathering rain clouds even easier. Otherwise, Queen wouldn’t have been able to cover such a vast area with Rain Dance.
While this weather wasn’t ideal for his own fighting style, it was perfect for Zeraora. Moreover, the downpour weakened Sakazuki’s magma attacks.
The rain poured down heavily, though the flames didn’t extinguish immediately. At first, the raindrops evaporated upon contact with the burning ground, shrouding the entire island with steam.
Through the thick haze, one could see crimson magma and yellow lightning constantly intersecting, while Queen provided cover fire from a distance, helping Zeraora slow the opponent’s advance.
…
Boom! Crackle! The clouds churned, and lightning bolts rained down as Zeraora temporarily broke away from the battle.
“Most of them have evacuated to safe zones. This guy is tough; we could keep going for days without a clear winner.”
The battle had already raged for half a day. Zeraora’s fur bore several scorch marks, while Sakazuki’s suit was in tatters. Despite this, neither of them seemed to be in particularly bad shape.
A clear outcome was nowhere in sight. It was difficult for Sakazuki to defeat both of them at once, and the two of them couldn’t easily finish him off either.
Queen’s body showed no visible injuries. His self-regeneration had healed the damage on his right arm, though his mechanical left hand was temporarily out of commission. Zeraora, meanwhile, was using the lightning to replenish his stamina.
“If we keep dragging this out, the scale of the battle might expand. It’s not time for that… Pity about my banana plantation, but things are at this point anyway, so I might as well give him a big gift.”
With that, Queen took out the Devil Fruit from seemingly out of nowhere.
“What are you planning?”
“Lord Arceus taught me a move called Natural Gift. Its power relies entirely on the fruit [*or berry] I’m carrying when I launch it. And since a Devil Fruit is technically also a fruit, can you guess what effect it’ll have when I use it to launch Natural Gift?”
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