Whoosh... whoosh...
A cold wind howled, mingling with the downpour.
On the ravaged battlefield, a lone figure stood tall and unyielding. Just standing there—doing nothing—was enough to make the surrounding Marines freeze in place, paralyzed with dread.
The ground beneath his feet had sunk a hundred meters from a single charge-up. Around him lay defeated monsters—Vice Admirals felled in the clash—including the terrifying Sakazuki. That surging blend of Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki coiling around him like a living storm made the air itself feel heavy, pressing suffocatingly on the hearts of all who faced him.
Even Kuzan and Borsalino felt it.
Kuzan stared in a daze at the man he'd hunted in his dreams—the one who had eluded capture time and again. That man could've easily used his monstrous Observation Haki and Devil Fruit powers to toy with them from afar.
But he didn't.
He gave them a fair fight.
A chance to take him head-on.
And yet, not a single one among them could say with certainty they'd come out on top—not against those iron fists shrouded in black and red.
Not even Sakazuki, the strongest offensive fighter among them, could manage it.
As for ambushes? Don't be ridiculous.
Before those eyes—eyes that could pierce through the veil of time itself—even the thought of a sneak attack was laughable.
And then—
Cough, cough…
The wet rasp of blood being coughed up echoed across the crater. A figure in a red suit staggered to his feet, blood still smeared at the corner of his mouth.
It was the Mad Dog himself—Sakazuki.
Say what you will, the guy had a freakish tank stat.
But judging by the pain etched across his face and the blood trailing from his lips, there was no denying that Ozz's punch had done real damage. He was still fighting hurt.
Yet with Sakazuki back on his feet, the suffocating tension in the Marine ranks shifted.
This… this is the Red Marshal?
"Oi!! What the hell are you all hesitating for!?"
"No matter how strong the enemy is, we're Marines! We exist to protect these seas! We fight with everything we've got!!!"
"Even if it kills us!!!"
Roaring like a volcano, Sakazuki's furious shouts rang out across the field, shaking the hearts of every despairing soldier.
One by one, those who had given up—those whose spirits had crumbled—tightened their grips on swords and rifles, gritting their teeth as they stood back up.
And then—sharp, biting cold. A flash of blinding light.
The battlefield ignited again as the next generation of the Marines' mightiest surged forth, throwing themselves into the fray like something out of a damn movie.
Watching them, Ozz raised a brow.
For a moment there… I really thought I had them all cowed.
But it's never that easy, huh?
The world is full of heroes, like fish swimming upstream. He might shine brightest right now—but he could never dim the light of others entirely.
After all, this was Marineford—home to the bravest of the brave.
There were no cowards here.
Ozz looked at the warriors before him, cloaked in justice-embossed coats and bloodied pride.
He grinned, flashing a look of pure exhilaration. His crimson eyes sparkled with battle lust.
In a quiet, deliberate motion, he shed his coat—revealing a body sculpted from raw power, every muscle coiled like a compressed spring. Scars crisscrossed his torso, though they were few and far between.
After all, born with monster-tier Observation Haki, he'd rarely been injured growing up.
He wrapped his sword Night Crow with a swirl of black and red Haki, Conqueror's and Armament coiling tightly.
One fist clenched.
One hand held the blade.
These Marines?
They were worth going all out for.
Then—
He slowly raised his left hand. Thumb up.
From afar, it looked almost like a thumbs-up gesture.
He scanned the sea of faces, landing on a familiar one—one he'd often singled out in battle.
The curly-haired guy.
Kuzan.
"Here it comes."
"Nani?"
Kuzan blinked, icy mist curling from his form. For a split second, he was genuinely confused.
But let it be known: when someone points a thumb at you… it doesn't always mean good job.
Sometimes, they're lining up the shot.
From Kuzan's point of view, those red eyes that had been a hundred meters away were suddenly right in front of him. Still locked onto him.
The sword? Already mid-swing.
Crackling with crimson lightning, it cleaved down in a flash.
"That speed!!"
"Are you kidding me!?"
The slash came too fast—far too fast. The Conqueror-infused sword sliced straight into Kuzan's torso just as he turned to ice, still managing to leave a deep, red gash across his chest before freezing shut.
Ozz moved to follow up—but his Observation Haki flared with a warning: a laser shot was screaming toward the back of his head.
He didn't take the hit.
A sidestep.
A twist.
And then a brutal parry—cleaving a magma fist in two with a single swing.
This wasn't like his earlier duel with Sakazuki.
Now, the Marines were fully coordinating.
They weren't fighting one-on-one anymore—they were swarming.
If not for his ability to see flashes of the future, to predict what was coming, Ozz might've already been buried in their relentless combos.
But with foresight and teleportation at his command?
He was unbeatable.
Darting through attacks, vanishing before icy spikes, Ozz flowed through the battlefield with impossible grace. Each time someone got close, he sent them flying with raw strength and Haki-imbued strikes.
He clashed blades with the sudden strike of the Ame-no-Murakumo.
He dodged a hellhound swipe with a blink-step.
And he counterpunched Sakazuki straight in the chest again.
But even so—sometimes, the glimpses of the future didn't match his body's reactions. And so, bit by bit, wounds began to bloom across his frame.
They hurt.
But that pain—the taste of a challenge—thrilled him.
The thrill of growing stronger with every exchange... it was addictive.
Crimson eyes scanning the field, he sneered.
"You all want to dance too, huh?"
His body was riddled with cuts now—burns, stabs, frostbite—but the number of Marines standing was visibly thinning.
Not everyone was a tank.
Most of the younger officers, after taking even a single hit from him, were out cold—just like Gion earlier.
And so the field narrowed.
Only four were still standing.
"Yasakani no Magatama!!!"
Light bullets rained down like a storm.
Ozz blinked—red eyes flashing—as he dodged perfectly, already having seen where every shot would land.
But just as he appeared in one of the safe zones—
His foot slipped.
The ground was slick—covered in ice.
A freezing mist crept up his leg.
Using the gaps in the laser barrage to herd me into a trap, then freezing me once I land?
"Not bad."
Ozz looked down at his frost-covered foot.
He'd already seen this future.
But that was the tradeoff of wide-area suppression: if you didn't want to get frozen, you had to eat the light bullets. The scattered Marines lying injured from the lasers proved how serious the three Admirals had gotten.
And just then—trapped as he was—a supercharged magma fist barreled toward his face.
But that wasn't all.
A searing beam of light.
A giant ice phoenix.
Three ultimate attacks, in perfect unison.
And yet—
Ozz didn't panic.
In fact, he smiled wider.
"Interesting... Then I guess I'll get serious too."
The Conqueror's Haki began to tighten—shrinking, focusing—until it enveloped the blade Night Crow completely.
He raised the sword.
"Make sure you catch this one!"
"DIVINE EVADE!!!"
("If you liked this, drop a good review—I read every single one.")
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(Next Chapter: "The End of War, and Ozz on the Run")
The next storm's already brewing—P@treon's where it hits first.!
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