As Bullet raised that colossal magma arm, an invisible pressure spread across Marineford.
Everyone understood what it meant.
Something devastating was about to happen.
The battle against the Eternal Divine Kingdom had only just ended.
Many of the younger Marines had barely any real combat experience to begin with, and they had returned to Marineford battered, bloodied, and mentally exhausted.
They had thought Headquarters would be a safe harbor.
A place where they could finally breathe.
Somewhere they could recover beneath the protection of the veterans and slowly come to terms with everything they had witnessed on the battlefield.
They wanted time to treat their wounds.
Time to forget the screams, the explosions, and the sight of comrades dying around them.
Even a few days of peace would have been enough.
Instead, the enemy had come directly to their doorstep.
And what had arrived was worse than anything they could have imagined.
A colossal giant now towered over Marineford, its massive frame blotting out a large portion of the sky.
Dark-red magma flowed continuously along both arms like rivers of destruction.
The heat radiating from its body twisted the surrounding air and turned the plaza beneath it into a furnace.
Even from far away, the Marines could feel their skin burning.
The new recruits stared upward, their faces completely drained of color.
There was nothing left in their expressions except fear and disbelief.
Some froze where they stood.
Others instinctively tried to back away, only to find their legs refusing to cooperate.
"You… you've gotta be kidding…"
A young Marine with a bloodstained bandage wrapped around his face began trembling uncontrollably.
His teeth chattered as he stared at Bullet's monstrous form.
"We just barely survived fighting Ron's forces…"
His voice cracked.
"We almost died out there…"
"And now, before we've even recovered, another monster like this shows up?!"
His eyes widened helplessly.
"What the hell did we do to deserve this?"
Nearby, another recruit gripped his standard-issue rifle so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
"How are we supposed to fight that?"
His voice was hoarse.
"With what?"
He stared at the magma dripping from Bullet's arm, each drop melting another deep hole through the stone plaza.
"Look at that thing."
"Then look at what we're carrying."
He glanced down at his rifle.
"Our attacks wouldn't even scratch it!"
His breathing grew faster.
"Are we seriously expected to fight something like that?"
"Are we just supposed to die under its feet?"
The same despair quickly spread through the Marines around him.
The shadow of their previous defeat had not even begun to fade.
And now a new, far more immediate terror had fallen directly on top of them.
They had already watched Marine Vice Admirals and senior officers swallow the Super Green Blood serum and throw everything they had into stopping Kaido.
Those men had burned their own health and lifespan for the strength to fight back.
And even then—
Kaido had crushed them.
Their defenses had been shattered almost casually.
Powerful officers who had once seemed untouchable to ordinary Marines were swatted aside like insects.
Now Bullet's magma giant stood before them.
And visually, it was even more terrifying than Kaido's Azure Dragon form.
It looked enormous enough to tear open the sky.
Magma rolled continuously across its body.
Every movement made the ground tremble.
Every shift of those colossal arms sent gusts of scorching wind across the battlefield.
The sheer sight of it struck the exhausted Marines like a hammer.
Whatever little courage they had managed to gather after watching their senior officers fight was being smashed apart again.
This was not a battle between equals.
It was not even close.
Trying to fight something like this felt like standing in front of a charging carriage and attempting to stop it with one hand.
Like throwing oneself into a raging fire and hoping determination alone would be enough.
The gap in power was simply too great.
Then, from somewhere among the recruits, a quiet voice finally broke.
"W-We should retreat…"
The words were barely more than a whisper.
Yet in the suffocating silence, everyone heard them.
And once spoken aloud, the thought spread with terrifying speed.
"Retreat…"
Another Marine repeated it.
Fear moved through the recruits like an infection.
Eyes darted toward the battered veterans lying scattered across the battlefield.
They saw broken formations.
Collapsed defenses.
Wounded officers.
Smoke and fire swallowing parts of Marineford.
And above it all—
that enormous magma giant preparing to bring its arm down.
The scene looked less like a battlefield and more like the end of the world.
For many of the younger Marines, the last remnants of their courage finally began to crumble.
...
At that moment, the instinct to survive finally overwhelmed whatever fear the recruits still had of military discipline.
Some of them began trembling uncontrollably.
Their feet slowly edged backward.
At first, they tried to preserve some semblance of dignity, retreating only a step or two at a time.
But as the fear intensified, those steps grew faster.
A slow retreat became a hurried walk.
Then a jog.
And finally, several recruits abandoned all restraint and joined the growing stream of Marines fleeing from Bullet's colossal magma form.
Some even threw away their heavy equipment as they ran.
Weapons.
Ammunition.
Supply packs.
Anything that might slow them down was discarded without a second thought.
Only one instinct remained.
Get away from that monster.
As far away as possible.
The collapse of morale spread like an avalanche.
It began among the youngest and least experienced soldiers, whose nerves had already been pushed close to breaking by the previous battle.
But once they started running, panic rapidly infected the ranks around them.
The orderly Marine formations began disintegrating.
Fear appeared everywhere.
Against power that seemed utterly impossible to resist, all the courage and discipline drilled into them during training suddenly felt paper-thin.
Soldiers backed away.
Hands shook around weapons.
Eyes darted desperately for escape routes.
High above them, Bullet watched it all with cold satisfaction.
From the perspective of the colossal destroyer, the Marines scattering across the plaza looked like insects.
The magma forming his enormous mouth slowly curled into a vicious grin.
This was exactly what he wanted.
Destroying Marineford's buildings was not enough.
He wanted to destroy the Marines themselves.
Not merely their bodies—
their will to fight.
He wanted fear carved so deeply into them that they would remember this day every time they saw the banner of the Eternal Divine Kingdom.
The situation was rapidly spiraling out of control.
The recruits were on the verge of complete collapse.
Another few moments and the entire defensive line might disintegrate.
Then—
"ALL RECRUITS! LISTEN UP!"
A thunderous roar erupted from behind them.
The voice cut through the screaming, explosions, and chaos of the battlefield.
Several instructors responsible for training the new recruits stood directly in front of the retreating crowd.
They looked like rocks planted against a flood.
There was no fear on their faces.
Only iron resolve.
The leading instructor was a broad-shouldered man with a scar running across his face.
His hard gaze swept over the pale, trembling recruits.
"Look at yourselves!"
His voice cracked across them like a whip.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!"
The recruits gradually slowed.
Some lowered their heads in shame.
Their uniforms were soaked in sweat.
Dust covered their faces.
Fear still filled their eyes.
The instructor stared at them.
"Marines can die in battle!"
His voice grew louder.
"But we do not die because we were too scared to fight!"
Several recruits stiffened.
"If you don't have the courage to stand your ground when death is right in front of you, then what exactly did you put on that uniform for?!"
He thrust one arm toward the battlefield.
"This is the moment that proves whether any of your training meant a damn thing!"
Then the instructor reached inside his coat.
He pulled out a heavy metal case.
CLANG!
The case slammed onto the ground.
Its lid sprang open.
Rows of dark vials were packed neatly inside.
Super Green Blood serum.
The recruits stared at them.
A faint, unsettling glow reflected from the glass.
The instructor's expression hardened.
"Everyone who showed an affinity for cold-based abilities during training!"
His voice boomed over the plaza.
"Everyone whose physical compatibility tests showed they could withstand a simulated freezing ability!"
He pointed directly toward Bullet.
The colossal destroyer was still raising its enormous magma arm.
Heat rolled across Marineford in waves.
"Step forward immediately!"
The recruits froze.
Then came the next order.
"Take the serum!"
No one misunderstood what he was asking.
The instructor's face twisted with desperation as he shouted the final command.
"Use your lives if you have to!"
"Freeze that bastard!"
His fist clenched.
"Even if you can only stop him for one second, that gives everyone else one more second to act!"
His roar shook the recruits out of their paralysis.
"EXECUTE THE ORDER!"
For a moment, silence followed.
Fear remained on many faces.
But something else began appearing alongside it.
Responsibility.
Anger.
Pride.
One young Marine stepped forward.
"I-I can do it!"
Another followed.
"Count me in!"
Then a third shoved his way through the crowd.
"Damn it!"
He clenched his teeth.
"We're dead anyway if that thing gets through!"
More recruits began stepping forward.
Their faces were still young.
Still frightened.
But now there was something fierce beneath that fear.
They rushed toward the metal case.
Hands seized the cold vials.
Caps were torn free.
Then one after another, the recruits tilted their heads back and swallowed.
Gulp! Gulp!
The serum hit their bodies immediately.
Extreme cold erupted through their veins alongside excruciating pain.
Frost spread across their skin.
Their eyes turned icy blue.
White vapor spilled from their mouths.
And waves of bitter cold began radiating from their bodies.
For the first time since Bullet raised his magma arm—
the Marines had found something resembling an answer.
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