"For the Marines!"
"Freeze him!"
Dozens of recruits who had swallowed the Super Green Blood serum let out the fiercest shouts of their lives.
Wreathed in streams of blue-white cold, they charged straight toward the magma giant before its colossal arm could fall.
They knew exactly what they were doing.
The power coursing through their bodies was borrowed, painful, and temporary. Using it might cost them years of their lives, perhaps more.
But behind them were their comrades.
If their lives could buy even a few more seconds, then they would spend them.
The recruits threw themselves forward without hesitation, determined to become the last wall standing between Bullet and Marineford.
High above them, Bullet looked down.
His colossal body resembled an erupting volcano, molten rock surging continuously across its surface as unbearable heat distorted the air around him.
Two blazing magma eyes watched the dozens of blue streaks racing toward his feet.
To Bullet, they looked almost pitiful.
A group of rookies forcing abilities they had never properly trained through some artificial serum, then trying to challenge him with them?
Their presence was so insignificant that he could barely take them seriously.
"Hmph."
A disdainful sound rolled from the giant.
"A desperate struggle."
Bullet did not even bother moving.
He simply stood there and allowed the waves of freezing energy to crash against him.
Crack-crack-crack—!
Extreme cold collided violently with extreme heat.
Thick layers of blue-white ice began spreading across Bullet's enormous body at astonishing speed.
It started at his ankles.
Then climbed over his legs.
The ice continued upward, swallowing the torso and spreading along both massive arms.
Even the magma flowing beneath the surface appeared to slow.
Higher still.
Across the shoulders.
Around the neck.
Finally, the freezing power sealed even the giant's magma-filled head.
Within the span of a single breath, the colossal destroyer had been completely encased in ice.
The towering figure stood frozen in the center of Marineford's plaza, still caught in the posture of raising one enormous arm for a devastating strike.
For a moment, it was as though time itself had stopped.
The recruits stared.
"D-Did we do it?"
One voice trembled with disbelief.
"We froze him!"
Joy erupted across their exhausted faces.
They looked at one another as if they had just accomplished the impossible.
For that brief instant, hope returned.
Then—
something changed inside the ice.
The dark-red magma buried beneath those frozen layers suddenly flared.
Once.
Like the beat of an enormous heart.
Thump.
A crimson glow pierced through the ice.
The recruits' smiles vanished.
Crack…
A tiny fracture appeared.
Then another.
Crack… crack…
The sound began spreading across the frozen giant.
Lines raced through the enormous ice shell like spiderwebs.
And from somewhere deep inside Bullet's body, an even hotter and more violent force began to gather.
"No…"
One recruit's eyes widened.
The magma beneath the ice surged brighter.
Then—
BOOOOOOM!!!
The accumulated power erupted.
The massive layer of ice surrounding Bullet exploded outward.
What had looked like an impregnable frozen prison shattered as easily as glass.
Huge chunks of ice tore free from the giant's body and blasted in every direction.
Some were the size of boulders.
Others had shattered into jagged fragments with edges sharp enough to cut like blades.
They shot across the plaza like artillery shrapnel, radiating outward from Bullet at terrifying speed.
The recruits who had moments earlier believed they had stopped him could only stare as the frozen prison they had created became yet another weapon against them.
And within the storm of shattered ice—
the magma giant still stood.
Unharmed.
...
Thud!
A dull impact cut through the chaos, immediately followed by a bloodcurdling scream.
"AAAAARGH!"
"Watch out for the ice!"
The recruits closest to Bullet had already been pushed to the brink by the fighting. Exhausted, wounded, and still reeling from the shock of seeing their attack fail, they had no time to react to the barrage of shattered ice.
Jagged fragments tore through the air like shrapnel.
Some Marines were pierced outright, blood spraying across the frozen ground.
Others were struck by larger chunks with enough force to break bones on impact, sending them crashing down amid screams of agony.
Within moments, the plaza had descended into carnage.
They had thrown everything into that attack.
Their courage.
Their strength.
Even years of their own lives.
For one fleeting instant, they had believed they had succeeded.
But before Bullet's overwhelming power, that victory had lasted less than a second.
Worse, the very ice they had created had now become a weapon against them.
Through the swirling mixture of frozen mist and boiling steam, the colossal magma giant gradually emerged once more.
Completely intact.
Dark-red magma surged across its body even more violently than before.
Then Bullet's mocking voice rolled over the battlefield.
"That's it?"
His laughter carried through the haze.
"That wasn't even enough to scratch me!"
The words struck the battered Marines almost as painfully as the attack itself.
Bullet had no intention of giving them time to recover.
Still controlling the colossal destroyer, he raised its enormous magma arm once more.
Heat rolled from it in suffocating waves.
His expression twisted into a savage grin as the arm began to descend, carrying enough force to crush everything beneath it.
Then—
VMMMMM—!
A terrifying presence suddenly erupted across Marineford.
The air filled with a nauseating stench.
Poison.
Along with it came a wave of fury so intense that even the atmosphere seemed to tremble.
It surged from the rear of Marine Headquarters, from the direction of Impel Down, like some ancient beast finally awakening from its sleep.
Then a roar tore across the battlefield.
"BULLET—!!!"
The hatred contained in that voice was unmistakable.
A gigantic dragon made entirely of deep-purple poison burst into view.
Its body was thick and viscous, constantly dripping lethal venom capable of eating through stone wherever it fell.
The enormous creature raced across half of Marineford at astonishing speed, leaving ruined structures and a lingering trail of purple toxic mist behind it.
Its target was obvious.
Bullet.
More specifically—
the colossal magma giant he had become.
The Poison Dragon was enormous, its body easily comparable in thickness to one of Bullet's massive arms.
As it surged forward, venom hissed against everything nearby, corrupting even the air around it and leaving a dense purple haze in its wake.
Bullet's expression changed.
"What?!"
The amusement in the magma giant's eyes vanished instantly.
For the first time since forming his colossal body, genuine surprise appeared there.
Then his expression hardened.
His instincts were screaming at him.
That Poison Dragon was dangerous.
Extremely dangerous.
And it was moving far too fast.
Before Bullet could properly react, the enormous purple dragon slammed into him and wrapped itself tightly around the giant body of magma, metal, and stone.
SSSSSSSSSS—!!!
A violent corrosive hiss exploded across the battlefield.
The moment poison touched magma, thick clouds of smoke erupted from the point of contact.
The magma that could normally melt steel with ease began reacting violently beneath Magellan's venom.
Heat and poison clashed against one another as the purple substance spread over Bullet's enormous body, eating into the fused material with terrifying force.
Dark purple-black smoke billowed upward.
The stench was unbearable.
And within that poisonous haze, the Marines finally recognized the power that had arrived to reinforce them.
Magellan.