On the battlefield, Bullet's terrifying Hell Titan should have possessed overwhelming strength and enough destructive power to flatten almost anything in its path.
Instead, it had become trapped in a nightmare.
Garp and Sengoku were attacking with such precise coordination and such a clear strategy that Bullet's enormous body had gone from an advantage to the most obvious target imaginable.
Garp's fists carried enough force to shatter mountains.
Sengoku's Buddha palms struck with crushing power capable of suppressing everything in their path.
And the Hell Titan was simply too large to avoid them.
BOOM!
Garp's blackened fist slammed into the giant.
The impact exploded outward like a violent wave.
Then—
BOOOOOOM!
Sengoku's golden Buddha palm struck from another angle.
CRACK!
Under the relentless combination of attacks, Bullet's enormous construct began visibly falling apart.
One of its massive metal arms was shattered outright beneath Garp's punches.
The magma-filled chest was blasted open by Sengoku, leaving a gaping hole through which molten rock poured continuously.
Even the mountain-like head had been beaten into a wreck.
Deep dents covered its surface.
Cracks intersected across it like a shattered spiderweb.
The once-intimidating Hell Titan now looked as though it had been dragged through a battlefield all by itself.
"Guh…"
A thick cloud of black smoke burst from the giant's mouth along with a low, pained growl.
Deep within the Titan's core, Bullet's real body shook violently.
The construct was directly connected to him.
The more damage it suffered, the greater the strain transferred back to Bullet himself.
"Pfft!"
Blood sprayed from his mouth.
His aura weakened noticeably.
Even Bullet's normally arrogant face had become battered and swollen from the accumulated backlash.
Anger burned in his eyes.
So did humiliation.
And beneath both was genuine disbelief.
Douglas Bullet had spent his life overpowering enemies through sheer strength.
He was usually the one beating people into the ground.
When had he ever been forced to endure this kind of bullshit—
getting surrounded and hammered from every direction without being able to properly fight back?!
His rage surged.
"WORORORORORO! BULLET!"
Kaido's furious roar came from the sky.
Seeing Bullet being battered below, Kaido immediately tried to dive down and help him.
Sengoku was ready.
Golden shock waves erupted one after another, crossing through the sky and forming a dense barrier in Kaido's path.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Kaido twisted through the barrage, but Sengoku refused to let him descend.
Every route toward Bullet was cut off.
The cooperation between the Hero of the Marines and the Fleet Admiral had become brutally effective.
Both men understood Bullet's danger perfectly.
So they had made their decision.
Take him out first.
Remove one monster from the battle completely.
Then deal with Kaido.
Below, Bullet had just taken another direct hit from Garp.
"Fist Bone—Meteor!"
BOOOOOOM!!!
Garp's fist crashed into the Hell Titan's chest with enough force to flatten a small mountain.
Bullet felt his throat fill with blood again.
The giant's chest caved inward under the blow, leaving another massive depression across its already ruined armor.
But instead of resisting the full impact—
Bullet let it send him backward.
The Hell Titan staggered several enormous steps away.
And as his body moved with the force of Garp's punch, Bullet's sharp eyes locked onto Sengoku.
The Fleet Admiral was focused on keeping Kaido away.
For just an instant—
his attention shifted.
His positioning opened.
It was tiny.
Almost nothing.
But to Bullet—it was enough.
...
"Clank-Clank—Disassemble!"
Bullet roared, a ruthless gleam flashing through his eyes as he decisively released the Hell Titan form.
The colossal body, built from countless pieces of wreckage and torrents of molten magma, immediately began falling apart.
Stone, metal, and cooling chunks of magma burst outward in every direction like a storm of debris, raining down across the battlefield.
From within the collapsing giant, Bullet's real body shot free.
He pushed his speed to the absolute limit and sprinted toward Kaido without the slightest hesitation.
At this point, he no longer cared about leaving himself exposed.
A golden shock wave from Sengoku caught him across the back as he ran.
BOOM!
Bullet stumbled violently from the impact, nearly losing his footing.
But he did not turn around.
He gritted his teeth and kept moving.
"KAIDO! GET US THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"
"ROAR!"
Kaido understood immediately.
His massive dragon tail swept outward, forcing Sengoku back for just long enough to create an opening.
Then the Azure Dragon abruptly dove.
Kaido skimmed low across the battlefield, presenting his broad back as the perfect landing point.
Bullet seized the moment.
He leaped.
Behind him, Garp was already closing in again, his blackened fist cutting through the air with terrifying speed.
Bullet threw everything into the jump and barely managed to land on Kaido's back before Garp's punch could catch him.
"Trying to run?!"
Garp's roar thundered from behind them.
"Not that easily!"
Sengoku moved at the same time.
Neither Marine legend had any intention of simply watching the two monsters escape after what they had done to Marineford.
"Kaido! Bullet!"
Sengoku's voice rang across the battlefield.
"You're leaving something behind before you go!"
Garp and Sengoku exchanged a glance.
Then both prepared to attack again.
But Kaido was already moving.
The instant Bullet landed on his back, the Azure Dragon unleashed a deafening roar.
Every scale along his enormous body rose.
Kaido forced his speed beyond its normal limit, even burning through part of his own vitality to do it.
Then—
he vanished.
The enormous Azure Dragon became a blue-black streak that tore across the sky toward the distant sea.
His speed was far greater than when he had arrived.
Within moments, Kaido and Bullet were already disappearing over the horizon.
Garp and Sengoku's attacks struck empty air.
By the time the shock waves faded, there was nothing left for them to hit.
Garp slowly lowered his fist.
"Tch!"
He spat to the side.
"Those two bastards are lucky they ran fast!"
His eyes still burned with irritation as he stared toward the horizon.
He clearly would have preferred to keep chasing.
Sengoku, however, remained silent.
His expression was grim as he watched the last trace of Kaido disappear.
He knew better than to pursue two monsters like Kaido and Bullet recklessly.
Cornering enemies of that level could easily turn victory into another catastrophe.
Driving them away and preventing Marineford from being completely destroyed was already the best outcome they could reasonably claim.
Sengoku let out a slow breath.
The battle was finally over.
...
Marine Headquarters had suffered damage unlike anything in recent memory.
The once-imposing fortress had been torn apart.
Buildings had collapsed across Marineford.
Smoke and dust filled the air.
Entire sections of Headquarters had been reduced to burning ruins, and whatever dignity the Marines had hoped to restore after their previous defeat had taken another devastating blow.
Even so—
they had not broken.
At the moment when everything seemed closest to collapse, Garp had returned.
Then he and Sengoku had fought side by side once again.
The two legends had stabilized the battlefield and prevented Kaido and Bullet from pushing their destruction any further.
Bullet had not escaped untouched either.
Garp and Sengoku's concentrated assault had battered him badly before he managed to withdraw.
Blood still stained his mouth when he fled, and the damage he had taken was a clear reminder that even he could not simply rampage through Marineford without paying some price.
But the consequences of the raid extended far beyond the physical destruction.
The conflict between the Marines and the Eternal Divine Kingdom—and the forces gathered beneath Ron's banner—had now been dragged completely into the open.
There was no room left for ambiguity.
The hostility between the two sides had reached a boiling point.
And the entire sea would react.
Some powers would see opportunity in the chaos.
Others would hold back and wait.
Still others would begin choosing sides before they were forced to.
Whatever happened next, the world had become even more unstable.
...
Inside Marine Headquarters, the Fleet Admiral's office felt like the center of a storm.
The battle had only just ended.
Smoke still lingered in the air, mixed with the acrid smell of scorched stone and burning wreckage.
Even within these walls, there was no escaping the evidence of the disaster that had just swept across Marineford.