On the other side of the battlefield, while clashing fiercely with Enel, Kizaru kept the corner of his eye on the situation as a whole.
Vice Admiral Yamakaji and Vice Admiral Stainless had both fallen in battle. The fleet had been obliterated by a single swing of Alicia's sword. The members of the God Knights were all badly wounded under the combined assault of Beth and Alicia. The Marines were taking heavy casualties, shredded by the clone army.
And worst of all, that brat Ronan had already charged straight into the midst of the Celestial Dragons.
The outcome was decided.
Kizaru felt his heart sink to rock bottom. If they didn't pull out now, once Beth and Teresa freed up their hands, even he and the remaining vice admirals might never leave this place alive.
The World Government's operation had ended in complete failure. Right now, the most important thing was preserving what was left of the Marines' fighting strength.
"What a hassle…" Kizaru sighed inwardly, and his gaze sharpened. He stopped tangling with Enel. As the thunder pillar came roaring toward him, he did not dodge in the slightest. His body turned to light in an instant—elementalizing—yet not fully dispersing. Instead, he gathered most of his energy into his back.
Boom!
The thunder pillar smashed into Kizaru's elementalized back. The impact still forced a muffled grunt out of him and made his figure stagger.
But it also let him ride that shockwave, shooting straight toward the battlefield where Neferpitou was fighting Momonga and Strawberry.
"Yasakani no Magatama!"
Still in midair, Kizaru crossed his arms. Countless light bullets poured down like a storm, blanketing the area where Neferpitou stood. He was trying to force her back and rescue the two vice admirals who were on the brink of death.
However, faced with this sudden bombardment, Neferpitou did not panic. Instead, her expression turned even more excited.
"Haha! An even shinier toy came to play!"
She didn't even bother with any big evasive movements. Her En suddenly expanded to its limit, and dense nen wrapped around the ten fingers of both hands. Her arms blurred before her, leaving nothing but a mass of black afterimages.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang—!!
Those densely packed light bullets, each one powerful enough to pierce steel, were all flicked aside with uncanny precision by her ten sharpened nails. Explosions blossomed around her in rapid succession, flames flowered again and again, but they could not touch even a single hair on her body.
Kizaru's figure landed in front of Momonga and Strawberry. Seeing Neferpitou completely unscathed and even more worked up than before, he found he didn't want to keep attacking her at all.
His surprise attack had been blocked so completely in such a ridiculous way. The strength of this cat-eared woman was likely not inferior to his own. If he kept fighting her, he would be the one who got tied down.
"Running away in the middle of a fight—that's a bad habit!" Enel flashed over in the next instant, taking position to Kizaru's other side opposite Neferpitou. The two of them flanked him left and right, faintly forming an encirclement around Kizaru and the other two.
Kizaru's heart sank completely. Wolves in front, tigers behind, and two battered vice admirals beside him who needed protection. The situation could not be any worse.
His eyes swept across the battlefield in a blur. They had to retreat immediately. Otherwise, Marine Headquarters would suffer an unprecedented loss from this operation.
"Grab onto me!" Kizaru stopped hesitating, barked in a low voice, and seized Momonga and Strawberry by the shoulders with his left and right hands.
"Admiral?!" The two vice admirals were startled.
"Trying to run?" Neferpitou and Enel attacked almost simultaneously.
Kizaru gritted his teeth and did not use elementalization to dodge. If he did that, the two men he was holding would be exposed directly to their attacks. He spun around sharply, turning his back toward the incoming strikes, and at the same time pushed the speed of the Glint-Glint Fruit to its limit. His body turned into a streak of light that shot toward the open sea beyond the harbor.
Boom, boom!
Most of Enel and Neferpitou's attacks missed, but a portion still slammed hard into Kizaru's back. He groaned, a mouthful of blood spraying from his lips, yet his speed did not drop at all—if anything, he got even faster. In order to carry off the two vice admirals, he had no choice but to tank the hits head-on.
"Still trying to run?!" Enel roared once more, his body erupting with a massive surge of lightning. A dragon of thunder took shape at his command and hurtled after Kizaru's fleeing figure.
Kizaru could also feel the terrifying attack closing in from behind. He clenched his jaw, gathered even more Haki into his back, and cranked his speed up to the absolute maximum.
Splat—!
The thunder dragon finally caught up and crashed squarely into Kizaru's back. The massive impact made him spit blood yet again. But riding that same force, his speed spiked once more as he plummeted down toward the surface of the sea.
By sheer luck, several small lifeboats that had escaped being completely destroyed by Alicia's earlier attack were still floating nearby.
Thud!
Kizaru, still clutching Momonga and Strawberry, crashed down onto one of the relatively intact lifeboats.
"Admiral! Are you alright?!" Strawberry stared at the blood at the corner of Kizaru's mouth, his voice tight with worry. Momonga beside him wore the same anxious expression.
Kizaru waved his hand immediately. At this moment his tone had none of its usual lazy drawl. He spoke quickly, "I'm fine. Take this boat and get out of these waters right away. Head back to Marine Headquarters and report everything that's happened here!"
He cast a glance toward the harbor. Ronan's figure there was already swallowed up by the terrified screams of the Celestial Dragons. The downfall of the God Knights seemed all but certain.
"But… Admiral, you…" Vice Admiral Momonga opened his mouth, wanting to ask something. Yet the image of the devastated harbor flashed through his mind, and everything he wanted to say stuck in his throat, finally dissolving into a powerless sigh.
They all knew that staying any longer would be meaningless, serving only to add to the needless casualties. The most pressing task was to get back to Headquarters with news of everything that had happened here—especially the terrifying power that Ronan and his subordinates had just displayed.
"Go!" Kizaru said no more. He gave the small boat a heavy shove, pushing it clear of the wreckage around them, then turned away, once again becoming a lance of golden light that shot back toward the blood-soaked harbor. He still had to support whatever Marines might still be alive—like Doberman, who was entangled with Kuro, and Onigumo, who was being held in place by Tesoro's golden colossus.
Enel and Neferpitou stood at the edge of the harbor, watching Kizaru's figure streak off into the distance, but they did not give chase.
Against the Glint-Glint Fruit, once its user focused solely on escape, even Enel had no good counter. Neferpitou could fly through the air with nen, but her speed lagged far behind his.
Neferpitou tilted her head, a little disappointed. "One shiny toy ran away."
Enel snorted coldly. "Hmph. Let him run. Next time we meet, I'll make him taste true God's Judgment."
"Let's go. Things over there should be wrapped up too." After speaking, Neferpitou stopped paying attention to the escaping Kizaru and headed toward Ronan's position. Enel followed close behind.
At this moment, Ronan was gazing indifferently at the dozen or so World nobles before him, each with a transparent bubble helmet over their head. The guards and Marine soldiers who had originally clustered around them had already broken and run, fleeing for their lives into every corner of the ruined harbor.
They had been utterly terrified by Ronan's methods and only wanted to get as far away from this demon as possible.
(End of Chapter)
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