Boom!
The steel warship shook violently, letting out the tooth-gritting screech of twisting metal.
Before the Marines on deck could even steady themselves, another violent impact struck.
This time it wasn't the waterline, but a direct hit on the broadside armor plates.
"Damn it! Have these fish gone mad?!"
A Chief Petty Officer gripped the railing, looking down in terror.
Amidst the churning waves, countless pairs of pale, dead fish eyes stared intently at the humans on the ship; those weren't the eyes of fish, but the hunger of beasts eyeing fresh meat.
Splash!
A tuna the size of an adult human leapt out of the water.
Its originally smooth skin had long since rotted away, exposing dark red muscle, and its dorsal fin had mutated into a serrated bone blade.
It didn't try to bite anyone; instead, it used its battering-ram-like head to smash into the nearest Marine.
"Ah!!"
The scream came to an abrupt halt.
The soldier's chest was pierced clean through by the bone blade, pinning him to the turret behind him with the force of the massive impact.
Blood gushed out, staining his white uniform crimson in an instant.
"Enemy attack!! Prepare for close-quarters combat!!"
Smoker roared, his body instantly transforming into a cloud of white smoke as he charged forward.
"White Punch!"
A massive fist of smoke smashed heavily into the mutated tuna's head.
Bang!
The mutated fish was sent flying, but after tumbling a few times in the air, it splashed back into the sea as if nothing had happened, even opening its tooth-filled maw to let out a beastly roar.
Smoker's pupils constricted sharply.
This kind of durability... ordinary guns and cannons are completely useless!
Kuzan remained leaning against the railing, his gaze behind his sunglasses gradually turning solemn.
Abel stood to the side, watching the Shura field unfolding on the sea, a cruel sneer curling at the corner of his mouth.
"It seems your luck isn't very good."
Kuzan sighed.
He reached up to straighten his sunglasses, his former lazy demeanor vanishing instantly.
A terrifying chill erupted suddenly, centered around him.
The surrounding temperature dropped to the freezing point in an instant.
Moisture in the air condensed into tiny ice crystals, falling with a soft rustle.
"Arara... what a pain."
Kuzan slowly pulled his hands out of his pockets.
He didn't look at Abel, instead stepping toward the ship's side.
His leather shoes clicked sharply against the deck.
With every step, the deck beneath his feet was covered in a thick layer of white frost.
A mutated shark about to pounce on Kuzan suddenly froze in mid-air.
Crackle, crackle, crackle.
Ice-blue crystals instantly crawled over its body, freezing its gaping maw forever in an open snarl.
"That is..."
Smoker, in the midst of the hard-fought battle, whipped his head around, a glimmer of hope flashing in his eyes.
The Marines on deck also felt the bone-chilling cold and stopped what they were doing one after another.
Kuzan stood at the bow.
Facing the tide of mutated fish surging like a tsunami, facing that boiling black Dead Sea.
He simply pressed his palm gently toward the void.
Two ice crystal spears extended from his palm, spreading along his arms and finally connecting to the sea surface.
"Ice..."
A low voice echoed in the cold wind.
"Age."
Hum—!
An indescribable, terrifying freezing air surged through Kuzan's arms and into the sea.
Time seemed to stand still at this moment.
The waves that were previously churning and roaring froze in an instant.
The white freezing air spread wildly across the sea like a plague.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The ear-piercing sound of freezing joined together like thunder.
Centered on the warship, the sea area for several kilometers around turned into a silent ice field in the blink of an eye.
Those mutated fish that had leapt out of the water were frozen into crystal-clear ice sculptures, maintaining their ferocious poses.
The monsters still frantically ramming the ship's hull underwater were instantly sealed by a layer of ice dozens of meters thick, looking like insects trapped in amber.
Even the several allied warships being besieged in the distance were forcibly fixed onto the ice by this power.
The wind stopped.
The waves stilled.
The screams vanished.
The entire world was left with only a vast expanse of white and a suffocating cold.
This was the peak combat power of Marineford.
Admiral Aokiji.
One man is a natural disaster.
"Whew..."
Kuzan let out a long breath of white mist, the frost on his body slowly receding.
He scratched his head, looking at the spectacular ice field before him, his tone returning to its usual laziness.
"I went a bit overboard..."
A dead silence hung over the deck.
The surviving Marines stared blankly at the scene, unaware that their weapons had dropped to the ground.
Is this the power of an Admiral?
That despair-inducing tide of corpses, that scene like the end of the world.
Before this man, it took just one move.
Just an instant.
"We... we're saved..."
One Marine's legs went weak, and he slumped to the ground, tears streaming uncontrollably.
"Long live Admiral Kuzan!!"
"So strong! This is the power of Justice!"
Cheers erupted instantly, echoing through the sky.
The joy of surviving a hopeless situation sent everyone into a frenzy.
Smoker leaned against the blood-stained turret and relit a cigar, his fingers holding it trembling slightly.
Although he didn't want to admit it.
But this power was indeed reassuring.
However.
Not everyone was caught up in the atmosphere.
Abel stood by the frozen railing and reached out to tap a frozen mutated octopus.
A crisp cracking sound followed.
Abel withdrew his finger from the ice, a trace of black-red slime clinging to his fingertip.
Even in temperatures dozens of degrees below zero, the slime remained eerily active, like a tiny red nematode desperately trying to burrow into Abel's skin.
Abel casually flicked the slime off his finger; the glob landed on the deck, instantly corroding a small, smoking hole.
Kuzan stared at the black-red slime smoking on the ice.
The extreme cold hadn't killed it; instead, it seemed to have provoked the tiny biological tissue.
It frantically secreted highly corrosive acid, attempting to burn a hole through the thick ice to crawl back into the sea or find a new host.
The sizzling sound was exceptionally grating on the silent ice field.
The Marines who were just immersed in the joy of survival suddenly fell silent, their cheers cut off like a choked duck.
"What is... this?"
Smoker strode forward, his boots making a crunching sound on the ice.
He saw it clearly.
That wasn't an ordinary bloodstain.
That piece of flesh, only the size of a fingernail, was pulsing rhythmically like an exposed heart.
"Tenacious vitality."
Abel casually crushed the piece of flesh, black blood splattering onto the pristine ice and instantly etching several deep marks.
"Curly, we need to pick up the pace; this place is practically a breeding ground for Blacklight."
"Blacklight has undergone a secondary evolution!"
Kuzan rubbed his temples.
"How many times do I have to tell you, you bastard? My name is Kuzan!"