Chapter 335
Rayleigh: Old friend!
Chapter 335 Rayleigh: Old friend!
While the battle on Fishman Island was raging...
Red Earth Continent, the sea area outside the elevator.
Inside the 'high-speed route' specifically designed for World Government vessels, the crew members on government warships are busy at work.
"Control the sails, keep it steady, it's veering off course again!"
"What exactly happened? How could there be such big waves on a high-speed flight route?"
"Was it an earthquake? I haven't heard of any earthquakes in the surrounding waters recently."
Huge waves, exceeding ten meters in height, appeared on this specially selected, normally calm sea surface.
All the crew members were naturally puzzled.
Fortunately, they were all well-trained elites from the World Government, and although they were in a panic, they handled the situation relatively well.
If nothing unexpected happens, although it will be a little later than expected, they will still be able to bring the two wanted criminals back to Mary Geoise very soon.
But
An accident happened quickly.
"Hey, look over there, what's that?"
Some crew members discovered the anomaly.
In the distance, amidst the wind and waves, one could vaguely see a small, black object, like a leaf, emerging from the gaps in the waves.
But everyone knows—it wasn't a leaf.
"It's a ship!"
"Is this the size of a fishing boat?"
"Did you get lost here because of the unusual weather nearby?"
The crew members frowned.
Should we sink it?
This was almost their first reaction—a fairly standard behavior pattern for employees of the world government.
"In this weather and at this distance, even artillery shells might not be very effective. Hey—you there, stop taking pictures! Isn't that your latest camera? Look at that ship!"
One of the crew members said this to another person standing next to him.
He was responsible for taking photos of the arrested criminals and sending them back to Mary Geoise to create arrest warrants.
"It's the latest model, but it only adds the function of automatically taking photos at set times and sending the photos back to Mary Geoise. It's not like it's turned into a telescope."
The crew member in charge of taking photos muttered to himself, but still obediently raised the camera hanging around his neck and looked at the ship.
Then, his eyes widened suddenly.
Because at that moment, through the camera lens, he could clearly see that what was coming from afar, braving the wind and waves, was indeed a small boat.
To be more precise, that thing wasn't even a fishing boat; it would be more accurate to call it a raft.
But despite the violent tremors coming from beneath the sea, the simple boat did not sink.
On the contrary, although the crew could see that among the passengers in the small boat was a long-nosed man crying and seemingly making cries for help.
But the sailors and navigators were clearly extremely skilled – the ship was speeding toward them, following the undulating path of the waves.
More importantly, the crew saw the ship's flag.
Despite being just a simple boat, and with an equally simple flag that looked like a child's hasty scribbles, the boat was a simple boat.
But you can still tell that it's a skull wearing a straw hat!
"They're pirates!"
"Enemy attack! It's an enemy attack!"
The crew members shouted in panic.
The entire government's warships immediately began to panic.
But the next moment...
"Noisy!"
A low growl was heard, and then a sword cleaved the crew member wearing the camera in two.
Blood splattered everywhere. The camera on the crew member's chest fell to the ground and rolled into a crevice in the deck. The lens was pointed at the deck and made a 'click' sound—it seemed that a button had been activated.
But clearly—in the current situation—no one has noticed this.
Everyone stared in disbelief at the slain crewman, then looked with some fear at the 'God's Blade' that emerged from the deck rest area.
"Hmph, that Shamlock guy really is a piece of trash, actually causing such a commotion, and even calling on us to lead our army to Fishman Island to help."
"That's how young people are. They say they can handle things on their own, but then they get stopped."
"However, this could also be an opportunity—an army of giants has appeared. If we can eliminate them, perhaps that lord will also..."
"Enough with that. Let's deal with those damned bugs first. It's ridiculous that someone actually dared to hijack our ship."
The former knights of God, now the servants of God, stepped forward with cold smiles, clearly unconcerned about having just killed one of their crew members.
Similarly, they paid no attention to the pirates who were clearly after the warship and likely wanted to kidnap 'Sea Knight' and 'Surgeon of Death'—they were just some insects and not worth their serious attention.
Until the next moment.
"I never expected you guys to be on this ship—I knew I made the right choice coming here."
"But... it's really the same old story, the way you scum do things."
The sudden sound seemed to pierce through the waves and reach the ears of all the knights of the gods.
The expressions of the God's Blades visibly stiffened.
They looked at the ship with disbelief, and sure enough, they saw the man sitting at the bow, holding a sword.
"That guy is..."
The Divine Blades recognize each other.
After the 'Valley of Gods' incident, an entire generation of God Knights was wiped out by the 'Star Lord', with only 'Saint Garin' and 'Saint Junko' surviving.
And it was after that that they became the new batch of God Knights as replacements—so strictly speaking, they were actually Shamrock's 'predecessors'.
The reason why they were not valued within the Knights of God, and were even far inferior to the younger generation like Shamrock, was that after becoming Knights of God, they suffered a series of failures.
They were ordered to attack the Roger Pirates more than once in an attempt to retrieve Korin's child, but all their attempts ultimately failed.
Therefore, they all recognized the person in front of them and had fought against him more than once.
"'Pluto' Rayleigh!?"
The expressions of the God's Blades froze instantly.
at the same time
"Rayleigh, do you know those guys?"
Luffy looked at Rayleigh with a curious expression.
"Well, he's an old rival."
"Is it very strong?"
"Their strength isn't that great, but their vitality is a real problem."
Rayleigh made this assessment—which was also the consensus of the Roger Pirates regarding the God Knights.
In terms of sheer strength, the opponents possessed top-tier Devil Fruit abilities, but their Haki and mental fortitude were merely average.
At least against top-tier powerhouses like Rayleigh, they would be no match at all. Back when the Roger Pirates faced the God Knights, they always beat them to a pulp—the only problem was the God Knights' immortality, which meant the Roger Pirates had no way to kill them completely. They could only use Conqueror's Haki to overwhelm them until they couldn't recover, and then escape.
However, this is also what Rayleigh finds somewhat puzzling at this moment.
Based on his past experience, the other party should have already attacked by now, relying on his immortality. Why is he still cowering on the ship without making a move today?
"Was it because of something that happened underwater?"
Rayleigh, of course, could not know that these God Knights had been downgraded to 'God's Blades' and lost their complete immortality, so he could only speculate in his mind at this moment.
Yes.
As one of the world's top users of all three types of Haki, Rayleigh could sense that the giant wave on the sea was not normal.
While on the ship, he learned from Xia Qi's intelligence that the giant wave was not just located in this area of the sea, but that similar waves had appeared simultaneously in almost all the surrounding sea areas.
In addition, Rayleigh's Observation Haki allowed him to instinctively realize this.
This anomaly above the sea surface likely originates below the surface—something is probably happening in the deep sea, and the source is likely the 'Fishman Island' that has been the focus of attention recently.
It was precisely because of the anomalies beneath the sea surface that this colossal wave was ultimately formed through the butterfly effect.
"However, this is just right."
Thinking of this, Rayleigh looked down at Luffy: "Luffy, you'll come aboard with me—to deal with these guys, we need to use the 'Conqueror's Haki Entanglement' I mentioned before. Although you can't learn it in a short time, watching from the sidelines will do you good."
"The others are responsible for dealing with the guards and finding the place where Terfalgar Law and Jinbe are being held."
After hearing Rayleigh's plan, the rest of the Straw Hat crew nodded solemnly—this was a tactic they had discussed before coming here.
Only Luffy frowned and touched his chest.
"What's wrong, Luffy?"
Rayleigh looked at Luffy with some confusion.
"No, it's nothing."
Luffy shook his head blankly.
But in his heart, he thought to himself, 'Here we go again.'
In fact, he had felt something strange about his body ever since his time in Alabasta.
At that time in Alabasta, he heard some kind of unusual 'drumming' that only he could hear.
He then discovered that his body would occasionally exhibit some abnormalities—as if some new, never-before-seen power was beginning to emerge from his body, centered on his heart.
Sometimes, he even felt as if his heart wanted to beat in time with the drumbeats.
However, Chopper would give the Straw Hat crew members physical examinations every now and then, but he never found any problems. Moreover, this feeling has become weaker and weaker since they left Alabasta.
So Luffy didn't think much of it.
But now, he clearly felt that similar feeling again—though not very strong, he was certain of it.
Somewhere beneath the sea, perhaps that 'drumbeat' is softly echoing.
But it's clear that even Luffy knows this isn't the time to talk about these things.
"Let's go, Rayleigh!"
He looked at Rayleigh and said this.
".Um."
After confirming that Luffy's body seemed to be fine, Rayleigh slowly nodded—he didn't think much of it, believing that perhaps Luffy's injuries from facing Roy hadn't fully healed.
Let's go.
At the same time, in the deep sea outside Fishman Island.
"Original World·Eternal Calamity!"
Loki has a dragon-like body covered in jet-black scales, and even without undergoing 'beast transformation', he is still as large as a mountain.
He swung the iron thunderbolt wrapped in starlight in his hand and swung it out.
Before the hammer even arrived, the freezing air, lightning, and gale-force winds had already spread, as if they were going to smash the entire deep sea to pieces!
Despite this devastating blow that shook the deep sea, Shamrock's expression remained as cold as ice.
He swung the Seven Deadly Sins in his hand, unleashing another black slash that collided directly with Loki's hammer.
As the sword clashed with the hammer, accompanied by the triple barks of the sword, Cerberus roared once more, tearing at Loki.
At the same time, a giant squirrel head emerged from the hammer, making a 'squeak' sound as it swept its massive tail toward the three-headed hound.
"Boom!"
The massive tremors swept outwards once more, causing the seabed rock layers to crumble and break apart in large chunks, as if they were fragile and soft tofu. The commotion even caused the distant Sun Tree Eve to sway violently.
If you look closely, you'll find...
Centered on the battle between Shamrock and Loki, the entire deep sea area nearby has been completely transformed.
The original coral reefs and sea forests in the vicinity have long since disappeared, replaced by deep, massive deep-sea canyons that reveal magma, and 'underwater mountains' forcibly shaped by force.
And it is quite obvious.
It was their battle that caused the giant waves in the sea above.
And at this moment.
"Crack!"
"Crack!"
Their bodies, so vastly different in size, remained locked in a stalemate, trembling violently.
Until a certain moment.
"boom!"
They were like two cannonballs hurled with tremendous force, flying backward in opposite directions.
"Buzz!"
Shamlock steadied himself in mid-air—his armor was now visibly charred and cracked with frost, but it was repaired in an instant.
Still unharmed, he frowned as he looked at Loki in the distance.
Loki, the enormous half-dragon god, tumbled and crashed into an underwater mountain range. The mountain collapsed under the immense force, burying him within.
But only a moment later.
"Boom!"
The squirrel's massive tail sent huge rocks and mountain debris flying, and Loki poked his head out.
"Pooh!"
He spat out the blood in his mouth, touched his head, and shook it.
"Hey, it's been a long time since I've felt this much pain. Even though Wu Ma beat me up like this when Teach took over my body before, I wasn't in control of my body."
He muttered to himself in a low voice.
But then, he raised his head and looked at Shamrock with even more burning fighting spirit in his eyes: "You... even though you're a lackey of the 'Abyss,' you're really strong!"
As he spoke, he stretched his body and stood up again.
".the same as you."
Upon witnessing this scene, Shamrock's gaze grew even colder.
(End of this chapter)