Chapter 117: Seawater Traps the General

Aokiji, who had arrived by bicycle, was already prepared for Saul’s appearance; Kizaru had informed him during their previous communication that Saul was still alive. Yet, when he saw him with his own eyes, a flicker of complex emotion stirred within him. After all, having to kill a close friend with one’s own hands is never easy for anyone, regardless of whether it was a matter of duty.

Seeing Saul clad in white armor, Aokiji stopped his bicycle and called out loudly, "Saul, are you doing well?"

"Kuzan, thank you for not destroying my body back then!"

Faced with this gratitude, Aokiji found himself unable to formulate a response. After a moment of hesitation, he asked, "Are you really going to stand in my way again?"

"During the Ohara Buster Call, I did not agree with the Navy’s justice at the time, but I lacked the power to stop it. Now that I am a pirate and stand on the opposite side of you, I have even less reason to retreat. Although I still cannot defeat you, for the sake of my comrades and our shared ideals, I must try!"

As Saul finished speaking, Bagio swept onto his assault boat and said coldly, "Together!"

Looking at Saul’s determined gaze, Aokiji shook his head, sighed, and asked, "Did you see Nico Robin in Alabasta?"

"She is well, and now she has her own comrades. Thank you for letting her go in the end!" At the mention of Robin, Saul’s tone softened instinctively.

However, Saul’s tone shifted abruptly as he continued, "That settles the score between us. Let’s fight! You are the Navy and I am a pirate; we can never coexist peacefully!"

At this point, Aokiji abandoned any illusion of persuading Saul. As a survivor who knew the truth of the Ohara Buster Call and had already defected from the Navy, Saul’s fate, now that his identity was public, would likely be no better than Buffon’s.

"What a group of people who give the World Government such a headache!"

Thinking this, Aokiji did not hesitate. He concentrated cold air in his right arm and released an ice bird, which surged rapidly toward Saul, freezing the sea surface along its path.

Seeing this, Saul pressed his large hands onto the prow of the boat, and instantly, a wax wall several meters high emerged, blocking the path in front of them.

Bagio dodged, darting along the ice path created by the Pheasant Beak toward Aokiji.

...

Meanwhile, on Beckman’s side, a momentary distraction—glancing at the sea—gave Kizaru the opportunity he needed.

Kizaru’s body dissolved into beams of light, vanishing from before Beckman, only to reappear behind him a moment later. He manifested the Ama no Murakumo sword and slashed toward Beckman’s arm.

Beckman jumped back instantly, firing a flintlock bullet infused with Haki directly at Kizaru’s head.

Faced with a Haki-infused bullet, Kizaru dared not block it head-on. He shifted again, dodging the lead projectile to launch his own counterattack.

...

Shanks looked at Issho, who was still sitting cross-legged on a rock, and said, "Old man, that meteor just now was summoned by you, right? A truly incredible ability. You aren't wearing the Navy's 'Justice' coat, so why bother wading into these muddy waters?"

"It is a great honor for this old man to cross swords with the Four Emperor Shanks!"

As soon as Issho spoke, his cane-sword left its sheath! As the rock hit the ground, his blade struck toward Shanks, the purple slash aimed directly at Shanks’ flank!

"Gravity Blade: Fierce Tiger!"

This strike was a technique where Fujitora concentrated gravity onto his blade before swinging, releasing immense lateral pressure along the trajectory of the swing, capable of crushing and destroying everything in its path.

Seeing such a powerful blow, Shanks was slightly surprised. He had sensed that Issho was no simple man, but he had not expected that the first exchange would reveal such equal strength.

Shanks held his sword vertically against his chest, sliding back a few meters from the impact of the shockwave before coming to a stop.

"Such formidable power! Now, it’s my turn!" He said, imbuing his famous blade, Gryphon, with Haki, and leaped high into the air to strike down at Issho’s head.

...

On Buffon’s side, the nature of the battle was entirely different from the previous ones. Buffon did not use any Devil Fruit powers, engaging in raw, physical combat with Snow Colt.

Snow Colt was particularly wary of Buffon this time, especially his shadow! Consequently, her moves were quite restrained, fearing that Buffon might repeat his previous tricks.

Snow Colt had managed to acquire a decent blade from somewhere, so Buffon could no longer count on destroying her weapon. Thus, the two white figures fought back and forth on the shore, matching each other blow for blow.

...

By dawn, none of the four battles had reached a conclusion.

Saul and Bagio fought in tandem, their offense and defense perfectly synchronized, leaving even Aokiji without a clear way to break the deadlock. As the surrounding ice expanded, the sea in front of the Red Force was also frozen solid.

"Yasopp, take a shot at Aokiji and see if you can hurt him!" Lucky Roux said, chewing on a chicken leg.

Yasopp thought for a moment, aimed at Aokiji, and fired a three-round burst, targeting his head, chest, and feet.

Faced with the sudden sniper fire, Aokiji did not dodge, prepared to let his body’s passive elementalization handle it. But just then, Bagio arrived with his Armament Haki-infused Senbonzakura.

The coordination was flawless, making even Aokiji feel the pressure. He had no choice but to manifest his Polar Spear into an ice shield, blocking the bullets while simultaneously freezing Bagio’s Senbonzakura.

"So, you are the zombie monster with Shiliew’s shadow and Shanks’ left arm? Such talent for combat is truly a waste on a zombie!"

As Aokiji spoke, he froze an ice blade in his hand and lunged it directly at Bagio’s chest.

Bagio did not dodge, allowing the ice blade to pierce his chest. Then, with his left arm covered in Armament Haki, he clamped down hard on Aokiji.

Seeing the opportunity, Saul clenched his fists and smashed them toward Aokiji.

Aokiji looked back, meeting Saul’s resolute gaze, and made a decision. He formed an ice orb with his other hand, meeting Saul’s incoming fists.

With a loud "crack," the ice orb shattered!

The wax gauntlets on Saul’s hands cracked as well, but he did not pull back, instead pressing down with all his might.

In terms of pure strength, Saul was now a match for Aokiji, and this blow landed squarely. Anyone else would have been flattened into a pancake, but Aokiji stood there as if nothing had happened, supporting Saul’s giant fist with one hand.

However, under the sheer force, the ice beneath Aokiji’s feet began to crack.

Seeing an opening, Saul covered his hands in wax again and hammered down on Aokiji as if driving a nail.

Aokiji saw his intent and simply activated Ice Time, freezing himself and the other two together.

The crew on the ship watched this scene, stunned.

"Those two are truly reckless. It's not easy to force an Admiral to this point," Crocus remarked, rising to his feet and calling Lucky Roux to charge toward the three.

Kizaru saw this, pushed Beckman back with a light-speed kick, and then transformed into light particles, flashing toward the scene.

"It seems Aokiji is in quite a bit of trouble. My left arm is still proving useful after all," Shanks laughed, having just traded a blow with Issho.

"Red-Haired, don't get distracted!" Issho said, unleashing another Gravity Blade: Fierce Tiger, slashing horizontally at Shanks.

Shanks glanced back and leaped high rather than blocking, letting the heavy strike propagate toward Buffon’s side.

Snow Colt noticed and looked back, shouting, "You blind old fool, you're causing trouble everywhere!"

Buffon’s gaze, however, was fixed on the distant sea. Seeing the ice sculpture formed by the three figures, he mused to himself, "Zombies like Saul aren't afraid of ice—is Aokiji just feeding them a victory?"

With this thought, he glanced down at his own shadow.

Snow Colt caught this detail and instinctively hesitated, shrinking back slightly. Buffon used this gap to kick out a shockwave and then darted toward the sea.

In a clash between top-tier combatants, once the scales tilt even slightly, it can decide the outcome. Snow Colt realized this and pursued Buffon. Issho and Shanks followed closely behind.

But in the water, aside from Kizaru, no one was a match for Buffon, who possessed the power of a Fish-Man.

Once Buffon dove, he didn't surface again until he was directly beneath the ice sculpture, where he unleashed a Fish-Man Karate: 7,000 Tile Roundhouse Kick at Aokiji’s feet.

With this heavy blow, the entire frozen sea surface began to crack. Aokiji felt the anomaly beneath him and said to Saul, whose head was the only part not yet frozen, "Is this your captain, this Buffon fellow? Come to think of it, I had a brief encounter with him once, though I didn't pay any attention to him at the time."

"Kuzan, I know neither of us can convince the other, so..."

Before Saul could finish, Aokiji canceled his Ice Time, and the three frozen figures drifted apart as the ice sheet shattered.

Kizaru, having arrived beside Aokiji, smiled and said, "It’s rare for a lazy man like you to get serious. Who would have thought..."

Before he could finish, a column of water rose from the sea, shooting toward them.

"Fish-Man Jujutsu: Sea Current Shoulder Throw!"

"How did that guy Jinbe get here?"

They were not unfamiliar with the techniques of the Warlord Jinbe, recognizing the source instantly. But they never expected it to be used by Buffon!

After Kizaru pulled Aokiji out of the way, another, larger water current surged toward them!

"Fish-Man Jujutsu: Water Heart, Sea Current Shoulder Throw!"

Watching the two Admirals dodge the seawater in a somewhat disheveled state, Shanks laughed from nearby, "Buffon really knows how to surprise people. I have to say, this kind of 'unreasonable' fighting style is a huge advantage against Devil Fruit users!"

Kizaru and Aokiji remained silent as they dodged the currents. They realized it wasn't Jinbe, but Buffon!

The level of astonishment in their hearts was beyond words. They had studied the intelligence reports on Buffon before coming, and none mentioned this ability. Moreover, this was a technique unique to the Fish-Man race, yet Buffon...

"What a shameless fighting style!" Snow Colt, who knew the truth, dove from the ice into the sea.

Among the four top-tier combatants, she was the only one who didn't possess a Devil Fruit, so the underwater battle fell to her. But even with her Admiral-level strength, she couldn't compare to Buffon’s Fish-Man power underwater; every time she caught a glimpse of him, he would vanish in the blink of an eye.

This infuriated her. It seemed that ever since she met this guy, nothing had gone her way.

"This won't do. If we two fruit users keep getting worn down like this, he’s bound to get away. Do something!" Kizaru said, agitated.

While there was no immediate threat to their lives, it was becoming clear that Buffon would escape if this continued. With three Navy Admirals and an Admiral-level helper, if they still let Buffon slip away, Sengoku’s rage would likely involve more than just smashing a Den Den Mushi.

"And where is that kid’s ship? We’ve been fighting for so long and haven't even seen his pirate ship!" Hearing Kizaru’s complaint, Aokiji said calmly, "Attack the Red Force. If we can pin down the Red-Haired’s ship, the kid won't be able to run!"

Kizaru was stunned. "Are you not worried about antagonizing Red-Haired?"

Aokiji shook his head. "This is Paradise, not the New World!"

Hearing this, Kizaru nodded and flashed at light-speed toward the Red Force. Aokiji supported himself on the ice, unleashing his ultimate technique: Ice Age.

This technique released all his cold air, capable of freezing a vast area, instantly turning the sea between several islands into a frozen land. The ice would remain for a week, and its hardness was incomparable to his previous efforts.

More importantly, the depth of the ice was not just a few meters, but dozens of meters below the sea level. In his view, no matter how capable Buffon was, he wouldn't be able to destroy this ice so easily.

Buffon managed to dodge the attack with his powerful Observation Haki, but Laboon and Snow Colt were not so lucky.

Laboon was massive and was frozen solid before he could react. Snow Colt had sensed the temperature change through Observation Haki but was a beat too slow; the sea surface froze before she could fully emerge.

"Aokiji, you...!"

Ignoring Snow Colt’s roar, Aokiji conjured an ice spear and charged toward the Red Force.

Shanks sighed helplessly, "Buffon, you owe me a huge favor for this one!"