Jozu's entire arm turned into diamond as he charged Akainu and punched him hard—flamboyantly even naming the move.
"Red Dog, Diamond Star Fist!"
"I hate it when people call me Red Dog! Jozu, you bastard, I'll turn you into charcoal!" Akainu roared with fury at the nickname. The two of them didn't bother with any special powers, just slugging it out with raw fists, one punch after another.
"Ehh~ So scary!" Kizaru patted his chest, feigning terror.
"Mei, I bet this guy is absolutely never going to get a girlfriend," said Kiana as she arrived at the scene, visibly trembling at the sight of Kizaru's creepy act. Goosebumps dotted her arms.
"Kiana, don't be so rude! Even if… that might be true," Mei started to scold, but one look at Kizaru made her reconsider and tone it down halfway through.
Click click…
Kizaru's heart took a devastating hit. He fell into an existential spiral.
"Am I really that sleazy? Is it true I'll never get a girlfriend? No way… no way…"
Trust Kiana to casually ruin one of the Navy's top-tier fighters with just a single sentence.
"That might've been a bit too much," Aokiji muttered as he watched Kizaru crouch down and start drawing sad circles on the ground. His mouth twitched, wanting to laugh but holding back—he was afraid Kizaru might go berserk.
"Kuzan, let me be your opponent!" Vista yelled, rushing at Aokiji with twin swords.
Meanwhile, in the forest nearly a kilometer away, a mechanical army lay silently in wait.
"Hey, Bird Nest Head, what're we waiting for? They're busy beating the crap out of each other! Wouldn't now be the perfect time to blitz and wipe them all out?" Tesla said impatiently to Einstein.
"Calm down. We're here to steal specialized equipment, not get into a war. For all we know, someone else might be hiding in the shadows too. Only patience brings results," Schrödinger said calmly, flipping through a book.
"What's there to be afraid of? If someone tries to steal from us, we'll annihilate them in seconds!" Tesla said boldly, hands on her hips like a queenpin.
"How did someone with your IQ even become a scientist?" Einstein asked flatly, not even looking up.
"What'd you say? You trying to get punched?" Tesla cracked her knuckles, looking ready to brawl.
"Alright, enough! Save it for the enemies, not each other!" Walter groaned. These two were like clockwork—if they didn't argue at least once a day, something felt wrong. But every time they fought, his head paid the price!
"Hmph!" Both women huffed at each other and went quiet, waiting for the right moment to strike.
On the battlefield, an unremarkable little rock slowly rolled forward.
"Haha, this place is paradise!" Rimuru thought gleefully. He watched the chaos unfold and sneakily ambushed weakened fighters here and there. Just like that, he had racked up over 100 attribute points. At this rate, the war might not even end before he became invincible.
As the Whitebeard Pirates and the Navy clashed, no one noticed the plain little rock on the ground. Yet that rock was actually the biggest—and only—winner in this entire war.
"You're one tough mutt, Red Dog," Jozu panted, nearly out of HP.
"You're not bad either! But just for calling me Red Dog, I swear I'm gonna kill you today," Akainu snarled. He was in the same battered state, bloodied and furious.
"You killing Pops and Ace—there's no way I'm letting you live for that!" Jozu shouted as he lunged again.
"Bullshit! I didn't do any of that! Stop blaming me for it! Do you know how many times Garp's beat me for that crap? I've been pounded hundreds of times!" Akainu exploded with rage. Just hearing that accusation made his eyes well up with tears like a wronged little housewife. No one could possibly understand the trauma he went through—Garp beat him three times a day minimum, sometimes teaming up with Whitebeard for a tag-team beatdown. The only silver lining was that his Armament Haki improved from all the punishment.
As guild members, they weren't supposed to hurt each other, but Garp threatened him with his flowers, forcing Akainu to enter the virtual battlefield. The abuse was endless. The memory alone was enough to bring tears to his eyes.
"Jozu! Blazing Hellhound!"
"Red Dog! Star Diamond Annihilation!"
After holding back for so long, the two of them unleashed their ultimate moves in perfect sync.
And just like that, the two passionate rivals went down together, destroyed by each other's final attack—a tragic, bittersweet end.
"They wiped each other out?" Garp punched back Sachi and stared into the distance, frowning deeply. If things kept going like this, even if they technically won, both sides would be left so exhausted that someone else could swoop in and take the win. And Sengoku's group…
"All units, fall back!" Garp gave the order without hesitation.
"Retreat!" Aokiji dodged Vista's attack and quickly pulled back.
And so, the Navy withdrew entirely. Though the Whitebeard Pirates had an edge due to game mechanics keeping attributes even, they still managed to defeat the Navy. Their morale soared with cheers of victory.
"Vista, something feels off," Sachi said nervously, watching the retreating Navy. Then he looked at their own crew—almost everyone was hanging on by a thread. "If anyone attacks us now, we're screwed…"
"We pull out too," Vista said decisively.
"Run? No way! Open fire! Blow them to pieces!" Tesla could no longer restrain herself. As the pirates began to retreat, she ordered her Titans to unleash a full bombardment.
"Crap, run!" Sachi yelled, panic in his voice.
If this were the real world, their overwhelming strength would've let them easily survive the barrage. But this wasn't the real world.
They couldn't dodge fast enough, and one by one, they were engulfed by explosions and wiped from the battlefield.
"Harvest time," Rimuru whispered with a wicked smile as he moved unseen among the blasts. Now he could go wild without fear of being noticed—this artillery barrage was the perfect cover.
Thus, while it looked like the Whitebeard Pirates were being wiped out by Tesla's bombardment, in reality, they were being silently eliminated by Rimuru one by one. Every kill turned into a flood of attribute points, paving the road toward his inevitable invincibility.
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