One Piece: Blue Scale Admiral

Ryder nodded and replied simply, "Yes."

Jonathan smirked and brandished the pure black longsword he held in his right hand. "Ryder, I must say, you have some issues with your taste. Dragonspine is just an ordinary demon sword, not even a Grade 7. Why don't you consider this Shura? It's a Grade 7."

Upon hearing Jonathan say that he was holding a great sword, some of the prisoners behind Wald immediately looked at Shura with greedy eyes.

However, Ryder ignored Jonathan's raised Greatsword Shura, and instead looked at the so-called demon sword Dragon Spine, saying calmly, "Dragon Spine is a sword from my hometown."

“I see.” Jonathan said with a sudden realization, then glanced at Wald, who was standing to the side wary of Ryder, and said with a slight smile, “If you want the Dragonspine, no problem. But I can’t just give it to you for free, can I? Ryder, what do you want in exchange?”

"What do you want?" Ryder's tone was always as calm as still water.

Jonathan laughed. "You should already know what I want. Your talent is the ability to hear other people's thoughts, isn't it? That's a talent that can rival the power of a Devil Fruit."

Upon hearing this, Ryder tilted his head slightly to look at Wald and said something that enraged Wald.

"You want me to kill Wald for you?"

"What? Jonathan, you old bastard, do you want to die?"

"A hundredfold cannon!"

Wald's eyes widened, and he raised his flintlock pistol, firing a shot straight at Jonathan's face.

With a loud bang, the finger-sized black bullet that flew out of the flintlock gun barrel suddenly expanded into a black cannonball with a diameter of more than 20 centimeters the moment it left the barrel, whistling as it shot towards Jonathan, who was standing close by, making Zoro, Sera and the others widen their eyes.

Jonathan flicked his wrist, and a burst of black energy shot out from Shura, striking the incoming black cannonball. With a crisp bang, the cannonball was deflected back and landed among the group of prisoners behind Wald.

"boom!"

The shell exploded, sending up a burst of intense flames on the ice, causing the prisoners to let out angry howls. They charged at Jonathan and his team of bounty hunters like mad dogs with their fur standing on end, their eyes red.

As for Ryder, he didn't intend to take advantage of the chaos, but he didn't leave either. Instead, he flashed away from his original spot and appeared on the ice in the distance, quietly watching the fierce battle that suddenly unfolded before his eyes.

When Jonathan's team of over a thousand bounty hunters clashed with Wald's group of twenty-odd Infinite Hell prisoners, blood instantly splattered across the ice like an overturned paint bucket.

These prisoners who escaped from the Infinite Hell were far too powerful for the bounty hunters of Paradise.

Even Zoro and Hawkins, who are among the top-tier fighters in the Bounty Hunter Guild, could only barely put up a fight against these prisoners whose bodies were already depleted and weakened.

Those three- or four-star bounty hunters who can only defeat pirates with bounties of several million or tens of millions are almost certain to die if they touch these prisoners.

Hearing the screams behind him, a look of pain appeared deep in Jonathan's eyes.

Seeing Wald rushing towards him as if teleporting, Jonathan swiftly pulled a glass bottle from his pocket, threw it into his mouth along with the bottle, and crushed it with a crunch.

As the bottle of liquid entered his stomach, Jonathan's hunched back straightened instantly, and his withered muscles swelled up like air, becoming fuller.

Thick, throbbing blood vessels bulged on his skin, and a fierce aura, like rising flames, was released from his body.

Dual-wielding!

"Night Raven!"

Jonathan swung his twin swords to the left and right in an instant, and dark ghostly energy surged from the blades, turning into two black lines that disappeared into the screaming crowd on both sides.

Just as Wald appeared in front of Jonathan, he immediately heard two soft hissing sounds, followed by the prisoners' exclamations.

He was startled and turned to look. He saw two prisoners grinning as they pulled the female bounty hunter in front of them into their arms, eager to execute her on the spot. Their heads flew high off their necks, accompanied by spurts of blood.

"Damn it! Jonathan! You damned old devil! I'll kill you!"

When Wald saw the two Infinite Hell prisoners instantly killed by Jonathan, his eyes turned red.

These prisoners were people he had managed to persuade to join his ranks, and each of them was a key figure in Wald's future conquest of the New World. Now they had died so easily at Jonathan's hands. How could Wald not be driven mad by this?

His right fist was quickly imbued with a layer of dark, domineering aura, crushing the air in front of him and striking Jonathan's chest like a phantom.

"Fifty times speed! Battering ram!"

Under the influence of the Multiply Fruit's power, Wald's punch speed far exceeded the speed of sound, reaching a level that Jonathan could not dodge.

However, Jonathan clearly had no intention of avoiding it.

Having killed two prisoners with a sudden, ambush-like attack, he crossed his arms in front of him and unleashed a furious slash at Wald.

Dual-wielding swords! Yasha!

"Pfft!"

Blood splattered as two intersecting X-shaped gashes burst open on Wald's chest.

At the same time, his phantom-like black right fist slammed into Jonathan's chest like a cannonball.

With a muffled thud, bright red blood spurted out from Jonathan's loose teeth like arrows. His swollen body slid backward along the ice, leaving a clear dent in his chest.

"Grandpa!" Sera exclaimed upon seeing this, as she was struggling to resist the harassment of a prisoner.

"Hehehe, your grandfather is dying, little beauty. If you obediently submit to me, Lord Bartox, I might be able to persuade Vald to spare half of your grandfather's life. What do you say?"

The viper Bartox grinned sinisterly at the anxious Sera, unable to resist sticking out his long tongue and licking his lips, his hands already reaching out impatiently to grab Sera's body.

"Get away from her! Three-Sword Style Secret Technique! Three Thousand Worlds!"

An angry voice boomed in Bartox's ear.

As soon as he turned around in confusion, three jet-black slashes flew towards him, striking his arms with a series of sharp, metallic clangs.

Seeing Zoro charging towards him with three swords, unleashing another fierce and domineering slash, a hint of resentment at having his good time interrupted flashed in Bartox's eyes.

"Annoying bedbugs, can't they just be quiet for a bit?"

With a twist of his neck, it instantly stretched to more than ten times its original length, becoming thick and large, covered with fine scales, and simultaneously enveloped in dark Haki, like a giant iron whip that lashed out at Zoro as he leaped forward.

The force of this attack was so great that Zoro felt as if he had been hit by the Sea Train of Water 7. Even with his Armament Haki-hardened body, he couldn't defend against it at all. A series of cracking sounds came from his body, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood and flew away.

"Zoro!"

Sera rushed forward, her eyes red and swollen.

"You bitch, you don't know what's good for you."

"Snake whip!"

Bartox's eyes flashed with ferocity, and with another flick of his more than ten-meter-long neck, Sera's body slammed into the ice with a thud, spraying blood everywhere.

"No! Sera!"

Zoro, his face covered in blood and eyes blazing with fury, charged forward, brandishing his twin swords.

"Sorry, I take back my rude words." Bartox raised his right foot and stomped the blood-sucking Sera into the deeper ice. His long neck drooped down, and he grinned at Zoro with a ferocious smile: "You're not a bug, you're a rat, and you're worth having a taste."

After saying that, his head rapidly transformed into a huge triangular snake head, resembling a horned dragon. He bit Zoro, who was charging at him, and lifted him up, swinging his long neck in the air a dozen times.

Bartox's long, hooked fangs sank deep into Zoro's shoulder.

Zoro's body visibly turned purplish-black at a rapid pace, his skin began to fester and ooze pus, his eyes became bloodshot, and his vision went black for a moment.

Through his blurry vision, Zoro saw the bounty hunters lying dead in the ground, slaughtered by the prisoners; he saw Hawkins being hacked back and driven back; he saw Brook with his bones torn apart; and further away, he saw Jonathan being attacked by Wald and three other fierce prisoners, his ice shattering under their blows.

Zoro gritted his teeth, wanting to fight back, but found that he not only couldn't muster any strength, but also felt a deep, bone-deep pain surging from all over his body.

It was as if he had fallen into a meat grinder and was being ground up inch by inch.

"Hehehe, should I start eating you from the head, or from the feet?"

Bartox placed Zoro, whom he was biting, on the ice. The huge triangular snake head dripped foul-smelling saliva, opened its mouth wide, and slowly bit Zoro's feet, swallowing his body bit by bit into its throat.

Beside her, on the broken ice, Sera lay on her back, limbs twisted, neck drooping, her eyes blankly fixed on Zoro. Her lips moved, and she whispered, "Zoro...run..."

Zoro could sense that her life was rapidly fading away.

"No! No! No!!"

Zoro was going berserk, roaring inside.

He wanted to leap up, sever Bartox's snake head with a single blow, then heal Sera and kill all the Wilders and others who were besieging Jonathan.

But he couldn't move. His body was stiff, and he couldn't even blink. He could only watch helplessly as Bartox swallowed him bit by bit and as Sera lost her life right before his eyes.

This painful, powerless, maddening sense of despair was so familiar, reminding Zoro of the day Kuina died.

What am I doing?

Why am I so weak?

His comrades were dying, his master was fighting desperately, and he could do nothing about it.

Despite his own abilities, he still fantasized about one day challenging that man and ascending to the throne of the world's strongest swordsman.

It's absolutely ridiculous!

Zoro's eyes turned blood red, and a ferocious aura suddenly erupted from his body, which was being eroded and festering by Bartox's venom. Wisps of pitch-black energy emanated from his entire body, coalescing behind him into a hideous, roaring phantom.

The triangular snake head that was devouring Zoro was startled by the sudden burst of energy.

Then he saw his prey, whose body should have been completely immobilized, suddenly leap up and swing a knife at him.

In Bartox's wide eyes, he seemed to see a three-headed, six-armed demon emerging from hell, grabbing him, and throwing him into its abyss-like mouth.

"No!"

He opened his enormous snake mouth, as if to cry out in alarm.

But it's too late.

"Die! Lion's Song!"

A jet-black Wado Ichimonji flashed through Bartox's wide-open eyes, slashing out from behind his head and bringing with it a large patch of red and white.

Bartox never understood until his death that his deadly poison was useless against a piece of trash he considered a bedbug.

"Sera!"

Zoro, whose entire body was emanating black energy, somehow managed to kill the venomous snake Bartox, who had a bounty of over 500 million Berries many years ago, with a single strike. He rushed to Sera's side, wanting to save her, but found that he didn't know any way to save her and could only stand helplessly in front of her.

The sudden change here stunned all the prisoners around them who were torturing bounty hunters.

After a brief moment of stunned silence, their eyes reddened.

"Damn it! That guy Bartox actually died at the hands of a brat!"

"It's ghostly energy! Is this brat Jonathan's grandson? Kill him!"

The next moment, a dozen or so vicious prisoners dropped the bounty hunters they were playing with and charged toward Zoro.

Seeing the dozen or so prisoners exuding a ferocious, wolf-like aura, Zoro not only did not retreat, but instead raised Wado Ichimonji in his left hand and Shusui in his right, his whole body emitting surging black energy, and charged forward like a demon god.

In the distance, Jonathan, whose body was covered in countless wounds, stared blankly at this scene, a bittersweet sense of relief appearing in his cloudy eyes filled with grief.