The natural system started off strong, but the navy finally reached its peak!

"Oh dear... I hope that Marshal Kong at headquarters won't get so angry that he'll tear Marineford apart."

......

Meanwhile, in the G-3 sea area of ​​the New World, along the Guern route...

The warship was swept by howling winds and surging waves.

Gern stood at the bow of the ship, arms crossed, his eyes fixed on the approaching pirate ship.

Because that flag fluttering in the wind... is the symbol of the Whitebeard Pirates.

"Whitebeard didn't come, but a troublesome fellow did!" Gern's gaze slowly moved upwards, finally settling on the tall figure at the bow of the ship.

The man was burly, with his hair styled into an exaggerated round, flat hairstyle, and his widow's peak and triangular sideburns were particularly striking.

He wore an orange kimono with his legs bare. The front of the kimono was embroidered with a crescent moon pattern, and huge purple and white shimenawa ropes were wrapped around his shoulders and waist. The knots hanging down his back swayed in the sea breeze.

Most striking are the two swords hanging at his waist—Ame no Habakiri and Enma.

“Kozuki Oden…” Gern murmured the name, his eyes growing increasingly serious.

Or rather, the current second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates, the samurai of Wano Country, the "Samurai" Kozuki Oden!

"Brigadier General Gern!" The sergeant beside him swallowed nervously. "Should we...should we avoid him? That's Whitebeard's man!"

"We can't leave." Libo's voice was eerily calm. Her hands were already clenched tightly. Even though she had only just awakened her Observation Haki, she could clearly feel that pure fighting spirit.

"Why?!" The sergeant's voice suddenly rose.

Gern did not answer; his pupils suddenly contracted.

Oden suddenly grinned from afar, his smile as wild and unrestrained as a drawn blade.

A thick arm was raised high, accompanied by a thunderous roar: "Hey! Navy, I've finally found you!"

"Sail the ship to the nearest island..." Gern's right hand slowly caressed the Black Blade Eight Desolations, and strange vibrations began to ripple around it.

"Once I land on the island, no one, including you, Lipo, should come near me!"

“Brigadier General Gern…” The sergeant stared blankly at Gern’s cloak of justice.

"Didn't you ask why we couldn't leave?" Gern suddenly smiled, and the bandages on his Black Blade Eight Desolations automatically spiraled and disintegrated.

"Because of this madman..." The blade was completely exposed, and dark red cracks burst forth with dazzling light.

"They're definitely after me!!!"

Chapter 98 The Challenge from Kozuki Oden

Let's rewind to a few months earlier, to the same moment when Gern landed in the Woolly Duchy.

Newspaper reports also spread that the 'Cursed Healer' and the 'Giant Battleship' had been imprisoned in Impel Down...

Meanwhile, the New World Moby Dick

The sea breeze, carrying a salty, fishy smell, swept across the deck, and the newspaper rustled in Marco's hands.

He stared at the headline: "Naval 'Skyquake' Gern strikes again, single-handedly suppressing the 'giant warship' and the 'cursed doctor'!" The photo showed a young naval admiral with his black hair flying.

"Hey, this guy's growth is way too exaggerated!" Marco gripped the newspaper, his eyebrows furrowed.

"It's only been a few years since he made a name for himself by slaying the Golden Lion? Now he's even taken down the 'Giant Battleship' San Juan Wolf and the 'Cursed Doctor' Samuel?"

Those two guys aren't some small-time pirates!

Listening to Marco's exclamation, Whitebeard sat in his personal giant chair, holding a wine bowl in his hand.

Hearing this, he lowered his gaze slightly, but a meaningful smile appeared on his lips: "Gurarara! That's why you bunch of idiots need to work even harder!"

"Especially you, Marco..." Whitebeard deliberately dragged out the word, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"You know, when Gern attacked me, he was even younger than you!"

"Dad!!" Marco instantly exploded, "Why are you comparing other people's kids again?!"

"Besides..." He pointed sharply at the newspaper, retorting indignantly.

"Didn't you want to adopt him as your son back then?!"

"Gulp gulp gulp! If that kid is willing to get on board..." The white-bearded man laughed as he took a swig of wine, the liquid dripping down his beard.

"Right now, he might already be the one to replace you as the captain of the First Division!"

Marco: "Got it! Dad's getting old, he's started to prefer kids with good grades! Ha, no more fatherly love."

Just as the two were chatting about Gern, a thunderous roar suddenly came from the direction of the cabin, followed by the rapid "clack" of wooden clogs.

Kozuki Oden rushed over like a whirlwind, the hem of his orange kimono fluttering, with Enma and Ame no Habakiri dangling from his waist.

He snatched the newspaper from Marco's hand, stared wide-eyed at the photo of Gern, and raised his voice with excitement: "Marco! You just said who laid a hand on Baiji?!"

"Oden, you bastard..."

"Speak up!"

“It’s this Navy guy, Gern.” Marco sighed, rubbing his forehead. “Back then, he slashed my dad in the face.”

"He cut down Hakukichi?!" Oden's pupils suddenly contracted, and his breathing became more rapid.

You should know that when Whitebeard was in Wano Country, he could have sent Whitebeard flying with a single punch if he had been even slightly serious!

Thinking of this, Oden suddenly looked up, his eyes burning with fierce fighting spirit, "Then... he won?!"

"Haha! How could that be! He was only fourteen or fifteen years old back then. If he had won, it would have been incredible!" Marco shrugged and laughed, then explained.

"However, his ability is very special. It is a Logia type, and it should be a superior type of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit of my father."

You know what, Dad really admired him back then.

"The Tremor-Tremor Fruit's... higher level?!" Oden's voice suddenly rose, his fingers unconsciously stroking the hilt of Enma's sword.

He selectively listened to everything Marco said.

Oden stared intently at the photo of Gern on the newspaper, a maniacal grin spreading across his face: "Hey, Marco! Where is that guy right now?!"

Marco knew something was wrong the moment he saw his expression: "Wait, Oden, you don't mean to..."

After all, Oden's three favorite things after joining the crew were: drinking, fighting, and listening to legends of the strong.

However, now that he saved Tian Shiyue, he has an extra chance to fall in love.

"Of course we're going to meet him!" Oden had already stepped onto the ship's railing.

"A user with a vibration ability even stronger than Hakuji? Who has slain the Golden Lion?"

Especially since he's a powerful naval officer I've never faced before, how could I possibly let such an opponent slip by!

(Kozuki Oden never directly fought against any of the Navy's powerful members.)

Whitebeard watched Oden's eager back as a glint of amusement flash in his eyes: "Gurararara! Go, Oden!"

"However..." He swirled his wine bowl, a deep smile playing on his lips, "Don't let the young folks teach you a lesson too harshly!"

Oden turned around, his smile as wild as the blazing sun: "Don't worry, Hakukichi!"

Before he finished speaking, he leaped into the air, his Moonwalk creating a shockwave as he hurtled towards another pirate ship flying the Whitebeard flag like an arrow.

"What a dense person." Marco sighed deeply, watching the figure disappear rapidly.

"Dad, do you think Oden will be able to crush Gern? After all, you said his strength and physique are monstrous."

"Don't forget, Gern's strength back then was no less than your old man's!" The white-bearded man laughed, the wine in his bowl rippling with his laughter.

"Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle! The waves of the new era are finally about to crash in!"

..........

Time returns to the present.

The sea breeze howled across the water, and the area between the two ships seemed to be torn apart by an invisible force, the air so still it was suffocating.

Kozuki Oden stood at the bow of the ship, the hem of his kimono fluttering freely in the wind.

He grinned, revealing an almost fanatical smile, his eyes fixed intently on Gern: "Hey, Navy! I heard you slashed Baiji?"

"Hurry up, let me see it too..." Kozuki Oden's eyes burned with undisguised fighting spirit, like a beast eyeing its prey.

“A beastly aura.” Gern frowned slightly; he could clearly feel the oppressive aura emanating from Oden.

It's not just a simple display of domineering power, but a kind of primal, wild aggression.

"Hey! Navy!" Oden's voice boomed like thunder once again, "I'm asking you a question!"

Gern did not respond, but coldly raised his hand, the tip of his knife pointing at the deserted island.

"If you're going to fight, go there."

“No problem. However, although I am the challenger…” Before he could finish speaking, Kozuki Oden’s right hand was already on the hilt of Enma’s sword.

"Whoosh!" A crimson slash suddenly tore through the sea, carrying a violent momentum straight toward Gern's face!

Where the strike passed, the seawater churned to both sides, forming a trench tens of meters deep.

"But I don't sense any aura of a powerful person from you!!"

Faced with Kozuki Oden's slash, Gern's pupils shrank slightly, and he instantly raised his black sword, Hachiro, its blade wrapped with pale vibrating particles, to block the slash.

"Clang—!!" A loud metallic clang rang out, and at the moment the slash made contact with the blade, Gern's hand trembled slightly.

But the next second, the vibrating particles wriggled like living things, absorbing all the impact of the slash.

"Here you go." Gern said coldly, his arm muscles tensing, and the blade suddenly slashed back!

A pale, crescent-shaped shockwave erupted from the tip of the blade, its size more than three times that of Oden's slash.

Wherever the shockwave passed, the air twisted and shattered, a vacuum channel was plowed out of the sea surface, and even sunlight was refracted into eerie rainbow colors by the high-frequency vibrating particles.

"That's it, that's it!" A hint of excitement flashed in Oden's eyes: "This is what makes it interesting!"

He crossed his twin swords, Enma and Ame no Habakiri simultaneously shrouded in jet-black Armament Haki, and slashed down fiercely against the shockwave!

"Boom!!!" The moment the two forces collided, the clouds above the deserted island were torn to shreds by the shockwave, and the sea surface caved in into a giant crater with a diameter of 100 meters.

The bow of the ship beneath Oden's feet cracked open with a "crack," but he himself remained motionless, his wooden clogs sinking deep into the deck.

"Hahaha! That was awesome!" Oden laughed, shaking his numb wrist, his fighting spirit intensifying.

"My name is Kozuki Oden! Marines, state your name!"

“Gern Reginald Sigmar”.

The moment the name was spoken, Kozuki Oden's laughter had not yet fully dissipated.

"Crack!" The deck beneath Gern's feet suddenly collapsed, and spiderweb-like cracks exploded outwards from him.

The air seemed to be gripped tightly by an invisible hand, and the next second...

"BOOM!!!" A shockwave erupted!

Gern's figure transformed into a pale afterimage, and space twisted and collapsed along his path.

The high-frequency vibrating particles tore the air along their path to pieces, and the aftershocks ploughed a deep trench into the sea surface.

Oden's pupils suddenly contracted as he realized what was happening.

"So fast!" He didn't even see Gern's movements clearly before his vision was filled with a blinding paleness and a pair of red-glowing eyes.

Gern's fist was wrapped in dark purple Conqueror's Haki arcs, with Flowing Sakura Armament Haki coiling around it like liquid, and the compressed "high-frequency shock core" inside emitted a destructive hum.

"Black Shock - Instant Prison".

The instant the fist struck Oden in the abdomen!

"Boom—!!!" A circular shockwave exploded from the point of contact, turning the pirate ship and the surrounding seawater into mist, and shattering the clouds in the sky like glass.

Oden's body bent into an arc shape in a fraction of a second, and his kimono exploded with a "bang," leaving a hole.

The unabsorbed impact transformed into a torrent of crimson and black energy, blasting him away!

"Boom—Whoosh!!" Oden's body pierced through the air like a meteorite, crashing into the mountainside of a deserted island not far away, creating a giant crater with a diameter of 100 meters.

Layer upon layer of rock collapsed, smoke and debris shot into the sky, the entire island trembled violently in the aftershocks, and a tsunami tens of meters high rose from the sea.

Guern slowly withdrew his fist; the deck beneath his feet had already turned to dust.

Standing in mid-air using the air step, the domineering red light in his pupils had not yet dissipated, and the surrounding space still showed broken rainbow cracks due to high-frequency vibrations.