The whistle blew and the game began.
The riders took off into the air immediately and the whitebeard team's horses charged straight for them, proving Sanji's conjecture correct. They intended to push them out of the arena without worrying about how Marco was doing.
Speed Jiru's name was not a misnomer. He darted ahead with uncanny speed and strange footwork while Jozu and Atmos rumbled behind him like walking mountains. Not even Jinbe and Zoro's combined might could hope to stop the momentum of their enormous mass and power, at least not directly.
That was a problem to contend with a few seconds later, though. They first had to deal with Speed.
"No hard feelings, Jinbe!" Speed declared as he slid around the fishman with slippery ease and jabbed for Sanji's ribs with a lightning fast hook.
Sanji wasn't a slouch in the fancy footwork department, however, and twirled to rob the blow of its bite. He followed up with a low kick aimed at the other man's knee.
Jinbe or Zoro, perhaps both, would have taken the opportunity presented by Speed hopping over Sanji's counterattack to finish him, were it not for the previously mentioned landslide shaped like two burly men.
Jozu and Atmos attempted a double lariat on Jinbe, but he wasn't fool enough to let them do as they pleased. The attempt itself was laughable, in the face of a martial artist of jibe's caliber. Lariats left one wide open in terms of defense.
Jinbe dodged with a nimbleness one would not expect from a man of his size and body shape, and swiftly punished Atmos for not using his extended arms to protect his face.
"Ooh! That had to hurt, folks! Let's see if Atmos is down for the count!" Itomimizu commented, though his voice seemed distant in the ears of the contenders, such was the intensity of their focus.
Atmos was decidedly not down for the count. He rocked on his heels for a second, after getting his face rocked by Jinbe, but he came back around in the end and Jozu was right there to back him up.
"No sword style!" Zoro was also there, however.
Just as Jozu was about to grapple Jinbe, his eyes shot wide open as he turned himself to diamond. It was a timely reaction, too-
*SCREEAACH!!!*
-Because Zoro used his finger nails to scratch against his hardened flesh like steel nails on a chalkboard. While Jozu's exterior was unmarred by the attack, his twitching grimace suggested that it was not entirely fruitless. Likely, if he hadn't changed, he would not have come out of that unscathed as he was, protected by haki or not.
Nobody had the time to gawk at the swordsman who could apparently cut people open unarmed, though. Speed Jiru bounded between the grouping of manly men for a particular spot on the ground.
Sanji was hot on his heels. "Come back here!"
"Is Speed Jiru running away?!" Itomimizu shouted from the sidelines.
But no, Speed Jiru wasn't running away. He was running towards something.
"Squawk?!" Marco's bird voice cried out in alarm.
Robin's feet were planted firmly into his spine and drove him downwards with considerable force. How she managed to outmaneuver him in the air, only the audience knew.
Speed got there just in time to grab Marco by the left arm and threw him back towards the skirmish in the middle.
Sanji could have ended it there. It would have been simple, easy even, to take advantage of Marco's momentary disorientation and finish the job. He didn't though, because Speed had him all figured out, and attacked Robin right after.
Sanji flashed forward, twice as fast as before, his expression twisting in fury and his eyes not so much as looking Marco's way.
Marco, meanwhile, breathed a sigh of relief as he got his flight under control. He dodged around Jinbe's swiping arms with fluid grace, and kicked Zoro across the jaw for trying to jump at him from Jinbe's back.
"Ah, ah~ Horses have to stay on the ground!" Marco teased, flying well beyond their reach.
Truthfully, they didn't know if they were allowed to jump or throw one another up into the air, just that they definitely couldn't stay up there, like with flight. They really should have looked up the game in that ridiculously thick book of rules before leaping into this.
Sanji slammed into Speed Jiru like a cannonball with a grudge. The latter had been caught off guard by the sudden increase of velocity, forcing him to receive the kick with an interceding arm. He grunted under the impact, but maintained his composure as he latched onto Sanji's over extended leg and slammed him hard into the ground on the other side of him, eliciting the cook's own cry of pain.
Robin was able to get away from the duo, however, so Sanji's efforts were not all for naught.
"You don't use your hands to fight, right?" Speed smirked.
Sanji knew instantly what he was up to and tried to escape his grasping hands. He even bashed his face in with a solid kick, but Speed did not relent. Speed was trying to wrestle him!
Sanji didn't believe he was inferior to Speed Jiru in a straight fight, but with both of them on the ground and Sanji already caught by Speed's hands, it could easily be turned into a wrestling match. Needless to say, Sanji's preferred fighting style wasn't the best for that.
On the other end of the arena, Jozu and Atmos were back to locking down their counterparts in Zoro and Jinbe.
"Looks like it'll probably come down to the riders, eh Jinbe?" Atmos smiled genially as he sauntered over. Despite his relaxed appearance, there was no doubt there would be violence when he reached them.
"Your swordsman friend surprised me, I'll admit," Jozu stated, outwardly more tense than his companion. "If you had water to work with in here, you might have pushed us back."
Jinbe wasn't arrogant enough to think they were truly equal. Jozu and Atmos had the advantage here, since they were facing down a swordsman with no swords and a fishman karate practitioner with no water. That they were doing as well as they were was already an achievement.
That didn't matter too much, though. They simply had to hold on until Sanji or Robin prevailed. This wasn't a true battle, but a game, and the game could be won even if they couldn't beat these two directly.
"Shut it, will ya," Zoro worked his neck. "If you have time to talk, then get over here so I can kick your shiny ass."
Atmos chuckled and Jozu frowned. The latter complained, "Insults aren't very sporting."
"I don't have my swords, so I'll sharpen my tongue to cut you down," Zoro shot back.
There was a girlish squeal in the audience, but none of them paid it any mind. They rush forwards all at once, as if acting on some unheard signal.
This time they clashed directly. Jozu and Atmos didn't have the advantage of building their charge this time, so the forces were not so disparate.
What Zoro lacked in size, he made up for in pure brawn. He drove his fist into Atmos' big belly and knocked half the wind out of his lungs. Atmos returned the favor by interlocking his hands overhead and bringing them down onto Zoro's upper back and shoulder, pushing him into the dirt.
Jinbe and Jozu were not so different. After an initial crash, they bounced off of each other and launched into a flurry of blows. Jinbe was faster, but Jozu's durability and slight advantage in power let him hold his own.
"Nobody's out for the count yet, folks! What twists and turns will we see next?!" Itomimizu played his part dutifully.