"Zephyr-sensei."
Daren descended from the sky behind them, his figure drifting down gracefully.
He had already sent Toki to safety. Under the escort of other Marines, she and the civilians were being led to shelter. After all, Toki lacked any combat ability—if she stayed, he'd have to split his attention to protect her. With a major battle looming, Daren couldn't afford any distractions.
At that moment, Sakazuki and Borsalino also reappeared at the scene.
"Hey, hey, hey! You three seriously have no sense of decency!"
Kuzan shouted in frustration upon seeing them.
No one responded.
Zephyr gave a slight nod to the three and narrowed his eyes at the trio of Great Pirates floating in the sky. Behind his sunglasses, a grave look flickered in his eyes.
"Shiki, Kaidou, Charlotte Linlin..."
Shiki the Golden Lion was, in a way, an old rival. Zephyr had fought him many times before and knew just how terrifying his power could be. As for Big Mom Charlotte Linlin and Kaidou of the Beasts... their presence didn't feel as suffocating as Shiki's, but they were no less dangerous.
Just then, Zephyr's eyes suddenly widened, a stunned look crossing his face—as if he had just witnessed something unbelievable.
"Heavenly Fire!!"
Charlotte Linlin suddenly leapt from atop the thundercloud Zeus. In her hand, she gripped a blazing fireball with a sinister, human-like grin. With her fist wrapped in searing flames, she came crashing down—!
Her target...
Was the giant dragon hovering in the sky!
Boom!!
Kaidou, in his dragon form, took the full force of the blow. Under Big Mom's monstrous strength, the head of the massive blue dragon crashed down like a meteor, his eyes bulging from the impact.
His colossal form, which once blotted out the sky, plummeted into the ground of Marineford, rolling and crashing, flattening countless buildings and artillery, sending thick clouds of dust billowing into the air.
"Damn it!! Linlin, what the hell are you doing!?"
The dragon let out a furious roar, his eyes bloodshot.
Charlotte Linlin landed steadily, hefting her massive broadsword over her shoulder, and shouted back,
"Did you just try to kill Daren!? I told you—he's mine!!"
Kaidou's enormous body shrank rapidly, and he quickly returned to his human form.
Rubbing his head, he dragged his black kanabō out of the crater and charged at Big Mom, roaring,
"We both want to kill him—what difference does it make!? Let me finish him off!!"
Big Mom also charged forward, shouting,
"I won't let you lay a hand on him!!"
Their weapons simultaneously crackled with black and red lightning as they slammed them toward each other with explosive force!
Boom!!
The kanabō "Hassaikai" and the bicorne "Napoleon" clashed violently!
But they never made contact.
A turbulent burst of black and red lightning surged between them, forming in the air before their weapons even touched!
In an instant, a terrifying shockwave erupted from the clash of these two monstrous figures. Arcs of black and red lightning exploded in every direction, forcing nearby Marine officers to stagger back, shielding their faces with their arms, expressions filled with horror.
It was a clash of Conqueror's Haki!
The heavy black clouds overhead rumbled and tore apart, ripped open by the violent shockwave.
"What the hell are those two doing!?"
"Why are they suddenly fighting!?"
"Wait! Are they arguing over how to deal with Commodore Daren!?"
"..."
The Marines stood frozen, staring in disbelief at the sudden battle between Big Mom and Kaidou.
As the wind howled around them, confusion flickered across Zephyr's face as he instinctively glanced at Daren.
Kuzan also looked at Daren suspiciously.
The Marine Commodore stood there quietly, eyes lowered, as if none of this chaos had anything to do with him.
At that moment, several familiar figures came rushing in from behind...
"Daren!!"
"Zephyr-sensei!"
"We're joining the fight too!!"
...
Led by Tokikake and Gion, the training camp members arrived in a flash, swords in hand, using Geppo and Soru to swiftly move behind the group.
They struggled to withstand the Haki shockwaves from Big Mom and Kaidou, their faces full of awe and disbelief.
"So that's the power of the legendary pirates...?"
"It's terrifying..."
"They're so strong it's inhuman."
"Kaidou and Big Mom..."
They couldn't believe that such monsters actually existed on the seas. What shocked them even more was the realization that their top peer—Daren—had been fighting monsters like these before!?
"Damn it!! You crazy old hag!! Why'd you stop me from killing that bastard Daren!!"
Kaidou's furious roar snapped everyone out of their thoughts.
His face flushed red, long black hair whipping wildly, his feet dragged deep grooves in the ground as his body was pushed back.
"He destroyed my base!!"
"And this wasn't part of our plan! Didn't you want to kill him too?!"
Kaidou locked his bloodshot eyes on Big Mom.
"He killed two of your sons!!"
Suddenly, Charlotte Linlin let out a shrill, manic laugh.
"Who said I wanted to kill him?"
Kaidou froze. "Didn't you say, 'Leave Daren to me'?"
Charlotte Linlin giggled. "That's right!"
She turned her head, gaze locking onto Daren across a thousand meters.
Her crimson tongue licked her lips as her eyes gleamed with a fierce possessiveness. She laughed flirtatiously,
"What I meant was... I want to have him."
"Make him... the husband of Charlotte Linlin."
The world fell into a dead silence for a second.
Then—
"EH!!??"
A chorus of shocked cries erupted from the dozens of Marines present, joined by Kaidou, who looked like he'd been struck by lightning.
Kaidou's eyes bulged from their sockets.
And in that moment of stunned silence, the fragile balance between the two snapped completely.
Charlotte Linlin pounced, her fist wrapped in Armament Haki slamming hard into Kaidou's stomach.
Boom!
Kaidou's body was sent flying, smashing through more than a dozen buildings before crashing into the center of a military fortress.
Cracks spread like spiderwebs across the fortress walls, but Kaidou casually pulled himself out of the crater, dumbfounded.
He wasn't the only one.
Shiki, hovering in the sky, also looked completely stunned.
The Marines all turned in unison, eyes locked on the Commodore, whose mouth was twitching.
Under the weight of those bewildered stares, Daren's lip twitched slightly.
This is... social death...
Fighting the urge to curl his toes, he forced a straight face and spoke in a righteous tone as calmly as he could.
"Don't worry, everyone. I refused her—vehemently."
"..."
Zephyr clutched his chest like he'd just taken a direct hit.
Gion's expression turned to ice.
Borsalino wore an amused smirk.
Sakazuki's eyes darkened with shadow.
Kuzan looked up at him, full of admiration. "That was so cool."
Everyone else was completely dumbfounded.
Only Tokikake looked back and forth between the seductive, mature aura of Big Mom and the dazed Daren, then cried out in despair:
"Damn it!! Why do the good things never happen to me?!"