Chapter 254: Charging Toward The Execution Platform
With Luffy's outburst of conquerors haki, he was suddenly made an even bigger target in this war, causing most of the Marines to ignore every other pirate while focusing their efforts on killing him, which I couldn't have; now that I know he has the will of a supreme king, there was no way I was going to allow him to die so easily.
"Kill Strawhat Luffy! If we allow him to survive, he'll become a dangerous pirate one day!! He must not leave this place alive!" Yelled a Vice-admiral solemnly with a deep voice as he stood atop the wall while pointing his sword at Luffy, his voice echoing throughout the whole battlefield and entering the ears of the numerous marines.
"STRAWHAT LUFFY!! KILL HIM!!" Yelled the thousands of marines loudly as they all closed in on Luffy.
"Whitebeard pirates! Protect Ace's Brother!" Declared Whitebeard loudly with a grunt of pain as he stood up while breathing heavily, pointing towards Ace with his Naginata, causing every pirate to nod.
"YOU HEARD POPS! GET ACE'S BROTHER TO ACE! IF POP'S BELIVES IN ACE'S BROTHER, SO DO WE!" Stated the thousands of pirates, their powerful voices causing the ground to tremble as they all converged around Luffy, forming a protective barrier around him.
Watching everything play out, I had to hand it to Luffy; his charisma was something else if he managed to win over the strongest man in the world in merely two hours; however, I could somewhat understand him since even I felt a desire to protect him.
'Though, that mainly stems from the fact that I want to kill him sometime in the future, but eh, minor details.' Thought Diddy with a feral smirk as he glanced at Marco, who was struggling to stand given his nasty wound, before approaching him.
"Ugh, w-what, are you here to kill me?" Asked Marco lightly with a pale face and a scowl as he warily eyed Diddy, who simply chuckled before reaching down and grabbing his arm.
"No, why would I? Where is the fun in killing prey that can't even fight back?" Asked Diddy with a slightly sadistic smile as he looked down at Marco with his blood red, causing him to frown.
"Anyways, this going to hurt. However, you should be able to heal from it pretty quickly." Added Diddy with a grin as he clutched the seastone cuffs bound to Marco, who furrowed his brows, only for him to suddenly collapse onto his knees while holding his arm and screaming in pain.
"Can you quiet down? Your screaming is annoying; besides, it's not even that painful. Freyja's gone through worse." Said Diddy in slight annoyance as he growled at Marco, using his lightning to melt the seastone cuffs and part of his arm in the process.
It only took a couple of seconds to melt the seastone cuffs off of him, ten seconds max, and the instant the last piece dripped off his body, he erupted into blue flames, his wounds rapidly regenerating before my very eyes, causing me to click my tongue in jealousy.
'I wished I could heal that quickly; I'd be able to fight indefinitely.' Mused Diddy with a slight frown as he eyed Marco, who suddenly appeared from within the blue flames once it vanished.
"Pops wasn't wrong about you, but it seems besides carnage and chaos, you also desire a good fight; you're quite the battle junky, Kong." Said Marco lightly as he flapped his wings while eyeing Diddy, who chuckled before leaping into the air while twirling his bo-staff.
Laughing at his accurate deduction of me, I kicked the air and lunged right towards Luffy while Marco headed towards his fellow pirate, who had been frozen by Aokiji, freeing him in a matter of a few seconds before they also headed towards Luffy.
Once I made it to the center of the battle, I wasn't the only one there; so were Sebas, Freyja, Mael, Scar, and Grand; all five of them had joined the Whitebeard pirates and assisted Luffy. Janet and Trenza were also helping, but they were more towards the back; still, they were doing decent work and killing every marine they came across, considering the stronger ones stayed at the front, trying to stop the charge toward the execution platform.
Lunging right into the front of the group, I slammed into the ground before punching the air, creating a massive wall of lightning that arched through the air, shocking numerous marines, while I followed up by violently swinging an enlarged Naga-sa, swatting away several marines, only for more to take their place.
"Hehe, it's like a dream come true; no matter how many I kill, they keep appearing!" Muttered Diddy with a slightly crazy smile as he reveled in the battle, enjoying the carnage of slaughtering marine after marine.
Kicking a marine in the face, I twisted my body, dodging a Vice-admiral that headed straight for luffy, only to grab his foot with my own before slamming him into the ground and following up with a barrage of deadly sharp winds from each one of my kicks, leaving him as a bloody mess while barely breathing; Vice-admirals were simply too weak to withstand the power of my sulong form, even if I was injured and weakened, this transformation wasn't a joke by any means.
'Though I can already tell I'm going to be extremely tired once this is all over, I might even sleep for a whole day.' Thought Diddy with a feral smile as he extended Naga-sa to block a fist that was even bigger than him from attacking Luffy, only to eye the giant who had attacked.
Eying the giant, I flexed my muscles and pushed him back, only to leap into the sky until I was at eye level before raising Naga-sa in the air while coating it in a thick layer of lightning. The giant was wholly ignoring me and was instead going after Luffy, but one of the Whitebeard pirates blocked his punch, allowing me to violently slam Naga-sa atop the giant's head, shocking him with dangerous amounts of volts that would make even Enel proud.
"Heh, you giants are fucking tough; even after taking all of that, you're still conscious. Insane." Said Diddy with a large, feral grin as he eyed the giant, who tried to attack once more, only for a blue flaming bird to slam into him from behind, knocking him onto the ground.
"Tch, what the hell, Marco!" Yelled Diddy angrily as he attacked Marcos, who raised his talons, catching his bo-staff.
"What, we're not on teams." Replied Marco indifferently as he flapped his wings before chucking Diddy back toward Luffy, causing him to grumble under his breath.
'Tsk, I'll kill you later.' Thought Diddy in annoyance as he eyed Marco before turning around and rejoining the fray.
Despite the marine's efforts to stop us, it was for naught, and before long, we finally arrived near the execution platform, and just as we did so, the woman, man, or whatever that fuck that thing was, had someone appear from his large hair, as their hands suddenly turned into scissors, prompting them to cut off a piece of the ground before lifting it towards the top of the execution stand, using it as a pathway.
With our job, the rest of the Whitebeard pirates turned around and began protecting the bridge with Whitebeard standing at the forefront alongside his strongest commanders; however, suddenly, a Vice-admiral leaped onto the bridge and began destroying, causing me to frown, not at the fact he was destroying the bridge, but at who the vice-admiral was; even though he was merely a Vice-admiral, his strength, it was something no one here could compete with.
'Not even Whitebeard is as strong as him.' Thought Diddy with a deep frown as he glanced at Luffy, who was running straight towards the Vice-admiral.
Although the marine was insanely strong, he held no desire to harm Luffy, so I just left him be, though I did keep my haki on him, and to my surprise, he managed to punch the old man off the bridge, causing me to momentarily freeze.
"Eh? W-What the fuck!?" Exclaimed Diddy in pure confusion as he turned around and eyed Luffy, who continued running up the bridge, heading right for Ace.
I was nearly kicked in the face because of my astonishment, but I managed to block the foot before counter-attacking. Still, I was shocked at how Luffy punched away such a strong pirate as if it were nothing. However, with a shake of my head, I got rid of such thoughts and focused on the battle while Luffy finally arrived at the top of the execution platform; even before he did anything, I clad my entire body in haki, causing my silver fur to take on a black hue while traces of lightning danced around my body.
Kicking the ground, I speedily flew through the air and used Naga-sa to block Kizaru's beam of light, which would've otherwise destroyed the key in Luffy's hand, and for the first time, I saw him frown. However, before I could laugh at him, Sengoku suddenly turned into a massive golden statue of himself as he attacked the entire execution stand itself, seemingly intending to do the execution himself, yet just before he could, I suddenly grinned, since not even a second later, a massive wall of flames erupted into Sengoku's face, causing him to miss his targets.
"Haha, thanks, Luffy!" Said Ace loudly with a smile as wisps of flames erupted off his body, his voice causing every pirate to roar loudly in joy.
"ACE!!" Yelled Whitebeard, Marco, Squard, and every other pirate in joy.