c4 One Piece World! Nominations.
Bang!
The explosion sounded again, and Loya turned his head sharply. This time, the thunderous roar came from the direction of the beach and even from so far away, he could smell the acrid tang of gunpowder thick in the air.
"Is someone finally here? No matter who it is, I've got to get off this rock!" Sick and tired of surviving on a desolate island for weeks, Loya clenched his fists and leapt up with explosive force.
Click!
At the apex of his ascent, gravity took hold but a palm-sized sheet of ice instantly formed beneath his feet. With a deft push-off, his descent halted midair, and Loya sprang to another freshly conjured ice plate. In this way, stepping across ice midair like Geppō from Rokushiki he bounded toward the beach in a zigzag blur.
...
Vic was furious and completely confused. He was just an upstart pirate with a bounty of 35 million berries barely worth the ink on his wanted poster and yet, somehow, he was being relentlessly pursued by a Marine Vice Admiral!
He hadn't even looted a merchant ship since entering the Grand Line! Why was Vice Admiral Mole himself one of the elite veterans who served during the Buster Call on Ohara chasing him for two days and nights without pause?!
If not for the custom-built Flying Fish ship one reinforced with sea prism stone and boasting engines rivaling those of a Marine warship he'd have already been captured and shackled aboard the Garp-class vessel, en route to Impel Down's lower levels.
But his luck had run dry.
The naval cannons, mounted on the bow of the Vice Admiral's ship, had switched from warning shots to direct strikes. Sails shredded, rigging torn the Flying Fish was now dead in the water.
"Damn it!" Vic shouted. "We're making a run for that shore! Let's see you follow us through land!"
The island up ahead was an odd one a clear Summer Island based on climate, but one inexplicably decorated with a ten-meter-tall ice sculpture resting atop the beach. It gave off a chill completely at odds with the tropical setting. But Vic didn't care he had no choice.
After docking in a messy scramble, Vic barked orders to his men to return fire, trying to stall the Navy's advance with a few rear-mounted cannons they hadn't yet lost.
Bang!
A devastating shell from the Marines found its mark, striking the Flying Fish's hull midship. A gory spray of splinters, smoke, and blood erupted as the remaining artillery crew below deck were torn apart severed limbs and red mist bursting from the lower ports.
Despite the chaos, the difference in discipline showed. Marine gunners trained on ships like the Moby Dick or Oro Jackson had hit rates far superior to desperate pirates cobbling together haphazard shots. The Flying Fish's return fire was weak scattered bursts that never even grazed the oncoming warship.
Now, aboard the lead vessel, Marines with seagull-emblazoned caps raised muskets and drawn cutlasses, waiting for the signal to charge.
One officer approached the bow, standing behind a tall figure with a serious air and long purple mohawk. He saluted crisply. "Vice Admiral Mole, sir! The Scissor Pirates have lost artillery capabilities. Do we initiate boarding?"
Lieutenant General Mole his lavender-striped coat billowing over his regulation navy blues surveyed the smoking pirate vessel. His face was calm, but his narrowed eyes were ruthless. "Cannon cover prepare strike teams."
"Yes, sir!"
At once, the warship slowed to deploy its boarding launches, small boats bristling with riflemen and swordsmen. Under cover of suppressing fire, they surged toward the beach.
On shore, Vic roared in defiance. "The Navy's coming, boys! Kill them all before they reach the sand!"
At the edge of the jungle, Loya finally arrived. The chaotic tableau before him stunned him into a brief silence. He saw the blackened wreck of the Flying Fish first, then the familiar blue-and-white MARINE flag flapping on the horizon.
It was unmistakable seagull crest, Justice kanji it was the World Government's military. The Navy of the One Piece world.
Hidden behind a coconut tree, Loya squinted through the haze. "That's... that's definitely the Marine insignia. This isn't just any fantasy realm... I've landed in One Piece! Damn it this power system and this world don't even match!"
The image was surreal here he was, wielding Ice Dragon Slayer magic from the Fairy Tail universe, standing on an island in a sea ruled by Devil Fruits and Haki.
...
What he saw now was a classic Marine-vs-pirate skirmish.
His eyes locked onto Vic, who barked orders from behind the wrecked mast. From the looks of it, he was no major threat a low-tier pirate, probably not even mentioned in the East Blue arcs.
But Loya had no desire to fight the Marines. The World Government might be corrupt, but Marine warships were still his best shot at getting off this island.
He grinned darkly. "Sorry, pirates. Nothing personal. But if I'm going to catch a ride on that Marine ship, I need to prove I'm not with you... and the best way to do that"
Loya's hands clenched.
"is to give them a front-row seat to your defeat."
Without another word, Loya launched himself skyward.
Boom!
The ground beneath him cracked and cratered, webbing outward in spider-like fractures as the Dragon Slayer's enhanced strength pushed him airborne like a cannonball.
From his high angle, Vic lacking Observation Haki didn't notice a thing.
But Vice Admiral Mole did.
His eyes narrowed. "Who is that...?"
Above the beach, Loya conjured a shimmering platform of ice beneath his boots, inhaled deeply, and brought his fists to his mouth.
Magic surged, rippling outward like expanding rings on water.
Hum!
A radiant blue magic circle, as tall as he was, blazed into existence in front of his face etched with dragon sigils and arcane glyphs.
Loya's chest swelled with power.
"Ice Dragon's... Roar!"
The next moment, an ice storm burst forth initially as thin as a fist, but it rapidly expanded in midair, unfurling like the maw of a roaring dragon. Within seconds, it transformed into a colossal vortex of frozen power several meters in diameter, howling as it tore through the sky and slammed directly into the heart of the Scissor Pirates' formation.
Boom!
Under Loya's precise control, the ice storm detonated at the exact optimal kill radius. A thunderous roar echoed like spring lightning cracking the heavens Vic had no time to react. His figure vanished in a blinding flash of frost and wind.
Propelled by the explosive force, a hail of razor-like ice shards swept outward in every direction, slicing through flesh and armor alike. Each shard was infused with pure, condensed magic. The pirates' screams were short-lived; their wounds froze over before blood could even spill. One by one, their bodies crystallized mid-movement frozen statues in their final poses of agony. At ground zero, where the ice magic was most concentrated, not a single intact body remained just shards and mist.
This was Dragon Slayer Magic specifically, Ice Dragon Slayer Magic. And though its element was cold, its force was anything but. It was savage, relentless, and destructive. Unlike Gray Fullbuster's controlled Ice-Make magic from Fairy Tail, Loya's power was that of a beast an elemental weapon meant to annihilate dragons, not create sculptures.
As the blast wave receded, a deathly silence followed. The ambient temperature plummeted. The air shimmered with frost. Even the waves rolling toward shore were caught mid-crest, frozen solid in strange, impossible shapes curved and jagged like sea glass.
Even on the Marine warship anchored hundreds of meters offshore, sailors flinched from the sudden bite of the cold. Some clutched their coats tighter; others stared, wide-eyed, at the unnatural layer of frost spreading across the sea's surface. And aboard the skiffs heading for land, officers began to shiver.
"The ability to freeze..."
Lieutenant General Mole narrowed his eyes. He had anticipated that the unknown figure might aid in defeating the pirates but not this. Not a massacre. And not through a technique that mimicked the very abilities of Kuzan Aokiji, former Marine Admiral and wielder of the Hie Hie no Mi.
Still, there was no time to contemplate it.
The frozen tide was sweeping toward the skiffs, and if it reached them, the entire lead platoon would be encased in seconds.
With no hesitation, Mole exhaled sharply, drew the katana from his waist a long, curved blade with a distinct rectangular tsuba and in a single fluid motion, slashed forward.
Swish!
A brilliant arc of light-blue sword energy erupted from the blade, carving across the frozen waves like a crescent moon. The wave of pure sword intent cleaved through the advancing ice, shattering it into glistening shards and sending a wind-shear across the bay. The sea parted in its wake, momentarily scooped out like jelly. This was not a random slash—this was Flying Squirrel's signature technique, combining martial kenjutsu with latent Haki.
But the sudden force shift capsized the approaching skiffs. The front-line Marines, caught by surprise, plunged into the cold sea before they could react.
Yet they were Marines trained for all conditions. With the exception of a few Devil Fruit users, the rest surfaced quickly, forming chains in the water to stay afloat. Still, their lips were blue, hands numb, and teeth chattering from the unnatural cold.
It was freezing.
Lieutenant General Mole sheathed his blade in one smooth motion and turned toward his adjutant, his expression unreadable. "Deploy support teams get our people out of the water, now."
"Yes, sir!"
The adjutant, face pale but determined, saluted and rushed to relay the order. Every man knew: Mole might be strict, but he never left his troops behind. That was the kind of general the Marines needed one who valued soldiers more than statistics.
Meanwhile, up above, Loya had witnessed everything from the freezing fallout of his own magic to the dazzling sword energy that had bisected the sea itself. He scratched the back of his head with a frown.
"Damn, my first big spell and I almost froze the good guys... That was sloppy. And that sword attack geez, did he really just cut the ocean? Sword energy that intense... that's gotta be at least swordsman-level, right? Maybe even coated in Armament Haki?"
He shook his head, grumbling aloud, "Honestly, Oda-sensei... what's with the power scaling in this world?"
He was only half joking. The One Piece power system was infamous for its late-stage inflation. Just like in World of Warcraft, where level 100 raid bosses get one-shot by common mobs after the next expansion, the later chapters of One Piece had featured increasingly ridiculous feats. Admiral Fujitora had dropped meteors. Enel commanded lightning. Kaido fell from 10,000 meters unharmed. And that's not even counting Gear Fifth.
How was he supposed to gauge threat levels now?
Marine Vice Admirals were a mixed bag some barely stronger than Ensigns, others like Garp had once rivaled the Pirate King. And now, Loya had just seen one split a frozen sea with a casual slash.
"Yeah... there's no way to tell who's weak anymore," he muttered. "But hey, at least I'm not the only walking absurdity around here."
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