A New Path - Chapter 212

The clock was ticking, and the pressure was increasing. Sengoku glanced down on Ace and sighed. “It is time. Begin the execution!”

Two men with long-bladed weapons walked up the stairs leading up to the platform. They were being watched by the entire world through the cameras that were streaming this war. Whitebeard saw the two men and yelled at his men to increase the pressure on the marines. But, the Warlords did too good of a job with holding the line. The Whitebeard alliance couldn’t get through.

“Luffy, the execution has started!” Sanji yelled from behind Luffy. They were separated from the Whitebeard pirates and they had no relation with them so their advance was just as slow. None of them knew Haki, so neither Zoro nor Luffy could stand against a vice-admiral, Which was exactly why they had stopped. Vice-admiral Doberman stood face to face with Zoro, Sanji and Luffy in a stalemate. They weren’t strong enough to push past him, but just strong enough to stop him from completely dominating them.

“The worst generation! A seed to kill before it can mature.”

“I don’t have time for you!” Luffy was fully using his second gear and landing heavy blows against Doberman. Still, none could penetrate that defence, nor overpower him in terms of speed. As a vice-admiral, his strength was even higher than the agents of the CP9 unit.

“Luffy, let’s attack together!” Zoro prepared his three swords, but Doberman stood resolute against the assault. The rest of the Straw hats were locked in their own battles with either powerful elites or just overwhelming numbers of rookie marines. Penetrating the line of defence proved much harder than they thought.

“Robin, be careful!” Sanji appeared behind Robin and kicked a marine in the head before he could cut her down. She gave him a sweet smile as sweat ran down her forehead. “Luffy is not thinking clearly. We won’t survive this unless he calms down.” She said and exhaled audibly. She didn’t have the stamina that the monster trio, Zoro, Luffy and Sanji had. None of the crew had their endurance or their pure fighting prowess. This was one of those moments where Robin regretted fleeing away from her grandpa’s lessons.

“I know, the farther in we go, the tougher the enemies are gonna get. The Admirals are still guarding that platform. And, then it’s the Fleet-admiral and Luffy’s grandpa. This might be more than we can handle.” Sanji would never abandon his crew, not even in this situation, but his viewpoint right now wasn’t positive. They were neck-deep in danger.

“You don’t say,” Franky said from the side while bombarding marines with bullets. “I seriously have a hard time believing we will survive this.” He sent a rocket punch at another marine and continued shooting.

Luffy right now was in deep trouble. He was already overusing his gears and he had three major cuts on his body from Doberman’s sword. His stamina was being wasted very quickly thanks to him not thinking straight. With little to no thinking involved, Luffy had backed himself into a corner and Doberman’s sword was coming straight for his neck.

“LUFFY!” Zoro tried forcing his way through the army of marines to try and get to his captain. But, it was too late for him. Though, not too late for others. From seemingly nowhere, a half-naked barbarian-looking woman appeared and delivered a punch right into Doberman’s gut, sending him skidding across the ice.

“You okay, kid?” The woman asked.

“Yeah, thanks!” Luffy said and ran off again without even bothering to ask why she helped him. “What a rude boy!” She said and glanced back at the Straw hats.

Doberman got up from the ground after wiping blood off his lips. He eyed the woman with anger, “Ginrummy, why are you buddying up to a rookie?” He coughed and got up on trembling legs.

“Bosses orders! Nothing personal! Well, a little personal.” Ginrummy said playfully. She charged at him giving him very little time to defend himself. She delivered punch after punch while still keeping a smile on her face.

“Boss? Who would that be?”

“Guess it’s above your pay-grade!” Another slip-up and Ginrummy got another clean hit in that knocked him down on the ice again. “Hate to do this to you, but you have to die now.” Ginrummy now used her haki and dashed towards him.

“Not so fast, lady.” The ground froze, and with it, so did Ginrummy. Aokiji rose from the ice in front of Doberman. “Took you long enough to get here.” He watched her break out of the ice pretty quickly. She had a sour expression as she came out.

“Why you? Why couldn’t it have been Kizaru!” She complained quietly.

“Oh… Not satisfied? I promise I won’t disappoint!” Aokiji let the atmosphere around him slowly drop in temperature. He was ready to fight. She was clearly not, she looked back at the Straw hats and then at Aokiji.

“AHH! So frustrating! I’m not allowed to fight you, so can you switch with Kizaru, please!” Ginrummy completely floored Aokiji. He dropped his arm to his sides and tilted his head. “Huh? You’re gonna have to help me out here?” “You’re not allowed to fight me?”

“No, my lady’s orders! Nobody can kill you but her.” Ginrummy’s words seemed to have enlightened Aokiji as he took a step back.

“No, not her! Not today! This day is really not getting any better…” He looked around with a cautious look.

“Tell me, is she here?” He seemed almost afraid of something, or someone.

“Not allowed to speak about that either, sorry!” Ginrummy started walking away, but not before she turned her head around and said, “She did tell me to say hello if I ever ran into you.” She smiled and slightly shook her head.

“She also really looks forward to seeing you.” She stopped herself and spoke again, this time with more nervous energy around her.

“That part was more from me, she didn’t actually say that, more about how she was gonna torture you and stuff.” After that, she continued walking.

“Admiral! T-That’s the new generation emperor, right? Are we not gonna stop her?!” Doberman asked carefully. He had great respect for Aokiji, so that was why he didn’t yell and ask what the hell he was doing, letting her leave.

“No, if that person is here, things are about to go south. Mostly for me!” Aokiji complained and walked away with his head hung low.

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End