One-Punch Man in the One Piece World

Chapter 123 The World's Biggest News

In the heart of the icy plains, on a battlefield stained dark red with blood and shattered ice, the battle continues.

But at that moment, everyone's attention was drawn in the same direction.

Akainu leaped from the bow of the warship, and the moment his boots shattered the ice, the entire ice sheet melted beneath his feet.

Magma gushed from his arms, shoulders, and back, its flowing orange-red light sizzling and baking the surrounding ice as white mist rose.

He raced across the ice, heading straight for Norton!

With each step Akainu took, the ice collapsed, creating a steaming crater. His speed increased, and the white mist behind him was whipped into a long dragon.

"Hound of the Underworld!"

The moment his right arm was swung out, it completely transformed into magma. The fist, made of molten lava, didn't come straight at him, but instead, like a hound's fangs, it bit at Norton's neck from the side! Wherever the fist passed, the air was ignited, leaving a dazzling orange-red trail!

It was too fast. So fast that the surrounding air didn't even have time to escape, being squeezed into a transparent wall by the fist.

Norton turned his head, glanced at the fist, raised his left hand, spread his fingers, and gently clenched his fist over the lava.

That magma fist, powerful enough to melt steel, was stopped by a hand less than half a foot from Norton's neck.

Orange-red lava squeezed out from between his fingers, flowing down the back of Norton's hand with a hissing sound and rising white mist.

"It's so hot!" Norton grinned, shaking off the lava residue on his fingers.

The orange-red liquid fell onto the ice, scalding the ice and creating craters that emitted white smoke.

Akainu's pupils contracted slightly. He didn't answer, took a half step back, and threw out both fists at the same time!

"A massive fireball!"

Two enormous lava fists detached from his arms, expanding, burning, and tearing through the air as they crushed towards Norton head-on!

Each one was larger than the bow of the White Pearl, its surface shimmering with orange-red flames, trailing thick black smoke trails!

Norton didn't dodge. He simply threw a punch.

That punch looked extremely casual, but the moment the fist touched that lava fist, which was larger than the bow of a ship, it exploded from the center like a pottery jar being hit by an iron hammer!

Orange-red fragments scattered and flew everywhere, hissing as they landed on the ice and rising as they landed in the seawater!

Then came the second one.

Norton swept his fist across the side. The force of the punch swept past the side of the second lava fist, splitting it in two. The two halves flew past Norton's body and slammed into the ice behind him, creating two steaming craters.

Akainu's pupils contracted completely.

The massive firestorm, powerful enough to destroy a town, was shattered by a single punch.

It's not about dodging, it's not about blocking, it's about dispersing! Like dispersing a cloud of smoke!

Akainu's expression changed; for the first time, a hint of "wavering" appeared on his perpetually cold and hard face.

Things.

But he is Akainu. He will not back down; gritting his teeth, he unleashes another powerful punch!

This time it wasn't a single strike, it was a barrage! A torrential, frenzied barrage, a continuous bombardment that squeezed out all the strength in the body!

"Inu-gna-gumi Crimson Lotus!!"

Countless hounds made of magma roared forth from his arm! These hounds were not phantoms; each one had a physical form, each one burned with orange-red flames, and each one bared its fangs as it pounced on Norton!

They surged in from all directions, sealing off all space to dodge!

Norton watched the magma hounds rushing towards him, threw a punch, and the moment the punch was thrown, the muscles in his arm bulged to their limit, and the veins bulged under his skin like writhing dragons.

The air was torn apart, emitting a shrill whistle that seemed unlike anything in the human world. The whistle was short and sharp, like the dying cry of some giant beast.

The space in front of the fist was distorted, trembling, and shaking in front of that fist.

The moment the fist struck the first lava hound, the hound crumbled from head to toe. Like a sand sculpture scattered by the wind, it turned into tiny sparks inch by inch from head to tail.

Then came the second, the third, the tenth, the twentieth—one after another, those lava hounds shattered before the force of the fist, turning into countless orange-red sparks flying everywhere, like a reverse-flowing, burning firework.

The force of the punch pierced through the entire pack of lava hounds, continuing forward, forward, forward—

Akainu only had time to see the semi-transparent shockwave rapidly magnify in his pupils.

boom!!!!

The instant he was struck by that fist's force, he felt as if he had been hit by a mountain, or swallowed by a tsunami.

He was launched into the air, flying backward, crashing through the hull of the warship behind him, through the second deck, through the third, and through the hull. The keel shattered beneath him, the mast toppled above his head, and the burning sails plunged into the icy sea.

Boom!!

The entire warship broke in half. Under Akainu's impact, the massive warship collapsed like a building with its foundation removed.

The ice shattered in large pieces under the impact of the warship's fall, and cracks spread in all directions. Seawater surged up from the cracks, submerging the broken ice, the wreckage, and the struggling naval soldiers.

In the center of the ice field, a huge, steaming gap appeared.

On the sea, only burning wreckage and billowing white mist remained.

Everyone on the battlefield stopped moving at that moment.

The swords hung in mid-air, forgotten to fall. The muskets were raised halfway, forgotten to fire.

Some people had their mouths agape, some had their eyes wide open, some were kneeling on the ice, and some had their weapons slip from their hands and fall to the ground with a crisp clanging sound.

The sailors' hands trembled as they gripped their weapons, and their expressions were remarkably uniform—

Shock.

fear.

incredible.

"The general—"

"Mr. Akainu was—"

"One punch—just one punch—"

Whispers spread like a plague through the naval ranks. Morale, in that moment, sank silently like the wreckage beneath the ice.

Aokiji's expression changed completely; his lips were pressed into a thin line, and the muscles in his jaw were taut.

He took a deep breath, leaped off the ice, and touched the ice with his toes. With each landing, the ice layer extended, thickened, and bulged beneath his feet.

A chill emanated from his palms, freezing the ice beneath his feet into a mirror-like smoothness. He traced a straight, pale line across the ice, moving with the speed of an arrow released from a bow.

But he didn't head for Norton.

He rushed toward the burning wreckage, toward the figure sinking into the sea.

"Ice Wall!!"

He pressed his hands on the ice, and a surge of cold air rushed out.

An ice wall rose up in front of him, blocking the White Pearl from the burning wreckage.

One after another—three layers of ice walls, each several meters thick, with a pale, cold, hard sheen on their surfaces, like a frozen waterfall.

He landed behind the three ice walls and placed his hands on the ice again.

A chill emanated from his palm, reinforcing the ice layer layer upon layer.

Then he looked up at Norton.

Separated by three ice walls and hundreds of meters, that gaze was as calm as looking at a stone. But Aokiji could feel that gaze upon him was like an invisible mountain.

"Are you going to block my way?"

Norton's voice came from the other side of the ice wall.

Aokiji did not answer, his hands pressed against the ice, motionless.

The silence lasted for a few seconds.

Then, the seawater began to churn within the burning wreckage.

Glug—glug—glug—bubbles rose from underwater, growing bigger and denser, like a pot of boiling water.

The sea began to boil, and white mist rose, obscuring the sky and the sun.

A scorching heat surged up from underwater, causing the surrounding ice to hiss, melt, crack, and collapse.

boom!!

A beam of orange-red light shot into the sky from underwater.

That's lava.

It erupts from the seabed, instantly melting the surrounding ice and evaporating the seawater into a white mist that blots out the sky.

A figure slowly rose from the white mist.

Akainu climbed up from the seabed, standing on a stone pillar formed from solidified magma.

His navy coat was burned away, revealing his well-built upper body. His skin was covered with a dark red...

The cooling magma shell glows orange-red through its cracks.

Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth. A deep, bone-revealing dent was visible on his chest, the site of a powerful punch that had broken several ribs. But his eyes remained bright, frighteningly bright, like two glowing embers.

"Kuzan—" Akainu growled from deep in his throat, "Don't let him get away."

Aokiji nodded slightly.

Akainu leaped down from the stone pillar and landed on the ice.

Magma surged from beneath his feet, melting the ice, and his fists ignited once more, with magma flowing, condensing, and compressing across their surfaces.

The two attacked simultaneously, one from the left and one from the right, one cold and one hot.

Akainu's fist was radiating heat hot enough to melt steel; wherever his fist passed, the air ignited, leaving trails of orange-red.

A chilling temperature, enough to freeze everything, surged in Aokiji's palm. Wherever the cold air passed, the air condensed into ice crystals, which then fell like rain.

Ice and fire intertwined at this moment, forming a torrent of death.

On the White Pearl, Steelhand took his last swig of wine and tossed the empty jug aside. The jug rolled twice on the deck, making a hollow clanging sound.

"Two against one? How shameless."

But she didn't move.

Because Norton had already jumped off the bow of the ship and landed on the ice.

The moment his boots crushed the ice shards, the tiny ice crystals exploded beneath his feet, like shattered stars.

He stood there, facing the surging ice blades and lava, facing the two men standing at the top of the world, his hands hanging by his sides, neither clenched nor gathering strength, just hanging down, like someone who had stopped by chance while taking a walk.

"Come!"

At this moment, directly above this ice field, at the edge of the clouds, a huge hot air balloon is slowly drifting by. The logo of the World Economic News Agency—an albatross with outstretched wings—is printed on the balloon, with a line of large gold lettering below.

It drifted slowly into the twilight, creating an absurd scene with the pale ice field below, the burning wreckage, and the densely packed human figures.

Morgans had almost half his body sticking out of the basket.

The bird's eyes reflected everything below: the blood-stained ice field, the burning wreckage of warships, the dense, ant-like figures fighting each other, and the three figures standing in the center of the battlefield.

His pupils dilated with excitement, almost filling his entire eye socket, and his breathing became rapid, as if he had just finished a marathon.

"Did you get a picture?! Did you get a picture?!"

The shrill question drifted in the wind, sharp as the cry of some kind of bird.

The photographer next to him carried a huge camera, the lens pointed downwards, the shutter clicking incessantly. His face was purple from the cold, his lips were chapped, and his hands were trembling, but he dared not stop, could not stop, and did not want to stop.

The photographer's eyes reflected the scene in the lens; the scene was so stunning that he forgot his fingers were numb from the cold.

"I got it! Those pictures of Akainu being thrown into the sea! They're crystal clear!" the photographer shouted, his voice broken by the wind.

"What about the ones in front?! The Hound of the Underworld! The ones that shattered the lava with a single punch!" Morgans' voice became even shriller, almost screaming.

"I got them all! I got them all!" The photographer's voice trembled with barely suppressed emotion. His grin stretched from ear to ear.

The wind blew up from below, carrying the smell of gunpowder and blood, making Morgans' feathers stand on end. The birdman's eyes were now frighteningly bright, like two burning stars.

"Big news—"

Morgans murmured, his voice trembling with an almost pious intensity, like a believer praying in a church, or a traveler who had finally seen an oasis after trekking through the desert for too long.

"This is the real big news—"

"Closer!" He suddenly raised his head, a kind of mad light flashing in his bird-like eyes.

The photographer's face turned even more purple, his lips trembling: "President! If we get any closer—there's a battle down there! Stray bullets!"

"I said, come closer!!"

Morgans' voice was so shrill it almost pierced eardrums, and the veins on his neck bulged.

"This kind of scene only happens once in a hundred years! Missing even a second is a crime! Get closer! Get closer!!"

The hot air balloon began to descend slowly.

The wind picked up.

The smell of gunpowder grew stronger. The sounds of fighting, shouting, and explosions below became clearer and more deafening.

The shells flew overhead and exploded next to the hot air balloon, the shockwaves causing the basket to shake violently.

The assistant's face turned pale, his legs went weak, and he squatted in the corner of the hanging basket, too afraid to move.

But Morgans didn't move. He lay on the edge of the basket, staring intently at the ground below.

The trajectory of ice blades intertwining with lava, the arcs of flashing blades and splattering blood, the white powder exploding when the ice shattered, the thick black smoke rising when the warship burned—all of this was reflected in my pupils, like a grand, destructive, and unrepeatable performance.

Morgans's lips parted into a huge, almost manic grin.

"This is it—this is it—"

He opened his arms wide, as if to embrace the entire battlefield, as if to take away all the smoke, blood, ice blades, lava...

He embraced the burning warship, the fallen figures, and the silver-haired figure standing in the middle of the ice field.

"This is truly the biggest news in the world!!!"