Chapter 229

—

Raki had already entered her Hybrid Form by the time she reached the ground. She spun in the air and landed on her feet lightly.

Shortly, the others also landed beside her. The Shandians came flying with their wings, the Automatas came flying with the boosters in their palms and feet, and Yamato ran here by stepping onto air, an ability of her Zoan.

Immediately, a large number of the eyes present turned to them, each of them widening.

150 thousand soldiers, against 14 Einherjars. 6 Sins, one Yamato, and 7 Automatas. It was honestly risky, no matter how strong they were.

However they had a plan and this time Raki made sure to follow it, Big Mom's fight showed her the reality.

Ignoring the shocked gaze that soon turned hateful, she glanced at her side, smirking.

"Guys, now."

At her order, Yamato, Hancock, and Wyper nodded. Then a burst of their Conqueror's Haki painted the whole place in a hue of red and blue, red of Wyper and blue of Yamato and Hancock.

People cried, the island shook, and many fell to their knees. Some who were standing had grave expressions.

Monkey D. Garp glared at them while Sengoku stared at the group sternly. Meanwhile, Edward Newgate had his eyes at the group of 14 silently, soon a grin emerged on his face.

"The cow hadn't died yet, but the crows are already here?

He laughed in his iconic way. These brats! It seems he has been too laid back these days for some kids to come to the battlefield, his battlefield.

With a clench of his jaws, his own Conqueror's Haki burst out, this time creating a purple dome.

Rumble!

The sky split in two, the three domes of Conqueror's Haki shrunk in front of the Behemoth's will, Hancock was the first to stagger but she stood still nonetheless.

Whitebeard's dome was still not enough to match the wills of three upbringing individuals. However, from Marine's side, the man with his braided goatee took a step forward and released his own will in front of the marines.

Normally, Conqueror's Haki burst can only 'burn' people's will, as Shanks had put it, but Sengoku was different. Because of his Buddha fruit, he could encourage people with just two words, and he could mix that power with his Haki. This created a will-healing effect causing the people who had already fallen to their knees, and even some who lost consciousness, to stand up again.

Whitebeard groaned and stopped his burst, at the same time the Enherjars did the same, at least they also realised that it was useless.

There was a reason why Whitebeard didn't use his Conqueror's Haki to damage the other party from the get-go, even in the canon timeline, it was because Sengoku would have repaired their wills immediately, so it was only but a waste of stamina.

It seems whoever came up with the plan, possibly the Sky Emperor, didn't know about this ability of Sengoku, and it was justified, after all how would a chicken know about his dinosaur ancestors?

Whitebeard then shrugged his shoulders. If this was the canon timeline, this would have been the moment when Mihawk would have thrown a sword slash towards him which would have been defended by Jozu, but instead, this was when Whitebeard's lips twitched as his eyes landed on Yamato.

Why was that girl here?

He suddenly recalled that Yamato had something she wanted, so if Ace died, she wouldn't be able to get it. Then does that mean she was on his side?

He was proved wrong immediately as the girl rushed to him, her club coated in the cracking black lightning just like that kid Kaido, as she swung it towards him.

"It's time for round 2!"

As her club came closer to his face, Whitebeard just groaned. She was as annoying as Kaido in his younger days. A part of him wanted to hit her in the head using <Tremor>, knowing that this girl's father was the reason his little brother, Kozuki Oden died. But a part of him opposed that. A child was never to be blamed for her father's action, that's one of the reasons he is here to save Ace to begin with.

But of course, he couldn't just take the hit head-on, and he didn't have to either.

A bird covered in wild blue fire appeared between him and Yamato. His claws stopped Yamato's club swiftly, though it did cause his fire to flicker.

"Pops would like you to stay back, little girl."

Marco the Phoenix stated with one of his eyes closed, an ethereal smile on his face.

Yamato tried to protest, but Marco swayed her away from there.

Whitebeard ignored her and turned to the Einherjars. Where is the Sky Emperor? Whitebeard had a hard time believing that Amon would send his Sins by themselves, even if the old man knew barely anything about Amon.

He didn't care though. He was here for Ace, not to fight that kid or his crew. He would only hit them if they attacked him first, that Yamato girl doesn't count.

Whitebeard was about to go down on the battlefield, however, the sound of multiple ships coming in his direction caused his head to snap back.

Multiple battleships entered through the giant gate in front of Marineford, coming towards the battlefield through the part of the sea that wasn't frozen by Aokiji.

With clenched jaws, Whitebeard spread his Observation Haki to see who exactly was coming, and from the deck of the ships, three figures caught his attention.

His eyes widened in a pleasant surprise as a grin emerged on his face.

The figure of Buggy the Clown standing beside a certain Silvers Rayleigh and Scopper Gaban, waved at him, causing many old emotions to emerge in his heart as he laughed a heartful laugh.

They might have been enemies once, but Whitebeard did not doubt that they were on his side today.

"Let's see who stops me from taking Ace back! Gurarara!"

Edward Newgate jumped down from the top of Moby Dick, the ice cracking under his feet as he walked over to Ace as if taking a stroll.

Aokiji ran to Whitebeard to land a blow made of an ice spear, however, the man with greyed out hair, Rayleigh, dashed to him in an instant.

It's been a few weeks since he last got his injury from Kizaru, so he has healed a lot and was confident in keeping a few Admirals busy, and maybe, since it concerned the life of his Captain's Son, it was finally the time to show why they called him the "Dark King".

**

**

**

Author's Note: I wrote Rayleigh and Buggy together at first, then thought, why not add Scopper Gaban too? There is rarely any mention of him in fanfics.

Of course, he just didn't suddenly pop up in the war without things happening in the background, we will see a bit of it in the next chapter.