Chapter 546: Push Back!
On the fourth level of Impel Down, Vice Admiral Momousagi stood silently with her arms crossed, her expression blank as she stared at the staircase leading from the fourth level down to the fifth level in the distance. The Marine soldiers and prison guards, though gripping their weapons aimed at the stairwell, were somewhat distracted, occasionally glancing sideways at Vice Admiral Momousagi.
A woman as beautiful and noble as her could capture the attention of any man anywhere. Unfortunately, even after only a short time together, the prison guards realized that this Marine Vice Admiral, who often wore a gentle smile, was actually an unattainable dream for men. Though she maintained polite smiles toward others, the innate nobility radiating from her core constantly kept people at arm's length...
"No wonder I heard that Vice Admiral Chat Donkey proposed to Vice Admiral Momousagi a hundred times and failed. Looks like that rumor might be true..." the Marine soldiers muttered inwardly. "How could a rustic guy like Vice Admiral Chat Donkey ever match Vice Admiral Momousagi?"
Another Marine reserve admiral, Chat Donkey, was widely recognized at Marine Headquarters as a notorious bumpkin. He and Vice Admiral Momousagi were polar opposites. Momousagi was not only beautiful and noble but also came from a distinguished family with generations of Marine service. As for Chat Donkey? He was ugly, sleazy, and slovenly, shuffling around Headquarters in flip-flops all day without any Marine decorum. Even a low-ranking Marine soldier dared to silently mock him.
Who knows what wire got crossed in his head, but Chat Donkey had been pursuing Momousagi persistently, only to be repeatedly rejected. The entire Marine Headquarters secretly chuckled at this...
However, speaking of which, recently Vice Admiral Momousagi seemed to be getting along well with the new Lieutenant Colonel Kuina from the Staff Department. Vice Admiral Tsuru and Momousagi were close friends despite their age difference, and now Momousagi treated Lieutenant Colonel Kuina like a younger sister. It looked like Lieutenant Colonel Kuina would go far in the Staff Department. Should they try pursuing her?
In the military, there was always an excess of men over women, and the Marines were no exception. Female Marines were rare, and beautiful ones even rarer. Many Marines hoping to solve their personal issues internally faced the awkward situation of too many monks and too little gruel. Now, among the mid-level Marine officers, a new Marine goddess seemed to be rising, attracting the attention of many Captains and even Rear Admirals.
Not just officers, even many rank-and-file soldiers were daydreaming.
Momousagi could naturally sense the soldiers' gazes around her. This was precisely why she disliked leading missions. She believed female superiors often distracted Marine soldiers during operations. Captain Tina from Headquarters had firsthand experience with this, and Momousagi had heard plenty of complaints during their chats.
Now, the same situation was happening to her, which greatly displeased Momousagi. With a major enemy looming, these soldiers dared to be distracted—were they asking for death?
So she had to cough and coldly say, "Attention! They're coming!"
The Marine soldiers snapped out of it and raised their weapons, aiming at the stairwell opposite. Sure enough, they heard a chaotic clatter of footsteps growing louder, signaling someone's arrival.
One figure appeared, then two, then three, and more and more figures emerged at the stairwell. The Marine soldiers began to tense up, their hands gripping their weapons starting to sweat.
"Steady! No firing without orders!" a Marine Captain quickly calmed the soldiers, though he too was nervous inside, knowing who they were about to face.
A large group of prisoners in blue-and-white striped uniforms appeared at the stairwell, flooding into the fourth level.
But when they came up and saw the situation before them, they froze for a moment, then turned and shouted back, "Boss Ian, the Marines are lying in ambush here, and they've destroyed the bridge! We're in big trouble!"
At the prisoners' shouts, a figure stepped out from the crowd to the front. Momousagi lightly gripped her sword hilt, staring at him.
This was her first time seeing Ian, yet his youth still exceeded her expectations. Was this young man in the bear-ear hat really the one who had caused chaos at Marine Headquarters?
As Momousagi's gaze locked onto Ian, he naturally sensed it. Looking up, Ian immediately spotted Momousagi among the Marine ranks.
"Huh!?" Ian's first thought upon seeing a woman was confusion. He wondered why there was an unfamiliar female Vice Admiral in the Marines, but then he realized. Looking at her attire, he tentatively asked, "Vice Admiral Momousagi?"
"You know me?" Momousagi was puzzled. She could confirm this was their first meeting, and since she was a Marine reserve admiral, the Marines protected her thoroughly. In fact, her and Chat Donkey's reputations were mainly known within the Marines. Out on the Grand Line, few had heard of their names. How did Ian know?
"I've heard of you," Ian could only reply. After saying this, he looked at where the bridge had been, now completely gone, leaving only two clean cuts at either end. He asked, "Did you cut this bridge?"
Momousagi nodded. "Of course. I'll do everything to recapture you all!"
The entire fourth level was a circular space with a massive lava pit below. Originally, a bridge had spanned it for crossing. Now that the bridge was broken, Ian and his group would have to go around the semicircular paths on either side to attack.
But those semicircular paths were extremely narrow, not wide enough for many to walk side by side. This meant that aside from those who could fly like Ian and Crocodile, the other prisoners would have to risk charging the Marine defensive positions.
Ian looked and saw that on both paths, Marines had set up mortars, with Jailer Beasts from the prison guard unit blocking the way. These four Jailer Beasts, all Zoan-type awakened users, included the Minotaur he had encountered earlier. In such narrow terrain, having two massive Jailer Beasts on each side created an impenetrable bottleneck.
Below was the lava pit! Fighting these monstrously strong creatures, one wrong move could send someone flying into the lava, leaving no trace behind...
Momousagi's defensive setup was clever, fully utilizing the fourth level's terrain. Under normal circumstances, Ian would have found such a defense troublesome.
But now...
Crocodile and Jinbe appeared on either side of Ian, standing behind him. Jinbe asked, "Brother Ian, what now?"
"Just push through," Ian shrugged. "But before that, Old Sand, want to give it a shot?"
Ian pointed at the lava pit below. "Maybe you can develop a new skill!"
Crocodile paused, then caught on.
When they had come out of the sixth level, Crocodile had retrieved his clothes from the guard room. Now he looked stylish again, extending his intact hand as a small whirlwind formed in his palm. He bit his cigar and said, "Heat, huh? Perfect. A desert storm will grow faster!"
With that, he gently tossed the whirlwind's eye toward the lava pit below.
"Not good!" The moment Momousagi saw Crocodile release the whirlwind's eye, she sensed danger. Before arriving, she had studied Crocodile's abilities. She immediately drew her sword and sent a wave-like slash toward the whirlwind.
But her strike was too late to disperse the whirlwind. Before it even reached the lava pit, it suddenly expanded over the lava, the whistling wind turning into a screeching roar.
Absorbing the immense heat rising from the lava pit, Crocodile's desert storm instantly took shape. Though there was no sand here for a true desert storm, the lava below was stirred up by the whirlwind, sucked upward by the force!