CHAPTER 621: CHAPTER 140: CARE TO PLAY WITH ME?

An ancient pine forest; towering trunks, dense undergrowth, a volcano that might blow at any moment.

A pteranodon swept past with a tearing screech.

Not far off, a triceratops grazed, horns jagged and heavy. Beyond it, a tyrannosaur worried strips of rotten flesh from a fallen brachiosaur, red strands trailing from its teeth.

Ancient Island—Little Garden—where strange geology and climate had preserved a prehistoric world.

"This is it," Darren thought. One look at the dinosaurs told him he hadn’t come to the wrong place.

He opened his Observation Haki. Boosted by the Magnet-Magnet Fruit’s field sense, his perception blossomed like a clear, invisible sphere centered on him and rolled over the island in an instant.

"Found you," he murmured, a smirk curving his mouth.

Two colossal life signatures snored away in the island’s interior.

He was about to move when the central volcano shuddered and rumbled. A white column of smoke blasted out of the crater; heat stained the sky an anxious red.

It was going to blow.

Boom!

A crimson spear of magma leapt skyward, a dark-red waterfall from the underworld suspended in midair. Even from this distance the heat made the ground tremble under Darren’s boots. Vegetation near the crater already kindled, smoke banded the sky in black.

Then two roaring laughs rolled out of the jungle, their pressure bending the pines.

"Gegyagyagyagya! Time for our duel again!"

A mountain stood up. Trees cracked and toppled as a figure more than twenty meters tall uncoiled to his full height, a weathered greatsword in one hand, a cracked round shield in the other. His iron helmet glinted; a dark-blue cloak snapped over armor and a white fur kilt. A long, flowing beard framed a grin broad enough to shake the air.

Dorry, the Blue Ogre—warrior of Elbaf, captain of the Giant Warrior Pirates.

"Gababababa! Exactly! My battle-axe is starving!"

Another titan shoved clear of the trees, just as vast, maybe heavier in the shoulders. A horned helm crowned a thick yellow beard; a dark-blue cloak swept his back. He hefted an ancient axe and a round shield, eyes fierce under jutting brows.

Brogy, the Red Ogre—Elbaf’s other captain.

Once feared captains of the Giant Warrior Pirates, a petty dispute had stranded them here for decades. Each eruption of the volcano was their signal to fight—to duel again and again until one finally fell.

They locked eyes, battle-lust blazing, and charged.

Like collapsing walls their bodies plowed the forest flat—roots tore free, beasts scattered, boulders split. Steel met steel in a collision that shook the island.

Clang!!

The blast of force rippled outward in a ring of dust; trees hundreds of meters off bowed in the wind of it.

So much power.

Watching from afar, Darren’s expression sharpened. Fire lit his gaze—an itch to measure himself against that strength.

He’d half worried this trip would be wasted, remembering how underwhelming Dorry and Brogy had seemed in that other telling, even outmaneuvered by Galdino.

But this spectacle burned his doubts away. Whatever else they were, the force they were throwing around was on his level.

In raw arm strength, they might even have him beat.

"Gegyagyagya! You’ll have to do better than that, Brogy!" Dorry roared, smashing a shield-bash into Brogy after their weapons locked.

"Don’t underestimate me!" Brogy bared his teeth, snapping his own shield out like a disc.

Veterans of a thousand clashes, they read each other like a favorite blade.

Thud. Thud.

Their heads rocked. Blood ticked from nose and lip. They staggered, footsteps cracking the earth—

—and laughed louder.

"Come on!"

"Come on!"

"Dorry!"

"Brogy!"

Beards bristled, muscles bunched. Four colossal feet dug in at once; the ground groaned. They launched like falling meteors, greatsword and axe drawn back, a meeting meant to split mountains and unroof the sky.

Closer.

Closer.

Closer—

At the last instant, a figure flashed up between them, arms spread wide.

Dorry and Brogy’s faces twisted in horror. They’d committed—no room to pull a strike.

Helpless, they watched weapon and weapon scythe toward the small man standing in the kill zone.

Clang!!

The sound knifed the air. Dorry and Brogy stared as if at a ghost.

"What?!" they bellowed together.

The "little guy" had caught both blows—casually. Their blades bit into something that felt like worked diamond. Shock ripped up their arms; palms burned numb.

Sparks cascaded. In their light, the Marine Vice Admiral’s dark hair whipped, his cloak streaming.

He tilted his head, grin white and sharp.

"Big guys," he called over the gale, "care to play with me for a while?"

To be continued...