Nepal once again constructed a hidden passage, unhesitatingly pulling the trigger as the Sea Stone bullet shot out along the concealed route he had created.
Aokiji, who was blocking Esdeath's Shura Sword with his ice military knife, suddenly felt a strong sense of danger at his forehead.
He instinctively elementalized and quickly moved his body.
"Bang!!!"
A Sea Stone bullet abruptly appeared and exploded Aokiji's head! "Ice Kill · Instant Slash!"
Seizing this opportunity, Esdeath swiftly slashed down with the Shura Sword towards the shattered ice sculpture on the ground.
"Rip!!!"
A splash of bright red blood soared from the ground, falling onto the icy surface as Aokiji emerged from the nearby ice, clutching his chest.
Even though his body was made of ice, after being slashed and then frozen, he still felt an unbearable cold that penetrated to his bones.
"The strongest sniper of the Infinite Pirates, Nepal!"
Aokiji said gravely, touching the wound on his cheek that was bleeding profusely. He then used his ice to freeze the wound to prevent the bleeding from worsening.
If it weren't for his quick reflexes just now, that bullet would have hit his head directly, and with Esdeath nearby, he could have been killed in one hit! Just thinking about it sent chills down his spine, despite being a user of the natural ice fruit.
"Can't find him!"
He tried to use Observation Haki to track the direction from which the bullet was fired to locate Nepal's figure, but he found nothing! When he wanted to search more carefully, Esdeath was already swinging the Shura Sword at him again, making it impossible for him to focus on finding Nepal.
He could only keep a portion of his attention reserved to prevent another surprise attack.
After sniping Aokiji, Nepal immediately changed his position.
From this point on, Nepal moved throughout the battlefield, specifically targeting those top-tier fighters. Although he couldn't kill in one shot, he could work with the top fighters of the pirates to suppress the top fighters of the World Government.
Moreover, Nepal's presence made all the top fighters extremely wary, to the point where they dared not unleash their full power when attacking, as they had to guard against Nepal's next sniper shot.
This resulted in Nepal single-handedly threatening all the top fighters of the World Government, effectively reducing their combat power by ten percent! As the battle continued, reinforcements from the World Government were on their way.
At the same time, the Infinite Pirates dispatched all their fishman troops, a total of one hundred thousand fishmen, into the sea, equipped with more torpedoes and submarines to intercept the incoming warships.
They aimed to destroy those warships coming to provide support as much as possible, and if that failed, to at least delay them from reaching the battlefield.
"Damn it, the situation has fallen into an absolute disadvantage!"
The only top-tier fighter from the World Government who had not moved and was stationed at the rear, Carlo Palada, looked at the unprecedented disadvantage the World Government was facing, feeling anxious.
"The number of top-tier fighters on the pirate side is greater than we previously predicted, especially since those pirate crews have many top-tier fighters under their captains, which we had not considered before!"
Before the battle began, they had already analyzed the top-tier fighters on the pirate side, but due to their miscalculation of the strength of the members under those pirate crews, they now found themselves in an absolute disadvantage.
The World Government and the Navy had previously focused on the captains of each pirate crew, and even those who had not made many moves, like Reinhardt from the Flying Pirates and Akame from the Infinite Pirates, were not counted among the top-tier fighters.
After all, the World Government had long since given up on the New World, leading them to have little interaction with Akame and the others, resulting in their ignorance of how some members of the pirate crews had grown to the level of top-tier fighters.
But none of this was the most important issue; what worried Carlo Palada the most was the trio of Garp blocking Li Yuan in the sky.
Under his watch, Aima Jiang had received special treatment from Li Yuan and was now seriously injured. If this continued, Aima Jiang would definitely be dealt with by Li Yuan.
Even if Aima Jiang was not killed by Li Yuan, he would soon have to withdraw from the encirclement around Li Yuan. At that point, Garp and Ivanov alone would not be able to stop Li Yuan, and they might even be counter-killed by him.
If they couldn't hold Li Yuan back, then this war would come to an end.
That was the world's strongest man, capable of slaying the Five Elders. If they couldn't restrain him, he couldn't even imagine how many top-tier fighters would be killed by Li Yuan.
The threat posed by Li Yuan was countless times greater than that of Nepal, who was shooting from the shadows! "We must hold Li Yuan back!"
With this thought, Carlo activated Moon Walk and rushed towards the battlefield where Li Yuan was.
"Chaos!"
At that moment, Li Yuan swung his sword towards the weak point of Garp's fist, but at a critical moment, an invisible chaotic force enveloped Li Yuan, causing the trajectory of the Seven Star Sword to deviate slightly! As a result, that sword, which could have cleaved Garp down from the sky for hundreds of meters, only pushed him back a few meters.
"A Devil Fruit that can affect my thoughts!"
As Carlo appeared, Li Yuan immediately locked onto him. That force had influenced his mental judgment, causing that sword to stray from its intended path.
"You all attack, I'll hold him back!"
Carlo shouted loudly.
The Devil Fruit he had consumed was the Paramecia · Chaos Fruit, which lacked extreme offensive or defensive power but had extreme supportive capabilities in this battle.
"Shatter the Vacuum!"
"Bone Fist - Star Shatter!"
"Thunderbolt!"
Upon hearing Carlo's words, Garp and the others immediately launched a frenzied attack on Li Yuan, while Carlo, as support, distanced himself from their battlefield to assist in disrupting Li Yuan.
With Carlo's involvement, Garp and the others could finally hold Li Yuan back properly, unlike before when every move felt like walking a tightrope, where a slight misstep could lead to someone being killed in an instant.
"Interesting, that strange power can not only affect my mind but also influence reality, causing chaos in fundamental rules like magnetic and gravitational fields!"
While battling Garp and the others, Li Yuan began analyzing the capabilities of this Devil Fruit, simultaneously searching for an opportunity to break the deadlock and deliver a fatal blow.
Seeing that Garp and the others could finally stabilize their hold on Li Yuan with his assistance, Carlo couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
At least the battlefield had stabilized for now. Once the reinforcements from the World Government arrived in droves, they would have a chance to turn the tide of the battle.
-Support me on Ko-Fi for 35+ advance chapters there.
https://ko-fi.com/zxc1015
Thanks!