#1487 - Chapter 1497: The Battle of Marineford

However, when his peripheral vision caught sight of Marco and the other crew members in their miserable state, a raging fire instantly ignited in his heart.

His eyes widened like copper bells, and he let out a deafening roar: “Garp!”

Immediately afterward, Whitebeard abruptly swung his arm, tossing Akainu, who had been beaten half to death and was utterly defenseless, aside like a piece of trash.

Then, he stomped on the ground, and his entire body shot forward like an arrow released from a bow, heading straight towards Garp.

At the same time, Garp, who was standing not far away, trembled slightly upon hearing Whitebeard's roar, filled with anger and killing intent.

He slowly turned his head, his eyes now bloodshot, staring intently at Whitebeard, who was rushing towards him.

“Garp, you’re asking for death!”

Whitebeard roared as he swung his massive Murakumogiri.

A dazzling white light tightly coiled around the blade, emitting a terrifying aura that made the heart palpitate.

As Whitebeard forcefully swung the blade, the white light flashed across the void like lightning, carrying an earth-shattering and overwhelmingly powerful force, directly cleaving down towards Garp's head.

Faced with such a fierce and violent attack, Garp showed no intention of retreating.

He took a deep breath, and all the muscles in his body suddenly tensed up. An extremely dense layer of black Haki surged onto his right fist—Conqueror's Haki.

Then, without hesitation, he swung his powerful fist, fiercely colliding with the blade that Whitebeard had swung down.

A deafening boom erupted as the power of tremors and fist strength clashed violently.

In an instant, a wild and unparalleled shockwave of energy swept out in all directions, tearing the air into countless fragments wherever it passed, and the surrounding space twisted violently like ripples on water.

For a time, the entire battlefield fell into a deathly silence.

Everyone stared in stunned silence at this thrilling showdown, and no one dared to easily step forward to interfere.

However, although this clash between the two sides seemed evenly matched, in reality, neither side was willing to give way even half a step.

Just then, Whitebeard suddenly glanced out of the corner of his eye at the crew members behind him, who were lying in pools of blood.

Seeing their miserable condition, each one wounded and teetering between life and death, the anger in Whitebeard's heart grew even more intense, almost reaching its peak.

He roared at Garp again: “Garp, you old bastard, you actually dare to bully the young! Today, I will tear you to pieces!”

With that, he gripped Murakumogiri with both hands and unleashed another round of even more violent attacks towards Garp, using all his strength.

“Heh heh, pirates are pirates, and it is only right for the Navy to eliminate them!”

Garp stared intently at Whitebeard in front of him, his eyes revealing an almost crazed look.

At this moment, he seemed to have returned to the way he was more than twenty years ago, a fearless mad dog.

Since Roger's death, Garp had rarely fought with such recklessness and abandon as he had in his youth.

But today, his mood was extremely terrible.

Garp was currently in the midst of a fierce struggle between justice and kinship deep within his heart, and this painful choice was tormenting him.

He felt extremely uncomfortable because no matter what choice he made, it would cause irreparable harm to one side.

And Garp unhesitatingly attributed the root cause of all this to Whitebeard.

If it weren't for this hateful guy's bewitchment of Ace, how could Ace have joined the Whitebeard Pirates?

And even more so, how could he have been targeted by the Navy?

Faced with such a difficult situation, Garp ultimately chose to escape.

He didn't dare to face this entanglement and pain directly, and could only silently think about how to deal with it in his heart.

But he never realized that as he continued to escape, the Conqueror's Haki he possessed was slowly weakening.

Evasion is never a solution to a problem.

On the contrary, when a person chooses to escape, the unwavering belief and courage in his heart will gradually disappear.

No matter how powerful a person is, it is difficult to escape this law.

At this moment, Whitebeard was furious, and the anger in his heart burned like a volcanic eruption.

His eyes widened, revealing endless killing intent, and he launched round after round of fierce attacks towards Garp like a madman.

However, in the midst of his all-out attack, he inadvertently gave Akainu, who had been beaten to the brink of death and whose life was hanging by a thread, a precious chance to catch his breath.

Akainu was covered in blood and wounds, with hardly a single piece of intact skin to be found.

He struggled to slowly prop himself up from the ground, staggering to his feet.

The scalding magma flowing on the surface of his body danced wildly like fiery snakes, emitting a scorching and terrifying high temperature.

Despite being seriously injured, Akainu's gaze remained sharp as a knife, locking onto Whitebeard in front of him, containing undiminished hatred and killing intent.

But only a moment later, Akainu's gaze gradually shifted away.

His eyes passed over the crowd, accurately capturing the figures of Luffy and Ace, who were desperately fleeing, like a hunter spotting prey.

At this moment, Jinbe and Ivankov were doing their best to restrain the powerful Magellan, buying more time for Luffy and the others to escape.

Luffy, leading many members of the Whitebeard Pirates, carrying the seriously injured and unconscious Ace on their backs, bravely charged forward, forcibly opening a blood-stained path to life amidst the heavy encirclement.

Akainu's face instantly turned extremely gloomy upon witnessing this scene.

He gritted his teeth and roared: “How can the dignity of the Navy be trampled upon by you villains! Justice will surely triumph over evil, and the magma in my hands will surely judge all the sins in this world!”

Before his voice faded, Akainu took a deep breath, as if cheering himself on, and then suddenly accelerated, rushing towards the direction of Luffy and Ace like lightning.

At this moment, Luffy and Ace were trapped in a desperate situation, and looking around, the strong ones were all held back.

There were no more strong people to protect them.

Ace was already seriously injured, his body almost crippled; and Luffy himself was also covered in wounds and exhausted.