OnePiece-Strongest ice Dragon Chapter 24 24: Silverback Great Ape, The Slaughter Begins

Loya could no longer hear the scholar's warning. Driven by an insatiable hunger, he pushed his speed to the absolute limit—a velocity that made even Zephyr nod in reluctant admiration—and closed in on the giant ape, which was currently sitting on a hillside, casually snacking on fruit.

"Silverback Great Ape!"

In the surveillance room on the warship, several Vice Admirals stood up, slamming their hands on the conference table. They stared tensely at the screen, watching Loya's back as he approached the ape, which had finally looked up, alerted to the presence of an enemy.

"It's still alive? I rember it living on this island over a decade ago." One Vice Admiral squinted, rembering his own recruit assessnt. He had nearly been killed by that very beast during his trial.

"Admiral Zephyr, give the order to intervene! That beast is beyond what Loya can handle!" Momonga looked at Zephyr with unconcealed anxiety. He was the one who had brought Loya off the deserted island, and they had grown close over the past month.

Zephyr didn't answer imdiately. Instead, he turned his gaze toward Kuzan, who was currently dozing. He had seen the faint, fleeting smirk on Kuzan's face earlier—a smirk quickly hidden, but not quickly enough to escape Zephyr's observation.

"Kuzan," Zephyr said, his voice deep. "This isn't a drill. People can die. Tell honestly: can Loya handle that beast or not?"

Kuzan knew he couldn't keep pretending to sleep. "Saa, who knows?" he replied lazily, rolling over on his chair.

Zephyr's eyes flared with anger. No one was more desperate than he was about the declining quality of new recruits in recent years. Loya wasn't just another recruit; he was a student Zephyr had personally accepted and a potential powerhouse for the Navy's future. Kuzan's casual apathy toward Loya's survival felt like a personal insult.

"You don't deserve to be his teacher!"

Zephyr slamd the table, his fist hardening with Armant Haki, leaving a permanent dent in the steel. He glared at Kuzan, his voice dripping with fire: "Kuzan! Answer my question!"

"Ara ara, the teacher is angry." Kuzan sat up slowly, resting his chin on his palm. eting Zephyr's lethal gaze, he remained unfazed. "Don't be so grumpy, Teacher. Look, I'm not worried at all."

"You...!"

Just as Zephyr was about to explode, a flash of realization crossed his mind. Right! Loya wasn't just his student; he was the student of the man sitting right in front of him. Even if Kuzan refused to say it out loud, he had effectively accepted the title over the last month. Why would Kuzan be so calm if he didn't have total confidence?

Zephyr turned back to the screen. Noticing the change in Zephyr's expression, Kuzan chuckled, pulled his eye mask back down, and leaned back. "It looks like you've finally figured it out, Teacher... Loya may not be able to maintain a constant transformation like other Zoan users, but once he transforms, his strength is no less than a Headquarters Vice Admiral."

Headquarters Vice Admiral level? Everyone in the room stared at the screen in shock. The slim, 175cm-tall boy had the power of a Vice Admiral? He didn't even know the Six Styles yet!

Feeling the surrounding awe, Kuzan felt an unexpected swell of pride—it felt better than a six-month vacation. "Zoan Mythical types are rarer than Logia," he explained, mostly to satisfy his own vanity. "Loya's Dragon-Dragon Fruit has a weakness—besides making him motion-sick on every vehicle ever—he can't perform a full transformation yet. The legendary power of a dragon is too great for him to control. He had to develop his own technique to force a partial transformation. He suffered through a lot to research it."

Kuzan sighed, thinking back to how, only a month ago, he could have crushed Loya's strongest roar without moving. Now, Loya's "Ice Bombs" posed a genuine, lethal threat. What was worse? He had realized in the final week that his Ice-Ice Fruit was actually countered by Loya's ice. It was a ga-breaking imbalance that left Kuzan questioning his retirent plans.

Zephyr remained silent. He had underestimated the boy. While he watched their training sessions, he hadn't fully grasped the reality of Loya's power.

Momonga looked at the screen, stunned. He rembered what Zephyr had said the day Loya joined: "I admit his strength is decent, but he is still just a child; he has a long road ahead."

To Zephyr, "children" were those below Vice Admiral level. Now, the gap had been bridged.

Food! Food!

Loya, flying through the air, had no idea Kuzan was bragging about him. He had one thought: I'm going to eat!

Hundreds of ters away, the Silverback Great Ape roared, a sound so violent it shook the forest. Countless animals scrambled in terror, panicked by the island's apex predator.

"Perceiving my hostility from this far away? Not bad! But that's exactly what makes the hunt fun!"

Loya opened his mouth, soaring into the sky. "You call that a roar? This is what a real one sounds like!"

"Ice Dragon's Roar!"

BOOM!

A ten-ter-wide tornado of ice ford in the air, howling as it engulfed the ape. The freezing wind turned the air's moisture into shards of ice, shredding the surroundings. The ape yanked a ten-ter-tall tree from the earth and hurled it, but the wood was instantly swallowed by the ice tornado, frozen solid, and flung back into the ape's chest, followed by a violent explosion.

RUMBLE!

The shockwaves blasted the low-temperature air in all directions, freezing flora and fauna alike. A lush green forest was suddenly painted white.

The ape scread—a sound heard across the entire island—as the ice-storm dragged it through the earth, carving a trench dozens of ters long.

Strike first, strike hard! Loya dived, ice blades forming on his soles. He slid along the frozen path left by his own attack, closing the gap in a blink. He aid his palms at the giant shadow erging from the smoke: "Ice-Make: Ice Bomb! Rapid Fire!"

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Conical ice projectiles struck the ape like cannonballs, triggering a chain of explosions so violent the entire island felt the tremor.

"What's happening?"

"Is the warship shelling the island?!"

Other recruits on the island looked up, terrified. The ape's territory had beco ground zero. Panic took over; a stampede began. For the weaker recruits, a stampede was far more dangerous than any single predator.

"Run! Stampede!"

"Climb the trees! They can't climb!"

In the surveillance room, the officers watched in cold sweat. Why had a minor disturbance turned into a full-scale island-wide stampede?

"Well..." Momonga stood up, looking at Zephyr. "I suppose we have to get to work, or our precious recruits are going to be slaughtered."

Zephyr sighed, looking at Loya, who was still rrily launching Ice Bombs with a starving, bloodthirsty grin. "Go. Tell the scouts on the island to save whoever they can."

"Yes, sir!"

After they left, Zephyr turned to Kuzan, his expression bizarre. "I admit his strength growth is terrifying, but did you ever teach him how to avoid causing so much trouble?"

Kuzan's face stiffened. He pulled his eye mask down and refused to look at him.

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