Clearly, although the previous-generation cadres of the Eight Treasures Navy possessed considerable strength, they were still far from a match for Robin and the others.
Watching the battle from the figurehead of the flagship, Kaito Arisawa showed a faint smile. The result did not surprise him in the slightest.
It was completely normal.
On the voyage from the deserted island to the Treasure Jade Iceberg, Kaito had personally tested the strength of his core crew.
Because of that, he understood exactly how powerful Robin and the others had become.
That was precisely why he had never bothered to join the battle himself.
There was simply no need.
As the old cadres of the Eight Treasures Navy fell one after another, the remaining defenders quickly lost their ability to resist.
Within a short period of time, the battle came to an end.
Whoosh!
Once the fighting on the shore was over, Kaito jumped down from the figurehead and landed lightly on the glacier.
"The ice layer here… seems rather unusual."
Although the coast had been subjected to extremely intense artillery bombardment, aside from the heavy casualties among the Eight Treasures Navy, the glacier itself showed almost no visible damage.
Thoughtfully, Kaito looked down at the ice beneath his feet.
Then he lifted his right foot and stomped down hard.
Boom!
A deep, bell-like rumble echoed outward.
The powerful force from Kaito's stomp caused the ice surface within several hundred meters to tremble violently.
If the ground had been ordinary ice, such an explosive impact would have produced a massive crater.
Yet the glacier beneath Kaito's feet merely cracked slightly, forming only a few shallow fissures.
"What happened?"
"That sound came from the captain!"
"Don't get distracted! Keep cleaning up the battlefield and check for survivors!"
The dull rumble and vibration drew the attention of many pirates who were busy clearing the battlefield.
When they realized the disturbance came from their captain—and no new enemies had appeared—the brigades quickly relaxed and returned to their tasks.
However, Robin, Mangu, and the other cadres approached Kaito curiously.
When they came closer, they immediately noticed the cracks spreading across the ice beneath his feet.
Mangu and the others did not think much of it at first.
But Robin, Lafayette, and Law quickly sensed that something was strange.
The three glanced around the battlefield.
Soon they realized what Kaito had already noticed.
Despite the earlier artillery barrage, the glacier coast itself remained almost completely intact.
This situation was clearly abnormal.
"The ice here seems to have extremely strong defensive properties," Robin said after stepping on the surface and examining it carefully.
"It does seem that way."
Lafayette drew his cane sword and thrust it down with all his strength.
The attack possessed enough force to pierce through steel.
Yet the blade stopped firmly against the glacier surface.
"It's not just strong defense," Kaito said, lifting his gaze toward them.
"The structure of this ice is extremely unusual. It can disperse the force of incoming attacks."
"Disperse the force?" Robin and the others looked surprised.
Kaito nodded and glanced down at the glacier again.
"Yes."
"For example, if my attack just now had a strength of one hundred, then under this special structure, more than ninety percent of that force would be dispersed outward."
"That means less than ten percent of the actual impact would remain at the point of contact."
As he spoke, Kaito lightly tapped the cracked ice with his toe.
Naturally, such a strange phenomenon made everyone curious to investigate further.
His earlier stomp had already been an attempt to test the glacier's properties.
The results matched his explanation.
While explaining this to Robin and the others, Kaito sighed inwardly.
Now he finally understood something.
He finally understood why Don Chinjao had been unable to break open the Treasure Jade Iceberg after losing the pointed shape of his head.
It wasn't that Chinjao had become useless after losing the point.
Rather, that pointed head had been the key to breaking the glacier.
The unique structure of the iceberg gave the ice layer an almost unimaginable ability to absorb force.
There were only two ways to break through such a defensive structure.
The first method was overwhelming force.
In other words, a sufficiently powerful attack could still break the ice even after most of the force was dispersed.
However, this method was extremely difficult.
Take Kaito's stomp earlier as an example.
Although he had not used his full strength, the test allowed him to roughly estimate the glacier's durability.
Even if he used his full power, it would still be extremely difficult to cause significant damage.
Then there was the second method.
The second method involved concentrating all the force into a single point.
This was exactly how Don Chinjao had originally opened the Treasure Jade Iceberg.
By focusing his attack power into one precise point, the ice layer could no longer disperse the force effectively.
Under those conditions, it would only be necessary to overcome the glacier's inherent defensive strength.
Of course, this method was easy to describe but difficult to execute.
The force-dispersing structure of the Treasure Jade Iceberg was extremely effective.
To prevent the attack from spreading, the attacking power had to be concentrated with extreme precision.
Take Don Chinjao as an example.
Without his pointed head, he was no longer capable of achieving that level of concentrated force.
In other words, his earlier ability to open the iceberg had depended entirely on that uniquely shaped head, which allowed him to focus all his power on a single point.
Thinking about it again, Kaito could not help but feel somewhat contemptuous toward Don Chinjao.
The once-famous pirate seemed less like a true powerhouse and more like someone who had simply gotten lucky.
According to the traditions of the Eight Treasures Navy, only those capable of opening the Treasure Jade Iceberg were eligible to inherit the position of pillar leader.
If Don Chinjao had not possessed his uniquely pointed head, then based purely on his mastery of the Eight-Impact Fist, he likely would not have been qualified to become the pillar leader.
In other words, the Don Chinjao who had lost his pointed head represented his true level of strength.
After examining the iceberg for a while, Kaito turned his attention back to the main task.
"Through hypnosis, we confirmed something from the surviving defenders," Lafayette reported.
"They had already contacted their pillar leader when we launched the attack."
One of Kaito's goals in coming to the Treasure Jade Iceberg had been to lure Don Chinjao out.
That was why he had deliberately ordered the crew to leave some survivors alive during the assault.
Those survivors could spread the news of the attack.
And once the news reached Don Chinjao, he would inevitably come.
The person responsible for handling this task was Lafayette.
After all, his hypnosis abilities were extremely convenient for extracting information and controlling witnesses.
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