It started with a showdown between Marco and Big Mom. Marco’s flames were far superior to the ones from Big Mom’s spirit weapon Prometheus. However, Peros and Big Mom ganged up on Marco and as Peros was about to inflict a hurtful blow, Carrot and Wanda intervened. Carrot and Wanda come with a revengeful intent against Peros as Pedro was killed because of him. Their joint attack is very effective on Peros and with this, Big Mom takes the opportunity to leave the scene. She is eager to return to the battlefield making Marco wonder what is going on there? On the battlefield, Queen’s virus is infecting people in all directions. Brook finds out that he cannot be infected because he has no flesh. Still, Chopper is suddenly infected and he is figuring out the solution to the freezing virus. Many lives are in danger and between gaining the antidote and saving themselves, straw hats find themselves in a very threatening situation. Right after that, we find out that Nami and Usopp are in dire danger.  Usopp attacks Ulti with one of his man attacks where Page One and Ulti coordinate get out of it. Usopp cannot hurt Ulti now and he receives one of Ulti’s ultimate headbutts cracking his skull rendering him unconscious. With that, Nami is captured and Ulti demands her to denounce that Luffy can never be a Pirate King. Otherwise, she will crush Nami. Given the choice to protect her captain’s pride or live, she chose to face Ulti off and says, Luffy will definitely be the Pirate King. With that statement, the enraged Ulti is about to deliver a fatal blow on Nami, Otama intervenes. She has joined the battle with her ‘Dog’ beast and defend Usopp and Nami. But she faces the likes of Page One on the other end. It’s not looking good for her either even though she made a flashy entry.

In the start, the straw-hat crew looked confident and took on strong opponents head-on. Doing that, they made some bold claims and gained the attention of the strongest from the strongest beast pirates. As a downside, the weakest among the straw hats, Usopp and Nami, have found themselves facing off against opponents like Ulti and Page One. Usopp got his head fractured and he is probably out for the rest of the main battle. Nami is also fatally injured and if it wasn’t for the intervention of Otama, she could have met the same fate. It is yet to be seen what will come after this for both of them. As for Otama, her appearance is also important. She has a devil fruit that shows can tame any beast she wants including the Zoan users. It would be something if she manages to feed both Ulti and Page One and tame them to her side to help the Straw-Hats. Even if these two don’t concede, weaker beast pirates can be taken under control and Otama can lead a small army of Kaido’s own subordinates against him. Still, there is only so much a child can do.

One Piece Chapter 996  Early Release And What To Expect - 19