"Listen, Luffy! While the flames are on his back, your attacks probably won't work! Since he avoids attacks when the flames on his back disappear, you should aim for that moment!"
But, during that time, he gained the speed to avoid even Zepo and Pedro's attacks. In addition, because they moved in a coordinated manner without any communication, their teamwork was troublesome.
The enemy's attacks were only punches and flames, so they weren't difficult to avoid, but if they dodged, there was a possibility that the attack would hit the ship behind them.
In other words.
"While the enemy is shooting out flames, the flames on his back disappear! You should aim to induce that, but be careful not to let him shoot in a direction that will hit the ship!"
"That's difficult!?"
To begin with, there were five enemies. It was the same as in the previous battle, in that there was nothing they could do if the ship was targeted.
So, they should move the ship quickly to evacuate it... but a sailing ship was not something that could be easily moved by one or two people. Sanji, Zepo, and Pedro were struggling to somehow divert the aim, but they didn't know how long that would last.
"Anyway, as long as the flames aren't on his back, you can beat him up, right!!"
The enemy—Martin—wasn't that strong. At least, there wasn't such a difference in strength that Luffy or Zoro would be overwhelmed, and it was only because of his peculiar constitution that Zepo and Pedro were struggling.
It wasn't impossible to do.
Luffy rushed straight at Martin from the front and punched him.
Martin, with the flames on his back, took it without avoiding, and without caring, moved forward and punched Luffy in the face instead.
"It doesn't work!"
"A Devil Fruit user, huh? It seems like punches are useless."
Punches didn't work on the rubber-man Luffy.
Martin quickly gave up on defeating him with punches and spewed out flames from his back, trying to burn Luffy.
Zepo, aiming for that opening, approached from behind, but another Martin moved to cover and cover the opening for attack.
"Hot!"
"Burn to death!!"
He released flames to burn Luffy, but Luffy avoided it at the last moment.
The red-hot flames flew in a straight line, heading straight for the ship.
"Ah—!? Crap!!"
Luffy also noticed this and shouted in a panicked voice.
If the ship was burned, their future adventures would be impossible. Nami, Usopp, and Robin were also on board.
Regardless of Luffy's feelings, Martin's flames headed for the ship—and Luffy's worst imagination was about to become reality.
Just before that.
"—Huh?"
The flames were sucked into something.
Both Luffy and Martin were taken aback, and the cause of this was none other than Usopp.
"I-It worked... but it's scary~~!!"
"Usopp~~~~!!? What did you do!?"
"I sucked up the flames with a Flame Dial!"
Dials had the property of storing and releasing some kind of energy. A Flame Dial could store and release flames, so it was able to suck up Martin's flames.
Martin and Luffy were wide-eyed in surprise.
Usopp, who had done it, puffed out his chest proudly, and encouraged Luffy with a determined look, even though his legs were shaking.
"With this, even if flames fly this way, we can handle it!! Fight to your heart's content, everyone!! But it's scary, so please don't let the flames fly this way as much as possible!!!"
"Thanks! If it flies this way, I'll leave it all to you!"
"Why does he have something like that...?"
"Good... I'll leave the ship to you, Usopp!!"
"Oh, wait! Listen to me!"
Sanji, Zoro, and Luffy ignored Usopp's whining and faced Martin, respectively.
Now they could fight without worrying about their backs. Among them, Zepo and Pedro, as if noticing something, talked while keeping their eyes on the enemy.
"Partner, did you notice?"
"Yeah. Everyone's movements slowed down."
It was understandable that the Martin who had been fighting Luffy was shaken. He probably hadn't expected something like that to happen.
But if the others, who hadn't even seen it directly, all had their movements slowed down in exactly the same way, then there must be some reason for it.
They were enemies who originally cooperated without any communication, but this brought up several hypotheses.
They were probably sharing their five senses or thoughts.
"I thought they were strange guys. But with this, I can understand their previous actions."
If one person was shaken, it would spread to everyone, and even if they attacked from one person's blind spot, another person could see it and avoid it. That was probably what was happening.
Well, the fact that their racial traits were troublesome hadn't changed, so the overall threat level didn't change much.
"With this, we don't have to worry about the ship. All that's left is to beat you up!!"
"Try it, rubber man!!"
Luffy and Martin both swung and punched each other in the face, and they were blown away without either of them taking damage.
While Sanji, Zoro, Zepo, and Pedro were each dealing with one person, the first one to release flames was the Martin who was fighting Zepo.
Basically, the only attack methods were punching or shooting out flames, so as long as the flames were on their backs, the situation wouldn't change at all.
Even so, he had no choice but to move, because he had seen the lightning pillars rising/falling to the sky.
Maraptonoka was fighting Komurasaki, but no matter how much Maraptonoka it was, she wouldn't be safe with that. Before she could come here to help, he was impatient.
"Die!"
"Finally! I've been waiting for you!"
Zepo avoided Martin's flames and countered with a punch to his face.
Of course, Martin tried to avoid it, but he couldn't move because someone had grabbed his leg.
Several arms sprouting from the ground—it was Robin's ability.
"Bear Knuckle!!"
The Haki-clad fist struck Martin's face hard, and Chopper, who had been waiting, bit into a Rumble Ball and transformed into Arm Point.
He approached Martin's back, whose movement had stopped from being punched, and followed up with a barrage.
"Kokutei—Cross!!"
"Guo...!?"
Martin groaned in pain from the attacks from the two.
Seeing this, Zepo was convinced.
As expected, if the flames on their backs were out, the attacks would go through. Pedro's judgment was correct.
Before he could escape, or before he could enter the defensive state again, Zepo clenched his fist and charged it with electricity.
Whether he understood what he was trying to do or not, Robin released the arms she had sprouted with her ability.
"Now! Beat him up!! Let's do it, Chopper!!"
"Got it!!"
The Mink tribe's unique "Electro" momentarily discharged electricity and stunned Martin, and they struck the kneeling Martin's face again with a Haki-clad fist.
From the back, Chopper clenched his hooves in the same way and struck an attack, and the body sandwiched between the two attacks couldn't withstand it, and he collapsed from his knees with a thud.
As expected, although there was toughness as a racial trait, his own strength was not that isolated.
In front of Martin, who had lost consciousness and fainted, Zepo and Chopper raised a victory cry.
"Yessss!!"
"W-We did it!!"
There were four left.
The Martins clicked their tongues and gathered in one place, and the four of them simultaneously released flames and began to try to burn the surrounding area.
Thinking that this was definitely bad, Zoro and Sanji also distanced themselves and devoted themselves to escaping.
But one person, Luffy, perhaps thinking this was a chance, ran towards Sanji.
"Sanji! Throw me into the sky!!"
"Huh!? Why... No, wait, are you going to attack from above!?"
"Yeah!!"
Before he could say anything, Luffy got on Sanji's poised foot and was kicked into the sky.
The flames were approaching, making visibility poor. It seemed that he had kicked him in a rough direction and told him to do something about it himself.
"I'm going too," Pedro followed, and Pedro, who was thrown by Zepo's hand, was in a lower position than Luffy and reached out to Luffy.
"Luffy! Grab on!!"
"Got it!!"
Luffy reached out and grabbed Pedro's hand in the air, then contracted his arm to gain momentum.
Since he couldn't brace himself, the momentum was somewhat reduced, but Pedro managed to throw Luffy with momentum and let him take the top of the Martins.
As a reaction, Pedro was thrown vigorously towards the sea and fell into the cloud sea a little distance away.
Luffy gained momentum and accelerated, stretching his arm back and twisting it.
"Gomu Gomu no~~Rocket Rifle!!!"
Visibility was poor while they were releasing flames, and they weren't looking up.
Even if Martin shared his vision, it was the same if no one was looking.
By the time they noticed, it was already too late—one of the Martins, who was unable to avoid the rotating Luffy's fist, was punched with great force, knocked down, and fainted while being knocked to the ground.
Three left.
However, flames were released to block Luffy's escape route, who had jumped into the middle of the enemy.
"Like a moth to a flame, huh. Burn and die, rubber man!!"
Martin released flames to burn the trees.
But that meant that the flames on his back were gone and that he was showing his back to Zoro and the others.
There was a little distance to run, but as if that didn't matter, Zoro jumped on Sanji's foot this time.
"Armée de l'Air—Power Shoot!!!"
"Three Sword Style—Yaki Oni Giri!!!"
He flew straight through the place where the flames were still remaining, and a little bit of it caught on the poised sword.
He slashed the Martin who was still facing away with the momentum of being kicked, and Luffy escaped to the escape route that was slightly created.
"After!!"
"Two!!"
Luffy and Zoro both attacked the remaining two Martins, but by that time, they were already wearing flames on their backs, so the damage didn't go through.
Because it was a panicked attack, Luffy and Zoro took a counterattack fist.
Putting Luffy aside, Zoro was bleeding badly from the place where he had been shot by Maraptonoka, and his complexion was getting worse.
"Ugh...!"
Martin's fist pierced the slowing Zoro.
Even an enemy who relied on the peculiarity of his body had high physical abilities. Even a mere punch was enough damage if taken directly.
He didn't let go of the sword, but Zoro's consciousness flickered in pain.
Aiming at him kneeling, Martin's back, about to release flames in front of him, was interrupted by Sanji's dropkick.
"Doryaaaa!!! It wouldn't look good if that damn swordsman took down one and I had zero results!!!"
Martin's body swayed from the attack from outside of consciousness.
The other one was busy with Luffy and Zepo, and he didn't have time to check his surroundings.
Clicking his tongue and turning around, he released flames at Sanji this time.
Sanji calmly adjusted his posture, slipped through Martin's bosom, and attacked his knees from behind, making him kneel.
"Concassé!!!"
Even Martin, who was twice Sanji's size, was within reach of his feet if he was made to kneel.
He jumped up while rotating vertically, and with that momentum, he decided to do a heel drop and took Martin's consciousness.
With this, there was only one left.
Thinking that all that was left was to push through, Luffy and the others—Martin, as if anticipating that, picked up the bodies of his fallen comrades and headed for the coast.
"Huh!?"
"Is he going to attack the ship!?"
Holding the four bodies, Martin approached the coast.
Of course, those people wouldn't let that happen easily, and Usopp also responded to the approaching Martin with a "Kayaku Boshi", but no matter what he did to him with the flames on his back, no damage would go through.
Thinking that he was going to attack the ship directly, Zepo and Luffy went ahead, but contrary to expectations, Martin was just heading straight for the coast and didn't seem to be aiming for the ship.
Standing along the coast, before Luffy and the others could do anything, he threw the four people he was carrying into the cloud sea.
"Wh—!?"
"You!! They're your comrades!? Why are you doing that!?"
"They're not comrades. They're just bodies I'm using this time."
"I don't understand!"
"I guess so. I don't want to either, but... This is the only way to dispose of them. It's troublesome to be caught by those guys."
"Are you going to run away!"
He had black wings on his back. Usopp held up his slingshot, thinking that he might fly away with them.
But, again contrary to expectations, Martin, with the flames on his back extinguished, jumped into the sea.
"..."
Everyone was speechless and stood still without words at the bad aftertaste.
It was at that time.
"Buha! What the hell is going on!?"
"Pedro!!"
Pedro, who had been thrown into the sea in exchange for Luffy, came back swimming.
On his back was Martin, who had just jumped in.
However, his appearance was not that of dark skin and black wings, but that of an ordinary human with white skin.
"I finally got back, and this guy jumped in from above. I punched him without thinking, but..."
He seemed to be unconscious, but he seemed to be alive.
Perhaps they had various thoughts about the man who tried to commit suicide in front of them, but Luffy and the others were relieved that he was at least alive.
But they couldn't leave him like this. As they were thinking about what to do, a crackling sound was heard and Komurasaki appeared.
"Hime-sama!"
"Were you unharmed!?"
"Yes, it seems that you had a harder time than me... Are there any injured?"
"That's right! Zoro!!"
It was during the battle, so they had no choice but to leave him alone, but Chopper was again giving first aid because the wound had opened.
Luffy rushed to Zoro, and the person himself was "Don't worry" with a bad complexion.
"I won't die from this much."
"But we have to hurry and treat you! Let's get you on the ship!!"
"Okay, leave it to me!!"
Chopper and Luffy, who was helping him, were fussing over Zoro's treatment.
On the sidelines, Komurasaki nodded, "It seems they're somehow safe."
"Is that man the enemy you fought this time?"
"Yes. But his appearance was a little different..."
"I'll hear the details later. For now, let's restrain him."
If he had been released by entering the sea, Martin was definitely a Devil Fruit user. It was necessary to restrain him using Seastone handcuffs.
Komurasaki held the unconscious Martin on her shoulder and said that she was heading to "Ohara."
The enemy was gone. All that was left was to finish the aftermath.
"Of course, you who entered this land without permission will not be acquitted. Please wait quietly, okay?"
She was wearing a mask and they couldn't see it, but they could clearly imagine Komurasaki's smiling face while angry.
Pedro and Zepo didn't even try to make excuses for this, and they hung their heads, saying, "Yes."