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Grand Line – Paradise
Drum Island
In a matter of instants, thick and sharp roots break through the ground just below where Usopp should be, with the sole objective of impaling the long-nosed marksman and ending the fight quickly.
Fortunately, with his Observation Haki, Usopp dodges, moving away while unloading his two Malorian pistols into Aramaki, with the roots continuing to chase him.
Reacting quickly, thanks to his Advanced Observation Haki, Aramaki raises one of his arms, creating a thick wooden shield as large as a wall, coating it with Armament Haki, ready for what was coming.
As soon as this wall shield rises in front of him, uninterrupted explosions hit it, shattering its structure, which was only managing to stay standing because it was constantly regenerating. The ground in front and on the sides of the wall was completely charred and shattered.
These were high-powered explosive projectiles that Usopp developed, a weaker and more compact version of his 'Supernova Star', the slingshot projectile he used in the Conomi Islands. They were easier to manufacture in comparison, and their impact still made them seem like explosive anti-aircraft shots, and because they were bullets for his pistols, he could fire them constantly without needing to reload with each shot. The only downside was that his pistols could only hold twelve bullets per magazine.
Magazines that quickly had emptied, leaving him without ammunition to shoot, and because he was too busy dodging the roots, which kept trying to impale him, he simply didn't have time to reload.
Reaching the speed of sound, the roots, being just wood without Haki at this speed, shatter into fragments, and from these fragments, thinner roots sprout, and so, a mass of constantly growing wooden thorns chases Usopp at Supersonic speed.
Chased for miles while struggling to dodge the constant attempts at impalement, Usopp, already out of bullets for a long time, shrinks to the size of an ant, dodging a thin root that, just after his shrinking, crosses the spot where his head was.
Free from the constant attacks by being the size of an ant miles away, which made it harder for Aramaki to track him accurately with Haki and his fruit, Usopp runs to the side while reloading his pistols.
As soon as he finishes reloading, Usopp witnesses an ant in the distance being impaled by a tiny sharp root. The same happens to several other ants and insects in the area, and when it's his turn, the marksman dodges, an action that reveals his position precisely to Aramaki.
What happened is that when Usopp shranked, Aramaki's Observation Haki and his fruit momentarily lost him in a way.
But don't be fooled, he could still detect the presence of life of that size, just not with precision anymore, so he decided to go with trial and error, and by dodging that attack, the sharpshooter revealed his position to him.
After dodging the attack, Usopp returns to his normal size, only to be surprised by Aramaki right in front of him, literally sprouting from the ground and delivering a rising vertical strike with his sword, from bottom to top.
Dodging by instinct, trying to move back, Usopp has one of his pistols sliced in half, rendering the weapon completely useless.
Not giving Usopp a chance to breathe, Aramaki follows up with a supersonic thrust with his sword at the sharpshooter, aiming for his chest.
Once again, whether by pure instinct and reaction or because his Observation Haki was about to reach a new level, Usopp dodges the thrust by shrinking to the size of an ant.
Back in the tiny world, Usopp doesn't even have time to formulate a thought before a colossal foot comes crashing down on him, looking like a moon about to collide with the planet's surface.
Using Soru and Geppo in union to move at high speed through the foliage, Usopp narrowly dodges the colossal stomp, which makes the small world tremble like never before with the impact, a colossal crater forming around Aramaki's foot, debris flying everywhere.
Rolling away from the attack, Usopp wastes no time and returns to his normal size, which places him very close to Aramaki, literally a hand's breadth away from him, inside his guard.
With his remainder Malorian pistol already aimed, in a quick draw pose, Usopp fires three shots instantly, with microseconds between each shot. This time, they were high-caliber piercing rounds, all coated with Armament Haki.
Unfortunately, with his Advanced Observation Haki, Aramaki saw this attack coming even before Usopp returned to his normal size, allowing him to block the shots with the palm of his free hand coated in Haki.
After the three shots, Usopp quickly moves his body, narrowly dodging another vertical sword strike, this time from top to bottom.
Then, seizing the opportunity, Usopp unloads his pistol entirely into Aramaki, who once again blocks the shots with his free hand coated in Haki.
Under the short barrage of powerful shots, Aramaki's hand moves forward, grabbing Usopp's pistol and yanking it out of his grip.
As he yanks the pistol from Usopp's hand, Aramaki delivers a powerful headbutt to the marksman, stunning him momentarily.
And seeing the perfect opportunity in front of him, Aramaki throws the pistol away and with his now free hand, he transforms his index finger into a wooden stake coated with Advanced Armament Haki before then using Shigan, aiming at Usopp's heart, his finger breaking the sound barrier.
At that moment, a few microseconds before Aramaki uses Shigan, Usopp, for the first time, catches a glimpse of the future, so brief, but allows him to attempt to dodge the attack, which would otherwise be fatal.
And even having that glimpse, Usopp was not fast enough to completely dodge the attack, Aramaki's finger ends up piercing his left shoulder, even though it was coated with Armament Haki, going all the way through, with blood gushing from the hole in his back.
"Urghh, fuck!"
And once again, while being lifted into the air by the hole in his shoulder, with the skin around the wound starting to wrinkle and dry, as if his life were being sucked from his body, Usopp has another glimpse of the future, and he needed to get out of that situation urgently if he wanted to stay alive, after all, he didn't want to turn into a dry, wrinkled sea urchin.
Quickly growing in size, Usopp uses his increased strength to kick Aramaki away, effectively pulling himself away from his end.
Now with a bloody hole in his shoulder, Usopp finds himself once again pressed by Aramaki's relentless attacks, his body accumulating more and more injuries as the fight dragged on.
As pressured as he felt, the glimpses of the future, which became more and more frequent, made him capable of staying alive and even dealing damage to Aramaki.
Ten minutes, that was the time Usopp managed to hold out alone, Aramaki was clearly much stronger than him, even using Armament Haki to defend and attack, his strikes caused less damage than they should have and Aramaki's attacks caused much more damage, to the point that he felt like his Armament Haki wasn't protecting him at all.
Completely covered in blood, with several deep cuts across his body, a horrible bloody hole in his shoulder, the area around the hole completely grayish white, wrinkled, and dry, was Usopp, who needed to figure out a way to call for help soon.
'Shit! I should have asked for help earlier when I had the time, now it's going to be hell trying to find space to do it!', Usopp thinks, shrinking to dodge a slash aimed for his neck.
In the middle of his shrinking, Usopp moves his body to land on a low grass blade just below.
As soon as he lands, with his powers, Usopp makes the grass blade grow until it reaches one hundred meters in height. Now, making objects and 'simple forms of life', like plants, grow to that size is extremely easier than making people or animals grow, so far, the maximum he has managed to grow was twenty meters.
While the grass blade grew, Usopp returns to his normal size before grabbing a completely vibrant red projectile from his pouch, and with his trusty slingshot, firing the projectile into the sky with all his strength. As it reaches a certain speed, the friction with the air ignites the sensitive projectile, activating a chemical chain reaction that makes the projectile shine like a falling red star in the sky.
As soon as Usopp fires the projectile, the grass blade he was on begins to writhe and tremble before deforming just as he jumps away, transforming into a giant and grotesque carnivorous plant, its massive mouth lunging toward him, and as if one weren't enough, a sea of identical carnivorous plants sprouts from its thorny stem, all of them advancing toward him with the sole intention of tearing his body apart with their sharp teeth.
Seeing the colossal wall of mouths hungry for his blood coming toward him while at the same time sensing with his Haki, Aramaki approaching from below using Geppo, Usopp, suspended in the air, takes four blackish-red projectiles from his pouch and fires them at the carnivorous plants while saying, "Supernova Stars Rain!"
These four projectiles, breaking the sound barrier numerous times in their path, looking like four plasma masses moving through space-time at supersonic speeds, suddenly open midway, releasing thousands of identical projectiles into the air, the size of sand grains, which then grow to the size of cannonballs, all colliding with the colossal wall of carnivorous plants, causing a devastating explosion of colossal proportions, completely disintegrating the carnivorous plants.
Without even looking at the result of his attack, Usopp spins his body in the air while growing until he reaches twenty meters in height, his giant form coming face to face with the tiny Aramaki, who was coming from below, with a sea of vegetation following right behind him.
Taking a giant, completely black projectile from his pouch, Usopp fits it into his now giant slingshot, and with a strength capable of moving mountains, he pulls the projectile back, stretching his slingshot to the point that the air snaps around the giant elastics due to tension, before then, releasing the projectile while shouting, "Nova-Phoenix Dawn."
Firing at supersonic speed, breaking the sound barrier like a machine gun firing a burst of bullets, the projectile ignites like an infernal phoenix, opening its flaming wings for a second before folding them close to its body in an attack position, like a Kingfisher diving, its speed more than doubling, with its form distorting to resemble a scorching arrow with a plasma core, all while a piercing whistle of something falling from the sky, sounding like the scream of an enraged phoenix, echoes through the environment.
Unable to dodge, the only thing left for Aramaki is to cover his body with Haki and withstand the impact.
And the impact came, hitting him like a planet, sending him back to the ground instantly as if by teleportation, while completely disintegrating the sea of vegetation that was following close behind.
The result of all this is a colossal explosion that almost hits Usopp, now back to his normal size, a scorching heat that disintegrated all the vegetation around the impact, and a crater of kilometer proportions in the shape of a six-pointed star.
Landing in the crater, Usopp tensely watches the hole where Aramaki was, and, after some time with nothing happening, just as his guard begins to lower, thinking the fight was over, a thick tree root sprouts from the ground in front of him and pierces his shoulder once again, this time also wrapping around his body, immobilizing him like a snake.
"Son of a worthless bitch, I'm definitely going to make you suffer before I kill you!", Sprouting from the ground in front of Usopp, with ugly and bloody burns all over his body, his forearms being the most affected, now charred, Aramaki snarls, his face twisted in anger and pain.
At that moment, the Baby Den Den Mushi in his pocket, now in a moribund state due to the previous attack, vibrates, catching his attention.
"What is it? I'm busy here!", Aramaki asks irritably, answering the call.
"Kacha... s... sir! We got some important information, after using force on that tall lady from before, we got the information that the Straw Hat and a few others went to the castle at the top of the island's central mountain, they are after... o... of... of... a... a... peeew... fiiiiii", on the other side of the line, next to a tall lady completely beaten and tied up, a marine informs him before his Den Den Mushi dies completely, cutting the connection.
"Hmm! Well, what a shame! I won't be able to make you suffer personally, but I guess the thought that your life will be slowly sucked out of your body ease my anger a bit and this fucking pain that won't go away! The rest, I'll take out on your Captain, after all, my mission is to capture the Straw Hat alive, not unscathed", throwing his dead Den Den Mushi aside, Aramaki turns to the immobilized Usopp and says, his face still twisted in anger and pain, his Logia regeneration working overtime trying to fix the damage, but the burns and wounds from Usopp's last attack persisted, like a curse, refusing to leave his body.
"If you ended up like this just by fighting me, you won't survive a single punch from Luffy", Usopp murmurs something inaudible, the only part of his body still visible being his eyes.
"Hm? What was that? I can't hear dead people! Anyway, I've got more important things to do, I hope you suffer a lot before you die", mocking Usopp, Aramaki turns around and leaves using Soru, heading toward the mountain where the castle was.
A few moments after his departure, Zoro, Chouchou in his normal form, and Sabo arrive at the scene, immediately freeing Usopp as soon as they spot him.
Freed from those life-sucking roots, Usopp, pale and with slightly gray skin, completely battered and wounded, drenched in blood and on the verge of fainting, urgently says before passing out, "He's heading to the castle, the marines are trying to arrest everyone of the island!"
"Sabo, take Usopp to the doctors in the village and deal with the problem with the marines, Chouchou and I are going after whoever did this to our sniper", Zoro says decisively, his body emanating danger, before starting to walk toward the castle... well, actually, in the opposite direction of the castle.
"Woof woof... woof woof, woof woof woof, woof woof!" "Leave it to us... come back here, Zoro, you're going the wrong way, you fucking idiot!", Chouchou barks to Sabo with a confident head nod before turning to Zoro and scolding him for going the wrong way.
Entering his half Zoan form, Chouchou grabs him by the neck, biting the hood of his jacket like a feline picking up its cub, before disappearing using Soru, going after the one who did that to Usopp.
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(AN: 2,538 Words)
Hey everyone! I'm not sure if you guys noticed, but I purposely destroyed one of Usopp's pistols, leaving him with one. The point I want to make is that it no longer seemed functional for Usopp to have multiple weapons. When writing a fight, it gets really confusing for me, so my brain, with its two neurons, came up with an idea: give Usopp's slingshot an Akuma no Mi. The idea I have is a fruit that can transform into various long-range weapons if it devours them. Its base form would be the slingshot, and by eating another long-range weapon, like his remaining pistol, it could transform into it. That's it! I'm not sure if that's enough, so I'd love for you all to suggest ideas that could complement this initial idea.
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If you guys decide to give ideas or suggestions about things I should pay attention to in the story, keep in mind that on Patreon, the fic is currently at the Alabasta Arc, more specifically, on the way to Yuba.
Thank you for reading another chapter!
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