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Emporio Ivankov's Horm-Horm Fruit is a terrifying power. It grants dominion over the human body itself—temperature, pigmentation, growth, emotion, and even gender. It can rewrite biology from the inside out.
It can cure "incurable" diseases. It can even drag a man back from the gates of hell.
Ivankov had been crushed, battered into a pulp, yet a single injection of Healing Hormones had stood him back up.
Arthur watched the six combatants regroup and reform their offensive line. He smiled, but there was no warmth in it.
"Trading ten years of your lifespan for a resurrection? You rolled the dice on a ten-percent survival rate and won. Lucky."
He paused, his expression brightening with a cruel, radiant intensity.
"But it doesn't matter. You revive once, I kill you once. Let's see how much life you have left to burn. Let's see how many times you can come back."
"You won't have to worry about that, Thunder Emperor!"
The six fighters' eyes were cold steel. Seeing Arthur enter this hyper-elevated state, they knew there was no running away. The only way out was through him.
"ROAAAR!!"
A roar tore through the gale winds. Under the shadow of a dragon's claw, Dragon was the first to strike.
Faced with a life-or-death crisis, desperate to keep his subordinates from dying here, Dragon unleashed everything. His Armament Haki exploded, matching even Garp's in density. Dragon scales shimmered in and out of existence on his arms, granting him impenetrable defense and unstoppable offense.
The Dragon Claw, capable of crushing bedrock, aimed straight for Arthur's face.
Facing the charge of six legends, Arthur didn't flinch. He didn't dodge. He simply raised his arm and brought his elbow down like a hammer, smashing it directly into Dragon's hardened claw.
"BANG!!"
The collision was seismic. The force was simply too great for Dragon to withstand; his stance broke, and his legs drove straight through the pavement, burying him waist-deep in the shattered earth.
But the assault didn't stop. A split second after Dragon was pinned, the phantom-like Rayleigh appeared.
The Dark King, one of the premier swordsmen of the age. Unless faced with a specific defensive Devil Fruit, there was nothing in this world his blade couldn't cut.
Even Arthur, wreathed in his violet flame-like demon avatar, couldn't ignore a full-power thrust from Roger's right hand.
But meeting force with force was Arthur's favorite pastime.
His right arm was occupied pinning Dragon. He had no time to retract it. So, he raised his left hand, spread his palm, and—under Rayleigh's disbelief-filled gaze—clamped his bare fingers directly onto the razor-sharp blade.
CREAAAK…
The steel groaned. The sword, tempered in a thousand battles, screamed under Arthur's grip, bending as if it were about to snap.
Arthur wasn't unscathed. He didn't possess Kaido's invincible skin. Even with his Ultimate Form, the blade bit deep. Blood welled up in his palm, dripping down the edge of the sword, counting the seconds of the standoff.
In the blink of an eye, he had deadlocked the two strongest fighters.
But there were four others. Four world-renowned warriors who weren't going to waste this golden opening.
"Hee-haw! It's over, Arthur-boy!!"
Ivankov appeared dozens of meters away, leaving a trail of afterimages. His hand struck out like a viper, silent and deadly, his sharpened fingernails aiming for Arthur's jugular.
He wasn't trying to cut him. He was trying to inject him.
He wanted to scramble Arthur's body temperature, rewrite his emotions, flood his system with conflicting hormones—maybe even force a gender change!
If it connected, it was a checkmate.
If a warrior's emotional state collapsed mid-fight, or if their biology suddenly shifted to an unfamiliar gender, the disorientation would be fatal. Against this lineup, a moment of confusion meant death.
"Fish-Man Karate: Seven Thousand Brick Fist!!"
Fisher Tiger's red skin seemed to burn with intensity. His face was a mask of savage fury. He leaped into the air and punched with the force of a cannon, delivering the strongest technique in the Fish-Man arsenal straight at Arthur's back.
Inazuma's scissors, unable to cut Arthur's skin, changed tactics. He lunged, driving the points of his blades toward Arthur's temple.
Kuma's Pad Cannon might not have had the piercing power of Inazuma, but he didn't hold back. He compressed hundreds of meters of air into a bomb the size of a palm and thrust it forward.
Four kill-shots, converging on one man.
"How long do you intend to keep up this tickling?"
Arthur's voice cut through the chaos, dripping with boredom.
"If this is the best you can do… then I'm officially calling it. Game over."
He had tasted their combined might. Even Dragon and Rayleigh, who had the strength to fight him head-on, were being dragged down by their need to coordinate with the weaker members.
The thrill was gone. The danger had evaporated. And on the other side of the city, the Golden Lion was fading fast.
He didn't need to waste any more time on them.
The demonic avatar surrounding him seemed to solidify, becoming a tangible suit of violet armor. The lightning went berserk.
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzt!"
The shriek of the current was loud enough to rupture eardrums.
"ONE BILLION VOLTS: GREAT DISCHARGE!!!"
A light brighter than the sun exploded from Arthur's body. It was a blinding, absolute whiteness that erased vision instantly. To look at it was to go blind.
The voltage was apocalyptic. The air distorted and boiled. The ground beneath their feet didn't just crack—it liquefied, turning instantly into a pool of bubbling magma.
"RETREAT!!"
The survival instincts of the six fighters screamed in unison. A heavy, suffocating pressure crushed their chests—the undeniable premonition of death.
Armament Haki coated every inch of their bodies, a desperate defense against the incoming energy. Dragon and Rayleigh could momentarily withstand the extreme heat. Kuma could repel the thermal energy with his paws.
But the others? They didn't stand a chance.
Dragon's green cloak vaporized into ash. He didn't think; he reacted. He kicked off the ground, launching himself a thousand meters away in a heartbeat.
Rayleigh, Kuma, and Ivankov moved with equally terrifying speed, escaping the kill zone in a blur.
But Inazuma and Fisher Tiger… they weren't fast enough.
Fisher Tiger was caught in mid-air. He tried to pivot, to use the air itself, but the lightning was faster.
The blinding light vanished as quickly as it had appeared, snapping off like a switch. It was as if the sun had simply been extinguished.
Arthur stood there, a cruel smile on his face. The game was done.
He punched.
It wasn't a technique. It was just raw, overwhelming power, delivered with godlike speed.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM…!
A sonic boom shattered the air. The shockwave erupted from his fist like a volcanic eruption, tearing the earth apart.
Fisher Tiger didn't even have time to scream. The legendary adventurer, the hero of the slaves, was hit squarely in mid-air.
He didn't fly backward. He didn't fall.
He exploded.
His body was instantly atomized into a fine mist of red blood, blown apart by the sheer pressure of the blow.
Arthur didn't even spare him a glance. He pivoted, his arm whipping out in a brutal backhand aimed at Inazuma.
"CRACK!!"
Inazuma crossed his unbreakable scissors over his chest in a desperate block.
It didn't matter.
The scissors shattered into shrapnel. The force of the blow caved in his chest and launched him like a ragdoll, sending him flying hundreds of meters to crash through the ruins of the city.
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