"Heh heh heh... Quiniel Vito, Captain of the Triangle Pirates, 'Fanged Devil,' have you pledged allegiance to that World Government dog?"
Facing Vito's bluster, Benson slowly pulled a wanted poster from his pocket, looking at him mockingly.
"Hey, hey! That's a bit harsh, isn't it? You crawling worm of the shadows. The taste of sunlight must be nice, huh?" Vito snarled, baring his pointed teeth, returning the jab without backing down.
Rumble!
Suddenly, the ground shook violently.
Whoosh!
Then, a howling gale swept through, forcing everyone to squint their eyes.
"Captain! Retreat, Arlan said to withdraw from the Royal Palace!" Just then, a burly man wielding a large ring-hilted saber ran over from outside, shouting urgently at Vito.
"Bounty of 169,000,000 Berries, Executioner Muir Marcus, eh..." The indifferent Limmings tilted his head, glancing over.
Thwack!
Suddenly, a blue flash struck from a distance, shimmering through the crowd in an instant.
"Ah!"
"My arm!"
"My leg!"
"Damn it, what in the world happened?!"
A hundred people were either dead or wounded. The dead were dismembered, the wounded had lost limbs, their wails echoing continuously. Only a deep fissure on the ground remained.
"What a powerful slash!" Vito exclaimed in alarm.
"As expected of a monster. Fight, then. It'd be best if you both sustained mutual heavy injuries." Benson gave a cruel smile, his voice chilling. "Whether in the Royal Palace or outside, do as you please, but deal with them! Kill!"
As he spoke, Benson's body exuded a deathly chill. With a flicker, he appeared before Vito, throwing a punch straight at his face.
Vito, unafraid, countered with his own fist.
Clang!
Their fists met, a direct, hard impact. The air immediately vibrated, followed by a powerful shockwave that swept through the surroundings.
At this moment, observing the astonishing scene in the distance and feeling the continuous tremors of the earth, Marcus and Mando's respective groups hesitated for a moment, then successively withdrew from the Second Training Ground, leaving only the two grappling figures in the center.
"Hmm?"
Vito's brow furrowed as he watched the cold frost slowly creep onto his fist, spreading up his arm. He felt the biting cold. "An ability user, huh... A bit like that Marine Admiral's ability."
However, he didn't truly believe it was the same ability, probably just a similar one.
Immediately, Vito's arm sparked with dazzling crackling lightning, instantly dispelling the frost and recovering from the biting cold.
"Nani?!"
Benson felt a numbing sensation in his fist and instinctively pulled his hand back. Looking at the jumping electrical arcs, Benson's expression became somewhat grave. "Lightning, huh... Is this guy an ability user too?"
He felt it was tricky now. The original intelligence hadn't contained any clues that the opponent was an ability user.
So, there were only two possibilities: one, the opponent had been hiding it all along, which Benson thought unlikely; second, the opponent had gained the ability during this period of silence, which Benson leaned towards.
However, he hoped this lightning ability wasn't a Logia type; otherwise, it would be too terrifying.
"I'll test him first!"
Thump!
Benson's face hardened. He stomped his right leg on the ground, launching himself skyward, leaving behind a cracked patch of earth.
In mid-air, Benson opened his mouth towards the ground below, spewing a chilling white mist like a cold current, instantly dropping the surrounding temperature once more.
Dragon's Breath of Frost!
'As expected, he's an ability user!'
Vito's eyelids twitched. He pushed off the ground with both feet, his body flashing backward to dodge.
The next moment, the white mist, like a sharp arrow, struck the ground. Immediately, the cold air spread out, covering an area of several tens of square meters with white frost in one or two breaths.
'Indeed, it's a similar ability. Looks like I'll have to go all out,' Vito thought, secretly alarmed. If that chilling mist hit him, his body might freeze solid.
Then, Vito's entire body crackled with dazzling lightning, and his form swelled. In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a five-meter-tall, bipedal, ink-blue ferocious beast. His body was covered in ink-blue scales, with three bluish-white bone spikes on his back. The scales near the spikes were patterned with blue-black markings, and his finger and toe nails grew ten centimeters long, forming terrifying claws.
"Damn! This... this is too exaggerated!" Landing on the ground, Benson swallowed, somewhat incredulous.
"What good is hiding and scheming in the shadows? Against absolute power, it's still insignificant!"
Issuing a beast-like roar, Vito's lightning flared as he charged forward, like a streak of lightning.
"So fast!"
Benson made virtually no unnecessary movements, simply dropping into a crouch. The terrifying claws, bathed in lightning, then swept just over Benson's head.
Thwack!
Five cracks, over ten centimeters deep, immediately appeared on a collapsed load-bearing pillar a hundred meters away.
At the same time, Benson's hands pressed against the ground, tendrils of cold air seeping out. From his hands as the center, white frost continuously spread outwards. In a few breaths, the entire training ground was enveloped in a vast expanse of white frost. The temperature instantly plummeted to freezing, as if winter had returned in a flash.
Cold Current: Ice World!
And Vito, standing beside Benson, also had frost covering his ink-blue scales. His massive body remained motionless, as if frozen solid.
"Phew... That was close, huh?" Benson exhaled a puff of white mist, wiping tiny beads of sweat from his forehead.
The speed was too great. One fraction of a second slower, and he would have had five new wounds.
Crack!
A piece of shattered ice dropped to the ground. Benson's pupils intensely constricted; a sense of crisis instantly spread throughout his body.
Thump!
A burst of air exploded. Benson was struck as if by a heavy blow, sent flying sideways in an instant. With a whoosh, he became a blur, crossing over a hundred meters in the blink of an eye.
Rumble!
He slammed heavily into the ruins of a house. The immense power made the ground tremble, sending bricks and wood flying, kicking up a large cloud of dust.
"Hmph! I'm freezing to death!"
Countless shards of ice fell. Vito shivered with cold, the chill truly bone-deep, his blood and bones filled with cold.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
From the ruins of the house, a broken pillar was pushed aside. Benson shook his head and stood up, a trickle of blood flowing from his forehead.
"As expected of a Mythical Zoan type, your body is truly powerful." Benson's head was as black as metal, his face cold, and his body exuded wisps of chilling white mist, intensifying the surrounding cold.
If not for the protection of Armament Haki, that slap would have been enough to crack his head open.
"I had the fortune of seeing Captain Aeridar's Devil Fruit Encyclopedia. The Paramecia-type Cold-Cold Fruit, developed to this extent by you, is truly not to be underestimated!" Vito was wreathed in lightning, the biting cold having been dispelled.
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