A few days later, Roger's pirate crew finally arrived at a small island.
As agreed, Fang Yi and Barrett had a serious duel, but the only spectators were Captain Roger and Vice-Captain Rayleigh. The rest of the crew were in the tavern in the town on the island.
"Alright, this battle will be considered over once one of you loses the ability to fight! As for the area... let's just make the beach here the battlefield!" Rayleigh said, looking at the two who were standing face to face.
"No need to set any boundaries. You can fight anywhere!" Barrett shook his head and said.
"A battle is a battle. You can't limit where your enemy can go," Barrett added with a grin.
"Fang Yi, Barrett! I'm excited to see this battle, but I hope you both keep it under control and don't let anything unexpected happen!" Roger said in a deep tone.
"Don't worry, Captain!" Fang Yi smiled and replied.
"Good, then let's begin!" Roger nodded, signaling for the start.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~"
As soon as Roger's voice faded, several arrows, each glowing with different colors, shot towards Barrett.
Barrett seemed to have anticipated this, leaving his original position and darting in a Z-pattern towards Fang Yi.
"Heh... Looks like you've studied this. But it won't work on me!" Fang Yi, seeing Barrett's path, immediately began to adjust his position and chuckled.
The Z-pattern was a common tactic to evade sniper shots, but it wouldn't pose much of a challenge for Fang Yi, whose precision was at maximum. Moreover, the Z-pattern wasn't a guaranteed way to dodge arrows altogether.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~"
The arrows kept flying towards Barrett, but due to Fang Yi's maximum-level precision, his arrows had a 50% chance of hitting. So, despite Barrett dodging, he still had to endure the pain from some of the arrows.
Fortunately, Barrett's strong physique allowed him to take the hits, and as long as he avoided Fang Yi's special arrows, he could manage.
"Looks like it's time to show you something new! Multi-shot—Magic Arrow!" Fang Yi drew an arrow, and when he released it, it split into three arrows midair, each flashing with colorful magical energy.
Multi-shot (LV.1) 35/100: You can shoot one arrow that splits into up to three arrows, targeting one to three enemies!
Magic Arrow (LV.1) 5/100: Shoots a magic arrow that deals magic damage to the enemy!
These two skills were something Fang Yi had recently acquired. With his six daily lottery draws, his chances of gaining new skills had significantly increased. Although the chances of drawing skills had been slim for a long time, recently, he had started to get better.
Before the battle with the Golden Lion Pirates at the Ait-Wool Sea, he had drawn the Multi-shot skill. However, most of his training had focused on his fire and ice arrows, as well as his binding arrows. Moreover, since he hadn't practiced Multi-shot much, his proficiency was still low.
But there was a clear difference between the Multi-shot skill and his ability to shoot multiple arrows at once. The biggest difference was that with the skill, he only needed one arrow, and it would split into several after release.
Currently, since the proficiency was only at LV.1, he could only split the arrow into three.
The other difference was that his multiple arrows could be aimed at the same target or different ones, depending on his choice. The more targets he aimed at, the more arrows would be shot, but their accuracy and damage would decrease. He could shoot a maximum of five arrows at a time, and if the targets moved, he might miss a few shots.
The Multi-shot skill was different, though. If he aimed at a single target, only one arrow would shoot, and if he aimed at three, three arrows would shoot. This made it easier to target multiple enemies compared to his multi-arrow shooting, where he could shoot multiple arrows, but some might miss.
Now, with the Multi-shot skill, the three arrows would target Barrett, though only one would hit him if he didn't change his path. If Barrett changed direction, the other arrows might hit.
As for the Magic Arrow, it was something Fang Yi had only drawn that day, and he still didn't fully understand what the magic damage entailed. He was still experimenting with its effects.
The combination of Multi-shot and Magic Arrow was an attempt on his part to see how they would work together.
Normally, only one skill could trigger per arrow. For example, if Fang Yi shot a normal arrow, it could trigger effects like Precision, Stun, or Fatal. However, if he used a fire arrow and it missed, those skills would still trigger, but only if the fire arrow hit would its effect take priority.
Since he had used these skills repeatedly, Barrett understood this well. He would avoid or block Fang Yi's regular arrows, but would avoid the special ones with different glowing effects.
So, when the Multi-shot Magic Arrows were launched, Barrett's first reaction was to dodge.
However, when the arrows closed in, he realized that due to the short distance, no matter how he dodged, at least one of the arrows would hit him.
With a gritted jaw, he covered his arms with his Haki and punched the middle arrow.
"Boom~~"
As Barrett's fist collided with Fang Yi's Magic Arrow, an explosion erupted.
"Magic Arrow (Violent) triggered, Magic Arrow proficiency +1."
Alongside the explosion, Fang Yi received a system notification.
"Huh? Violent damage? So the Magic Arrow randomly causes different types of damage?" Fang Yi thought as he retreated, creating more distance between him and Barrett while continuing to fire.
Previously, he had used Magic Arrows for practice over the sea and had seen ice, fire, and other elemental damage. But now, the violent damage had appeared, and it seemed random without any clear order.
"Your abilities may be strange, but they don't seem to pack much punch!" Barrett said as he emerged from the smoke, grinning.
"Dammit!" Seeing Barrett's condition, Fang Yi couldn't help but curse inwardly.
Barrett was now covered in metallic armor that glowed, a result of his ability to merge with metals.
This was the power of his Merge Fruit. When combined with metal, he could form a layer of armor, increasing his defense and power significantly. At this moment, Fang Yi's fire arrows and binding arrows were almost useless.
The fire arrows couldn't penetrate the armor, and the binding arrows couldn't restrict him due to his enhanced strength.
The only arrow that could have any effect was the Ice Arrow, which wouldn't do direct damage but would slow Barrett down.
However, with the armor on, Barrett's speed was still slightly reduced, allowing Fang Yi to dodge a bit more easily.
"Fang Yi, you can't escape now! I've improved my armor. Let me show you the true power of my Merge Merge Fruit!" Barrett shouted as his speed suddenly increased dramatically.
"Dammit! That's cheating!" Fang Yi cursed inwardly as Barrett sprouted a pair of metallic wings from his back. Though the wings didn't allow him to fly, they significantly boosted his speed.
"Hahaha... Give up, Fang Yi! You're no match for me now!" Barrett laughed maniacally as he charged at Fang Yi.
Fang Yi's face tightened, though he had gained two new skills, Barrett had been growing stronger, too.
"Alright... Even if I can't win, I'll at least give it a try! Here goes!" Fang Yi leaped sideways to avoid Barrett's direct line of attack and shot five ordinary arrows at him.
He didn't use Multi-shot or any special skills, just five normal arrows aimed straight at Barrett.
All he could hope for now was to trigger skills like Fatal or Stun. If either triggered, it would buy him enough time to plan another round of attacks.
"Clang, clang, clang..."
To Fang Yi's surprise, all five arrows hit Barrett. Though the damage wasn't much, it left Fang Yi a little stunned.
Being hit by five arrows, Barrett's mouth twitched. Although these were normal arrows, the skills triggered by hitting him still gave him the feeling that he had been struck.
"Boom!" "Boom!"
Barrett stomped the ground with one foot, halting his momentum, and then quickly charged at Fang Yi again.
But this time, Fang Yi had a smile on his face. Despite the brief interruption, he had already spotted a weakness.