The village chief may have managed to wound Buggy, but his face remained grim. The price had been enormous—an amount of energy equal to years of accumulation had vanished, consumed in an instant. How could that make him happy?
Now his suspicions were confirmed. Buggy must have some method of draining his power, siphoning away the energy he had worked decades to gather. Those smirks he had seen earlier must have been because of this, and even Buggy's apparent weakness might have been nothing but an act.
"You little brat," the chief finally demanded, unable to hold back his frustration. "What trick are you using to make so much of my strength vanish?"
Buggy also realized the man had caught on. It was likely the chief would no longer waste such energies against him. Straightening his recovering body, Buggy fixed his gaze on the old man and replied calmly:
"You want to know? Then use your energy to withstand a single strike from me."
Since the chief might not attack with energy again, Buggy baited him deliberately. He was confident that, in his desire to uncover the truth, the chief would inevitably use those energies again to defend himself.
The village chief's expression darkened as he thought it over, then he nodded.
"Fine. Come at me."
He had no choice. Unless he understood why his energy was being consumed so strangely, he could not prevent the same thing from happening again in the future. Even knowing Buggy's intentions, he had to take the risk.
At his command, waves of multicolored energy gathered before him like a shield.
Buggy vanished in an instant with Soru, his body flickering from sight. He didn't release his Conqueror's Haki right away—he wanted to maximize his gain.
The chief tracked him immediately. In this sacrificial space, Buggy couldn't hide; every living being inside was laid bare to the space's awareness.
Buggy reappeared high above, diving down as if preparing a straightforward attack. It was nothing but a feint, meant to mislead—and to set up another "harvest."
At the last moment, just before closing the distance, Buggy suddenly unleashed his Conqueror's Haki.
Caught unprepared, the massive shield of energy pressing against him wavered and recoiled under the pressure of Buggy's will.
Under normal conditions, Buggy would never have gained the upper hand. His Haki had grown, yes, but it was nowhere near strong enough to crush such a torrent of energy outright. Only because of his ambush did he force the energy back.
The chief had been ready to defend and counterattack the moment Buggy charged, but when Conqueror's Haki exploded so close, he faltered. His hastily gathered defenses clashed against it, and his energy began bleeding away at a frightening pace.
At that instant, realization struck him—this was the reason his power was vanishing. It was Buggy's Conqueror's Haki.
Without hesitation, the chief's body flickered and disappeared. Through the sacrificial space's ability, he reappeared far away, and the energy he had summoned instantly dissolved back into the environment.
Buggy grinned nonetheless. Even in that brief exchange, his Conqueror's Haki had grown stronger again. The improvement wasn't massive, but it was real. Compared to grinding through years of training or waiting on time and tempering of spirit, this kind of rapid growth was priceless.
"You're lucky, brat," the chief sneered darkly. "But the power of the Sacrificial Fruit is far from that simple."
As his words fell, his body erupted with a flood of eerie gray energy. The energy wasn't aimed at Buggy—it poured into himself. The sacrificial space answered the call, and countless streams of multicolored energy surged into the chief's body.
The transformation was immediate. His form swelled rapidly, in moments growing into a towering giant hundreds of meters tall.
Muscles bulged, skin hardened, and a black sheen of Armament Haki covered every inch of him. In his hand appeared a massive blade condensed from that strange gray power, and armor formed around his body out of the same energy.
"Brat—take my strike!"
His bellow shook the entire space, and when his colossal blade came crashing down, the roar of the air itself hammered Buggy's eardrums, making them ache.
Facing this terrifying transformation and the overwhelming power behind that strike, Buggy's expression turned grave. For the first time, he felt the shadow of death looming.
He did not attempt to block. Even as a swordsman, he couldn't muster the confidence to withstand the sheer brute force of a giant's slash infused with Armament Haki. Dodging was his only option.
At the last moment, Buggy vanished, reappearing behind the massive figure.
But instantly, the giant body of the village chief disappeared as well—he too flickered, reappearing directly at Buggy's back.
"Damn, it's his sacrificial space again!" Buggy thought, his Observation Haki confirming the threat behind him. He immediately teleported away as well.
This time, he didn't waste the effort circling behind his opponent. That tactic was meaningless against someone who could teleport freely. Instead, he opened the distance.
And then Buggy unleashed everything. Solar Flame Drive. Firestorm. Thousand Flame Blades. Moonflame Slash.
One after another, his deadliest flame techniques tore across the space.
But against the towering armored giant, the attacks did little. The thick black Armament covering his body absorbed them all, leaving him unscathed.
Even so, they weren't useless. The barrage slowed the giant's movements, buying Buggy precious moments.
Thus, the two clashed in the sacrificial space, one attack after another, neither gaining decisive ground—locked in a bitter stalemate.