Big Father was Capone Bege's ultimate trump card. Activating it transformed his entire body into a colossal, eighty-meter-tall, 585-ton moving fortress. Its defense was virtually impenetrable, capable of withstanding continuous heavy artillery barrages without suffering a single scratch.
Many of Daz Bonez's slashing techniques could effortlessly slice through solid rock like a hot knife through butter. Yet, when he launched them at Big Father's stone exterior, the blades merely skidded off, leaving shallow white scratches along the masonry.
The most troublesome aspect of this fight was the sheer height disparity. Since Daz Bonez hadn't yet mastered Geppo (Moonwalk), he couldn't maintain aerial combat, forcing him to repeatedly hack at the giant fortress's legs. His only other option was to physically leap onto the side of the castle and cling to it while attacking, which drastically crippled his mobility and left him wide open to counterattacks.
And Capone Bege wasn't just standing there taking a beating. Even without his internal mobsters providing covering fire, Big Father's colossal size and tonnage made him a devastating physical threat. Every step caused the earth to quake, and a simple sweep of his massive arm was enough to level a city block.
It was fortunate that Bege had ordered his men to form such a wide perimeter earlier; otherwise, half of his own unconscious crew would have been crushed into paste under his treads by now. Perhaps he had deliberately accounted for that when setting up the ambush.
"Bardock, Daz is in trouble," Robin noted, watching the bounty hunter get batted around like a fly. "As expected of the strongest Mafia Godfather. His Devil Fruit is incredibly potent, and this is after you specifically neutralized his biggest advantage."
"Yeah, it's a terrifyingly useful ability," Bardock nodded, crossing his arms. "Being able to store an infinite number of armed soldiers, horses, cannons, and supplies inside your own body... combined with Bege's ruthless tactical mind, he maximizes its potential perfectly. His enemies never know how much firepower he's actually carrying. The only real flaw is that his subordinates are individually too weak. They lack the willpower and specific training needed to withstand Conqueror's Haki."
Seeing Robin's concern, Bardock offered a reassuring smile. "Bonez is definitely at a disadvantage right now, but there's no need to worry. His defensive capabilities are absurdly high. As long as he can endure this pressure and break past his limits to achieve the realm of cutting steel, shattering Bege's defenses will become much easier."
"Hmph. Who needs to 'cut steel'? What's so great about that anyway?" Perona scoffed, twirling a lock of her hair. "If I just send a few Negative Hollows over there, that giant castle will be begging for mercy in seconds."
Truth be told, Perona was getting a bit arrogant. And why wouldn't she? Ever since she joined the crew, not a single person they encountered had been able to resist her Negative Hollows.
"The seas are vast, Perona, and Devil Fruit abilities are incredibly bizarre and varied," Bardock warned gently. "Powerful Haki can neutralize Devil Fruit effects, and there are always illogical, completely unexplainable exceptions out there. If you rely entirely on your ghosts, you're going to hit a massive wall eventually."
He absolutely didn't want Perona getting overly cocky and underestimating the monsters of this world. God Usopp, for instance, was the ultimate hard-counter to her powers.
"Whatever, nag," Perona muttered under her breath, secretly plotting to give Bardock a taste of a Negative Hollow when he least expected it.
"Captain, how long are we going to just stand here and watch?" Leo asked, sitting on Bardock's shoulder.
"Yeah, Captain! What if all those scary guys with guns wake up soon?" Mansherry added nervously.
"Don't worry, they won't wake up anytime soon. Let's give Bonez a little more time." Bardock wasn't concerned about the unconscious mobsters in the slightest. If they started stirring, he'd just hit them with another dose of Conqueror's Haki and put them right back to sleep.
Suddenly, the battle in the courtyard shifted dramatically.
"Castle: Drawbridge!"
Capone Bege swung his massive stone arm downward in a sweeping motion. On the final strike, a massive, gaping hole violently opened on his wrist, generating a terrifying vacuum of suction. Daz Bonez, having just dodged the initial physical strikes, was caught off guard by the sudden suction and was violently ripped through the air, disappearing straight into Bege's body.
"Eh?!"
Robin, Perona, and the dwarves gasped in shock. Even Bardock's eyes widened; he hadn't expected Bege to pull a move like that. He instantly expanded his Observation Haki, locking onto Daz Bonez's presence inside the castle, ready to intervene at a moment's notice.
"Castle: Quagmire!" Bege roared, not giving his opponent a single second to breathe.
The moment Daz Bonez landed inside the castle, he found himself in a completely unfamiliar, dimly lit stone chamber. Suddenly, the floor beneath him seemed to come alive. Thick, stone tentacles erupted from the masonry, violently thrashing and whipping toward him from all directions.
Bonez desperately evaded the onslaught, turning his arms and legs into blades to chop through any tentacles he couldn't dodge. But for every tentacle he severed, two more sprouted in its place. The entire room felt like it was shrinking, closing in on him. The stone floor itself began to soften, threatening to swallow his legs whole. If his entire body wasn't made of bladed steel, allowing him to slice his way out of the quicksand-like floor, he would have been completely immobilized instantly.
Bonez acted entirely on instinct, violently hacking and slashing at the encroaching stone tendrils. He stopped trying to analyze how to break his bottleneck. He stopped worrying about the outcome of the battle. His mind emptied of everything except the absolute, singular necessity to cut through the obstacles in front of him.
He slashed. And slashed. And slashed.
And then... his mind went completely still.
In that moment of absolute focus, he finally felt it. The subtle rhythm, the faint frequency Bardock had described. He felt the 'breath' of the stone tentacles rushing toward him.
'So that's how it works!'
In a single, fluid motion, a flurry of blinding slashes erupted from his arms. The massive wave of stone tentacles rushing at him was instantly and cleanly severed into pieces.
Outside the castle, Capone Bege violently spat out a mouthful of blood, his eyes widening in sheer disbelief. Just a second ago, the bounty hunter had been utterly helpless, frantically struggling to survive. How did he suddenly slice through the reinforced stone like it was nothing?!
'Dammit! I can't let him keep destroying my insides!'
Any damage inflicted on the interior of the castle directly damaged Bege's real body. Seeing Bonez prepare another wave of slashes to tear the room apart, Bege panicked and frantically activated his powers.
"Castle: Eviction!"
A colossal stone tentacle, shaped like a massive battering ram, launched directly at Daz Bonez from the ceiling.
"Atomic Slash!"
This time, the slash was completely different. It sliced cleanly through the massive stone pillar. However, the sheer kinetic force behind the battering ram still launched Bonez backward. A gaping hole opened in the wall behind him, and he was violently ejected back into the courtyard.
"He's out!" Leo cheered. "He doesn't look hurt!" Mansherry clapped. "He took his sweet time," Perona huffed.
"Bardock, did Daz succeed?" Robin asked, noting the slight smile on Bardock's face.
"Yeah. Everything went perfectly. He finally reached the realm of cutting steel," Bardock nodded. Having monitored the entire internal struggle via Observation Haki, he was genuinely happy for his crewmate.
Daz Bonez had successfully broken through his bottleneck, but the battle wasn't over yet. He could now easily cut through Bege's defenses, but inflicting a few deep gashes on an eighty-meter-tall stone fortress wasn't enough to bring it down quickly. Winning this fight through sheer attrition was going to take a long time.
At that exact moment, the Capone Family mobsters stored inside Bege's body finally began to wake up. Bege's panicked expression instantly smoothed out into a confident sneer. His stalling tactics had worked! Sure, there had been a terrifying hiccup, but he had survived long enough. The tide was about to turn back in his favor!
'As expected of the elite guard of a Mafia Family,' Bardock mused, sensing their awakening. 'Too bad it isn't your time to shine yet.'
Bardock unleashed a second, concentrated wave of Conqueror's Haki, immediately plunging the groggy mobsters right back into unconsciousness.
"You miserable bastards!" Bege roared, his composure completely shattering. He had finally endured long enough to launch a counterattack, only for his entire army to get instantly silenced again! "Castle: Relocation!"
Abandoning Daz Bonez entirely, the colossal Big Father fortress deployed its heavy treads and charged directly at Bardock with terrifying momentum.
"Stay back. Let me leave him with a lasting impression," Bardock instructed his crew.
Bardock stepped forward to meet the charging fortress. His body rapidly morphed into his Monkey King Beast Form. Using his Size Manipulation ability, he instantly expanded, growing until he was nearly forty meters tall—roughly half the size of Big Father.
Coating his right fist in dense, pitch-black Armament Haki, Bardock leaped into the air and delivered a devastating, full-power uppercut directly to the bottom of the giant castle's stone "chin."
CRAAAACK!
Capone Bege had deduced that Bardock was strong, but he never could have imagined he was this strong.
Inside the castle's command room, Bege's real body was violently thrown into the air before crashing heavily onto the floor, clutching his jaw and rolling around in absolute agony. If he took a few more hits like that, the entire fortress would collapse and crush him!
"Stop! Stop! We can talk this out!" Bege screamed, frantically waving a white flag from a castle window. "Whatever you need me to do, I swear I'll get it done! Just stop hitting me!"
Seeing Bardock rear his massive fist back for another strike, Bege instantly deactivated his Devil Fruit, shrinking back down to his normal, 166-cm self, panting heavily.
"Excellent. A wise man submits to the circumstances," Bardock grinned, shrinking back down to his normal size. "Now then, Capone-ya... let's talk business!"