After reminiscing about the past for a moment, Babanuki returned to the arena once he recovered. Although he failed, this isn't the Hollow World; even if the top ten fail, they don't immediately drop to triple digits but instead swap their numbers with challengers.
If you're not satisfied with the number, you can fight your way back. This is why ranking battles tend to last several days; the closer to the top, the longer it takes, such as Jack and Elizabeth, who are still locked in battle.
The scope of the battle is constantly expanding, but the other fights do not stop because of this. There's no way to create an absolutely safe environment with unpredictable AOE attacks during the fights.
The battles towards the back end relatively faster. Beyond rank 60, it's basically fights between gifted individuals and ordinary ability users, like Speed, who is currently in this range.
Her lower half is black-and-white striped, taking on a centaur form, but from the stripes, it's clear this is the ability of the Zebra-Zebra Fruit.
As for the centaur form, this is Queen's true research result. The potion he developed can induce new form transformations in Devil Fruit users.
Compared to traditional beastman forms, some members prefer this centaur form, especially the females, with Speed and Maria among them.
On the plains, Speed gallops across the grass, occasionally shooting arrows in another direction while dodging incoming arrows from her opponent.
She's facing the Numberer NO.60, a gifted individual with the ability to mimic, a skill with very exaggerated upper and lower limits.
Mimicry, as the name implies, involves mimicking the opponent's skills. Whatever move the opponent uses, he can also use next.
Unfortunately, this isn't a game where mimicking allows him to unleash the opponent's full-power skills, or even use certain instant-kill effects to defeat them. The mimicked skills only capture the surface, not the essence.
Even though he can mimic with about ninety percent accuracy, he lacks any proficiency in the skills, and can't use other derived skills.
Moreover, due to physical limitations, he can't mimic skills that exceed his own limits.
Whitebeard's Airquake or Kaidou's Thundering Hakken isn't worth mentioning, as mimicking abilities outside of skills takes more energy, and may require a stronger physique than the opponent to execute.
If he had that kind of ability, he wouldn't need to mimic others in the first place. Plus, mimicry has a time limit, which keeps him stuck in an average position.
Even if Arceus used Judgment in front of him countless times, his body wouldn't support him using this skill.
However, defeating him signifies a certain breakthrough, as every year, this NO.60 faces a slew of challengers.
After a round of shooting back and forth, Speed seemed to have found a way to respond. She no longer kept her distance to exchange shots with the opponent. The copied archery skills left her with no breakthrough, as her arrows were always intercepted.
And for archers, there's another reality to face: the number of arrows is limited.
"Girl, your quiver is empty, isn't it! So what are you going to do now?"
As he spoke, he continued to draw his bow and shoot at Speed. The mimicry skill is comprehensive, allowing him to magically create some weapons with his physical strength, similar to Setsuna's Aura Arrows, with some advantages over the original weapons.
But like Baccarat's Metronome, due to limits in stamina and personal ability, there's a limit to the fakes. If he mimics someone else's swordsmanship, he might only wield an ordinary sword instead of replicating a famed sword.
Watching Speed start her charge, he began a flurry of shots. He chose the plain because his battle strength depends on the opponent's ability, which makes this terrain more suitable. But it's also a good place for cavalry charges.
Additionally, mimicry has a drawback. After mimicking a skill, there's a long cooldown before it can be used again. His acquired skill was temporarily locked on archery.
Speed didn't say anything. She only pulled the bowstring off during her gallop, gripping one side of the bow in her hand. When an archer runs out of arrows, it doesn't mean the archer loses combat capability.
At this moment, an archer would show the enemy what elite really means. Boosted by the Zebra-Zebra Fruit's momentum, Speed switched her combat role, wielding the bow like a cavalry saber, demonstrating the advantage of cavalry.
She indeed lacked a mount, but as she straddled her own centaur form, she somewhat counted as cavalry.
The archers' battles hadn't ended; Speed was just one example. On the other side, the Hundred Beasts' strongest archer was also engaged in battle.
There are many who use bows, but if you had to pick the strongest among them, it would definitely be Setsuna. She usually participated in these battles as a Defender, but this time, her role was as a challenger.
...
"Hey, hey, hey… I'm the host, you know! Have you ever seen anyone challenge the host? Big Brother Kaidou! Aren't you going to do something?"
Queen didn't expect his danger to come this way. With Kaidou and Arceus standing behind him, he didn't believe anyone would plot against him in this setting, thinking he could explain the arena environment and peacefully enjoy yet another day.
Yet, he ended up being challenged.
Queen tried to raise a protest, but it was in vain. Setsuna had enough qualifications to challenge Queen, and in Kaidou's eyes, there was no reason for Queen to refuse the challenge.
He could accept his subordinates' defeat, but not their fear of battle.
"But you're the only disaster left here, so who else would I challenge?"
"But you weren't interested in this position, right?"
"Oh, I wasn't originally, but everyone else is quite busy, so it's not right for me to just be idle. I need to stretch my legs."
If it were Zeraora, he might find this tone quite charming, but Queen had already seen through her nature; she might as well have written "two-faced" on her forehead.
Apart from the one or two who initially challenged Setsuna and Mandfeish, later on, no one dared to challenge the two of them. They were the most stable in their standings, while others fluctuated up and down, their formidable strength making their positions as solid as a rock.
So Setsuna was actually quite idle now.
"Are you sure… it's not because Zeraora went on a mission and left me here, so you're not feeling happy?"
"Of course not! The kids are watching, I can't stay too idle. If you have no objections, let's start here."
With that, Aura Power formed a bowstring, and a specially made arrow appeared in her hand. Seeing that arrowhead, a sense of foreboding surfaced in Queen's heart.
"Wait!! Isn't that a Seastone Arrowhead?!"
"Oh dear, no one said I couldn't use it."
"I'm going to disqualify you!!!"