Lina's hand instinctively tightened on the hilt of her new sword.
A fierce, competitive spirit, long-suppressed by her physical frailty, now ignited within her, fueled by the potent, animalistic power of her Devil Fruit.
Though she had once been just a frail practitioner, she had always been a student of the blade.
She instinctively paid attention to all news related to prominent swordsmen, and Roronoa Zoro—the infamous "Pirate Hunter" of the East Blue, a monstrously strong and unusual practitioner of the Three-Sword Style—was a figure she knew well by reputation.
To stand here, on the same battlefield, was a challenge she hadn't anticipated but now relished.
Her gaze, sharp and analytical, swept over the remaining captains.
It bypassed the weaker ones and locked onto Kasli, the captain of the Kasli Pirates.
With a bounty of 13,000,000 Berries, he was, aside from the man Zoro had claimed, the highest-value target currently present.
Gin, standing to Lancelot's right, was far more pragmatic.
He was not a swordsman and felt none of their strange, competitive posturing. He was an executioner, and this was a job.
His eyes scanned the remaining captains, assessing them for threats.
He pointed his tonfa at the only other woman in the group.
"Then Red Fox is mine."
A surge of frustration, brief and comical, passed through Lancelot.
One after another, his subordinates were all picking the high-bounty targets.
In the end, only Matthew, the captain of the Tempest Pirates with a bounty of 11,800,000 Berries, and a few other small-fry captains with bounties in the low millions remained.
Lancelot shrugged, a faint smirk on his lips.
"Fine," he declared, his voice carrying easily over the water. "I'll take care of the rest."
Blood Slaughter, Kasli, Red Fox, and Matthew, all hardened captains and rulers of their own crews, exchanged glances.
Their faces, already pale from the shock of seeing their ships destroyed, now twisted in pure, unadulterated fury.
These newcomers... this arrogant Marine, his monstrous woman, and the infamous Pirate Hunter... they were treating them like goods.
They were dividing them up like cuts of meat at a market, as if their victory was already an absolute certainty.
To these proud, violent men and women, this was the greatest humiliation imaginable.
"You're looking to die..." Blood Slaughter, the most hot-tempered among them, was the first to lose his patience.
His entire three-meter-tall frame trembled with rage, his grip tightening on the handle of the massive, double-bladed axe on his back.
His gaze locked onto Zoro with a deadly, murderous intensity.
If looks could kill, Zoro would have been sliced to pieces a thousand times over by now.
Lancelot, however, simply ignored the pirate's rage.
He turned his head slightly, addressing Lina and Zoro.
"Care for a little competition?"
As he spoke, his hand, which had been resting casually on his hip, moved.
It settled on the hilt of Flame Dragon, his right-hand sword.
His legs bent slightly, his body leaning forward, shifting his center of gravity into a perfect, coiled attacking stance.
Lina's answering smirk was predatory. She, too, mirrored his posture, her hand gripping her own katana.
Zoro, for his part, remained silent, but a dangerous hint of excitement—the first true, non-ironic expression they had seen from him—flickered across his face.
He, too, adopted the same stance, his hand settling on the hilt of his white-sheathed blade, Wado Ichimonji.
Three people.
Three swordsmen.
Three identical, hair-trigger stances.
No further words were needed.
This, perhaps, was the unique, unspoken romance shared only among those who lived and died by the blade.
Gin, watching from the side, felt a sudden, strange pang of exclusion.
He was a fighter, a brawler, a pragmatist. He gripped his heavy tonfas, feeling a bit left out of his companions' high-stakes sword-drawing contest.
He was here to break things, not to participate in their elegant rituals.
"One-Sword Style—Iai—Demon Flame Slash!" Lancelot's voice was a sharp command.
"One-Sword Style—Iai Slash!" Lina's was a fierce cry.
"One-Sword Style—Iai: Shishi Sonson!" Zoro's voice was a low, rumbling growl.
Swish—
The sound was not of three distinct movements, but one.
The three swordsmen vanished from their positions simultaneously, their forms blurring across the blood-soaked wharf.
They reappeared, in the same instant, standing behind their respective targets.
In perfect, chilling unison, they slowly, ritually, sheathed their swords, the click of the blades settling into their scabbards echoing in the sudden silence.
Gush—
A heartbeat later, the results were clear.
Blood Slaughter, Kasli, and Matthew each froze.
A deep, horizontal wound erupted across their chests, blood gushing out violently, spraying the ground.
"Tsk tsk..." Zoro let out a strange, low chuckle, a sound of pure, unadulterated exhilaration.
He glanced over at Lancelot and Lina.
These two... this Marine and his tiger-woman... they were, without a doubt, the strongest swordsmen he had encountered since setting sail from his village.
He was absolutely exhilarated.
He couldn't wait to cross blades with them properly when this was all over.
A heavy thud echoed as Blood Slaughter, his massive frame trembling, collapsed to his knees, clutching his chest.
Matthew, Lancelot's target, fell forward, landing face-first on the wharf, unmoving.
Only Kasli, Lina's target, remained standing.
He staggered, clutching a deep gash, but he was not down.
It wasn't because he was the strongest; it was, as Lancelot noted, because Lina was still, fundamentally, the physically weakest of the three.
Her new Zoan fruit had given her a superhuman foundation, but she had not yet had the time to train that new body, to hone its raw strength to the same monstrous level as Lancelot or Zoro.
Thus, the power of her quick-draw technique was significantly diminished.
A dark shadow crossed Lina's face. She gritted her teeth in frustration, her hybrid eyes narrowing.
She had the skill.
She had the knowledge.
Now she had the potential.
But she still lacked the refined, overwhelming power.
She resolved then and there to train her new body's strength relentlessly.
Only then could she bridge this final, infuriating gap.
"Damn it!"
Red Fox, seeing her three powerful companions struck down in a single, terrifying instant, felt her practiced composure crumble.
Her face paled with a terror that overrode all her training.
Gin, a veteran of countless brutal, pragmatic battles, would never miss such an opening.
While the swordsmen were admiring their handiwork, he exploded into motion.
With a powerful push from his legs, he shot forward like a cannonball, his entire body low to the ground.
"Shield Shattering Strike!"
This attack was his most destructive technique, a move so devastating that, as he had once boasted to Lancelot, even the Iron Wall Pearl's shield couldn't have withstood it.
"Not good!"
Red Fox's face twisted in horror.
By the time she noticed Gin's movement, he was already right in front of her.
Damn it! She had made the most rookie of all mistakes: she had lost focus during a battle for survival.
Among these powerhouse pirate captains, she was the only woman, and her strength was in cunning and technique, not raw power.
Her entire fighting style had always been to maintain distance, to use her tricks and speed to win.
But now, it was too late.
With no other choice, she could only bring her sword up in a desperate, two-handed block, a futile attempt to stop the inevitable.
Clang!
Gin's strike could shatter the thickest shields. How could Red Fox's slender blade possibly withstand it? Unless it was one of the famed, high-grade Meito, there was no way.
As expected, her sword snapped upon impact, the metal screaming as it splintered into a dozen pieces.
Gin's tonfa hammer, however, did not stop.
Its momentum was utterly unchecked. Under Red Fox's terrified, wide-eyed gaze, the heavy steel weapon struck her squarely in the chest with brutal, bone-breaking force.
The overwhelming power made her feel as if her entire chest was about to explode, the pain so intense it brought a film of cold sweat to her brow.
The impact was absolute, lifting her off her feet and sending her flying backward through the air.
By sheer, brutal coincidence, she landed in a heap right at Lancelot's feet.
Lancelot glanced down at the woman, who was groaning, conscious but clearly out of the fight, her chest armor caved in.
He mentally grumbled, 'That Gin really doesn't know how to be gentle with women, does he?'
But grumbling aside, his actions were swift and professional.
His leg moved, a heavy, steel-toed boot kicking her square in the side of the head.
It was not a gesture of cruelty, but a simple, efficient coup de grâce. Red Fox was knocked out cold.
"Tch… Argh!"
At that moment, Blood Slaughter, gritting his teeth, struggled back to his feet.
He spat out a mouthful of blood-flecked saliva.
At the same time, Kasli, his face a mask of pain, also slowly turned around, his wound bleeding profusely but not fatal.
They faced Lancelot, Lina, and Zoro, their gazes flickering briefly to Matthew, who still hadn't gotten up.
His brow furrowed.
These three in front of them were terrifyingly strong.
If they lost their remaining ally, a two-versus-three fight would leave them with no chance of survival.
As for the other, lower-bounty pirates and their first mates who had been chasing Zoro, they had been frozen in place, watching their captains—their invincible captains—be felled like trees.
They exchanged terrified glances.
"Since when," one of them whispered, "did the East Blue Marines have... monsters like these?"
One by one, they instinctively retreated, their courage shattering.
Then, as one, they broke into a mad dash, scrambling back toward the town, desperate to find some other way to escape.
Blood Slaughter, now standing alone with Kasli, his eyes locked onto Zoro, the man who had given him his wound.
"Whoosh—"
With a roar of pure rage, he unslung his giant axe and hurled it straight at Zoro.
The sheer strength required to throw such a colossal iron axe like a projectile was terrifying.
Such was the power of a man with an 18,000,000 Beli bounty.
Lancelot, Lina, and even Zoro himself couldn't help but tense.
Zoro, wisely, chose not to parry the massive weapon.
He sidestepped, his body blurring three or four meters to the left as the axe tore through the air where he had been standing.
But, unexpectedly, as the axe passed him, Lancelot saw the glint of metal.
The axe's handle was attached to a long, thick chain, the other end of which was wrapped around Blood Slaughter's arm.
The moment the first strike missed, Blood Slaughter yanked the chain hard.
The axe, its momentum broken, swung in a wide, whistling arc before abruptly changing direction mid-air, curving back like a guided missile, aimed straight at Zoro's undefended back.
Lancelot and Lina exchanged a quick glance.
'As expected,' Lancelot thought. 'This one's not going down easily.'
Still, neither of them moved to intervene.
This was Zoro's chosen fight.
At the exact same moment, Kasli made his move.
He ignored Zoro and Lancelot, focusing on the one who had wounded him: Lina.
His fists were clad in heavy, spiked iron gauntlets, and his knees and even his boots were reinforced with metal plating.
Clearly, this man was a master of hand-to-hand combat, a brawler through and through.
With a powerful leap, he launched himself high into the air, aiming to bring his full weight down on her. He drove a fist, encased in iron, straight down at Lina's head.
Lina reacted instantly, her tiger-like reflexes on full display.
She gripped her sword with both hands, her new, powerful muscles tensing as she swung the blade upward to meet his devastating punch.