Chapter 148: The Stone Giant and the Slamming Cage
[Ding!]
[Reward: 400 Enhancement Points!]
[Current Points: 5626!]
Doll flexed her wrist, the deep black sheen of Armament Haki fading from her knuckles. The stirrings of the reverted toys near the flower field had been her cue to act. The pervert in the swimming trunks, Senor Pink, had been… disappointingly simple. Beyond using his Devil Fruit to swim through surfaces, his combat skills were pathetic. He hadn't even mastered Observation Haki, completely unaware of the destructive power contained within Doll's compact frame. Two solid, Haki-infused punches were all it took to leave him unconscious in the dirt.
"Is that all the strong ones are?" she muttered, a frown of dissatisfaction on her face. "Such a weak opponent isn't even a proper warm-up. It's so rare to get a part in Lieutenant General Ian's grand plan; it can't end this easily, right?" She rolled her shoulders, the fight having done little to burn off her battle-lust. "Forget it. Time to find another officer to punch."
On the other side of the palace city, a high-pitched shriek of disbelief echoed through the streets.
"Gyah! What is that? The Beast King? The mythical Azure Dragon?!" Pica's voice, already shrill, reached new octaves of panic. "That's not right! The scale color is all wrong! How can there be two Devil Fruits with the same power in the world?! Is it an artificial one? Could our factory produce something like this?!"
He was speaking more in these few minutes than he usually did in an entire month. The sight of Nami transforming into a majestic, pink-scaled dragon had utterly shattered his composure. The draconic aura she emitted upon transformation had stunned his subordinates and sent a primal chill down Pica's own spine. He had witnessed a similar, terrifying presence only once before—from Emperor Kaido himself. The memory alone was enough to make him hesitate.
"Pfft— Bahahaha!" A peal of laughter ripped through the air, cutting through the tension. Nami, her serpentine dragon body coiling in the sky, couldn't contain her mirth. "Could you please stop talking? I just can't help it! Why does a grown man sound like that? Is this your battle strategy? To make me laugh myself to death? Hahaha!"
The fear in Pica's heart was instantly drowned out by a wave of pure, unadulterated rage. This woman was mocking him!
"You stinking fake of a woman!" he screeched, his voice cracking. "I'm going to pull you out of the sky and rip your mouth to shreds!"
The buildings around him began to tremble, stone and mortar groaning as they were assimilated into a colossal form. A giant stone titan, several stories tall, slowly rose from the ground, its head now level with Nami's flight path. Entire structures were wrapped around its stony arms. As a user of the Stone-Stone Fruit, Pica could move his true body freely anywhere within the giant, making him a difficult target to pin down.
BOOM! BOOM!
Knowing conventional attacks would be useless against a Mythical Zoan's durability, Pica opted for sheer, overwhelming force. The giant's massive arms, laden with buildings, swung through the air in wide, crushing arcs aimed at Nami's long, coiling body. Her size was an advantage for power, but a disadvantage for evasion. She couldn't possibly dodge such a large-scale assault!
What Pica didn't realize was that Nami had no intention of dodging. His giant form shared the same weakness: it was a massive, immobile target.
As the rocky fists descended, Nami retaliated.
"ROAR!"
"Tornado Tempest!"
Her maw opened, unleashing a barrage of invisible, razor-sharp wind blades that screamed through the air, bombarding the stone giant.
BOOM! CRACK! SHATTER!
With every impact, huge chunks of rock were sheared away, crashing to the ground. But Nami wasn't done. Worried Pica would simply escape into the ground, she initiated a second, devastating maneuver. Her dragon body began to spin like a colossal top, generating a ferocious tornado that engulfed hundreds of meters. The wind blades, now part of the cyclonic fury, scoured the area, shredding the stone giant and gouging the very ground beneath it, eliminating any possible escape route for Pica's true form.
"Gah! Cough! This... this is definitely the destructive power of the Azure Dragon!" Pica's voice, now weak and filled with terror, emerged from the crumbling ruin of his creation. "Why does the Navy have it?! WHYYYY?!"
AHHH!!
His screams were cut short as his true body, covered in lacerations and battered beyond endurance, was flung from the disintegrating giant and slammed into the ruined street, falling unconscious.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations to the host for successfully defeating Pica, "Donquixote Family Executive" and user of the Stone-Stone Fruit!]
[Reward: 1200 Enhancement Points!]
[Current Points: 6826!]
Across the island, while the vengeful and Ian's Marines fought, a different kind of struggle was taking place. The ordinary citizens who had been freed from their toy prisons wanted only one thing: to escape the nightmare. For them, freedom meant getting as far away from Dressrosa as possible. They never wanted to risk becoming forgotten plastic slaves again.
But that hope was swiftly extinguished.
Sssssssssss... Sssssssssss...
The sound was faint at first, like a distant swarm of insects, but it grew steadily louder. The Birdcage was fully active. All across the island's perimeter, near-invisible razor threads had descended, silently slicing through buildings, trees, and anything else in their path. In just a few minutes, the outer districts of Dressrosa were being systematically shredded.
The fleeing citizens skidded to a halt, their faces paling as they saw the carnage at the edges of their world. They pushed against the threads, only to have their hands lightly grazed and bloodied. They were trapped. The nightmare wasn't over; it had just been upgraded to a slamming cage, and the walls were closing in. Despair, colder and sharper than any string, began to sink its claws into their hearts. There was no way out.
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