When the dust finally settled, Davy was still standing—
alone amid the battlefield that now looked like it had been plowed by a titan.
Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Just one of Kid's attacks had nearly drained the Barrier puppet's entire soul reserve.
If Davy hadn't canceled it in time and switched to using the Smooth-Smooth Fruit to deflect the brunt of the impact,
he might have lost the Barrier-Barrier Fruit altogether.
This was the difference in weight class—
Once the gap in raw power reached a certain threshold,
no amount of technique could make up for it.
And Kid was no slouch in technique either.
His decisions, his timing—
sharp, ruthless, precise.
"Kh… cough…"
Davy wiped the blood pooling at his lips. The metallic taste mixed with dust clogged his throat until he forced it out.
Kid snorted.
"Trash will always be trash.
So what if you have a bunch of abilities?
Even without using my Devil Fruit, I could beat you into the dirt."
It wasn't empty bragging.
Physically, Kid outclassed Davy in every category—
Strength, speed, durability…
His Armament Haki was richer and more refined.
Even without magnetism, it would only take him a few more swings.
And honestly, fighting a Slide-Slide user without powers might make it easier to deal real damage.
What Kid didn't know—
Was that his Magnet-Magnet Fruit was hard-countering Davy's entire fighting style.
Because of the electromagnetic field distorting everything around them,
Davy couldn't risk using weapon-bound soul puppets—
the core of his combat system.
Only Red Princess had landed a single clean strike at the start.
After that, any attempt would be suicide.
With repulsion and attraction constantly shifting mid-fight,
Davy was better off discarding his "soul armory" altogether.
Against a swordsman, Kid's Fruit was oppressive.
Against Davy, it was suffocating.
"Shhhup."
The air whistled—
Metal blades beside Kid shot out like bullets.
Each one accelerated as it flew, carrying terrifying kinetic force.
They struck Davy's body—
and bounced off, repelled by the Smooth-Smooth Fruit's passive effect.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The redirected blades slammed into the metal wreckage scattered around the battlefield,
sending violent vibrations humming through the ruins.
The ground—already cracked like dry earth—finally gave way and collapsed in massive chunks.
Davy's footing became unstable.
He kicked off the air with Geppo, rising upward—
Only for Kid to appear directly in front of him without warning.
"Magnetic Cage."
Metal rods and plates flew from every direction,
locking together in perfect geometric precision.
Before Davy could react—
he was sealed inside a cube of iron.
"It's over."
Kid raised his arms.
"Assign: Magnetic Crash!"
He moved without pause—
distracting with ranged fire,
closing in,
trapping the target,
and finally detonating his finishing blow.
A seamless kill-chain.
The moment his Fruit surged,
the metal prison around Davy began to emit a terrifying pull.
Above them, the iron sky shuddered—
and then fell.
"Ding."
"Clang!"
At first it was only small pieces—
screws, bolts, metal shards.
Then larger debris.
Then full-sized beams and plates,
all accelerating relentlessly toward the growing point of gravity.
THUD.
CRASH.
BOOOOM.
The onslaught didn't stop.
The metal sphere grew rapidly—
from two meters tall to five,
from the size of a house to the size of a hill.
Half the iron sky collapsed into it before the sphere stopped growing.
Its surface twisted under the internal pressure—
the metal shrieking with a bone-scraping crunch.
Then—
It collapsed inward.
Crushed tighter.
Smaller.
Heavier.
A prison with only one ending.
A death sentence.
Davy understood immediately—
He was in real danger.
The Smooth-Smooth Fruit had been enough when he had room to maneuver.
But in a shrinking iron coffin?
There was nowhere to redirect force.
He couldn't break out from the inside.
Kid's magnetism was too overwhelming.
That left only two options—
Break the technique head-on
(impossible; he was too weak right now)
Or—
Survive it.
Wait out the ability.
Endure until Kid could no longer maintain the gravitational collapse.
Or die first.
Davy grit his teeth.
Black Armament hardened over every inch of his body.
He yanked out the Smooth-Smooth puppet—
and slammed the Rhino-Rhino Fruit puppet into his chest instead.
If he couldn't slip free,
he needed raw durability and insane recovery…
even if it meant gambling everything.
Next, with what little space he had,
he grabbed any metal scrap he could reach
and slapped soul puppets into them.
They would shatter instantly.
But even one second…
even half a second of relief…
might change the outcome.
The walls closed in.
The sphere shrank further.
The very barriers around his body began to distort under the crushing pull.
Davy inhaled sharply—
then roared:
"Tekkai!!!"
The Marine technique known as the "move idiots use when they want to get hit."
He'd never imagined he'd rely on it one day.
But right now?
Even the tiniest layer of defense mattered.
"Screeeee—
grrrrrrk—
CRRRUNCH—"
The giant iron sphere tightened around him,
shrinking from the size of a building
to something barely larger than a carriage.
Inside, the pressure was annihilating.
Outside—
Kid finally lowered his arms,
face flushed, breath ragged.
A bead of sweat rolled down his temple.
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