"Boom!"
As Ace swung his fist, scorching flames instantly dyed the sky and ocean below blazing red.
This was the origin of Ace's nickname.
With just a single punch, he could sink a battleship; this was "Fire Fist."
But the next moment, Ace raised an eyebrow in surprise.
He clearly saw a figure atop the distant battleship... a figure had stepped onto the deck and was moving straight toward the surging flames.
"Is he crazy?"
That thought flashed through Ace's mind. If the man abandoned the ship and fled right then, he might have a slim chance of survival. But to face the flames head-on...wasn't that suicide?
Yet, in the next instant, Ace froze.
He saw the figure on the deck slowly draw back his arm.
"Buzz!!!"
The fist clenched tight as golden radiance and violent fluctuations gathered along his arm.
Then...
"Bang!"
A sharp boom tore through the air as he faced the incoming inferno and threw a punch.
"Buzz!"
An invisible shockwave collided with the flames, stopping them less than five meters from the battleship.
"Hong... long!"
The violent shockwave exploded outward from where the two forces met. Scattered flames fell into the sea, sending up columns of white steam.
Seeing this, shock flashed across Ace's face.
"This guy..."
Ever since obtaining the Flame-Flame Fruit (Mera Mera no Mi), his power had rarely encountered resistance. Of all the opponents he had encountered, only the Oka Shichibukai had been able to withstand his Fire Fist directly.
In other words, the Marine who had suddenly appeared before him...
"Is strong."
And at this moment...
"Crack!"
Beneath Roy's feet, the battleship's deck began to emit clear sounds of splitting and shattering.
Immediately after, the railing in front of him collapsed. The entire battleship rocked violently from the shockwaves.
Fal and Hans barely managed to grab onto the main mast, struggling not to be flung away.
"Th-this really is a short life, Sergeant Fal!"
"Yeah... wait, Hans, you asshole! Even now, you're showing off your rank!"
"If I don't show it off now, when will I? Even the boss's shockwave punch is... Boss!"
Before he could finish, they clearly saw that...
Roy was smiling.
And that was indeed the truth.
At this moment, Roy resisted the impact of the flames while looking toward Ace in the distance, who had just unleashed Fire Fist.
There was no worry in his heart, only excitement.
"Even though he just set out to sea, Ace is still the son of the Pirate King. His strength is definitely nothing to scoff at!"
"Perfect...a worthy opponent!"
With that thought...
"Buzz!!!"
The golden radiance on Roy's arm visibly intensified.
No... more precisely, it wasn't just "as if."
Within the luminous interface before Roy's eyes, the following was clearly displayed:
[Fruit Enhancement Complete. Consumed 2 Billion Beli]
[Human-Human Fruit: Model Daibutsu LV1 → LV3]
[Human-Human Fruit: Model Daibutsu LV3: Allows incarnation as a gigantic golden Buddha, granting immense physical strength and the ability to release massive shockwaves through the body.]
Moments later, everyone saw Roy's fist, locked in a stalemate with the flames, begin to push forward.
And from his body, that golden light no longer remained confined to his arm; his entire form began to glow with radiant gold.
Then...
He swung his arm.
"Buzz!"
The overwhelming shockwave caused the sea beneath the battleship to surge violently.
The crimson flames shattered instantly under Roy's swinging punch.
Like blowing out a candle, those raging flames, powerful enough to burn an entire ship to ashes, couldn't even struggle once under Roy's fist.
"He actually dispersed the flames..."
Seeing this, the expression on Ace's face went far beyond simple surprise.
And this was only the beginning. Because at this moment, Roy's punch had already been fully unleashed!
"Shockwave Fist · Infinite Light!"
Then, everyone saw it.
The entire sea in front of him turned golden in an instant.
Yes!
A golden shockwave of nearly terrifying magnitude surged from Roy's fist! It was like a gigantic pillar of pure gold, tearing through the air with a piercing shriek and splitting the silence of the sea.
"Hong... long!"
Where the fist passed, the ocean itself was forced apart by the shockwave; waves were pushed violently to either side.
In the blink of an eye, a trench more than ten meters wide appeared out of nowhere across the sea's surface.
At both ends of the trench, the forcibly displaced seawater rose into towering walls, with countless fish and shrimp tumbling down from within them.
"What... is this thing!?"
Ace's expression turned utterly stunned at that moment.
His cowboy hat shook violently under the massive pressure wave, and the fierce wind from the punch stung his face.
A single punch that split the sea itself... was this guy a giant?
Ace immediately prepared to use elementalization to evade the attack.
But...
"No, wait!"
In the next instant, he realized he couldn't.
Behind him was the Spade Pirates... His companions were there.
Ace clenched his teeth and decisively abandoned elementalization.
"Boom!"
Blazing flames erupted from his body as he shot upward into the air, carrying the small boat beneath his feet with him.
"Kyōkaen — Mirror Fire Flame!"
He thrust both arms forward, and crimson flames burst from them, instantly forming a blazing wall of fire in front of him.
In the next moment...
"Bang!"
The golden shockwave collided head-on with the crimson fire wall.
A deafening explosion echoed across the sea, and the massive impact rippled outward along the ocean's surface, once again turning the surrounding waters into a raging storm.
"Uwa…!"
This time, it was the Spade Pirates who couldn't keep their footing.
To be precise, most of them were already injured and not standing to begin with. Except for Deuce, the ship's doctor and the only uninjured one, everyone else was instantly slammed hard against the deck.
"Everyone...!" Seeing this, Deuce instinctively tried to get up and help.
But before he could rise, he clearly heard...
"Deuce! Get down!"
It was Ace's shout.
Trusting Ace without hesitation, Deuce flattened himself against the deck. The next instant, he felt a violent gale carrying an overwhelming roar sweep over his head.
When he managed to open his eyes and look up...
"Whoosh!"
...he saw that the enormous firewall that had blotted out the sky ahead had completely collapsed.
Where it once stood was only a massive, fist-shaped imprint.
"... "
As if realizing something, Deuce slowly turned his head.
He saw a sight that sent a chill straight through his heart.
The Piece of Spadille had been completely transformed at that moment.
The "burning horse head" figurehead at the bow was gone without a trace, and all three masts on the deck had collapsed entirely.
The most terrifying thing of all was the cabin toward the rear.
The entire cabin section had disappeared. It was as if the Spade Ship had been cut in half by a gigantic blade.
"Gulp..."
Deuce couldn't help but swallow hard.
He could almost imagine what would have happened if he hadn't gotten on the ground just then.
With that thought, his gaze shifted instinctively toward the figure standing atop the distant battleship.
"That guy... just what kind of monster is he!?"
(End of Chapter)
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