"Meowth, take it and see what Pokémon you can draw out."
Vane handed Dog-Gun Lassoo to Meowth.
"Meow, then give me a Suicune!"
Suicune? It does look like a dog, and it even gets teased online as a dog.
But it's a legendary beast, after all. He only got a single Articuno feather's worth of energy by taking down a Paramecia user.
And in terms of level, Articuno should be in the same tier of legendary beast as Suicune. How could a mere ordinary Zoan fruit possibly reel in a Suicune?
"Don't even think about legendary beasts. See if there's some other Pokémon you want."
Because he hadn't watched that much of the Pokémon anime, Vane didn't know many famous canine Pokémon. Besides, what this Dog-Dog Fruit category summons isn't necessarily a canine Pokémon.
For example, Electivire was summoned with the Cat-Cat Fruit. Back when Electabuzz hadn't evolved into Electivire, it only looked a bit like a tiger—actually it isn't a cat at all—yet it still got summoned.
"Let me think…"
Very soon, a Poké Ball appeared in Meowth's hand.
"What Pokémon were you thinking about just now?"
"Huh? I was thinking that since I'm a Devil Fruit user and can't swim, I wanted a Water-type Pokémon… as for which one exactly, I don't really know, meow."
What Pokémon it is, they can check after they get back. This isn't a good place to let it out.
...
"Who is it! Who's provoking our Cactus Gang!"
A squad rushed out of the noisy crowd, led by a tall, skinny man.
"Captain! It's the Marines! They're Marines!"
The battered first mate hurriedly cried for help.
"Cactus Pirate Doushi! Bounty: 91 million!"
Ninety-one million? That's not low. Vane remembered that in the year Luffy returned to the Sabaody Archipelago after retraining, there was only one new pirate with a bounty over a hundred million—the Wet-Haired Caribou.
The other two famous ones' names Vane had forgotten, and their bounties were about the same as this Cactus captain's.
But the 91 million bounty wasn't Vane's focus. More importantly, from a West Blue perspective, you could clearly tell the other side was a Devil Fruit user! Most likely a Paramecia—now that's interesting.
The Dice-Dice, Castle-Castle, Through-Through, Vision-Vision, Hollow-Hollow, and Smelt-Smelt Fruits had given him six feathers. When he awakened Conqueror's Haki, he'd burned through a lot of feather energy. Now among the six feather ornaments hanging on his chest, only one still had energy left, and even that was less than half.
Even though he had a hunch that once he absorbed the rest of that energy completely, he'd become the kind of being whose flesh recovers at extreme speed and could awaken Blood Demon Arts, that didn't stop him from taking another feather to keep boosting himself.
"Marines! Everyone, get them! I told you I felt something was off lately—someone's been watching me!"
Without Vane even needing to make a move, Doushi reacted strongly to the word "Marines." He glared and called everyone around him to attack Vane and the others.
At the same time, the Cactus captain charged straight at Vane. A man who'd been a pirate for so many years—by instinct, he could tell Vane's presence was more dangerous than the others.
"Piercing Heart Thrust!"
The Cactus captain's hands changed—his fingers all lengthened into sharp spikes dozens of centimeters long!
"So it's this fruit."
Vane didn't draw his blade. He met those spikes with Flowing Water Crushing Rock Fist!
At first he thought it was the Cactus Fruit… he didn't even know if that fruit existed. But now it looked like it should be the Spike-Spike Fruit.
In the future, one of Crocodile's subordinates would have this Devil Fruit—the blue-haired woman Nami took down.
Compared to her strength and how she'd developed the fruit, Doushi was obviously far stronger!
"Get turned into a honeycomb by me!"
Ten fingers, ten razor-sharp spikes. He stabbed—stabbed—stabbed in rapid succession!
Vane's hands were coated in Armament Haki as he used Flowing Water Crushing Rock Fist, clanging and clattering as he wrenched and twisted the opponent's fingers aside.
The trail of fists curved and knocked both of the opponent's hands away. With a sudden step forward, Vane's fist drove straight toward his chest.
"Armor Spikes!"
Doushi's body shook, and many dense spikes seven or eight centimeters long sprouted from his chest.
His spikes had strong offensive power, and as defense they were pretty good too. You dare use your flesh to smash head-on into my sharp spikes? Then I'll let your fist get pierced clean through.
Bang!
Doushi flew like a cannonball into a building. He only felt searing pain in his chest—there was no sign at all that he'd pierced the opponent's fist.
Why is his hand so hard… a Devil Fruit user… no, he's with the Marines. The Marines and the World Government can make their bodies very hard.
"I don't believe it—you can really use your body to tank all my attacks."
"Spinning Cactus!"
Doushi crawled out of the rubble. His body kept sprouting spikes, and he turned into… a sea urchin. He really looked like a sea urchin, not a cactus at all.
"Shouldn't you be called a sea urchin?"
"I like cactus! What's it to you!"
Screech!
The sea urchin started spinning at high speed, scraping the ground and throwing off sparks!
"Mad Rush!"
This was truly crazy—plowing through the crowd, not even distinguishing friend from foe.
"Ah! My leg!"
"Run, the cactus has gone mad!"
"Everybody, get away!"
The onlooking pirates scrambled to flee. If they didn't run, it wouldn't do—the giant sea urchin was terrifyingly powerful. Get brushed by it and you're either dead or badly injured. And it wasn't even aiming at its opponent, it was ramming into the bystanders.
"Nice power. Pity your aim's a bit off."
A spiked rolling ball crashing around—just hitting the ground was enough to smash out big cracks. If he could control the aim, it'd be a decent move.
"Kid! I just need to adapt a bit… now die!"
After ramming around blindly a few times, the rolling sea urchin finally got a sense of direction and charged straight at Vane.
"Rankyaku !"
Vane's legs kicked rapidly, and in an instant more than a dozen crooked slashing waves flew out.
Doushi's spin sped up again. The Rankyaku blades that hit him were either bounced away or shattered.
Speed is power. Speed is also defense.
He might not be a Glint-Glint Fruit user, but he'd grasped the importance of speed all the same.
Easily neutralizing Rankyaku's power, the "sea urchin" bounced off the ground and accelerated as it smashed toward Vane.
"Geppo!"
Just before the sea urchin hit, Vane used Geppo and rose into the air.
Boom!
Where the sea urchin landed, the ground caved in over a wide area where Vane had been standing.
"Springy Cactus!"
Calling himself a cactus but actually more like a sea urchin, he scraped twice along the ground and then sprang up in place, chasing into the air.
"Whirlwind Cutting Fist!"
In midair, Vane inverted and spun a full three hundred and sixty degrees, kicking out an attack with a booming shockwave.
Thud!
The sea urchin spun at high speed, trying to smash through the attack—but he quickly realized this strike was far stronger than the earlier Rankyaku.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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