Deep within the jungle clearing, the flames and thick smoke had yet to clear.
Swish!
Without a single wasted word, Viktor's figure vanished in an instant. When he reappeared, he had already crossed several meters. His longsword, carrying a sharp wind pressure, slashed violently toward Mr. 3, who had just rolled out of his camouflage.
"Dammit! So fast!" Mr. 3 paled, performing a desperate somersault backward, narrowly dodging the lethal strike.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique!!"
Viktor gave him no room to breathe. Mid-air, his chest expanded, and a gargantuan orange fireball roared toward Mr. 3's face. Facing the terrifying heatwave, Mr. 3 knew he couldn't dodge. A flash of ruthlessness crossed his eyes as he roared:
"Candle Lock—Extra Large Service!!"
Splash—!
A massive amount of white liquid wax erupted from his body, instantly encasing him.
BOOM!
The fireball exploded, swallowing the white mass. However, as the flames died down, a gargantuan, somewhat comical but incredibly thick white humanoid mech stood defiantly in the clearing.
"Candle Champion!!"
Mr. 3 was hidden inside this tank-like armor. Although the outer layer of wax was melting and dripping from the heat, his main body remained unharmed.
"Hehehe! It's useless!" Mr. 3's smug laughter echoed from within the mech. "This is my ultimate defensive form! Though it's made of wax, it has the hardness of steel! Your sword and ordinary flames can't hurt me!"
"Oh? Hardness of steel?" Viktor landed, looking at the giant white monster with a slight curl of his lips.
Crackle-snap—!!
On his longsword, brilliant blue-white electrical arcs suddenly began to dance.
"Then let's see if your turtle shell is harder, or if my blade is sharper."
Zip!
Viktor moved like a lightning bolt, closing the distance instantly. The lightning-wrapped blade sliced through the "steel" wax mech as easily as cutting through warm butter.
"What?!" Mr. 3 cried out. However, though the blade cut in, the viscous wax seemed alive, gripping the sword tightly. Immediately, Mr. 3 secreted more wax, filling the gash. The mech was restored to its original state.
"Hehehe! This is my art! As long as I have stamina, I can repair it infinitely!" Mr. 3 controlled a massive wax fist, slamming it toward Viktor. "Is this all you've got, Red-Eyed Brat?!"
Viktor pulled back his sword and leaped away, dodging the heavy blow. He looked at the regenerating white shell with a flicker of impatience.
"Amusing. You're like a turtle hiding in its shell." Viktor sheathed his sword, his hands beginning to weave signs at a blurring speed.
A chakra far more violent than before gathered within him. "Since you love playing with wax so much, I'll burn you and your shell into ash together!"
"Try this!!"
Tiger-Ox-Monkey-Rabbit-Rat-Boar-Rooster-Ox-Horse-Dog-Tiger-Dog-Tiger-Snake-Ox-Monkey-Rabbit!
[Fire Style: Majestic Destroyer Flame!!!]
FROOOOOM————!!!
In that moment, what erupted from Viktor's mouth was no longer a sphere of fire, but a terrifying wall of flame that condensed like a laser before instantly expanding into a sea of fire! The temperature was so high that the surrounding air distorted.
"What kind of fire is this?!" Mr. 3 stared through the gaps in his mech at the approaching wall of flame that seemed capable of swallowing the world. His mouth hung open in terror. A flame of this scale would melt him instantly!
"Candle Wall!! Super-Thickened Version!!"
At the brink of death, Mr. 3 pushed his potential to the limit. He frantically created wax walls several meters thick before him.
Sizzle—!!!
The intense flames collided with the wax. The outer layers were instantly vaporized into white smoke, but Mr. 3 supplemented the wax from the inside like a madman. Though he was half-dehydrated from the heat, he miraculously held his ground. When the fire faded, only a riddled, melting, but standing wax wall remained.
"Huff... huff..." Mr. 3 hid behind the wall, drenched in sweat but letting out a crazed laugh of relief. "See!! As long as I have enough wax, your flames can't burn through my defense!! This is my art of creation! I am invincible!!"
Through this exchange, Mr. 3 realized that while he couldn't hit the agile Viktor, Viktor also seemed unwilling to waste too much chakra trying to burn through his absurdly thick shell. He felt he had leverage.
Click.
Mr. 3 suddenly deactivated the armor around the head of the mech, revealing his devious, sleazy face. He pointed toward the jungle—where a giant rotating candle set stood, trapping Zoro, Nami, and Vivi.
"STOP!!! Don't you dare move another inch!!" Mr. 3 roared, his eyes full of threat. "See that? The Extra Large Service Candelabra is almost complete!! That mechanism is linked to my life force—or rather, only I can unlock that specific lock!"
He looked at Viktor with a grisly smile. "If you kill me, your friends—that swordsman, the navigator, and that traitor princess—will be covered in wax mist and turned into living statues!! Permanently!! If you don't want them to die, drop your weapons and let me leave!! Otherwise, we all go down together!!"
Mr. 3 stared at Viktor, waiting for the typical expression of anger, hesitation, or compromise. This trick usually worked on people who cared about their comrades.
However.
What he saw were eyes that held no emotion. Those crimson Three-Tomoe Sharingan glowed coldly in the shadows. Viktor stood there, not even lowering his sword.
He wasn't angry or anxious; he simply looked deep into Mr. 3's eyes. That gaze made Mr. 3 feel as though he had fallen into a frozen lake.
"Look into my eyes."
Huh? Mr. 3 looked in confusion. "What eyes? You—"
Hum—
The Sharingan swirled violently.
[Genjutsu: Hell Viewing Technique.]
"You—" Mr. 3 tried to speak, but the world changed instantly.
In his terrified vision, the black-clad youth vanished. In his place were countless demons wreathed in black flames, crawling toward him from every direction.
"AAAH! What are these things?!"
Then, his proud wax mech began to spontaneously combust. The flames tunneled into his skin. The ultimate agony of being burned alive, of feeling his skin melt away inch by inch, vibrated through every nerve in his body.
"WAAGH!! IT BURNS!! HELP!! I'M MELTING!!" "DON'T COME NEAR ME!! DEMON!!!"
In the illusion, Mr. 3 was experiencing the most horrific torture in existence. In reality, his pupils dilated instantly, and his entire body went rigid.
His mouth was wide open, but no sound came out—only a raspy, choking noise from his throat. Even the wax mech, deprived of conscious control, ceased its repairs and collapsed.
To someone with weak mental fortitude, the Sharingan's genjutsu was a strike from a higher dimension. Viktor looked at his dazed enemy and didn't waste a breath.
Swish—
Body Flicker Technique. Only a black afterimage remained in the air. A flash of cold steel. No resistance. No defense.
Splurt.
Mr. 3's head, with its strange "3" hairstyle, flew high into the air. Even as it landed and rolled across the ground, the face remained frozen in a mask of extreme terror and distortion, as if still enduring the tortures of hell.
The headless corpse swayed for a moment before collapsing with a heavy thud, blood staining the white wax fragments crimson.
High-ranking Baroque Works Agent Mr. 3: Confirmed Dead.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations to the host for defeating Baroque Works High-Ranking Agent Mr. 3.]
[Battle Evaluation: S.]
[Reward: 800 Ninja Way Points.]
Viktor expressionlessly flicked the blood from his blade and slowly sheathed it. He looked down at the corpse, his eyes terrifyingly indifferent.
"Threatening me with my comrades?" Viktor stepped over the body, his voice drifting in the wind. "Pay better attention in your next life."
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