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Sweat rolled down Jabra's forehead as his eyes sharpened, both hands curling into claws.
From the crowd, some who recognized the transformation shouted:
"A Devil Fruit! He's a Zoan-type Devil Fruit user!"
"A wolf!" someone pointed and screamed. "He's turning into a wolf! Look, how terrifying!"
Jabra's head morphed, fangs lengthening and his face stretching into a feral snarl. He locked his eyes on Liam.
"I won't let you go!"
Shua! Three claw strikes ripped through the air.
Liam sidestepped, brushing past the razor-sharp slashes.
Shua, shua, shua! Jabra's claws came in a flurry, wild, furious, a storm of silvery arcs. But Liam moved like a willow leaf in the wind, slipping effortlessly through every opening.
Kami-e?!
Jabra's mind raced. Was that Paper Art… or just his own speed?
He couldn't tell, couldn't even follow the movement, Giorno was too fast, faster than his eyes could track.
Swish!
Jabra's claw finally brushed its mark, he felt contact. His pupils shrank. The wolf's claws had grazed his opponent's shirt, leaving only a faint white scratch.
Then, Liam's massive hand landed on his wolfish head.
Jabra's vision went dark. He heard Giorno's voice, casual and annoyed:
"What are you doing, Husky? Scratching at air?"
And then, Jabra felt it. A sudden, dizzying sense of weightlessness.
It took him a second to realize, he was flying. Backward. Hard.
He heard Fukurou's distant shout. The world spun upside down as he saw flashes of terrified faces in the crowd, heard their panicked voices echoing:
"The wolf got sent flying!"
"The Devil Fruit user's too weak!"
"So that's a Zoan, huh?"
He couldn't tell anymore whether he was hearing them for real, or if those voices were just echoing inside his head.
Finally, there was the heavy thud of hitting the ground…
Jabra tried to get up, only to realize his body was almost completely numb. And then, the sharp pain began to spread slowly throughout his entire body.
How… was I sent flying? How did Giorno even strike me?
Jabra was utterly stunned. Amid the chaos and screams around him, he forced himself to sit up, clutching his chest. A gush of blood spilled from his mouth, and only then did the suffocating pressure ease slightly.
"Move, now!"
Fukurou darted forward with Blueno, urgency in his voice: "We can't take him! Only Lucci has a chance…"
"Watch behind you!"
Jabra raised his hand, shouting. From his perspective, Giorno's ghostly figure had appeared behind Fukurou and Blueno.
"This Lucci you're talking about… where is he?"
Fukurou and Blueno heard the voice, brimming with anticipation, and turned their heads, only to see Giorno's fist coming straight at them.
Tekkai!
Fukurou hurriedly braced himself, trying to harden his body.
Bam!
Liam's fist slammed into his chest, as hard as iron.
Doriki…
Fukurou's eyes reddened with bloodshot veins. He couldn't… calculate…
Even with his body fully braced by Tekkai, the pain felt like it might shatter him completely. Instinctively, he tried to use Rokushiki to gauge the strength of the strike. But all he could discern was a long series of question marks.
This man's punch… far exceeded the limits that Tekkai could endure.
Pfft!
Fukurou spewed a mouthful of blood.
Blueno grabbed the collapsing Fukurou and pulled Jabra along. With a Whiz, he activated Rokushiki Soru, vanishing from the spot in an instant.
But even as Blueno and Jabra sped away with superhuman movement, they both felt it, Giorno's gaze seemed to follow them, cutting through the empty space as they disappeared.
A soft wind swept along the ground, stirring dust in its wake. Blueno, Jabra, and Fukurou vanished without a trace.
"Rokushiki… huh."
Liam stroked his chin thoughtfully.
"Rokushiki has seven techniques in total. But this one, 'Tegami' or hand-combat, the one used to gauge battle power… how exactly does it work?"
He paused on his toes, then Whiz!, vanished from sight, leaving the street silent.
From the windows along the street and the alleys beyond, many heads peeked out.
"So scary… they just started fighting out of nowhere…"
"That guy who turned into a wolf, he seemed strong, right? How did Giorno knock him away with a single punch?"
"Strong? Strong compared to whom?! Chopperna Giorno isn't an ordinary pirate! Are you crazy?!"
"Shh! The female Captain is still here!"
"She's still here?! We should hide…"
"Hide? They're pirates! Maybe they've been hitting the royal treasury all along!"
"The treasury…"
"If there are pirates here…"
Whispers like these reached Robin and B.I.B. in the street.
Robin lowered her eyes. Within a radius of hundreds of meters, every alleyway and rooftop detail bloomed into a petal-like vision, becoming her eyes and ears. She absorbed everything, every argument, every whispered speculation from the onlookers.
In her arms was Ross, spat out by Liam.
Ross struggled in panic, wriggling. "Don't eat me, don't eat me… so much saliva… huh?"
She instinctively touched herself, and realized first: she was alive! Then, no matter where she touched, it was clean and dry. No saliva anywhere.
Was I dreaming just now?
Ross looked up to see Robin smiling at her. The smile was slightly strange, almost surreal.
A hallucination?
But Robin seemed a little taller than before…
While Ross wondered, Robin's gaze scanned the dramatically altered facial features before her. She fought to suppress a smile. Before, I could reach her shoulders… now my eyes are aligned with her chest and abdomen…
Ross looked at her own hands in confusion.
Robin said calmly: "Let's go find that Guard Commander. He probably won't recognize you now."
She glanced at B.I.B. beside her. "I'll leave this to you."
B.I.B. understood immediately. It had seen the Guard Commander before and remembered his unique aura. Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki) activated, sweeping repeatedly across the entire island. Soon, it detected the aura of Guard Commander Gance somewhere between this City town and the Royal City at the island's center.
B.I.B. floated ahead while Robin, carrying Ross, followed closely.
He definitely won't recognize me now… Ross still looked bewildered. What does all this mean?
Meanwhile, Blueno, Jabra, and Fukurou were catching their breaths on the outskirts of the City, resting on the spot.
"A pirate with a {400,000,000} Berries bounty… is there anyone that absurd?"
Jabra slumped to the ground, still unable to recover from the overwhelming power of Giorno.
"I heard he's proficient in Rokushiki too…" Fukurou murmured. "And yet we didn't even see his First Style… we had no choice but to flee…"
Blueno wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
"Hey, Blueno!" Jabra said. "Do you think the one raiding the royal treasury… could it be that guy?"
Blueno shook his head. "He doesn't have the time… According to the information, during the last raid on the royal family, and during the similar incident in Igor Kingdom, Giorno and the other were likely still on Kujai Island in the Calm Belt… Earlier than that, they had appeared in South Blue."
Jabra's face darkened. As a government agent, encountering such a powerful pirate left him feeling both powerless and embarrassed. I wonder if Lucci could…
"So… where is this Lucci you're talking about?"
The voice came from behind them.
"What?!"
Jabra, Blueno, and Fukurou turned in shock, only to see Giorno had silently followed them and now squatted leisurely on a large rock by the outskirts of the road.
Royal Palace, deep within the corridors…
Marines and palace guards patrolled and remained on alert. The Heavenly Tribute must never be lost.
Through the heavy security iron doors, inside the dim treasury, a massive figure sat cross-legged, hair flowing like a waterfall, eyes closed in meditation.
"Poru poru poru…"
Suddenly, the Den Den Mushi in his arms began to ring.
(End Of This Chapter)