BOOM! A crimson wave of energy erupted from Peale and the others, carrying with it the thick, visceral reek of raw power. A strange sound came from their clothes as their bodies began to swell. Their outfits stretched taut, then burst apart layer by layer.
A slight change came over Wilder's face, and his body tensed. His instincts told him that these men had undergone a heaven-and-earth-shattering transformation. They now felt dangerous.
"Heh…" The transformation stopped. Peale looked at Wilder, dipping his head slightly, and gave him a smile like a predator eyeing its prey.
The others were much the same, their faces now filled with a bloodlust and excitement that was the complete opposite of their previous demeanor.
BOOM!
With a single push, the ground beneath their feet cracked. The figures of the men vanished, fanning out to surround Wilder and rushing him from all directions.
There was no hesitation, and their speed was too fast to track.
Wilder's pupils contracted slightly. The next second, a massive fist coated in Armament Haki struck at him from behind.
So fast!
Wilder rolled to the side, dodging the blow. The fist slammed into the spot where he had just been standing, and with a tremendous cracking sound, a huge crater was blasted into the ground. The sheer power of the attack made Wilder's heart grow heavy.
Before he could even get back to his feet, something resembling a belt, also coated in Armament Haki, shot toward him, hugging the ground.
The hairs on Wilder's back stood on end. With no time for any other action, his body immediately turned elemental.
"That's… Bronze Tree's power. He's a user of the Belt-Belt Fruit," the young Marine, watching from his hiding spot, muttered, his hands unknowingly clenched into tight fists.
CRACK!
In the next instant, the belt whipped down hard on the ground. The sound was like the strike of a giant hammer. Even though Wilder had turned elemental in advance, he was almost hit. The belt passed through his automatically parting swamp-body and struck the ground, carving a deep, long trench into the hard earth with the force of an explosion.
You really can't underestimate any pirate with a bounty over 100 million.
Wilder's eyes narrowed, and his body emerged from the ground in another spot, reforming into a human shape.
"According to the rules of the game… it's my turn to counterattack."
"Maniacal Swamp!" A boundless tide of swamp surged from Wilder's body, quickly forming a flowing torrent. It moved like a natural disaster—a mudslide or a collapsing mountain—surging forward with terrifying force!
"Tch!" Soria of the Greatsword and the others clicked their tongues in annoyance and quickly retreated, changing their direction of attack. Only Peale, a crazed smile on his face, charged straight into the swamp flow as if he hadn't seen it.
"It's useless! I've already analyzed your ability thoroughly! This kind of power is completely useless against me!"
Laughing wildly, Peale plunged into the swamp. A bizarre scene unfolded: his body passed straight through the swamp as if it didn't exist, and the swamp itself showed no ripples or signs of being passed through.
It was like a spirit passing through a wall.
Without making a sound, Peale ignored the swamp, entering one side and exiting the other. He instantly appeared in front of Wilder, who was behind the swamp flow, and swiped at him with a claw coated in Armament Haki.
"Die! Haha! Your head is mine!"
Wilder was momentarily stunned by the strange sight, but he quickly composed himself. Although he didn't yet understand Peale's ability, it didn't stop him from reacting to the attack.
Facing Peale's Haki-coated claw, Wilder expressionlessly took a step back, shifted his body to the left, and thrust out his own left hand, also coated in Armament Haki, like a striking serpent!
CLANG!
A sound like colliding metal rang out. The two Haki-coated claws met, and sparks flew between them. The next second, something strange happened again.
Wilder's hand passed straight through Peale's. With a bizarre smile, Peale's entire body dropped, and as it did, Wilder's hand phased through him. Peale himself passed through Wilder's body, appearing behind him. In the instant he turned, his right hand, once again a claw, aimed for Wilder's heart and struck at his back!
Armament Haki is ineffective, which means it's not a physical issue. Then… is it spatial?
Sensing the claw attack coming from behind with his Observation Haki, Wilder's expression remained calm. In a flash, he analyzed the key to the problem. The next second, his body vanished from the spot.
Almost instantaneously, the moment Wilder disappeared, several sharp spikes coated in Armament Haki shot through the air toward Peale.
Peale's claw struck empty air. Just as he was about to look for Wilder, the spikes arrived. He reacted instantly, a flicker of frustration crossing his face, but his body quickly retreated, dodging the attack.
"I see… so it requires some kind of preparation? Two seconds at most, less than a second at least," Wilder murmured to himself, a thoughtful look in his eyes as he witnessed the scene.
At that moment, the swamp flow Wilder had just released came to a halt, its momentum gone, settling into a still pool. The other men had also closed in from all sides. The mysterious liquid seemed to have given them an all-around boost in reaction, speed, and power. Even Wilder felt pressured by their current state.
He found that his own speed couldn't keep up with theirs. If it weren't for his superior reaction time and Observation Haki, this fight would be incredibly difficult.
Among the group, the ones who posed the greatest threat to Wilder were Soria of the Greatsword and Peale.
The former had a strange, silent swordsmanship, while the latter possessed a nearly unbeatable ability; attacks couldn't hit him, but he could attack at any time.
WHAP!
Just as he dodged a pincer attack from Soria and Peale, a belt whipped down from above. With no time to react, Wilder was struck, sent smashing down from mid-air. He hit the ground, creating a large crater, and his body shattered into a pool of mud.
"This is our chance to kill him!" Peale and the others were overjoyed at the sight, their faces twisting with bloodlust as they raised their weapons and fists and charged!
Hearing the attacks coming, Wilder immediately reacted. He didn't reform his body right away; instead, his swamp form quickly burrowed into the ground.
BOOM!
The group's attacks landed in the crater where Wilder had been, erupting in a massive explosion. Soria's sword wave sliced ten meters into the earth, creating a terrifyingly deep trench, yet it made the least noise. In contrast, the attacks from Bronze Tree's belt and the Blood Blade Butcher made the biggest commotion, blasting the crater open by another five or six meters.
RUMBLE!
Without warning, swamp erupted from beneath the feet of the men. All of them, except for Peale, reacted with a change in expression.
Soria, the calmest of them all, leaped into the air. His greatsword silently swung down, unleashing several intersecting slashes of light that cut apart the surging swamp torrent.
Bronze Tree did something similar. He leaped back, spread the fingers of both hands, and with a sharp downward swipe, ten belts shot out from his fingertips. They lashed into the swamp torrent, instantly breaking it into pieces that fell powerlessly to the ground.
The others fared a bit worse, looking disheveled as the swamp's impact sent a jolt through them. They only managed to react at the last second, and it took considerable effort to break free from the dangerous torrent.
Only Peale stood his ground, letting the swamp pass through his body, unmoving, a strange smile on his face. "Useless, useless."
Wilder reappeared in another location. Peale and the others, spotting him instantly, gave him no time to rest. The moment Wilder's body had just finished reforming, they were already in front of and behind him, swords, fists, and claws all striking at once.
"You shouldn't have come! Hahaha! Die! Still planning to use that useless ability? I told you, it's no good!"
Peale's face was a savage grin as he looked at the massive amount of swamp gushing from Wilder's hands. He laughed maniacally, his attack not slowing in the slightest. In fact, the terrifying power of the mysterious drug was only now truly on display. Where his claw passed, stones shattered into dust without even being touched. Such terrifying power could, without exaggeration, obliterate a row of ten houses in an instant.
"Lucifer Wilder, this is where you stay. Your journey has been exciting enough," Soria of the Greatsword said calmly, appearing at Wilder's right rear. His blade swept over gently, his face impassive. The power coursing through his body had also become terrifying, all of it compressed into this single strike. The edge of the greatsword seemed to tremble and hum, unable to bear the force.
"Heheheh…" the Blood Blade Butcher chuckled foolishly, but his eyes were filled with the excitement of a killer. He attacked from the left rear, a large, serrated butcher's cleaver sweeping horizontally toward Wilder, also containing the full power of the mysterious drug.
"Heh… just stay here. Are you so scared you can only use that useless ability?" Bronze Tree came from the front right, his hands open, fingers spread wide. Belts extended from his fingertips, lashing toward Wilder, all their power focused within them. The Armament Haki coating them seemed to intensify, taking on an almost tangible quality.
The Gunslinger's face was cold. He had abandoned his pistols, instead drawing the poison-laced dagger from his belt. As he slashed at Wilder, he said coldly, "Have you run out of tricks?"
All of this terrifying power, enough to destroy a town, converged on Wilder, who stood motionless, doing nothing but continuously releasing swamp.
"You idiot! Run! Why are you just standing there?! That attack won't work on them!" The Marine agent, watching from afar, was terrified and frantic. Sweat beaded on his palms. He was desperate but didn't dare to shout. In his eyes, if Wilder didn't run, he would surely die under that terrifying assault.
Although he was a Marine and held no goodwill toward Wilder for his past actions—they were, in fact, on opposing sides—he didn't want to see these villains succeed. He couldn't bear to watch what was about to happen. He closed his eyes, waiting for the moment to pass.
In his mind, Wilder was already dead. The thought that Wilder, a man who had recently stirred up the seas, would die tonight in such a way, filled him with a sudden sense of melancholy.
BOOM!
The layered attacks finally landed, overlapping and erupting with a colossal sound that spread far and wide, audible across the entire island.
The young Marine opened his eyes, staring blankly at the area that could no longer be called terrain.
Scorched earth, collapsed houses, and a raging inferno had engulfed more than half the town. The crackling flames from the explosion covered everything, obscuring the scene within.
Peale's loud laughter echoed from inside the blaze. As several figures gradually became visible, the young Marine's heart sank to the bottom of his stomach.
Is… is he dead…?
Just like that…?
The infamous Wilder…
When the flames dissipated, a scene of charred ruins was revealed. The air was thick with the smell of smoke. Peale and the others stood at the edge of a massive crater, laughing excitedly.
That's right… no one could survive an attack like that, the young Marine thought, staring blankly at the scene, a dazed understanding dawning on him.
CRACK!
A strange sound suddenly came from the ruins. The expression on the young Marine's face froze. The laughter of Peale and the others died in their throats. Their expressions stiffened, and they turned rigidly to look at the source of the sound.
CRUNCH! RUMBLE! An arm, its sleeve completely gone, reached out from under the rubble and pushed aside a massive boulder. As more sounds followed, the pile of debris began to slide away, and a tall figure stood up.
His entire body was coated in a thick, jet-black layer of Armament Haki, like a suit of armor. Four strange, slightly damaged walls stood around him, also faintly coated in Armament Haki.
Vmmm…
The Armament Haki receded, revealing a powerful, well-muscled physique.
Other than his missing sleeves, his entire body was…
Completely unharmed!
Wilder lifted his head and gave the men a wicked smile. The moment their eyes met his, the pupils of Peale and the others contracted instantly.
For some reason, a feeling of extreme, imminent danger welled up in their hearts, growing more intense with each passing second.
The ground was covered in a large amount of swamp, scattered everywhere by the explosion. It was on the eaves of houses, on the ground beneath their feet, on distant rocks—it was everywhere. Wilder's gaze fell upon the swamp, and his smile grew increasingly strange.
Peale, catching this detail, felt his heart leap into his throat! He too looked around, and when he saw the swamp spread everywhere, for some reason, a feeling he shouldn't have had made his scalp tingle!
He looked at Wilder, his eyes filled with horror and disbelief. "From the very beginning… you were intentionally spreading your swamp everywhere?"
Meeting Peale's gaze, Wilder actually nodded in agreement. The words he spoke next were enough to make one's hair stand on end.
"That's right… After all, it's the first time I'm actually trying this out. It's best to be fully prepared."
"Wouldn't you agree? Hundred Demons…"