"Ursus Shock…" Kuma muttered the moment he released the compressed air.
First came a high-pitched, irritating hum. Then followed a strange silence. No wind, no breathing, no sound… nothing. It was like being trapped in that instant.
And then… everything exploded.
"RETREAT! NOW!"
Gion shouted with all her might as she realized what was coming, and the marines, seeing the look on her face, didn't hesitate for even a second.
"Shit…!"
A shiver ran through everyone. Some didn't even think—they just turned and started running.
Then…
BOOOOOOM
A direct explosion shook the ground beneath their feet.
The blast was so loud it felt like it struck their chests from the inside, knocking the breath out of more than one of them. The explosion raised a massive cloud of dust and earth, rising in a spiral and forming a mushroom-shaped column that spread like a dark cloud across the sky.
And in less than a second, the landscape changed.
The land was completely swept away, as if someone had dragged a giant iron over it. Nothing remained. Only a gray, flat, smoking surface.
The radius of destruction reached at least a kilometer. Everything inside that circle simply vanished.
"Gulp… D-Do you think that monster's dead?"
A marine drenched in sweat swallowed hard, his trembling voice fading into the silence.
That explosion had been brutal—TOO brutal! What they had just witnessed wasn't an ordinary battle… It was as if two gods had clashed right before their eyes!
Moments before the explosion, they had all clearly seen how Tiberion, without showing even the slightest trace of fear, had charged straight into Kuma's attack. Ignoring the possibility of defeat, he had thrown a punch that crossed the distorted space just before being swallowed by the massive shockwave.
"..."
Then, slowly, the dust began to clear.
The image that appeared before their eyes was something none of those present would ever forget.
At the center of a crater more than a hundred meters in diameter stood Tiberion… completely unscathed.
Not a single drop of blood.
Not a wrinkle on his clothes.
Only a red aura pulsed around him, his red mane perfectly in place.
The muscles of his torso were clearly visible beneath his shirt, which now looked like it had fused with his skin from how tightly it clung to him.
The marines and Jinbe stared at him with awe, fear, and utter disbelief.
He had survived one of Kuma's most feared abilities without a single scratch! And not only had he survived… he looked even stronger.
!
Gion clenched her teeth in frustration.
Not even Kuma's strongest attack, one powerful enough to wipe cities off the map, had managed to make this monster flinch.
Nothing worked on him!
It was like fighting a Logia user—and the worst part was, he did it all without even needing a Devil Fruit…
But then, as she observed more closely, her mind couldn't help but question: Could this all be the result of a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit focused on muscle manipulation?
A Muscle Muscle Fruit?
In contrast, Hancock was drowning in a completely different emotion.
Her breathing was rapid as she stared at every detail of that body, every flawless contour of his muscles as if they were sculpted by Da Vinci himself.
The symmetrical cuts of his muscle fibers, the absolute harmony of his physique… IT WAS TOO PERFECT!
He was a living statue, a manifestation of unbounded masculinity. Her urge to touch him, to run her fingers over each one of those millimetrically defined blocks, was becoming unbearable.
To her, that body was more than attractive.
It was irresistible.
And no matter how many people were present, no matter how inappropriate the moment, her body trembled with desire.
[Congratulations, host. For withstanding damage equivalent to a nuclear explosion, interpretation level has increased by 5%.]
[All attributes have improved by 5%.]
["Demon Back" has been unlocked at 30%.]
[Total interpretation level has reached 62%.]
Tiberion's body vibrated as the new surge of power coursed through him.
He clenched both fists tightly as the air around him began to distort—then released it, holding back no more.
BOOM
An explosion of aura burst from his body.
It wasn't Haki.
It wasn't willpower.
It was desire and authority compressed into energy form, mixed with dense natural pheromones that spread like an invisible mist throughout the entire area.
Gion, Hancock, and Shirahoshi froze. Their bodies shuddered in unison, and their cheeks burned with a blush as intense as it was unexpected. A wave of heat surged up their spines, reaching their lips, leaving them trembling from within.
In a corner of their minds, an image formed before they could stop it: the vision of Tiberion dominating them, holding them down, claiming every inch of their bodies as his own.
'What the hell just happened?!'
Gion brought a hand to her chest, her breathing shallow and uneven. The desire had struck her with such force that she felt her pride on the verge of collapse. She, a Vice Admiral of the Marines, had felt an urge to be conquered right there on the spot, like a slave to pleasure.
'Damn you, Tiberion…!' she thought through gritted teeth, feeling defeated.
Hancock, on the other hand, felt completely disarmed. The Mero Mero Fruit gave her the power of love, but in that moment, she herself had become the slave of a desire she hadn't chosen.
For the first time, she wanted something with no pride, no conditions. Her body was screaming for Tiberion.
After releasing just a fraction of his energy, Tiberion felt the internal pressure slowly begin to ease. It was like barely cracking open a valve on a boiler about to explode.
But that small release wasn't enough.
Because it wasn't just his body that demanded to let go completely—his soul was crying out for it too.
That was when his eyes landed coldly on Kuma's massive frame.
"Kuma… I admit your Fruit has its strengths," he said in a deep voice, "But in front of me… it's still nothing more than a child's game."
Swish
As soon as he finished speaking, a crack echoed beneath his feet.
The ground cracked open and, without warning, his figure vanished.
There was no sound—he simply ignored space itself, vanishing from the spot in an instant and reappearing right in front of Kuma.
It was so sudden that even Kuma couldn't anticipate it, and he had no chance to defend himself.
A punch struck directly onto his forehead.
BOOM
Kuma's skull was smashed into the ground with such overwhelming force that the scorched earth disintegrated instantly.
From the epicenter, massive cracks spread out in all directions, tearing across more than a thousand meters.
The impact shook the land with the intensity of an earthquake, making every structure in Foosha Village creak and tremble.
And amid that absolute chaos, one thing was clear: Kuma had been reduced to a broken doll with a single blow.
His body was completely embedded into the earth, with his head crushed more than ten meters deep.
!
But just when everything seemed to be over, an annoying, repetitive sound began to come from Kuma's body.
"Beep… beep… beep…"
As if it were a countdown.
That's when a faint reddish light began to flicker from Kuma's destroyed body. From his chest emerged a visible energy that compressed itself over and over. That energy didn't just compress and vibrate—it began to envelop Tiberion.
And then, without further warning… it exploded.
BOOOOOOOOM
The blast was so sudden, no one had time to react. In the blink of an eye, the world was swallowed once more by a blinding white flash.
The shockwave that followed spread across dozens of kilometers, pushing the air with such violence that it ripped apart everything in its path.
And within that hell, death was unleashed without restraint.
Countless marines were vaporized.
Those who were farther away and strong enough barely had a chance to survive. Jinbe wrapped himself in Haki, but even so, he was blown into the air, coughing up blood.
Gion, who had tried to protect a group of marines, barely managed to wrap herself in Haki, but even so, a surge of blood burst uncontrollably from her mouth.
Hancock was also caught by the shockwave and sent flying.
Amid the chaos, Shirahoshi would have undoubtedly died, had it not been for the presence of a group of giant Sea Kings who, sensing the danger, placed themselves between her and the explosion.
As the white energy slowly began to dissipate, the survivors of the catastrophe could barely process what had just happened.
Most of them remained frozen, their eyes fixed on the devastated village.
What the hell… had just happened?
No one could fully comprehend what they had witnessed.
How could an explosion of such magnitude even occur?
The detonation had far surpassed any of Kuma's previous attacks.
This was at least ten times more powerful.
While everyone struggled to make sense of it all, Shirahoshi, completely overwhelmed by fear and uncertainty, broke down in tears.
The mere thought of having lost her husband shattered her heart.
The others didn't take their eyes off the center of the cataclysm.
A gigantic cloud of dust rose hundreds of meters into the sky, blocking any attempt to see what lay within.
Even so, everyone anxiously hoped visibility would improve.
Everyone wanted to know what was inside.
After all, with an explosion that monstrous, the inevitable question couldn't be avoided:
Had Tiberion Hanma died?
Was Kuma still alive?!
Time passed with unbearable slowness.
Second by second, the tension grew heavier. More than ten minutes went by without a single movement.
Finally, the dust began to clear gradually. It started from the upper layers, then began to lift from the edges toward the center. Visibility increased inch by inch, slowly revealing the extent of the destruction.
What emerged was a colossal crater.
With a diameter exceeding five hundred meters, and around it stretched a field of devastation spanning thousands of meters.
Foosha Village, once a place of peace, was now more than half destroyed.
However, the most disturbing thing was that, for the moment, there was no sign of either of the two central figures.
Neither Kuma nor Tiberion could be seen anywhere.
Jinbe, Gion, Hancock, and even Shirahoshi immediately activated their Observation Haki. Their senses spread out in all directions, trying to detect any trace of life within a radius extending hundreds—if not thousands—of meters.
The search was frantic, but useless.
The energy left behind by the explosion was so chaotic that it interfered with their sensory perception. There was no way to detect the aura of either one of them.
It was then that Gion's voice broke the silence.
"Everyone still able to move, search for Kuma and Tiberion immediately!"
She wanted to find them—alive or dead, it didn't matter. She needed to see the final outcome with her own eyes.
Deep down, if Tiberion was dead, then she would finally be rid of that monster. But unless she saw his corpse with her own eyes, she couldn't find peace.
And if, for some reason, he was still alive, then most likely he would be severely injured, unable to resist. That would represent a unique opportunity to capture him before he could fight back.
Hancock also rushed into the ruins without hesitation. She couldn't allow Gion or anyone else to reach Tiberion first. If he was still alive, she had to find him before anyone else—and if he was wounded, she had to protect him.
Shirahoshi, still crying, descended from the head of the Sea Kings that had shielded her. Without stopping to think, she began to wander across the devastated field, searching back and forth.
Jinbe, in turn, followed her without hesitation, helping her move rocks, check cracks, and explore every possible corner.
…
And at that very moment…
Several kilometers offshore from Foosha Village, an imposing Marine warship was speeding across the sea. Its prow was decorated with the head of a dog holding a bone in its mouth.
On the deck, a young marine holding binoculars was visibly trembling.
His face, pale as paper, gave him away before he could even speak.
"V-Vice Admiral Garp…!" he managed to say, swallowing hard as he slowly turned his head toward the figure standing behind him, "It's… it's your hometown… Foosha Village… it looks like it's been completely destroyed!"
"..."
Garp didn't respond.
His eyes locked straight ahead with an unnatural stiffness, his mind taking a few seconds to process the words he had just heard.
Then, suddenly… he exploded.
"THOSE DAMN BASTARDS…!!!" he roared, making the entire ship tremble, "I'LL CRUSH THEM WITH MY OWN HANDS!!"
His fury was not normal.
It was the rage of someone who had just seen the only thing he held sacred desecrated.
An overwhelming aura began to erupt from his body, so intense that the space around him seemed to distort. A dry crack sounded as the ground beneath his feet groaned.
The marines closest to him dropped to their knees instantly. Some lost their breath. Others simply collapsed without being able to make a sound.
"I-It can't be…!" one of them murmured, shaking, "I-Is this… Conqueror's Haki?!"
The young marine with the binoculars collapsed, gasping for air.
"I never thought… Vice Admiral Garp… could be this terrifying!"
Fear ran down their spines like a jolt of electricity.
None of them had ever seen him like this. They all knew him as the loud old man. But now…
________
Time: If you're craving more (and I know you are!), I have just what you need. On my Patreon, you'll find exclusive chapters. Join our community and be the first to discover what happens next!
👉 [patreon.com/Athome790]
Your support fuels me. Thank you for the support! 💖