BOOM!
Rocks' body was blasted backward for over a thousand meters before crashing down like a missile
An explosion erupted the moment he hit the ground.
His mind was crystal clear.
"Ares actually mastered Observation Kill… When did that happen?!"
"What else does this brat even know?!"
Rocks' heart sank into an icy abyss.
He had been sent flying by Ares.
The humiliation made his expression twist so ugly it was almost maddening.
Slowly, he rose from the ground.
His eyes gradually turned bloodshot, his fists clenching so hard they creaked.
A sharp pain radiated through his body.
To Rocks, that sensation was rare a long-forgotten feeling. It stabbed at his nerves… and instead of sending him into a frenzy, it forced him to calm down.
He reached up and pressed a hand to his waist, then his chest where Ares' blows had landed.
Ares' punches were brutally direct, each one carrying the weight of a thousand tons.
Taking several hits in a row was no joke especially since he was a Logia user of the Yami Yami no Mi.
With that fruit, the pain he felt was amplified.
"I made a fatal mistake."
"From the very beginning, I didn't take Ares seriously. I kept telling myself he wasn't a threat yet that he would only become dangerous in the future."
"I thought it would take him a few more years before he could pose even the slightest threat."
"I was wrong."
"His growth can't be judged by my own assumptions."
"I can't afford carelessness anymore."
As Rocks stepped out of the smoke and dust, it was as if he had become a different man.
He looked deeper, more restrained, as though he had locked away seven or eight parts of his killing intent.
His gaze was a dark abyss unreadable, bottomless.
In his line of sight, Ares came charging like a savage dragon, ramming forward with unstoppable momentum.
Muscles knotted across that massive frame, oiled and gleaming, his sheer size terrifying.
No one could possibly underestimate the power hidden beneath those boulder-like muscles.
"Conqueror Dragon Roar Wave!"
Ares fought with wide, heavy motions, savage and primal.
His enormous fists were wrapped in wind and crackling force, tearing the air apart with thunderous booms
So violent that Rocks could practically hear the roiling blood surging inside Ares' body.
Black spheres formed around Rocks' fists, infused with Conqueror's coating as he met Ares head-on.
BOOM!
The heavens and earth seemed to shatter. The momentum was overwhelming.
In that brief opening, Ares lifted a leg and whipped a kick at Rocks
It came down like the Monkey King Sun Wukong's golden staff: heavy, tyrannical, impossible to ignore.
Rocks was forced to dodge, his power failing to fully gather into his fist
And this time, he didn't send Ares flying.
Ares seized the initiative.
Once he had the upper hand, he refused to let go.
A storm of attacks poured out his legs like two iron pillars, sometimes even swinging like massive cleavers.
And his dragon claws never rested.
One moment he punched, the next he slashed with his claws in an eerie, unpredictable rhythm
Not giving Rocks a single breath of space.
In only a few breaths, Ares unleashed dozens of strikes!
One large shadow, one smaller shadow
They crossed and clashed again and again in midair.
CLANG!
BOOM!
BANG!
…The fight was savage!
If Rocks showed even the slightest lapse, even the smallest opening
Ares would drown him in a relentless barrage of fists and kicks, violent enough to go on forever.
Of course, Rocks refused to give him that chance.
He guarded and countered with flawless discipline, leaving not a single crack in his defense.
As for battle experience
He had survived countless life-or-death wars.
…
When the Rocks Pirates finally arrived, the sight before them filled everyone with awe.
"Too fast… I can only see their afterimages!"
"Ares is that huge, yet he's still that fast. How the hell does he even move like that?!"
"I thought Ares wouldn't last more than a few exchanges against Captain Rocks… but they're fighting to a standstill!"
"…"
The pirates around them burst into noisy discussion, every eye glued to the sky.
How could they not care?
One was the captain of the Rocks Pirates.
The other was a division commander.
Captain John was far stronger than the rest.
With Observation Haki active, he managed to catch fragments of their movements
And his face instantly changed.
His heart pounded wildly.
"What's going on?! Am I seeing things?!"
He had seen it
Blood at the corner of Captain Rocks' mouth.
That meant only one thing.
Captain Rocks was injured.
Which meant only one other thing.
Ares had actually hurt him.
If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes, John would never have believed it.
A fierce question rose in his chest:
"How did that brat Ares manage to injure the captain…?"
"Give him ten years eight, even and he might truly become a second Rocks!"
But
Ares was simply too young.
Even now, he wasn't yet twenty.
John still couldn't fully bet on him.
At that moment
A figure slithered in from the distance.
Muscles knotted, blue skin and scales glinting.
Fangs, jagged teeth, an ugly face like an evil spirit crawled out of a nightmare
It was the sea demon, Sladar.
He gripped a trident and roared, "Captain Ares! I'm here to help you!!"
"Ares' subordinate!" John flashed forward and blocked Sladar's path, barking, "That's a fight between the captain and Ares. No one else is allowed to interfere!"
Sladar halted.
The snake-like lower half of his body made people's skin crawl, goosebumps rising instantly.
He leveled his trident at John, furious.
"John, move!"
"Ares' enemies are my enemies!"
John's face darkened, a vein nearly popping.
He took a swig from his flask, then drew the twin blades at his waist. His brow snapped down as he shouted,
"Do you even understand? That's Captain Rocks' order! No one is allowed to interfere in this fight!"
"Disobey the captain's command, and there's only one outcome death!"
He put weight on that last word.
A chill, murderous intent seeped out of Captain John, the threat in his voice crushing.
Sladar knew.
He'd been with the Rocks Pirates long enough.
But he didn't care.
There was only one person he cared about
Ares.
He tightened his grip on the ancient, heavy trident and glared with vicious eyes.
"The only one I follow is Ares. I only obey his orders!"
"If you don't move… then I'll really strike!"
Sladar drove his trident into the ground with a hard throw.
CLANG!
John curled his lips into a cold smile.
"Not afraid to die? Then come."
In his heart, he sneered,
"Ares' men really are a bunch of barbarians muscles for brains. They don't even understand the situation."
"Maybe they truly don't know how terrifying Rocks is."
"But after today…"
"They will."
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