Queen couldn't hide his shock. 'What kind of luck is this? A random Marine ship in Paradise, and it's got officers this strong?!'
And then there was that man—the one who'd fought Red-Haired Shanks. His presence was even more oppressive than the woman's. If both of them came at him at once, he'd be finished.
He held back, careful not to push Gion too far. If he seriously injured her, Victor would jump in, and that was a fight he couldn't win.
His only hope was Osten breaking through first. Once the velociraptor took down his opponent, the numbers would even out.
Osten had been holding the same cautious mindset earlier, but now, he'd finally snapped. Queen grinned. 'It's time.'
On the other side of the deck, Osten's attacks grew increasingly frenzied. Rebecca, forced to focus entirely on survival, entered a rare state of hyper-concentration—her mind, body, and spirit unified.
If Victor knew their thoughts, he'd laugh. Both Queen and Osten were terrified of him joining the fight.
But he had no such plans.
Neither woman had reached their limit yet. True growth came from desperate battles.
'These guys are hilarious.'
Eighteen years from now, Queen's bounty would hit 1.32 billion berries. Right now? Less than a billion—lower than Shanks'.
Victor could solo him anytime. Osten? Even easier. 'They think I'd need to gang up on them?'
Queen's Haki was draining. He couldn't drag this out—not with Victor watching like a hawk.
Time for the trump card.
Poison Bomb.
A wide-range attack.
His tail lashed out, forcing Gion to block—then, in that split-second opening, he fired.
Too close. Too fast.
Gion's eyes widened as the strange projectile filled her vision. She didn't know what it was, only that her instincts screamed 'danger'. Konpira slashed downward—
But Victor knew.
"GION, DON'T—!"
—Too late.
The moment the blade touched it, the bomb would—
Victor vanished.
A blur of motion, and suddenly, he was 'there', standing between her and death.
To Gion, time seemed to stop.
Victor's back—so broad, so unshakable—blocked everything. The bomb, the battlefield, even the storm itself.
For an instant, she wasn't on a pirate ship. She was in another world. A future without oppression, without slaves, without Celestial Dragons. A world worth fighting for.
Victor didn't notice.
With perfect precision, he angled Chikara's flat side against the bomb, redirecting its momentum—
FWOOSH!
—Straight into the ocean.
The sea 'froze'. A jagged iceberg erupted where it struck, the water locking into eerie, virus-laced frost.
Gion snapped back to reality, dazed.
Victor's jaw tightened. '"Ice Oni."'
Queen's masterpiece. A contagious, freezing plague. Victims turned into mindless monsters, spreading the virus until they collapsed.
He didn't know if this was the same version from eighteen years later, but it didn't matter. One touch, and it was over.
Queen sighed. '"Tch. Missed."'
But he wasn't worried. Sooner or later, Victor would have to fight him. Might as well be now.
"Gion, rest for a bit. Let me handle this." Victor's voice was calm, but his eyes—
—If she'd seen them, she'd have known.
The battle lust in his gaze was 'overflowing', so intense even Queen's neck prickled.
"He's strong. Be careful." Gion warned, not even noticing he'd dropped her title.
"Strong?" Victor chuckled, sheathing Chikara.
"Hey, Queen. They say Zoans are all about brute force. Let's test that."
"Oh? First I'm hearing of it!" Queen's face twisted into its usual exaggerated grin, even as he internally groaned.
"Come on then, 'Red-Hair's Leftovers.' Let's see what you've got!"
His neck 'spun'.
Faster. Faster.
Until it was a blur—a whirling, yellow disc of scaled destruction.
The deck groaned as Queen's feet actually 'lifted' slightly.
Then—
"GYAHAHA! DINO DRILL—!"
—He launched forward, his entire body becoming a living, rotating battering ram.
The force behind it could shatter mountains.
Victor didn't move.
His left arm rose—
—And 'caught it'.
BOOM.
The shockwave split the deck beneath them.
A dull 'thud' echoed across the deck as Queen's spinning head came to an abrupt stop. The dinosaur staggered, shaking his skull as if trying to dislodge the ringing in his ears.
Victor hadn't moved from his stance—only slid back two meters. His sleeve had exploded off, revealing corded muscle beneath. Smoke curled from his forearm where flesh had met scaled momentum at impossible speeds.
"That's it?"
He glanced back at Gion and 'winked'.
Gion's eye twitched. 'This bastard—!' She had 'just' warned him about Queen's strength, and now he was mocking her while flexing literal smoke off his arm. She wanted to strangle him.
Queen, meanwhile, was having a crisis.
'How?!'
A 'human' had just tanked his full-force, accelerated, 'Ancient Zoan'-enhanced charge—bare-handed?! What kind of monster—
Victor didn't give him time to process.
In a move that (in another world) Big Mom might've patented—but here, was purely 'his'—Victor flashed above Queen and slammed the dinosaur's head straight through the deck.
BOOOOM!
Wood splintered. Queen's neck stretched comically through the hole, his body momentarily stuck like a hammered nail.
Victor grabbed it.
And 'spun'.
Ten rotations. Twenty. A blur of yellow scales and flailing limbs. Queen's tongue lolled out—whether from laughter or centrifugal force was unclear.
Then—
"SEA KING SLAM!!"
—Victor spiked him back into the ship like a meteor.
The 'Brachiosaurus' groaned. The deck 'shattered'. Queen vanished into the bowels of his own vessel.
…Only to climb out seconds later, cracking his neck.
'"Tch. Should've used a mountain instead,"' Victor mused. Wood clearly wasn't hard enough.
"Alright, strength test done. Now—" He drew 'Chikara, its edge humming. "—let's try skill. I'll use my sword. You do… whatever this is."
Queen stared.
There was only one explanation.
This man had 'definitely' eaten a Mythical Zoan.
Hito Hito no Mi, Model: Normal Human.
'That had to be it.'
"Brat," Queen growled, flexing his mechanical arms. "Strength's one thing. But fights aren't won by muscles alone. You'll see."
He wasn't hurt—wood was nothing to an Ancient Zoan. But Victor's raw power…
Gion's slashes had barely scratched him.
Victor's?
That might be a different story.