Pirates: How Many Divisions Do the Five Elders Have? Melee
The vicious pirate lackeys, steel pipes in hand, stared in surprise at the trio before them: a man, a woman, and a purple sweet potato spirit.
The three officers of the Santini Pirates shouted, "That woman's a troublesome archer! Everyone, charge her together! Don't give her a chance to open up the distance! Don't touch that blue-purple old man. He's a purple sweet potato spirit who's good at digging up treasure, and he's extremely valuable!"
As for Garen, who wielded a Long Sword and wore coarse cloth clothes but had powerful muscles, anyone with eyes could tell the burly man was trouble without being reminded.
The pirate lackeys let out a strange cry and raised their steel pipes, all pouncing on Ashe, the soft target, without a shred of tender regard for her.
The scene before them went somewhat against common sense on the seas.
A group of despicable pirates were going all out to kill a young woman, yet intended to abduct a decrepit old man and take him back to their ship.
It was both a perversion of morality and the degradation of human nature.
Confronted by the thugs, Ashe showed no panic.
She raised her bow in her left hand and nocked an arrow with her right, holding them across her chest.
"All the world hangs on one arrow!"
Though she said "one arrow," she shamelessly nocked more than a dozen.
In the blink of an eye, they scattered outward in a horizontal fan.
The arrows carried an icy chill. The weaker pirates they struck died on the spot, while the slightly stronger ones were covered in frost, their movements noticeably slowing.
Ashe seized the chance to step back and put some distance between herself and the pirates.
As a squishy marksman, Ashe certainly didn't like standing toe-to-toe and trading blows with these rough men, even if their attacks were actually very weak.
After all, it was highly unwise for a level-three ADC to fight while tanking a minion wave.
Under Ashe's ice arrows, the cannon-fodder pirates froze a deep purplish red and fell to the ground one after another.
"Damn it, there's something strange about that woman's arrows!"
"Could the information be wrong? Is that woman actually the Penguin-Penguin Fruit user?"
"This is already her limit! Controlling cold is as far as the Dead-last Fruit can go. It can't compare to Boss Santini's Paramecia fruit!"
The officers of the Santini Pirates encouraged the cannon-fodder pirates.
Though the pirates who hadn't been hit were afraid, the dungeon lay behind them, leaving them no way to retreat. Each revealed a savage side and continued charging forward without fear of death.
As long as they got close, that penguin woman wouldn't be able to use her ice arrows!
"Don't be afraid, I'm coming!"
With a loud shout, a burly man leaped forward.
It was Garen of Demacia.
Garen's Long Sword flashed as he abruptly sped up, cutting off the pirates' charge.
"Justice, by law or by sword!"
Garen brought his Q skill, [Decisive Strike], down on the forehead of a pirate officer who had been rallying the others, splitting it like a watermelon.
Then he swung his Long Sword and began spinning rapidly.
His E skill, [Judgment], was like a human storm, tearing apart the pirates' charging formation.
Meanwhile, Ryze, whom the pirates believed had little fighting ability, took off his coat, bared his muscles, and began dishing out damage like mad.
His skills had a relatively short range, but their cooldowns were fairly quick.
With smooth, flowing movements, he formed magic charges in his hands and brutally drove them straight into his enemies' bellies. His movements had a fierce, violent beauty.
Even Ma Qiao felt a little envious watching him.
If money hadn't been tight, buying a full set of Ryze's skills and experiencing what a knockoff Chidori felt like would have been pretty nice.
As a hot-blooded shonen manga, One Piece had an unwritten rule.
When two forces clashed, the cannon fodder usually fought cannon fodder, officers fought officers, and the bosses faced each other one-on-one, repeatedly doing sit-ups against each other.
In the end, victory usually depended on who could sit up for the final sit-up.
King Luffy was clearly a master of this standard procedure, the undisputed king in the field of sit-ups.
Having spent so many years in this world, Ma Qiao had naturally learned to do as the locals did.
He hadn't even deliberately controlled how things developed, yet somehow the situation had turned into the Free trio versus the officers and foot soldiers, while he and Santini faced each other, king against king.
Now that things had come to this, both men knew words were useless. Broken bones were the best textbook.
Santini broke Lieutenant Nezumi's legs to make sure he couldn't escape, tossed him aside, and lunged at Ma Qiao with a bloodthirsty grin.
"Million Drill Speed: Black Hole!"
This time, Santini didn't attack with his right hand. Instead, he used his hardest part—his head!
Though a million drill speed was only a figurative number, this time the drill was indeed spinning far faster than before, at a terrifying speed.
Its high-speed rotation stirred up the surrounding air, drawing in rubble and other debris from the accretion side as though it really were a black hole.
"Not even steel can stop me! Kid, if you've got guts, don't use that weird escape ability. Let's settle this fair and square!"
Santini's talk-no-jutsu naturally had no effect on Ma Qiao.
But Ma Qiao had no intention of using Flash again anyway.
Flash's thirty-minute cooldown wasn't over yet.
And this was also what Ma Qiao wanted.
He had originally planned to have Ryze act as support and immobilize the opponent, while Garen served as a secondary support to silence him and prevent him from escaping underground. Now it seemed neither was necessary.
[Courage]!
Without further ado, Ma Qiao first gave himself a buff that reduced damage by thirty percent and added a seventy-point Barrier.
The skill cost no mana and had a relatively short cooldown compared to summoner spells, making it an essential for a brawl.
At the same time, Ma Qiao's own [Barrier] and Ashe's [Heal] were both ready to go.
Once his preparations were complete, Ma Qiao drew back his fist, gathered his strength, and then suddenly stepped forward.
"Mighty Vajra Fist!"
The rapidly spinning drill collided once more with the fist covered by the critical-strike glove. For an instant, even the air seemed to ignite from the high-speed friction!
It really was true: not even a dog would eat the Flame-Flame Fruit!
Not only could every single top-tier powerhouse produce fire, even this Drill-Drill Fruit user had managed to produce flames using the principle of starting a fire by drilling wood.
Unfortunately for him, what he was drilling into this time wasn't wood, but League equipment bought with wages!
The heat didn't even leave a scorch mark on the Brawler's Gloves!
Santini wasn't Chinjao, the cone-headed leader of the Happo Navy with a bounty of 545 million.
Both his physical combat skills and his development of his fruit powers fell far short of the greatest pirates.
Years of indulging himself in pleasure and slacking off had left him at a standstill.
Ma Qiao was different.
Ma Qiao and his subordinates trained through the coldest days of winter and the hottest days of summer, never stopping their repeated physical conditioning through countless days and nights. They surpassed even Liu Zoro, who was famous as a training maniac!
Ma Qiao's punch embodied tens of millions of shots from Ashe's bow, tens of millions of Garen's handstand push-ups, and Ma Qiao's own tiny but vital contribution. It pressed forward without hesitation, cutting through the air!
Though it wasn't as exaggerated as Saitama exchanging punches with a monster, after a brief stalemate, Ma Qiao's Mighty Vajra Fist triggered its ten percent critical strike and drove forward with overwhelming force.
Santini's head was twisted and flattened like a soda can caught in a hydraulic press, until it caved in.
Then his massive body flew backward and slammed into the rock wall, embedding itself deep within and shattering a large section of rock.