Pink Mantis's Dream

"Mythical Zoans not only have the basic abilities of Zoans, but also an additional special ability."

"This guy's bounty doesn't match his strength, but after all these years, how has word of his Mythical Zoan ability never gotten out?" The rear admiral found that puzzling too.

Whether someone was a pirate, a marine, or anything else, having a Mythical Zoan was bound to attract a lot of attention.

"Hahaha, because everyone who knew is dead!" Mantoudiya laughed smugly in the air.

Relying on his powerful "mimicry" ability, he had ambushed and killed one opponent after another with higher bounties than his.

He just hadn't expected to fail this time. What rotten luck. At the thought, the look he gave Bullet grew even more dangerous.

"After this, my true strength is exposed."

For a veteran schemer, nothing was worse than no longer being able to catch people off guard, much less being exposed in the spotlight.

Now that Bullet understood what a Mythical Zoan Devil Fruit was, an excited grin spread across his face. The ability sounded like so much fun!

"Leave that Pink Mantis to me. You take care of the rest. Be careful, that female mantis might be able to fly too."

After that warning to Benson and the others, Bullet said no more and kicked off the air, flying toward Mantoudiya at high speed.

Truth be told, this was his first time using Geppo. Before now, he had only heard Vice Admiral Cornell explain it a few times and watched a few demonstrations.

Now that he needed to fight in the air, he naturally used it according to his understanding of it, without even finding anything strange about it.

People really did have different physiques.

"Hmph, are you that eager to go to the underworld?"

Mantoudiya sneered and chose to dive straight at him. The next moment, the thin wings behind him vibrated even faster, producing an even more piercing buzz. Immediately afterward, his figure vanished amid the buzzing.

This time it wasn't "mimicry," but the result of a brief burst of speed!

"Hahaha, I'm a man who's always stood at the gates of the underworld!" Bullet grinned and laughed, then stomped down hard with his right foot and vanished in a massive explosion of air.

In the next instant, the two men reappeared less than two breaths after vanishing and clashed fiercely. Pink Mantis's serrated forelimb chopped down viciously on a fist hurtling toward him with the force of wind and thunder.

"Give me a good fight. If you dare disappoint me, I'll kill you!"

"Big words, brat!"

Two pairs of equally vicious, brutal eyes met across their joined fists, sending invisible sparks flying between them.

The fierce battle began!

A delighted smile on his face, Bullet gave a slight kick and vanished from the spot, reappearing above Pink Mantis's head. At the same time, he dodged a sweeping forelimb at precisely the right moment, then bent his right arm and slammed his elbow down.

[Whoosh!]

Although Mantoudiya didn't know Observation Haki, the extraordinary reflexes granted by his Zoan Devil Fruit still allowed him to respond with ease. He dodged the elbow at once, turned, and slashed with his forelimbs crossed.

"Good, good!"

Bullet laughed wildly, his blood thoroughly fired up by such a high-quality opponent. Twisting around, he kicked a forelimb.

The move looked exactly like the Konoha Great Whirlwind, but he refused to acknowledge it, believing it was just an ordinary kick.

He would never learn that man's taijutsu. Absolutely not!

The powerful, heavy leg collided with the swift, sharp forelimb, and an explosive crack suddenly rang out in the sky as the air swirled outward in gusts.

The surging force drove the two apart, but both were fired up now. They charged at each other again at high speed, clashing in the air like heavenly thunder and earthly fire, their fierce battle unceasing!

"What a spectacular fight." The marines on the warship were all focused on the two of them now, so hardly anyone was watching the fight on the pirate ship instead.

The exception was Rear Admiral Dewitt, who always kept his duty in mind. Bullet's performance was indeed striking to him, given that he was only thirteen.

But as a veteran officer, Dewitt was more interested in and attentive to the three-man tactics displayed by Benson, Ogden, and the others.

Well over half the pirates in the Insect Swarm Pirates had already been dealt with, so more and more combat groups were joining the attack on the female mantis, Luokesani.

As a result, every one of her overwhelmingly powerful slashes was met and blocked by three, sometimes even four or five long blades working together. At the same time, all kinds of attacks came at her from every direction and angle, and before she knew it, many more wounds had appeared on her body.

Most infuriating of all, whenever she tried to spread her wings and fly, that lean, fit-looking marine would always appear in midair and kick at her.

She was much weaker than Mantoudiya and couldn't force her way past the kicks to fly away. All she could do was wearily fend off the endless waves of attackers surrounding her.

Luokesani now hardly dared take the initiative to attack. Each time she did, not only did she fail to hurt anyone, but she also suffered repeated wounds through the openings she left.

Amid the dizzying flashes of blades, she was reminded of the glass ant nest in her room. Wasn't she now just like the mantis thrown into it?

It thought itself the superior predator, yet against the endless swarm of ants, it ended up as food. The difference lay not with her, but with these "ants"!

These "ants" weren't sacrificing lives as they had in the past. Instead, they used tactics from who knew where to pin her firmly in place.

Then, by continually blocking together and coordinating their attacks, they wore down her stamina bit by bit and added to her wounds.

She understood all of it and could see it happening, but there was nothing she could do!

Luokesani's only hope now was that her husband would deal with Bullet quickly and come help her.

She no longer dared hope to kill all these marines. She only wanted to fly into the sky and escape!

Hurry, hurry up, you bastard! I can't hold on much longer!

As she continued to lose blood, the female mantis's movements began to slow, and the force behind her slashes gradually weakened.

But the marines acted as though they hadn't noticed. They continued to surround her in an orderly fashion at their own pace, with someone occasionally darting out to stab her.

Naturally, there were plenty of piercing screams along the way. After all, a process so close to death by a thousand cuts was far too painful. The corners of the other marines' mouths twitched as they watched from the warship.

Who could have imagined that a pirate with a bounty in the tens of millions, who had roamed the seas for seven or eight years, would be tortured like this by a squad of marines?

And she was a Devil Fruit User!

In the past, without an officer of at least the rank of colonel—no, even with a colonel-rank officer—they would have had to sacrifice dozens of young lives.

Mantoudiya saw it from the sky too, but he couldn't spare a hand to help. This brat was simply too difficult to deal with!

Although the brat couldn't take him down anytime soon, the problem was that he didn't seem able to finish the brat off either. What should he do?

Keep fighting?

Mantoudiya began to hesitate. His Insect Swarm Pirates were certainly finished, but what about him?

No!

As long as I'm alive, I can put the Insect Swarm Pirates back together anytime. Right, I have to survive and get out of this damned place.

I still have to build the strongest Insect Swarm Pirates, made up entirely of Bug-Bug Fruit Users, and then fight my way into the New World!

That was his dream.