Lamb to the Slaughter

The sound-energy mass gathered in the sky as Roy swung his arm downward.

The swelling sound instantly crashed toward Patches like a bolt of lightning.

A thunderous roar carrying terrifying lightning-like force smashed downward.

Before Patches could react to the sudden turn of events, the lightning-like sonic impact directly struck the wings on his back.

Bang!

Wings as hard as iron collided with lightning-like sound waves ten thousand meters above the ground.

It had to be said that Patches possessed some strength, but compared to Roy, the difference was like heaven and earth.

The noise lightning descending from the sky instantly blasted away more than half the feathers on Patches's body.

Even so, as a Zoan Devil Fruit user, Patches was still able to fly through the sky.

Though he looked utterly miserable now, Roy found it regrettable that the Sound Lightning he had accumulated had failed to immediately take Patches's life.

"Was it still a little lacking?

But I have to say, Zoan Devil Fruit users really are tough!"

Roy spoke slowly as he looked at the charred Patches.

Boom!

An explosive shockwave instantly compressed and expanded before Roy's mouth.

As the invisible sound waves compressed to their limit, as though particles within them were continuously colliding—

"Sonic Missile!"

A massive wave of sonic energy shot forward from Roy, its powerful shockwave carving a transparent vacuum through the air.

As the attack instantly tore through the dark clouds and descended toward Patches—

Whoosh!

Before Patches could react, the astonishingly penetrating sonic energy dealt him another devastating blow.

Patches had originally believed that the lightning strike had been a natural phenomenon, but after suffering this attack—

Through the pitch-black clouds, his hawk-like vision caught a vague figure amid the clouds before him, illuminated by scattered starlight.

"How is that possible? We're ten thousand meters in the air!

How could such massive dark clouds possibly be controlled by a person?"

No matter how muddled Patches's mind was at the moment,

the shockwave that had pierced through the dark clouds made him realize that what he had suffered was not a natural disaster, but a man-made calamity.

He looked at the gathering clouds before him, which were nearly larger than mountains.

For some reason, after discovering that this disaster had been created by someone,

Patches felt no urge to resist at all.

The image of those clouds in Patches's eyes had now changed drastically from what it had been moments ago.

If it had been just a moment earlier, Patches would have flown into those clouds and fiercely vented his rage.

But now, he only wanted to turn around and flee.

After all, someone capable of controlling clouds on such a massive scale was absolutely not someone he could afford to provoke.

Thinking of the two attacks that had just struck him,

Patches somehow recalled the battle between that flame brat and his former employer.

Both had been scenes of world-destroying devastation. The flame brat had controlled fire, while the figure hidden in the clouds was now stirring the entire sky.

A Logia Devil Fruit user.

That was the only thing Patches could think of that matched the scene before him.

Beneath the gigantic dark clouds,

the black hawk Patches had transformed into looked incomparably tiny.

After confirming his thoughts, Patches did not hesitate in the slightest. He immediately flapped his ragged wings, now nearly bare of feathers, and fled toward the distant sea.

The enormous mass of dark clouds before him had made him understand the gap in strength between them.

Patches was no fool. Other than naturally powerful idiots, what pirate with a bounty of over a hundred million Berries was not shrewd?

He admitted that his actions in the Krol Kingdom had been driven by enormous wealth and rapidly swelling power, clouding his judgment.

But now that he had lost everything, with none of that prosperity left to conceal the truth, the cold reality restored Patches's usual calm.

The figure within the dark clouds was absolutely not someone he could fight head-on.

After all, Logia Devil Fruits stood at the top of the pyramid among all Devil Fruits.

And the three great powers of the Marines, the world's most violent organization, were all Logia Devil Fruit users.

Faced with such monsters, Patches had a clear understanding of his own strength.

His previous arrogance had now been beaten back to its original form.

Facing the unknown powerhouse behind him, Patches only wanted to escape this patch of sky as quickly as possible.

Even though all his subordinates had died at the hands of that unknown powerhouse behind him,

Patches did not have the slightest thought of revenge.

That was the fear brought by the unknown.

Watching Patches flee decisively through the Echo Map,

"Oh, trying to run? But if you escape, what about my losses?"

Roy looked at the bald little bird flying away.

"Meteor Noise!!"

The energy expanded from sound particles in the air shot directly toward Patches's fleeing back like meteors.

With a thought from Roy, the dark clouds that had originally gathered into a tornado immediately spread apart.

Vast clouds and mist blanketed every stretch of sky as far as the eye could see.

And everywhere the clouds reached, Roy was the master.

Boom!

Meteor-like noise once again concentrated and crashed down onto Patches's back.

But as he continuously retreated and dodged, his ability to fly allowed him to avoid most of the damage time and again.

Patches felt no joy over that.

He looked at the sky around him, shrouded by pitch-black clouds, and the darkness where not a trace of starlight shone down.

"Oh, it seems your reaction speed is pretty fast!

But how are you going to dodge this one?"

"Sonic Laser!"

The sound waves transformed into a laser in Roy's mouth and shot straight ahead.

"Who are you? Why are you attacking us?"

Before his words had even fallen,

the concentrated beam directly pierced through Patches's chest.

The intense pain stiffened Patches's entire body, and he began to fall uncontrollably.

The sky blanketed by dark clouds was Roy's domain.

Patches had already lost more than half his strength while covering his companions earlier.

From the moment he charged into the sky without holding anything back, he had already become a lamb to the slaughter.