Godspeed Kill

The intoxicating scent of alcohol mixed with the sour stench of gastric fluid, producing one of the most vile odors in the world. For a moment, it even reminded Roy of the agony of swallowing a Devil Fruit.

Big Drunkard truly deserved to be called a monster. By himself, he had turned the surrounding area into a swamp, leaving Roy with nowhere to stand. After spewing out all that liquor, his enormous six- or seven-meter body had shrunk to barely a meter tall, looking as ridiculous as Luffy after using Third Gear.

"Ha, ha, whew. Let's see how you move now. Without that speed you're so proud of, what can you use to fight me? And you actually made me lose so much good liquor—an unforgivable sin! Prepare yourself, bastard." After shrinking, Big Drunkard's speed had actually multiplied, while his strength had barely declined.

Roy could have continued dragging things out with Big Drunkard using Pseudo Moonwalk, but his opponent had thoroughly enraged him, stripping away any patience Roy had left for playing around.

"Heh. I remember a saying from my past life: all martial arts under heaven are invincible against nothing, save speed. Today, I'll show you where my limits lie. Godspeed."

The blood within Roy's body began to churn, circulating at an astonishing speed. Anyone standing close enough could even hear the sound of blood surging and pounding inside him. His skin reddened like heated iron, while white vapor steamed from above his head. His entire body resembled a machine running far beyond its normal limits.

This was the Godspeed technique Roy had learned from Kenkon. It was somewhat similar to Luffy's Gear Second: the body endured an immense burden for a short time, gaining terrifying speed and strength at the cost of operating beyond its limits.

That was why Roy had not wanted to enter Godspeed from the beginning. If Big Drunkard had not completely enraged him, Roy would rather have revived a few more times than use this secret technique.

Big Drunkard noticed the changes in Roy's body as well. But in his view, as long as Roy stopped using that disgusting speed to evade him everywhere, the scales of victory would definitely tip in his favor.

"Oni Giri!"

There was no technique behind Roy's strike—only speed. Speed pushed to the absolute extreme, as though it had broken through the restrictions of time and space. Forget the pirates and civilians watching from afar; even Big Drunkard, who was fighting Roy directly, could not grasp the trajectory of his attack at all. Before he could react, the battle was already over.

Big Drunkard's body split into two at the waist, the cut incomparably smooth. Roy had moved so fast that even the blood had not had time to spill out.

His severed body fell into that disgusting gastric fluid. Roy did not want to remain on that foul-smelling swamp for even another second, and immediately shot through the air to escape.

The watching pirates and civilians all felt as if they were dreaming. This was no insignificant nobody—he was a vicious pirate who had conquered an entire kingdom, a powerful pirate whom a Marines Commodore had judged to be worth 80 million Beli. Yet he had died just like that.

Shouldn't the victor have been decided only after some world-shattering ultimate move? Only a few Senior Executives could discern anything from Roy's final strike. It left them barely daring to breathe around him, as though they could still sense faint Sword Qi lingering behind their backs.

Even Roy himself felt as if he had changed history. After all, this guy was supposed to become a Senior Executive of the Blackbeard Pirates in the future. He was no simple character—perhaps the most troublesome enemy Roy had faced since obtaining the Dream-Dream Fruit.

"Woo! We won! We won!"

"Long live the captain! The captain is invincible!"

"Long live Lord Roy! Lord Roy is invincible!"

It was not only Roy's pirate subordinates and the nobles trying to flatter him. Even the civilians of the Gilia Kingdom cheered loudly.

Previously, they had been fiercely opposed to their king welcoming such a vicious pirate as Roy into the kingdom without putting up any resistance. Deep down, they had even despised the king for his cowardice. But now, they only wanted to immerse themselves in this sea of cheers, celebrating Lord Roy's power and His Majesty's wisdom.

Roy was rather speechless as he listened to their cheers. What kind of joke was this? He was a vicious pirate. For pirates, being vicious, powerful, cunning, and terrifying were supposed to be compliments, weren't they?

Still, while he was not some saintly pirate like Straw Hat, he had always looked down on robbing civilians. Drawing a blade against defenseless weaklings was not what a true powerhouse of the seas would do. Of course, that was also because civilians had no real wealth to speak of. Robbing countless civilians was nowhere near as profitable as robbing a single pirate. Pirates like him should be preying on other pirates.

Roy reorganized his fleet. Things were not too bad. The Senior Executives had indeed lived up to his careful selection and the development of their dream potential. Aside from Patch, not a single one of them had been injured. And with Patch's tough hide, those minor wounds were no more serious than mosquito bites.

His pirate army had suffered roughly five hundred casualties, most of them modified humans brought by Yonji. Of course, that did not mean those modified soldiers were weak. On the contrary, they were all elite fighters capable of taking on ten opponents at once—and those ten were not ordinary people, but hardened pirates of the seas.

But precisely because they feared neither death nor injury and regarded completing orders as their highest goal, they also suffered the highest casualty rate.

Still, Roy was fairly satisfied with the result. The Drunken Pirates had not been weak. Wiping out the enemy at the cost of five hundred men was something even an elite Marines unit might not have been able to accomplish.

The King of Gilia looked at his capital, which had been devastated beyond recognition, and felt like crying without tears. The palace in particular reeked to high heaven, making him decisively choose to relocate the capital. If he had not been wary of that pool of foul fluid, he would have even wanted to drag that long-nosed bastard out and whip his corpse.

But when he compared it to the Ciss Kingdom, he felt rather satisfied again. Surviving the assault of such vicious pirates had already been far from easy. How could he ask for more?

Thus, seeing that the battle had ended and Roy's group was resting, he hurried over to offer his condolences. He thoughtfully brought large quantities of food, fruit, and liquor as rewards, but after most people glanced at the alcohol and then at that pool of gastric fluid, they instantly lost all appetite.

"Lord Roy, your heroic bearing in battle is more majestic than an eagle soaring through the heavens. Even the radiance of the sun and moon cannot conceal your..." The King of Gilia had been about to launch into a nauseating eulogy when he suddenly stumbled over his words. No, he had forgotten them. He secretly glanced at some writing on his palm before quickly looking away, but every one of those supposedly covert movements was plainly visible to Roy.

Roy was speechless as well. Couldn't you be a little more professional? You can't even memorize a few lines? But after such an intense battle, he was somewhat tired and could not be bothered to waste words on him. "I'm going to rest. Come find me tomorrow so we can discuss that matter. And remember—you'd better not get any inappropriate ideas."

"Of course not, of course not. Lord Roy, please rest and recuperate in peace. I will come disturb you again tomorrow." Having witnessed Roy's might, the King of Gilia naturally did not dare show the slightest dissatisfaction.