Victory

With a thunderous boom, Yota felt an irresistible force crash into him. A sharp pain shot through his fist, and he was sent flying, thrown more than ten meters away.

Dalmatian did not press his advantage. Instead, he gritted his teeth as his entire right hand trembled, blood steadily streaming from his fist.

Although he had relied on his superior strength to send Yota flying with that punch, the one who had truly suffered the loss was probably himself!

Having prepared before the battle, Yota had consumed Chakra Metal and applied it all to the metal bone spikes on his fists. The Chakra-infused metal spikes were like tiny drills, piercing straight through Dalmatian's Armament Haki and completely puncturing his palm.

Dazed from the fall, Yota climbed to his feet and shook his hand. He looked badly beaten, but his steel-reinforced bones meant he had not actually suffered much injury. His arm merely hurt a little.

"A Devil Fruit user? Could it be some kind of Metal-Metal Fruit?" Dalmatian asked as he looked at Yota, whose body reflected a metallic gleam beneath the sunlight.

"Take a guess?" Yota tilted his head and replied with a grin.

He was not like those fools in the Pirate World. In the Naruto World, a ninja's intelligence was equivalent to their life. No competent ninja would reveal all their combat information.

"Hmph! Cunning pirate." Dalmatian snorted and prepared to attack again. However, Yota had already formed hand seals with both hands.

"Water Release Ninjutsu: Water Clone."

Water Clone was one of the two Water Release Ninjutsu Yota had mastered. The other was Water Formation Wall.

The principles behind these two techniques were basically no different from Earth Clone and Earth Flow Wall, which was why Yota had mastered both in just three days.

Two Yotas instantly appeared before Dalmatian, causing him to freeze on the spot. To be honest, Dalmatian no longer understood what Devil Fruit Yota had eaten. How could he possess two completely unrelated abilities, metal transformation and cloning?

However, for an old-school Marine like him, Devil Fruits were secondary. Otherwise, he could never have risen to the rank of Vice Admiral with only the Dalmatian Fruit. In the eyes of old-school Marines, the key to battle was still one's physical abilities and the two forms of Haki.

In Dalmatian's mind, it did not matter what Devil Fruit abilities his opponent had. As long as his Armament Haki was powerful enough and his Observation Haki sharp enough, even the flashiest Devil Fruit abilities would be useless!

Dalmatian's thinking was not exactly wrong. The problem was that his Armament Haki and Observation Haki did not seem to be as strong as he believed, so he got played.

Yota's Water Clone charged first. Dalmatian paid no attention to the clone's faint presence and casually punched it apart.

However, the instant the Water Clone exploded, a massive amount of seawater—because they were near the ocean, the Water Clone had been formed from seawater—splashed all over Dalmatian, making his body go limp.

Under normal circumstances, this would not have been much of a problem. Devil Fruit users did not lose all their strength the instant they touched seawater. At least half their body had to come into contact with it before they were weakened.

The amount of water in the Water Clone was insufficient. Although it made Dalmatian go limp when it first splashed over him, he should have recovered within a few seconds at most.

But on a battlefield, those few seconds were a luxury. At the same moment Dalmatian's body went limp from the seawater, Yota had already rushed to his side and thrown an identical punch.

"Pssh!" Blood sprayed. Yota's fist still carried metal bone spikes, instantly punching several holes through Dalmatian's body.

Dalmatian roared in fury. Ignoring his wounds, he threw a punch of his own at Yota's head. With a clang, even Yota's iron-hard skull was split open and left bleeding by that Iron Fist imbued with Armament Haki.

But at that moment, another Water Clone emerged behind Yota and lunged at Dalmatian.

Not good! The thought had barely flashed through Dalmatian's mind before seawater drenched him once more, leaving him utterly unable to resist. Then he saw Yota, his head covered in blood, reveal a savage smile. The next instant, his vision went black as another massive fist slammed into his face.

"Whew... He really is a Vice Admiral. If I hadn't used some dirty tricks, I really couldn't have beaten him," Yota said as he looked at the unconscious Dalmatian lying on the ground, rubbing his spinning head.

If he had not eaten a large amount of metal before the battle and turned himself into a Steel Body, that punch would have either killed him or given him a severe concussion.

"This guy's combat strength is practically close to a Kage-level ninja in Naruto, though his fighting methods are severely lacking. Still, his endurance and defense far surpass those of ninjas."

"It's really hard to imagine. The average combat strength in this world is ridiculously high."

But after thinking it over, Yota understood. If the Ōtsutsuki clan was excluded, the One Piece World was indeed far stronger than the Naruto World.

Not to mention anything else, a battle between Aokiji and Akainu had completely changed an island's climate. Their combat power was in no way inferior to Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, and there were more than a dozen figures of that level in the One Piece World.

In the Naruto World, on the other hand, figures of that level could be said to appear only once in a century.

Overall, the Naruto World was full of fragile assassins and mages, while the One Piece World was filled with berserkers and high-HP tanks. Their combat styles were different. But in terms of average combat strength and head-on fighting power, the One Piece World was definitely stronger than the Naruto World.

However, the Naruto World also had an even higher Six Paths level, while no such figures had appeared in the One Piece manga so far. Thus, in terms of top-tier combat power, the One Piece World was slightly lacking.

After finishing those random thoughts, Yota looked to the side and happened to see Ace unleash a burst of potential and knock another Vice Admiral to the ground.

"As expected of the pseudo-protagonist before Luffy appeared. He can level up just by casually fighting," Yota said, casting Ace a somewhat envious glance. That potential was far beyond his own.

In the Naruto World, Yota had been an ordinary civilian ninja with ordinary talent. Even in the Pirate World, despite using the Munch-Munch Fruit to gain the physique of a Pirate World human, his constitution was still only the most ordinary kind.

Even with the advantages of two combat systems and the aid of the Munch-Munch Fruit, he had still needed dirty tricks to defeat a Vice Admiral. Compared to a true genius like Ace, he was worlds apart.

Still, as he looked at the wounds on Ace's body, Yota revealed a meaningful smile. "Very soon, I'll have top-tier talent from the Pirate World too."