Teach's Killing

Suddenly, BANG! A gunshot rang out, and a bullet flew toward Teach. He sensed it keenly. The shot was fast and well concealed, and the bullet was imbued with Haki, though it was weak—only at the beginner level.

The shooter had learned two types of Haki. He could also be called an assassin. The bullet flew straight toward Teach's head, but Teach tilted his head and dodged it.

The bullet was like a signal. Shadows flashed through the darkness, swiftly closing in on Teach. They carried sharp blades that gleamed coldly in the moonlight.

They were a group of assassins, their expressions impassive and merciless. They seemed like machines designed for the sole purpose of killing.

One stabbed at Teach from behind. Teach didn't move, merely raising his claws and swiping hard to his right.

Crack! An assassin appeared at Teach's right. Teach had seen through his movements completely. The blade aimed at him snapped in Teach's grasp, and the same motion sent Teach's claw straight through the assassin's chest.

Metal clanged behind him. The assassin had been about to retreat and look for another chance to attack Teach, but it was too late. Teach struck backward with his left hand and seized him by the neck. Crack! His left arm tightened, and the assassin's body went limp. Teach had snapped his neck.

That wasn't the end of it. Teach could sense two more lives hidden on the pair, emanating a cold killing intent. The moment the assassins died, the creatures moved, springing from their bodies. At such close range, they were incredibly fast. Ordinary people wouldn't be able to dodge them—or even react in time.

They were two snakes, two vipers, gaping wide as they lunged straight for Teach's arm and thigh.

Their bodies were ocher, covered in fine scales. Teach knew this kind of snake was highly venomous. A bite caused intense pain at the wound, followed by swelling and pain in the affected limb, then bleeding, a drop in blood pressure and heart rate, and finally a slow, agonizing death.

He hadn't expected the assassins to have poisonous snakes hidden on them, but Teach had spotted them long ago. His Armament Haki hardened his body, and the snakes bit straight into something harder than steel. Their deadly venom couldn't enter Teach's body, and they couldn't hurt him at all. With Teach's constitution, their venom would have little effect on him anyway.

Teach's claws flashed, severing both snakes' heads.

The remaining assassins saw how easily Teach had dealt with the two and weren't afraid. They charged forward one after another. In their hearts, they followed one rule alone: "Carry out His Highness's orders at all costs, even if only one of us is left alive."

If His Highness wanted them to bring that pet back, they would do it. Teach was their enemy. He had killed so many of His Highness's guards, and he was connected to the missing pet. He had to be eliminated.

Teach paid no attention to their killing intent. His Observation Haki covered the entire royal city, and everything was under his control. Besides the assassins, another group was heading this way—probably the First Prince's forces.

That was worth seeing, after all. The pet had been raised for the First Prince.

But since they'd come, none of them would be leaving. Teach was a little surprised to find a full hundred assassins. They were strong, each having mastered at least one of the two types of Haki, and some had even awakened both.

In the New World, that was a considerable force, especially for a kingdom. They could serve a very important purpose.

Still, they were merely decent. They had only mastered the two types of Haki at a basic level, and even when Teach had first awakened his Haki, he'd been far stronger than them.

Unlike the weaklings from before, who hadn't even been able to warm Teach up, these assassins were somewhat interesting. Each was as strong as a pirate with a bounty of fifty to a hundred million berries, and a few were even stronger.

"Magic Claw: Lightning Flash!" Arcs of electricity crackled across Teach's claws. He had no intention of passively defending himself and waiting for them to attack. He would take the initiative. Each assassin had a highly venomous snake raised on their body.

Compared to Teach, they were far too slow—or rather, their explosive speed was nowhere near his. Their attacks were completely ineffective against Teach's Haki, which formed a hard suit of armor around him.

His sharp claws outclassed their Armament Haki by far. Moving as casually as if he were taking a stroll, he dodged three attacks by weaving from side to side. Five men surrounded him and attacked at the same time. The other two assassins' attacks landed directly on Teach, but he didn't care.

A sweeping kick sent all five flying into the distance. The force made them spit blood, their chests and stomachs churning. They nearly passed out, but they couldn't fall so easily. They were assassins who had undergone rigorous, specialized training.

They charged Teach again, though he had just cut down two more assassins. They might have survived that attack, but that didn't mean they would survive his next. Teach turned and kicked, sending out a crescent-shaped Flying Slash four meters wide. It shot straight toward them at incredible speed, reaching them in an instant. They did their best to block it, but it was useless. Teach's Tempest Kick cut them in half.

Teach had mainly trained in Finger Pistol and Geppo among the Marine Six Styles, since those were the two he valued most. That didn't mean he hadn't practiced the other four. After all, they were the essence of the Marines' martial arts. Wasn't their command of the seas built on specialized training and the Marine Six Styles? They had trained a large number of core fighters, and many Marine Vice Admirals relied on the Marine Six Styles in battle.

Watching Teach kill was like watching an art form. He was a master of hand-to-hand combat. He grabbed two assassins by the neck, and another appeared behind him to the right, knife in hand, aiming to chop off Teach's head. But Teach was much faster. He struck with his elbow, smashing the man's blade, then drove it viciously into his nose. The assassin screamed in pain and went flying.

Teach killed all the snakes hidden on the assassins as well. At some point, the viper coiled around his left arm had woken from its slumber, drawn by the smell of blood. It crawled off Teach's arm and fixed its greedy eyes on the remains of the dead snakes. Bite after bite, it swallowed them whole.

Teach paid it no mind. The gap in strength was too great, but he still couldn't finish them off with a single effortless move. To him, they were not only an outlet for his anger but also tools for training his martial arts—especially since they feared no death.

The techniques he'd absorbed from Fire Wolf Hog had further refined his hand-to-hand combat, but he hadn't yet tested them in battle. He was quite pleased with the results. The claw techniques formed by combining hand-to-hand combat with swordsmanship felt much more natural, and their power had increased.

"We can't beat him. He's a monster. We can't die for nothing—we have to get word to His Highness." As the assassins fell one by one to Teach, only five remained. At last, they came to their senses. They didn't want to make any more pointless sacrifices. Even if they died, they wanted their deaths to mean something.

"Run! I'll hold him off," one assassin said.

"Together. One of us has to make it back," another replied, tightening his grip on his weapon.

They made their decision quickly. One assassin fled at full speed toward the royal city, while the other four stood in Teach's way.

"Hey, hey! You're underestimating me. None of you are getting away," Teach sneered, baring his white teeth. The next moment, he vanished from where he stood.

"Oh no!" He was too fast. But Teach didn't attack them. As if realizing something, they turned around and looked. The assassin who had escaped was already dead at Teach's hands, that familiar claw—the one that had left them helpless—piercing his chest.

Knowing they couldn't escape, all four charged Teach together. The outcome was inevitable: they all fell.

Another group was on its way, but it numbered only three hundred, all guards. Teach decided not to waste any more time. The blood on his body began to flow, then congeal and gather, especially the blood on his claws. It collected into a pool, then ran down his hand and dripped to the ground. Before long, not a drop of blood remained on Teach.

If the Marines who couldn't master Life Return knew it could be used like this, wouldn't they be spitting blood and dying of rage?

Teach put his right hand to his waist and grasped the hilt of a greatsword. He had grown much taller over the past two years, so he could now hang the sword from his waist, though he wore it toward his back; otherwise, it would be a little uncomfortable.

This was the greatsword Teach rarely used: Sword of Kingship, Dragon Abyss. Its blade was deep blue, and its dark-purple hilt was set with gems. Teach slowly drew it and held it in both hands, angling it in front of himself.

The three hundred guards were rushing toward him. Teach held the sword in both hands and faced them. "One Sword Style: Dragon's Roar!"

Teach swung hard from right to left. The earth trembled, and the air surged as if a dragon were roaring. A silver slash, nearly a hundred meters long, flew toward them like a silver dragon.

"Hurry up! What if His Highness's prize gets killed by those guards because we're too late?" one guard shouted.

As guards serving the First Prince, they didn't think much of the Second Prince. In their eyes, he and the First Prince were enemies, rivals for the throne.

The ground suddenly trembled, but quickly settled again.

"What was that?" They were on the move, but the tremor startled them.

"Dunno. Probably an earthquake," one guard answered.

"What kind of earthquake is that? It was tiny," another mocked.

"Hey, what's that?" A guard stopped and pointed ahead.

He wasn't the only one. The other guards saw it too: far ahead, a silver light was shining.

"Could it be some kind of treasure? It's getting brighter," one guard said with a laugh, wanting to go and take a look.

The silver light grew stronger. At last, the guards realized something was wrong. A powerful wind seemed to be rushing toward them.

"Something's coming this way! Run!" a guard shouted. The dazzling silver light seemed to blot out the sky. What kind of monster was it? Whatever it was, they couldn't possibly fight it.

But it was too late. The powerful dragon's roar swept toward them. Roars filled their ears as the slash struck the area, precisely calculated by Teach to engulf every guard in its path.

The silver light fell, and its powerful force bore down on the group of guards. Their bodies, flesh, and bones were crushed in an instant. The earth shook violently, as if an earthquake had struck. Even the nearby royal city trembled.

All that remained was a crater nearly a hundred meters across, filled with soil mixed with flesh, charred clothing, and broken weapons.

Teach left with Neferpitou and returned to the inn where he was staying.

Mobius was training, wearing weights as he worked out his strength in the room. When he saw Teach come in, he said nothing and continued his training.

But soon, he froze. What had he just seen? A little girl had crawled out from inside Teach's coat. What was going on?

"Let me introduce you. This is Pito, Neferpitou." Teach watched the curious Pito take in the room's decor. It was quite simple. When she spotted the bed, she looked delighted. She hopped lightly onto it, curled up like a cat, and closed her eyes. She was a little tired too.

Faced with Mobius's curious gaze, Teach didn't hide anything. He briefly told Mobius about Pito.

"Those bastards! How can something like this even exist?" Mobius was furious, and more than a little incredulous. Even slavery wouldn't have shocked him this much. But the idea of a human pet was beyond anything he could imagine. Even Teach hadn't considered it—or perhaps hadn't dared to—before he figured it out.

Teach shook his head. Looking at Pito, who seemed to have fallen asleep, he began training. He couldn't afford to stop.

Royal City, palace, Snake King's Hall.

BANG! "What did you say? They were wiped out? How is that possible?" King of Snakes Belinda stared at the report he had just received, unable to believe it. He slammed a fist into his throne.

Those guards were his own forces, practically all the strength he had in the royal city. He also had his carefully trained assassin corps, every member a match for a hundred men. And now they were telling him that they'd all been wiped out?

Belinda gasped for breath. His fury seemed to stir the countless snakes in the serpent pit, especially the giant python beside him. Its cold eyes fixed on the messenger as its body slithered closer.

"It's true. A powerful fighter attacked them. Not only were His Highness's forces killed, but the men sent by the First Prince died too. They were killed in a circular crater a hundred meters across. There wasn't a single body left intact, just mangled flesh and broken bones." The messenger was terrified. He didn't know whether it was the corpses lying outside, their gruesome deaths, or the Second Prince, Snake King, and the snakes surrounding them that frightened him.