Did Hannyabal's words actually carry any weight?
Storm couldn't say for sure yet.
After a rather sumptuous lunch,
Storm took the elevator to the second level of Impel Down—
Beast Hell!
Whether Hannyabal could get him promoted remained uncertain.
But Magellan's "promotion order" definitely carried weight!
Storm was now the Jailer Chief of Crimson Lotus Hell and Beast Hell.
The first job he needed to handle was, naturally, beating up (crossed out)—
meeting his subordinates!
Unlike Crimson Lotus Hell,
Beast Hell had no natural scenery at all.
All it had were densely packed cells, broad, towering corridors, and—
endless roars and wails.
"Roarrr—"
"Awoooo—"
The moment Storm stepped into Beast Hell, he was hit by an extremely frightening "wave attack" of sound.
It was as if a terrifying beast might leap out of those gloomy, pitch-black passageways at any moment!
If an ordinary person had been standing there, they probably would have been scared witless.
"So noisy..."
Storm dug at his ear and calmly set off for Beast Hell's guard room.
He planned to retrieve a list of the prisoners in Beast Hell from the guard room.
That would also make his subsequent "trophy-hunting plan" more convenient.
But Storm had barely taken a few steps
when the noisy sound of footsteps came from a dark passage in the distance.
They were accompanied by an angry roar.
"The key!"
"Give me the key!"
Storm stopped, frowning as he looked up at the Surveillance Den Den Mushi in the corner.
Had a prisoner escape occurred in Beast Hell?
Then why hadn't the Surveillance Room sent any word?
Storm prepared for battle and waited quietly for a moment. At last, the furious "escapees" arrived.
However, unlike what he had expected, these "escapees" weren't prisoners dressed in prison uniforms.
They were a group of extremely vicious, enormous lions with human faces!
Beast Hell, beast guard, Man-faced Lion.
When Storm saw the Man-faced Lions,
the Man-faced Lions noticed him as well.
More precisely,
the Man-faced Lions had come rushing over after smelling the presence of a stranger.
Now that they had seen the "culprit," the Man-faced Lions immediately charged forward with snarls.
They roared as they charged.
Only, their roars were somewhat difficult to understand.
"Briefs, briefs!"
"Loincloth, loincloth!"
Hearing the Man-faced Lions' roars,
Storm was instantly covered in black lines.
"What kind of nonsense have these Man-faced Lions been learning?!"
Although the Man-faced Lions had human faces and could even speak,
their intelligence was only a tiny bit greater than that of the Blue Water Monkeys in Crimson Lotus Hell.
The Man-faced Lions could imitate human speech, but they had no idea what those words meant.
"Water Monkeys that can dive, Man-faced Lions that can talk..."
Storm stood motionless, gathering his strength. A faint metallic black sheen spread across his body.
"What kind of monsters are these things?!
"Tekkai! Ha!"
The constantly roaring Man-faced Lions rapidly closed in on Storm.
He could even see his own reflection in their pupils!
Just then,
the fastest Man-faced Lion charged right up to Storm.
It suddenly rose onto its hind legs, lifted its fan-sized lion paw, and struck viciously at the human before it.
Bang!
The Man-faced Lion's paw slammed heavily into Storm, erupting with an incomparably dull impact.
It was as if its paw hadn't struck human flesh, but steel tempered through a thousand hammerings!
Crack!
Accompanied by a crisp, pleasant snap of breaking bone,
the leading Man-faced Lion's paw suddenly twisted into an inconceivable backward angle.
"Aaagh!!"
The Man-faced Lion let out a howl of agony.
It had no time to care about the human before it. It immediately sprawled on the ground, struggling and wailing.
One Man-faced Lion had fallen.
More Man-faced Lions charged forward.
However,
the Man-faced Lions were like a surging tide.
Storm was like an unyielding reef.
The waves surged and flowed, the tide rose and fell, but the reef stood unmoving.
In less than a moment,
the Man-faced Lions that had been charging so fiercely moments ago were all sprawled across the corridor floor.
Some had broken hand bones, while others had shattered teeth. All of them were wailing miserably.
With the Man-faced Lions' strength, they had no way to break through the defense of Tekkai!
On the contrary,
the harder a Man-faced Lion attacked, the more serious its injuries became!
"The Man-faced Lions don't seem any stronger than the Blue Gorillas..."
Storm ended the effect of Tekkai and tugged at his somewhat damaged uniform.
Then he spread his fingers. Clay surged forth, forming enormous clay fists the size of millstones one after another.
"Clay Rain!"
Storm clutched his fingers, and the clay fists landed with pinpoint accuracy on the heads of every Man-faced Lion.
Thud! Thud! Thud!—
The distinctive sound of smashing watermelons continued to ring through Beast Hell's corridor.
Every Man-faced Lion that had attacked him was knocked unconscious on the spot.
[Silver Trophy: Man-faced Lion] *9
After subduing the Man-faced Lions, Storm looked toward the Surveillance Den Den Mushi in the corner again.
"Beast Hell's guards, come out and collect the stray cats!"
Inside the nearby cells,
the prisoners who had witnessed the entire battle with their own eyes didn't dare say a word.
They didn't even dare entertain the thought of making a sound!
In Storm's eyes, the Man-faced Lions were merely a group of "little wildcats" he could deal with casually.
But in the eyes of Beast Hell's prisoners, any one of the Man-faced Lions was enough to threaten their lives!
Only after Storm's back gradually vanished into the dark passage, and even his footsteps could no longer be heard,
did the prisoners in Beast Hell dare to start talking.
"How terrifying! He dealt with all the Man-faced Lions in an instant..."
"That was a guard's uniform! An incredible superior has arrived at the prison!"
"I still prefer Sadie-chan..."
"As long as it's not Shiryu."
Among the prisoners, the name "Shiryu of the Rain" seemed to possess a unique magic.
The moment the word "Shiryu" was uttered, all the prisoners lost the will to continue talking.
In the end, only one Prison Elder let out a long sigh.
"This is hell..."
Elsewhere,
Storm successfully obtained Beast Hell's prisoner list from the guard room.
In addition, he received a map of the beast guards' daily activities in Beast Hell.
The map recorded in detail the daily activity locations of Beast Hell's animal guards.
The guards had even thoughtfully assigned each animal guard a threat level.
According to the guards' assessment,
the Man-faced Lions Storm had just encountered were the lowest-threat beast guards in Beast Hell.
There were also Flying Mantises, Digging Rats, Big-mouthed Hippopotamuses, Puzzle Scorpions... and other wild beast guards.
Storm ignored those ordinary wild beast guards and set his sights on the "Monster Chief" and "Monster Second"—
the Cockatrice and the Basilisk!
The Sphinx and the Blue Water Monkey!
According to the guards,
among all the animal guards in Beast Hell, the Sphinx was the strongest.
Even if it were thrown into Extreme Cold Hell on the fifth level, it would qualify as a beast guard—
as long as the Army Wolves didn't eat it.
"That doesn't sound very strong..."
Storm grumbled inwardly.
Holding the prisoner list and the beast guard activity map, he made a circuit through Beast Hell.
In the end, he arrived at the connecting stairs between Beast Hell and Hunger Hell.
Storm wasn't trying to venture down into Hunger Hell.
He had come here simply because the Sphinx was here too!
The Blue Gorillas and Man-faced Lions could provide only Silver Trophies at most.
The Sphinx was the strongest beast guard Storm could currently encounter normally.
He wanted to see just how strong the Sphinx really was!
The stairs.
A gigantic creature was sprawled across the steps.
It had a lion's body, with a pair of light-brown wings growing from its back.
Beast Hell, beast guard, Sphinx!
When Storm reached the stairs,
the Sphinx also caught the scent of a stranger.
It slowly rose to its feet, revealing a huge, dark, human-like face.
"Roar—"
The Sphinx roared at the stranger.
It raised a massive arm thick enough for several people to wrap their arms around, then swung it at Storm.
Geppo!
Storm stomped hard on the ground. His whole body rose into the air like a bird, dodging the attack.
Boom!
The Sphinx's paw struck the ground, unleashing a deafening roar.
The floor of all Beast Hell seemed to tremble slightly from that single blow.
"What astonishing strength!"
Storm nodded slightly.
"That slap could at least knock out a Water Monkey or a Man-faced Lion.
"No wonder the Sphinx can become Beast Hell's 'Monster Chief'!"
Having missed its target, the Sphinx once again erupted into an enraged roar.
"Roar—"
But this time, Storm had no intention of holding back.
He extended his right hand toward the Sphinx, unleashing the power of the Clay Fruit without restraint.
In a short while, white clay covered the entire stairway entrance.
Smack—smack—
The Sphinx looked confused as it slapped at the soft, white clay beneath it, but its efforts had no effect.
Trapped in its cage, it had no idea what was coming.
With a thought from Storm, the white clay swiftly split in two.
One half formed a gigantic white net, restricting the Sphinx's movements.
The other half formed a series of enormous clay fists.
"Clay Meteor Fist!"
The clay fists rained down in a barrage like a super meteor shower, pounding the helpless Sphinx.
Bang! Bang! Bang—
The merciless beating continued for several minutes.
Then, a resplendent [Big Trophy] suddenly appeared before Storm's eyes.
[Golden Trophy: Sphinx] [Trophy Star Rating: ★★★★]
Before you continue