No, "angel"...
Bear's eyes widened as he stared at Storm in disbelief.
Were you really an "angel"?
Could you actually be a devil who'd escaped from hell?!
Just moments ago, Bear had been silently thanking this "angel benefactor" for dealing with his enemies.
But now, all the gratitude he'd felt toward Storm had vanished without a trace!
This "angel" had clearly taken control of all the enemies, warships, and cannons.
And now, for no apparent reason, he'd released them...
Was it because Bear had refused his invitation to join his crew?
Wasn't that just bullying an honest man?!
"What's wrong?"
Storm smiled at Bear, completely unaware of just how awful his behavior had been.
"The 'Tyrant' who, according to the news, easily toppled an entire country's government all by himself.
"Are you really a 'coward' who won't fight even when faced with an enemy?"
Behind Storm, the three freed Marine warships rang with a steady series of clicks.
Hundreds of Marine soldiers were readying their weapons, loading ammunition, and aiming their cannons.
If Bear kept hesitating,
the Marines' sturdy ships and heavy guns wouldn't show him any mercy!
Storm watched Bear expectantly.
He wanted to see whether this "most honest man on the sea" would choose to fight back in anger and unleash his power...
Under Storm's taunts and the threat of the warship cannons,
Bear slowly raised his right hand and silently activated the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi.
Under the fruit's power,
the surrounding air gathered in Bear's palm, forming a tiny, pale air paw on its pad.
But...
The air paw gathered, then dispersed; dispersed, then gathered again.
Storm still saw no sign that Bear was going to attack. He couldn't help shaking his head.
To put it nicely,
Bear was gentle by nature and disliked fighting.
To put it bluntly,
Bartholomew Bear was an incredibly honest man who took whatever came his way and accepted his fate!
Still,
Storm liked honest men like him.
He stopped waiting for Bartholomew Bear to attack the warships and once again unleashed Claywork: Falling Clay.
Under a flood of white clay,
the three Marine warships and every living soul aboard them were once again firmly restrained by the clay.
The seemingly invincible Marine warships, the hundreds of Marines aboard them, and even the king himself—
they were all just part of Storm's "Tyrant PLAY"...
Seeing the three Marine warships restrained once again by the "angel," Bear couldn't help feeling relieved.
He wasn't a fighter by nature.
Unless he had no other choice,
kindhearted Bear didn't want to hurt anyone.
And yet,
the bear had no wish to hurt anyone,
but people had every intention of hunting the bear.
With the warships no longer a concern, Storm focused his full attention on Bear.
Bear hadn't accepted his invitation to join the crew yet,
but Storm already considered him a future "partner"!
And as a captain, wasn't it perfectly reasonable to give a subordinate a simple test of his true strength?
Storm placed his right hand on the Alcohol Iron Ore Katana at his waist and drew it with blinding speed.
Shing—
A flash of bright steel.
Storm's Alcohol Iron Ore Katana sprang from its sheath, its sharp blade sending a fierce Flying Slash hurtling forward.
The crescent-shaped Flying Slash was flecked with sparks, beautiful yet deadly.
In the blink of an eye, the ferocious, flaming slash crossed the sea and reached Bear's ship.
The bright flames lit Bear's face and reflected in his sharply constricting pupils.
Flying Slash?!
Without thinking, Bear raised his right hand and slapped at the incoming flaming slash as fast as he could.
The blazing Flying Slash struck his palm dead on.
But under the influence of a mysterious force,
the slash, which should have cut through anything in its path, couldn't even sever Bear's hand!
It didn't even graze his skin!
Storm's flaming slash sank into the strange pad on Bear's palm.
Under the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi's power,
Bear swung his right hand forcefully to the side.
The astonishingly powerful flaming slash was deflected, cutting into the sea beside him.
Hiss—Splash!
The flaming slash cut through the water and plunged beneath the surface.
The blue sea, once a single expanse, was split in two by the blow.
Waves surged skyward, and the crashing water erupted in a thunderous roar.
From above,
it looked as though Storm had cleaved the sea in half with that one slash!
On the Blue-Eyes White Dragon soaring through the sky,
Kid and Killer stared down at the divided sea, completely dumbfounded.
"Killer, didn't someone just tell you he wasn't good at Swordsmanship?"
"Ha-ha-ha..."
Killer didn't know. Killer just wanted to laugh.
The two South Blue natives riding the Blue-Eyes White Dragon went unnoticed by the two men on the sea below.
Storm watched the Flying Slash that Bear had easily deflected and marveled.
As expected of the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi.
A Flying Slash that could cut through steel couldn't even cut through a pair of palms.
Sure enough,
the saying that "there's no such thing as the strongest Devil Fruit" was complete nonsense!
Seeing that an ordinary Flying Slash had no effect on Bear,
Storm raised the Alcohol Iron Ore Katana high. Under a mysterious force, its white blade rapidly lengthened.
[Name: Mirror Lion] [Star Rank: ★★★★★] [Effect: Enhances a weapon's performance to one hundred times its original level] [Comment: One slash, ninety-nine; every cut is ablaze!]
Storm had obtained this five-star ability from Byrnndi World's Death Trophy.
Under Mirror Lion's power,
the Alcohol Iron Ore Katana instantly transformed into a super "ship-cutting sword" a hundred meters long!
Even more incredibly,
despite growing to such a terrifying length, the Alcohol Iron Ore Katana was as light as a feather.
At the same time,
its sharpness had also been increased a hundredfold!
Storm gripped the Alcohol Iron Ore Katana and swung it down at the sea ahead in a simple, unadorned overhead strike—
"One Sword Style: Great Tremor"!
The Alcohol Iron Ore Katana swept through the air in a fierce arc.
Its razor-sharp blade passed through the air without a single shrill whistle and descended upon Bear.
Bear raised both hands, holding his enormous "bear paws," each with its own pad, before him as a "shield."
Thud—
The hundred-meter-long Alcohol Iron Ore Katana struck Bear's palms with tremendous force.
But protected by the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi's incredible elasticity, Bear's hands remained completely unharmed.
He himself wasn't hurt.
But the little skiff beneath him couldn't withstand the aftershocks of a battle between two powerful fighters.
Crack—Crack—
The boat groaned as it began to break apart.
Bear, who was closest, noticed at once.
He braced his right hand in front of him and slapped his left hand against himself.
Clap!
Bear, who had just been standing on the skiff, suddenly disappeared, as if he'd instantly transported somewhere else.
Storm's Alcohol Iron Ore Katana continued downward, splitting the badly damaged skiff in two.
The part sliced by the Alcohol Iron Ore Katana was as smooth as a mirror.
A sharp red glint flashed in Storm's eyes as he activated Observation Haki, trying to pinpoint where Bear had landed.
Storm's Observation Haki immediately picked up the "sound" Bear gave off.
He hadn't escaped back to the Sorbet Kingdom behind him.
He'd appeared aboard a Marine warship restrained by Claywork: Falling Clay!
Storm's expression turned strange for a moment.
He hadn't even figured out how to capture this Tyrant Bear who could "teleport anywhere on the map."
And yet, against all expectations, Bear had walked straight into his trap!
Standing on the soft clay, Bear crouched and repeatedly thrust both palms forward in a sumo wrestler's stance.
"Pressure Cannon!"
One pale, paw-shaped shock wave after another shot from Bear's palms, flying toward Storm in an unbroken barrage.
Storm stood where he was, neither dodging nor retreating, and let the Pressure Cannons hit him.
Boom! Boom! Boom—
One shock wave after another slammed into Storm's body, which burst apart, scattering white clay in every direction.
But this purely physical attack
was completely ineffective against Storm's "clay body"!
The Pressure Cannon's explosions
couldn't even keep up with the speed at which Storm's "clay body" healed!
Flight, spatial abilities, Swordsmanship, and a body like a Logia's...
Bear was utterly astonished.
When did someone this powerful show up on the sea?
While Bear was distracted for that brief moment,
Storm manipulated the clay on the Marine warship from afar, shaping it into chains that wrapped around Bear's legs.
"Hm?!"
By the time Bear realized something was wrong,
the white clay had already bound his legs tightly, restricting his movement.
Bear started to swing his hand and repel the clay wrapped around his legs.
But Storm wasn't about to miss this opportunity.
Claywork: Falling Clay!
Above the warship Bear stood on, the extra-dimensional space of Claywork: Falling Clay opened once more.
Endless clay poured down.
It had only one target—
Bartholomew Bear!
In an instant,
Bear was drenched in clay and turned into an immobile "clay figurine bear."
Tyrant Bear: captured successfully!
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