The Native's Desperate Situation, the Blood-Soaked Berserk Chef

Deep in the interior of Bacchus Island, at the heart of the Primordial Hunting Ground.

This place was originally a secluded, tranquil basin shaded by colossal ancient trees, a sanctuary where the island's indigenous tribes had thrived for generations.

But at this moment, the sanctuary had been utterly transformed into a sea of fire and a living hell.

"BOOM!!"

Accompanied by violent explosions, several towering trees, each requiring ten men to encircle, crashed to the ground. Acrid, yellow-green toxic smoke permeated the forest. The indigenous people, armed only with crude bone spears and bows, fell in swathes like harvested wheat before the well-equipped, ferocious poaching unit.

"Hahaha! Release the gas! Smoke all these savages out!"

"Don't shoot and ruin the pelts! Lord Baron ordered that these natives' bones, just like the cubs of those ancient beasts, will fetch a high price at the underground auction!"

Hundreds of poachers in black uniforms let out cruel, manic laughter, tightening their encirclement.

And in the very center of the battlefield.

An Ancient Kong, nearly forty meters tall and covered in silver-gray fur, let out a roar of profound grief. It was the guardian deity worshipped by the tribe for generations.

At this moment, the Ancient Kong's body was covered in shocking wounds, and several massive, custom-made harpoons were hooked deep into its flesh, restricting its movements.

Standing opposite the Kong was a man of immense, almost mountainous, bloated proportions.

It was none other than Gluttony Baron Truff.

He wore an incredibly luxurious, yet stretched and deformed, noble suit, holding a half-eaten roasted dinosaur leg. Facing the Ancient Kong's massive fist, which was capable of shattering mountain rock, Truff did not dodge; instead, a look of extreme, greedy malice flickered in his eyes.

"Ancient Zoan: Entelodont Fruit, Entelodont form!"

Truff sneered, his fat rapidly contracting and hardening in an instant, transforming into coarse, tough, dark-brown bristles and thick hide. His head became as hideous as an ancient giant boar, with two sharp tusks several meters long protruding from his maw.

"Wouldn't it be better to just be slaughtered quietly? You big monkey."

Truff tossed the bone aside, his massive frame sinking slightly as he clenched his right fist.

"Hum--"

A layer of Armament Haki, as hard and deep as obsidian, instantly covered his entire right arm and half of his torso!

"BOOM--!!"

The Ancient Kong's giant fist collided violently with Truff's Haki-imbued punch.

A teeth-grinding sound of bone fracturing echoed out. The Ancient Kong, whose size dwarfed Truff's by dozens of times, let out a cry of extreme agony. Its indestructible fist bones buckled before the hardness of the Armament Haki, and its massive body was sent reeling backward by the terrifying recoil, crashing heavily into a rock wall.

"You call yourself a guardian with this little strength? Truly disappointing."

Truff shook his fist, a look of utter disdain twisting his fleshy face. "If it weren't for those big shots in Mary Geoise changing their tastes and specifically requesting primate brains, I wouldn't have bothered coming to this deep forest myself."

In his youth, he had roamed the New World and mastered both forms of Haki. Later, after cozying up to certain nobles, he retreated to Paradise to act as a local tyrant, keeping his bounty suppressed and stagnant.

Truff turned his head to look at the several fierce-looking hunting officers standing behind him.

"You lot, take half the men and seal off the outer perimeter of this basin."

He issued his cold command. "Not even a fly is to leave this place today!"

"Understood, Lord Baron!"

The officers acknowledged the order and immediately led a large number of subordinates to disperse toward the outer forest.

Truff turned back to look at the Ancient Kong, which lay in a pool of blood, still trying to protect the elderly, weak, women, and children behind it. The tusks at the corners of his mouth glinted coldly.

"Alright, time for the main course."

Just as Truff took a heavy step forward, preparing to deliver the killing blow to the Ancient Kong.

"SWISH!"

A sharp, silver blade of light, accompanied by a shrill whistle of wind, struck from the side of the jungle without warning, aiming straight for Truff's throat!

"Hm?"

Truff's Observation Haki instantly caught the danger. He didn't panic, merely raising his thick, Armament Haki-covered arm with casual ease.

"CLANG!"

A piercing metallic clash rang out. The sharp blade of light, capable of slicing through rock, struck Truff's black arm, but only managed to spark a series of blinding embers, failing completely to break through his Haki defense.

"Take your filthy hands off our tribe's guardian! Truff!!"

Accompanied by a crisp, furious shout filled with the resolve of death.

A wild, dark-red high ponytail danced in the air. Leona, like a raging lioness, gripped two massive bone-cleaving blades—one black and one silver—and landed with a boom in the clearing between Truff and the Ancient Kong.

"Lady Leona! Lady Leona has returned!"

The indigenous people, dying from the toxic gas, saw the tall back standing before them, and hope and tears instantly welled up in their eyes.

"Oh? Who is this? If it isn't the little mouse who's been hiding everywhere."

Truff lowered his arm, looking at Leona, who was panting, a trace of blood still lingering at the corner of her mouth from when Ace had struck her earlier, and laughed with extreme contempt.

"What? Done hiding in the deep mountains like a savage? Ready to come back and be buried with your tribesmen and this big monkey?"

Leona said nothing.

She looked at the devastated tribe, at the clansmen lying in pools of blood, and at the dying Ancient Kong. In her feline-like vertical pupils, a rage and self-reproach burned so intensely it felt as though they might bleed.

If only she hadn't been delayed on the perimeter tracking that Tyrannosaurus, if only she could have made it back sooner...

"Even if I have to throw my life away today, I am absolutely going to drag you down to hell with me!!"

Leona let out a furious roar, her legs pushing off the ground with explosive force. She pushed her immense, monstrous strength and years of experience in dismembering ancient beasts to their absolute limit.

"Bone-Stripping: Frenzied Dance!"

Her black steel broadsword and silver blades transformed into a metallic storm in mid-air, moving too fast for the naked eye to track!

Leona charged into the enemy ranks with reckless abandon. Wherever her blade passed, the poachers in their hardened steel bulletproof vests were sliced into uniform chunks of meat, men and guns alike. Like a heartless meat grinder, she tore a bloody path through the circle of hundreds, heading straight for Truv's face!

"Your swordsmanship is indeed decent."

Truv stood his ground, letting his subordinates be slaughtered around him without even a flicker of emotion in his eyes. "It is a pity, though. On these seas, physical techniques without the mastery of 'Haki' are, in the end, nothing more than third-rate juggling!"

"Hum!"

Truv took a sharp, deep breath, and the terrifying physical prowess of the Ancient Giant Boar erupted. He did not dodge Leona's intricate, surgical blade work; instead, he met the edge head-on, slamming into it with a brutal headbutt!

"Clang—Crack!"

The tusks, coated in Armament Haki, collided violently with the black steel bone-cleaving blade.

A desperate, overwhelming force surged up through the hilt. Leona felt as if the bones in her arms were about to shatter; the webbing between her thumbs and forefingers tore instantly, blood spraying everywhere.

"Pfft!"

Her prideful swordsmanship was like a mantis trying to stop a chariot before this veteran powerhouse of an Ancient Zoan user who had mastered Haki. Leona spat out a mouthful of blood, flying backward like a kite with a broken string. She smashed through a dozen thick tree trunks before finally landing heavily at the feet of the Ancient Kong.

"Roar..." The Ancient Kong let out a weak, mournful cry, stretching out a massive finger in an attempt to shield Leona beneath its body.

"Cough, cough... damn it all!"

Leona struggled to climb back up, but the agonizing pain radiating from her internal organs left her without even the strength to grip her sword hilt.

The gap in their strength was like a chasm.

She watched in despair as Truv and the remaining poachers closed in, step by step.

"Sedate that Kong and load it onto the ship. As for this woman,"

Truv walked up to Leona, looking down at her from above with icy, cold eyes. "Sever her hands and feet, then throw her into the poison gas zone. Let her watch her own kind slowly rot away."

Several poachers holding heavy machetes walked forward with cruel grins, raising their butcher knives high.

Leona gritted her teeth, refusing to close her eyes.

Even in death, she would keep them open, carving the faces of these bastards into her soul. Yet, for some reason, the image of the black-haired man sitting by the campfire, devouring meat just a few hours ago, flashed through her mind.

"Send every monster that exists on these seas onto my cutting board..."

"What a bastard of a dream... one that's impossible to refuse." A tear of frustration, mixed with blood, slid from the corner of Leona's eye.

However.

Just as those machetes were about to fall, at the critical moment when they would have severed her hands.

"Swish!"

An eerie, strange breeze suddenly swept across the edge of the battlefield.

Immediately after.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The poachers who had held their machetes high didn't even have time to react before their entire heads exploded like overripe watermelons under a terrifying, violent, monstrous force!

The headless corpses collapsed limply.

The sneer on Truv's face froze instantly. He whipped his head around, his Observation Haki screaming warnings at him!

In the center of the battlefield, amidst the corpses and blood, and under Leona's incredulous gaze.

At some point, a tall, dark-red silhouette, as imposing as a demon god, had appeared.

He didn't shout about justice, nor did he pay any mind to the poachers who were scrambling back in terror.

Ace walked forward slowly, like an insurmountable mountain, standing firmly between Leona and the Ancient Kong.

He tilted his head slightly, his deep, cold black eyes locking onto Truv in the distance with absolute calm.

"Don't get it twisted, wild boar."

Ace's voice was not loud, yet it carried an absolute dominance that made the entire forest tremble.

"This woman, and the top-tier ingredients in this forest, now belong to me."

Ace raised both hands, pitch-black Armament Haki instantly coiling around his fists.

"Who gave you permission to touch them?"