Let's Capture It, Heracross

Buggy had assumed that anyone destined to rule the island must be a formidable figure, but judging solely from the other man's gaunt appearance and short stature, it was difficult to be wary. Moreover, he exuded no aura of danger whatsoever, resembling an ordinary old man. Perhaps he was deliberately concealing his strength to lull Bucky into a false sense of security.

This is highly likely.

"Invaders from abroad..."

The Grand Priest, clutching his scepter and wearing a squid mask, stared at Buggy. His voice, hoarse and sinister, sounded like two leaves rubbing together, "So you actually found this place. You'd better leave if you don't want to die..."

He suddenly changed his mind halfway through his sentence, "No, I won't let you leave. You'll stay here and become fodder..."

A flicker of wariness crossed Buggy's eyes, but he didn't rush to attack. Judging from the other party's confident tone, he felt that something was amiss. He glanced around at the surroundings. This place was much damper than the cave he had been to before, with bluish moss growing on the walls. Directly in front of him was a latticed gate more than ten meters high, from which he could sense a faint biological presence. He wondered what was locked inside.

Buggy, however, remained remarkably calm. "Oh? Of course I'm not leaving. I'll see what tricks you have up your sleeve."

"Hehehe--" The national priest let out a somewhat disgusting laugh, as if he had a wad of phlegm stuck in his throat, "You'll see soon enough!"

He slammed his scepter on the ground, and the lattice gate swung open with a rattling sound.

A pair of eerie blue eyes emerged like will-o'-the-wisps from within the dark gate, followed by the clanging sound of chains being pulled.

The creature inside was startled awake and seemed to want to rush out, but it was restrained by chains or something similar. Buggy's gaze fell into the darkness, but he couldn't make out what kind of creature it was.

"Little darling—don't rush, hee hee hee!" The Grand Priest spoke in a chilling voice, his scepter slightly raised and planted in the ground. "Come out, Heracross!"

The sound of chains falling to the ground came from inside the gate, and a head that was about five or six meters long suddenly poked out from the dark gate.

It was a giant insect with blue fluorescent stripes flowing across its head, a Y-shaped horn extending from the middle of its head, and two exaggerated eyes that looked like buckets.

It simply looked around, its antennae swaying back and forth, its two eyes fixed on what was in front of it.

Buggy whispered, "So it's a giant rhinoceros beetle..."

"Hehehe--" The Grand Priest pulled out a blue gem the size of a walnut from his person and held it out in front of Heracross. "Eat it, my little darling... I'll free you completely right away!"

Heracross looked rather dazed, his mouth slightly open, and he stuck out a tongue to lick the blue gem in the Grand Priest's hand.

"This is your favorite food! Eat up, eat up!" The national priest's eyes gleamed with excitement.

Heracross slowly opened his gaping maw, revealing a row of sharp teeth, then suddenly bit down, engulfing the national sacrifice and swallowing its entire body whole.

"Stop!!!"

The national sacrifice emitted a heart-wrenching, agonizing scream from Heracross's mouth, which grew fainter and fainter until it quickly disappeared.

Blood flowed from the corner of Heracross's mouth onto the ground. Its mouth bulged, and it spat out a squid mask mixed with blood and flesh.

"Hmm... he just died like that..."

Buggy was also completely taken aback and paused for a moment...

So... is this national priest with the highest-ranking nine feathers hanging from his waist really just an ordinary, withered old man?!

Heracross seemed somewhat dissatisfied, his face contorted with rage, and he lunged at Buggy. However, after charging forward a short distance, he stopped in place, and a crisp clanging of chains echoed from the gate.

Even so, it continued to struggle outwards, exposing half of its body to the light. It was over ten meters long, and not just its head, but its entire body was covered in flowing blue stripes, which looked somewhat dazzling, but it was quite eerie on such an insect.

Buggy stared at Heracross before him and muttered, "How do I deal with this guy? If I had Conqueror's Haki, I should be able to handle him easily..."

Heracross' eyes turned even bluer, and it roared fiercely, causing the entire cave to shake as it moved, with stone dust falling in a flurry.

Seemingly because it had consumed the blue gem, its strength had increased. With a "snap," the chains binding it in the gate broke free, and its entire body burst out of the gate!

Heracross was entirely blue, about twenty meters long, with horns on its head about seven or eight meters long, taking up almost one-fifth of the entire burrow. With its two forelimbs on the ground, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, it charged impatiently at Buggy.

The space inside the burrow was very limited, making it extremely difficult to dodge Heracross's massive body. Despite its enormous size, it was surprisingly agile, and in the blink of an eye, its horns were almost touching Buggy's front.

"This is such a hassle..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Buggy vanished from the spot.

Boom!!

Heracross' massive horn slammed into the cave wall, the powerful force instantly shattering the entire wall into pieces, sending huge chunks of rock flying everywhere.

The next instant, Buggy appeared above Heracross, hovering briefly in the air. Compared to Heracross, he seemed like a tiny insect.

"Tempest Kick. Ten Thousand Ants!"

Buggy raised his right foot, shattering it into tens of thousands of tiny pieces of flesh, and kicked toward Heracross's fragile limbs. But just before the kick landed, Hercules' head snapped back, and his massive horns charged at him once more.

Boom!

A two-meter-deep hole was punched in the top of the cave, and lime rained down, causing Heracross's head to fall back down.

"An insect that only knows Observation Haki and Armament Haki..."

A low murmur could be heard coming from the limestone.

Buggy, his arms wrapped around Heracross's massive horns, was covered in dust and dirt, a grim look in his eyes. "If I don't go all out, I feel like I'm going to be killed..."

"Life Return. Armed..."

His body grew larger, his arms wrapped in Armament Haki as he embraced the horns, his muscles bulged, and veins stretched like tree roots. Using Heracross's horns as a point of force, he swung them out like a weapon!

"Grand Sumo!!"

Heracross' nearly twenty-meter-long body was thrown backward by the immense force, spun a full circle in the air, and then crashed heavily into the ground!

A deafening earthquake could be heard throughout the entire Ritual Hall. Both the pirates and the island's self-defense soldiers felt the violent shaking beneath the ground. The island's soldiers, in particular, were terrified and trembled, having never encountered anything like it on the island before. The pirates, being experienced and knowledgeable, saw the soldiers' dejected expressions and intensified their attack, pressing their advantage.

The tall houses on the ground, made of wood and thatched with straw, were completely incapable of preventing earthquakes. Those that had been built a little longer collapsed and turned into ruins. Fortunately, the roofs of these houses could only cause minor injuries at most, and would not kill anyone, which relieved the unfortunate residents.

Meanwhile, the battle between Jody Lane, Nilek, Tink, and Jass and General Eight Feathers is nearing its end.

Jody Lane had been dominating General Ba Ling from the very beginning. Nilek's modified warrior, Spar, was almost as strong as Cabaji, and had no problem suppressing General Ba Ling. Meanwhile, Tink and Jass's combined strength kept their opponents in the dust.

Although these three generals had always been the island's strongest fighting force, they were still no match for the pirates from outside. They were covered in wounds, and if they were not careful, they would be stabbed in vital areas during the duel.

Cabaji, Mohji, Shuma fought their way from the East Blue to the Grand Line and then to the New World, accumulating a wealth of combat experience. Even though Cabaji was initially at a disadvantage, he maneuvered amidst the fierce attacks, looking for opportunities to kill the Forbidden Army soldiers one by one.

The situation on the island gradually became clearer, and the scales of victory had tipped in favor of the pirates.

Just then, the town was suddenly filled with screams of terror as countless Rainbow Bug crawled out of their nests and rushed into the Ritual Town from all directions.

Faced with tens of thousands of Rainbow Bug, even the pirates and the Self-Defense Forces had to stop fighting each other and turn their attention to the Rainbow Bug. Clearly, these Rainbow Bug posed a far greater threat; a single sting would cause the body to swell, and without timely treatment, death would ensue in no time.

The town did have medicine to treat this poison, but with the riot of the Rainbow Bug, the medicine had long been in short supply and was eventually taken into custody by the state priest and stored in the national treasury for future use.

At this time, more and more people were being attacked by the Rainbow Bug, and cries of agony rose and fell. These Rainbow Bug were relentless and could not be killed off. Wave after wave of them attacked, leaving no one alive in their wake, just like a wheat field devoured by locusts.

In desperation, the residents had no choice but to flee towards the center of the town, barely clinging to life.

At that moment, a crack slowly appeared in the ground in the center of the town, and then a huge hole was suddenly torn open. A huge blue light shot out of the ground, flapping its wings and flying into the sky.

"What is that?!"

Despite being in grave danger, everyone in the town couldn't help but look up at the sky, their emotions so complex that words failed to describe them. Or rather, with their lives threatened, the mere existence of such a monster beneath the town no longer surprised them.

Heracross, flying in the air, roared loudly, and invisible sound waves spread outwards. The swarm of Rainbow Bug retreated swiftly from all directions like Nezumi seeing a cat.

Several trembling, frightened Rainbow Bug forgot to flee and were swallowed whole by Heracross, who swooped down and opened its blood-red maw.

The civilians and soldiers present were stunned. Some even knelt down on the spot, their eyes filled with fanaticism, exclaiming, "A miracle! This is a miracle!!"

"This insect is poisonous!" a voice suddenly came from Heracross.

"It spoke! The Insect God spoke!"

"It must have been sent by the gods to save us!"

The civilians were excited, and after experiencing the joy of surviving a catastrophe, they took the lead in kneeling down in twos and threes. More and more people knelt down, and like the spread of a plague, even the soldiers put down their weapons and bent their knees.

"These guys..."

Buggy peeked out from behind Heracross, and seeing that the latter seemed unaffected, he felt slightly relieved.

In the battle just now, he exhausted all his strength and finally won the struggle against Heracross. Perhaps for this reason, the latter suddenly became as docile as a sheep, in a way... because he had submitted to his overwhelming power!

As for Heracross's roar being able to disperse the Rainbow Bug, that truly surprised Buggy. Of course, the sudden large-scale invasion of the Rainbow Bug into the town was also something he hadn't anticipated.

"From now on..."

Seizing the opportunity, Buggy stood on Heracross's horn, picked up the symbolic scepter of the state ceremony, raised it high above his head, and swept his sharp gaze across the land below. "I will take over this island!!"

"Captain Buggy!!"

The pirates shouted excitedly when they saw Buggy.

The civilians were initially taken aback, but when they saw the man standing atop Heracross's head and being fawned over by the pirates, they finally began to vaguely understand who he was—the instigator of the war, the legendary righteous man!

The soldiers stared at the scepter in Buggy's hand, and roughly understood that the supreme priest, who possessed nine feathers and held an extremely high status, was likely to be killed by the man before them. They remained silent.

Only a few die-hard loyalists resolutely charged forward, but they were immediately captured by the pirates.

"If anyone has any objections, please speak up... I'll give you a chance to prove yourselves!"

Buggy asked again.

"I refuse to accept this! I will kill you to avenge the Grand Priest!!"

The three captured loyal soldiers screamed hysterically.

Buggy leaped from Heracross's horn onto the ground. "Let them go."

The pirates cautiously released their grip and retreated. Once freed, the three soldiers picked up their weapons without a word and charged at Buggy.

"Life and death are determined by fate..."

Buggy silently uttered a word, transforming into a blur as he passed through the soldiers. The two sides crossed paths in an instant and stopped almost simultaneously.

Several soldiers fell to the ground without warning, their blood flowing out and staining the ground red.

"Is there anyone else?"

Buggy calmly looked at everyone around him; no one answered, choosing to remain silent.

"Very good..." Buggy nodded, his captain's cape fluttering.

"From this day forward, I am the master of this island, your new king... Buggy!"