Frenzied Slaughter

Ring Cut!

Luo Ya drew his sword, and a circular wave of flaming sword energy expanded rapidly from his position. Sizzle! Sizzle!

Accompanied by the sound of searing flames, several enemies were sliced in half at the waist. Before the others could react, Luo Ya surged forward, slaughtering the enemies before him in a frenzy.

Even though Luo Ya was formidable, being surrounded by countless foes meant he was struck by several blades in an instant. However, as black flames erupted from his body, his wounds healed as if they had never existed.

After a long while, Luo Ya knelt on one knee, leaning on Scorching Cloud. Aside from the countless corpses littering the field, only one werewolf remained, his fur soaked in blood, hands pressed against the ground as he gasped for air.

Blood continued to flow from the numerous wounds on Luo Ya's body. After all, he had first repaired his severed head and limbs, then endured such an intense melee; his physical strength and mental state had plummeted to rock bottom.

He was holding on purely by willpower.

As a user of an Awakened Zoan-type Devil Fruit, Huo Lun's inability to heal the wound at his waist and abdomen signaled that his own stamina was severely depleted.

"Kid! I surrender. The Treasure Tree Adam is yours. Ha! Ha!" Huo Lun wheezed heavily.

"Scarface, I acknowledge you. Everything else is yours, except for the Treasure Tree Adam." Luo Ya leaned on Scorching Cloud and stood up shakily.

Huo Lun reverted to his human form and wiped his face. He stared at Luo Ya with a solemn expression for a moment before turning to head toward the docks.

Clang!

The previously unsteady Luo Ya and the exhausted Huo Lun collided once again.

The half-meter-long wolf claws and Scorching Cloud produced a piercing, resonant echo.

"Kid! If I kill you, all the treasures on this island will be mine!" Huo Lun roared hideously.

"Heh, Scarface, I told you—I'm doing big things, and I'm using you to build my courage. Today, I'll be taking your dog head." Before Luo Ya finished speaking, he delivered a direct kick to Huo Lun's chest.

He immediately pressed forward, swinging down heavily toward Huo Lun's neck.

Crack!

Scorching Cloud was actually caught by Huo Lun's wolf claws. Although three of the five claws snapped, he had still managed to pull off an empty-handed catch of a blade.

Perhaps due to excessive mental exhaustion, the temperature of the flames of Ryujin Jakka dropped sharply, causing the sharpness of Scorching Cloud to diminish significantly.

After all, according to Dezi, if the temperature could not be maintained, this blade was no better than a Skillful Grade Sword.

The only reason it held the title of one of the Great Grade 21 Swords was that its previous owner had been a user of the Mera Mera no Mi.

Huo Lun's left hand, with its two remaining claws, gripped Scorching Cloud tightly, his wolf maw wide open as he lunged for Luo Ya's neck.

Snap!

Luo Ya's neck was bitten through by Huo Lun, and his body and head suffered an immediate "network connection interrupted."

Ptooey!

Huo Lun spat out the flesh and bone from his throat and let out a howl toward the sky: "Awoooo!"

The wolf's howl stopped abruptly.

Black flames surged across Luo Ya's body, and Scorching Cloud emitted a dark red light as he sliced Huo Lun in two from the center of his brow!

Until his death, the giant wolf eyes remained filled with terror and disbelief.

Exhausted to the point of collapse, Luo Ya felt a sense of relief upon seeing Huo Lun's duodenum charred black. He could no longer care about anything else and sat directly on the mountain of corpses, breathing heavily.

Pat. Having regained a sliver of strength, Luo Ya slowly exhaled a ring of smoke.

He scratched his scalp, troubled by how to handle the Treasure Tree Adam.

"I might have made too much of a scene. There doesn't seem to be anyone alive on the island. I guess I'll have to wait for the merchant ships to arrive tomorrow to haul it away," Luo Ya muttered.

Fortunately, the sky was already beginning to brighten. Naples Island was, after all, the lair of one of the four great Mafia families of the West Blue, so there was quite a lot of ship traffic every day.

Exhausted by the multiple battles, Luo Ya stood up, crushed his cigarette butt, found a random empty room, and fell into a deep sleep.

"Heh, as expected, only when I'm completely drained can I enter this place. Come out, Stickman." Before Luo Ya finished his sentence, the Stickman, composed entirely of black flames, appeared before him.

Every previous appearance had brought Luo Ya new techniques; Support Slash, Castle Wall Flame, and Pine Torch were all thanks to it.

The subsequent Ring Cut, Fire Burning City Walls, and even Setting Sun Blade were actually just variations of those few moves.

Although their power and forms differed, they all belonged to the application of Ryujin Jakka's sword techniques.

This time, however, the Stickman was different from before. It didn't launch a frenzied attack on Luo Ya the moment they met.

Instead, it stared at the identical black flames on Luo Ya's body, lost in thought for a long time.

"If you aren't going to make a move, I will." Saying this, Luo Ya drew his blade and rushed toward the Stickman with a Support Slash.

The Stickman, however, remained motionless, allowing the Support Slash to strike him.

In the past, even when struck by Luo Ya, the Stickman's black flames would merely dim and shrink.

But the moment he was hit by the Support Slash this time, the Stickman scattered like fireworks.

Immediately after, black fire snakes surged toward Luo Ya from all directions.

Luo Ya swung Ryujin Jakka, unleashing waves of sword energy, but it was to no avail. He could only watch helplessly as countless tongues of flame poured into his body.

"Why does this feel like I've been possessed by a TV drama I watched before? The villainous aura is just too thick. Ah!"

Before Luo Ya could finish his sentence, a sharp, stabbing pain surged through his mind, as if someone were trying to cram 248GB of software into a 12GB brain.

After a long while, Luo Ya finally recovered from the agonizing pain in his head.

"So that's how it is, hahahaha!" Luo Ya burst into laughter.