The Unanswerable Paw-Paw Fruit

All Things in the Universe, Turn to Ashes!

The hilt of Scorching Cloud turned deep purple, and orange flames flickered brightly and dimly around the blade.

Castle Wall Flame! Luo Ya swung his blade, sending a mass of flames surging toward Kuma. Using the flames for cover, he vanished from sight.

Pressure Cannon! Two paw-shaped bubbles shot toward the flames. Boom! The flames and bubbles collided with a deafening crash, then shockwaves mixed with fire and scattered in all directions.

Luo Ya surged forward with the momentum, the flames that had coiled around Scorching Cloud's blade now completely gone. The edge glowed a dark red.

It was Setting Sun Blade, which compressed a large quantity of flames to raise their temperature and cutting power.

Clang! Luo Ya was sent flying backward. No matter how troublesome his previous opponents had been, none had dared to take this move head-on. But Kuma had not only met it head-on with the Paw-Paw Fruit and Armament Haki bolstering him—he had also successfully counterattacked.

Luo Ya used the force of the rebound to retreat quickly, driving Scorching Cloud into the ground to slow himself down. The blade carved a long crack into the earth. The web between his thumb and forefinger throbbed with numbness from the impact.

Before Luo Ya could regain his footing, Kuma crouched low in a sumo stance and rapidly thrust both palms forward again and again.

A mass of paw-shaped bubbles formed, each larger and denser than the ones from Pressure Cannon.

Boom! Boom! Luo Ya yanked Scorching Cloud free and dodged to the side. The paw-shaped bubbles struck an empty patch of ground, smashing walls and rubble and kicking up a massive cloud of dust.

Cough, cough. Luo Ya emerged from the smoke, coughing, but this time the no-smoke-without-fire rule failed him.

A mass of bubbles had still hit him. Unlike the ones he'd used against Devon before, these didn't pass through the body and inflict crushing pressure.

They were more like air bombs. They exploded the instant they made contact, and the tremendous force of the blasts caused far greater damage than before.

A trickle of blood ran from the corner of Luo Ya's mouth. "One rib's broken. My internal organs must have taken some damage too. No wonder Kuma's so strong." He casually wiped the blood away.

The good news, of course, was that Kuma had finally been injured. There was a scorch mark on the largest paw pad on his palm, though it was faint and blended in with his Armament Haki.

The bad news was that the injury was so minor that he would probably have healed by the time he made it to the hospital.

Kuma was extremely tall, but his legs looked rather thin—though that was relative, of course.

That meant quick movements over short distances were bound to be his weak point. In the original story, he also used the Paw-Paw Fruit's repulsive force to teleport around.

I refuse to believe he can repel every attack with his whole body like he does with his palms, Luo Ya thought as he searched for Kuma's weakness.

Seeing that Luo Ya was injured, Kuma thrust both hands behind him, sending two waves of air bursting out. He shot toward Luo Ya like an arrow loosed from a bow.

Kuma reached him in an instant. With two paws already right in front of him, Luo Ya gritted his teeth.

Pine Torch! Scorching Cloud, in Setting Sun Blade mode, slashed toward Kuma's palms. A tornado-shaped wall of flames shot from the blade, enclosing Kuma and spinning as it burned.

Two air cannons fired point-blank slammed into Scorching Cloud, their force added to the rebound from Luo Ya's swing. The combined impact sent Luo Ya flying straight into a wall.

Bang! Luo Ya fell from the wall to the ground, and Scorching Cloud dropped at his feet. Ordinarily, a sword was a swordsman's life. A swordsman wouldn't let go of his weapon even in death.

But Luo Ya's right arm hung straight down, the bones at his elbow and wrist protruding through the skin. Kuma's point-blank Pressure Cannon had shattered the bones in his arm into several pieces. With his arm completely broken, no amount of willpower could have kept him gripping the hilt.

Of course, a swordsman's arms were usually his greatest strength. Breaking the arm of a swordsman who was holding his ground was even harder than killing him. Kuma was simply far too powerful.

Black flames surged from Luo Ya's body. Empowered by Black Flame Mode, his right arm fully "elementalized," and he picked up Scorching Cloud from the ground.

But Kuma, wrapped in the fiery tornado in the distance, didn't scream like Luo Ya's other opponents. Before Luo Ya could think any further—

A dazzling white light shone from the center of the fiery tornado. Kuma crossed his arms to shield his face and neck, his hands clenched into fists.

A gigantic paw-shaped bubble rose from the ground and quickly expanded, bursting Pine Torch apart.

Seeing Kuma wrapped in the bubble and completely unharmed, Luo Ya swore at the top of his lungs. "What the hell? Could you be any more ridiculous?"

Kuma heard Luo Ya's shout and expressionlessly uncrossed his arms. His broad left hand gripped his right wrist.

The gigantic bubble rapidly shrank around the paw pad on his right hand, eventually condensing into a tiny point of light.

The sight of the bubble compressing into a point of light set Luo Ya on high alert. He quickly crouched and drove Scorching Cloud into the ground up to its hilt. In an instant, dozens of towering pillars of fire erupted from the earth.

Scorching Hell! As Luo Ya murmured the words, the pillars of fire rapidly converged on Kuma. The surrounding air warped in the intense heat, crackling with a sizzling hiss.

Dozens of pillars of fire rapidly drew together, about to merge into one, when a tremendous roar rang out.

Boom! Surrounded by pillars of fire, Kuma crouched in a sumo stance. He crossed his arms while spreading his hands wide, a glowing point of light shining in each palm.

As Kuma clenched both fists, a paw-shaped bubble far larger than the one before rose from the ground. The air compressed so fiercely that the bubble turned deep blue, snapping several pillars of fire from the center.

The battle between the two had grown so loud that even from the distant docks, people could clearly see the pillars of fire and the four fingers of a paw in the sky.

Hearing the thunderous clash, King Bekli immediately ordered, "Hafiz, go watch the battle at the palace. If the Black Flame Swordsman wins, call me at once. I'm going to ask the World Government for help." Then he turned and ordered the soldiers to set sail immediately.

That left the stunned Hafiz and two attendants shouting loudly on the docks.