As the contestants arrived one after another, the quarterfinals of the fighting tournament officially began.
Luo Ya had drawn number one, making him the first to compete. Number two was the bearded pirate he'd heard might put up a decent fight.
The man was bare-chested, showing off his muscular build. The longer Luo Ya looked at him, the more familiar he seemed. It wasn't until he stepped onto the ring that Luo Ya finally realized who he was.
Wasn't this Brownbeard from the original story? Hadn't Caesar turned him into a centaur?
His beard wasn't braided into three plaits yet, but its thickness and color were exactly the same.
"Hahaha! The Navy's useless. You can't even catch a nobody like him."
"I'm Brownbeard, with a bounty of 170 million berries. If you know what's good for you, get off the stage. I don't have time to play house with a brat who hasn't even grown all his hair yet."
As soon as he got onstage, Brownbeard showered Luo Ya with insults, perfectly living up to his defining trait in the original story: he couldn't keep his mouth shut, and it got him killed.
Besides Black Fist Matt at the very beginning and defeating Kuma, the rest of the deeds that made up Luo Ya's bounty involved either slaughtering an entire island or killing countless people.
That was why Brownbeard was so annoyed that Luo Ya's bounty was higher than his own.
"Heh. Looks like you won't get the chance to become a centaur, Brownbeard." Luo Ya cracked his knuckles.
"The rules are the same as in the preliminaries. If you can no longer fight or fall out of the ring, you're eliminated. Let the match begin!"
At the referee's signal, Brownbeard threw a powerful punch at Luo Ya, his fist gleaming with a dark sheen as it cut through the air.
Luo Ya shaped his left hand into a dragon's claw. Bam! He caught Whitebeard's right fist in his palm.
"Heh, what a piece of trash." The moment the words left his mouth, Luo Ya's blackened right claw shot straight for Brownbeard's neck.
Brownbeard was at least strong enough to pick a fight on Whitebeard's turf in the New World. He raised his right leg high and kicked directly at Luo Ya's left arm.
Sinking his body with the motion, he made Luo Ya's sure-to-hit claw swipe through empty air.
The kick struck Luo Ya's left arm, forcing him to release the fist he'd caught.
Luo Ya shook out his numb left arm, then stomped hard against the ground and shot toward Brownbeard like an arrow loosed from its bow.
He raised his right claw. Black Armament Haki flowed across it, forming five sharp, pointed fingertips.
It was Dragon Hook Claw, a move from Dragon's Training Manual. It hardened the fingertips into a dragon's claw with Armament Haki.
Compared to the ordinary Dragon Claw Fist, which crushed opponents in its grip, Luo Ya preferred Dragon Hook Claw. With his current grip strength, he could barely do serious damage by squeezing. Ripping and tearing, on the other hand, caused much more direct injuries.
Brownbeard hadn't even regained his footing. With Luo Ya charging at him, there was no time to block, so he rolled across the ground, making Luo Ya's attack miss once again.
Taking advantage of Luo Ya's momentary exhaustion, he sprang up and punched toward the back of Luo Ya's head.
Bam! His blackened fist collided with an elbow. Luo Ya had seen it coming and bent his arm, using his elbow to block the punch.
As the two traded punches and kicks, Brownbeard's rich combat experience let him land several blows on Luo Ya, drawing blood from the corner of his mouth.
Luo Ya wiped away the blood, only growing fiercer as the fight went on.
As the battle continued, he grew more and more comfortable. His claws struck faster, their angles becoming increasingly tricky, until Brownbeard could barely keep up.
In the confusion, Luo Ya landed a Dragon Hook Claw squarely on Brownbeard's chest, tearing away a large chunk of flesh.
Bam! Brownbeard flew backward and hit the ground, his chest drenched in blood.
"Huff, huff... You little brat, you're dead!" Brownbeard roared as he climbed to his feet.
Before he could steady himself, Luo Ya grabbed his face. The terrifying pressure made Brownbeard's eyes grow bloodshot. Fresh blood began streaming from his ears.
He mumbled something, but Luo Ya's hand muffled his words. Brownbeard began flailing at Luo Ya, but Luo Ya dodged every attack.
As Luo Ya tightened his grip, three clear indentations appeared in Brownbeard's head. Brownbeard furiously hammered Luo Ya's left arm with both fists, each blow landing with a dull thud.
On the one hand, Luo Ya hadn't mastered the Dragon Claw Fist yet. He'd only had it for a few months, and his grip wasn't strong enough to crush a skull outright like Sabo could.
On the other hand, Brownbeard had some strength of his own, leaving Luo Ya locked in a stalemate for the moment.
"Heh. Dragon's Breath," Luo Ya murmured.
His left hand holding Brownbeard loosened slightly, and Brownbeard's voice slipped through the gap between his fingers.
"Spare me! Aah!" Before the words were even out, Luo Ya's hand clamped down again. Brownbeard's scream rang out as his head burst like a watermelon hitting the ground.
His arms fell limp, and he slowly sank to his knees.
Dragon's Breath was a lethal move of the Dragon Claw Fist. It used a close-range attack, similar to the short-range power of an inch punch,
unleashing force at high speed while consuming a large amount of Armament Haki and stamina, dramatically increasing its power in an instant.
When Sabo first used it in Dressrosa, he slammed both fists into the ground and smashed it apart like the breath of a dragon, creating a huge cloud of smoke and an explosion that collapsed the entire rock layer beneath him.
Brownbeard's head exploded, and silence fell over the whole arena. Everyone stared at the headless corpse on the ring and the red-and-white mess on the ground, unable to accept what they were seeing.
Madalina was so frightened that she plunged into King Brunen's arms and trembled.
Luo Ya shook the filth from his hand and looked at the referee. "Shouldn't you announce that I've won?"
"Advancing to the semifinals: the Black Flame Swordsman, Luo Ya!" But this time, his advancement didn't draw cheers from the crowd as it had before.
Luo Ya didn't care. He shrugged and walked off, planning to go back to the hotel, take a shower, and change his clothes.
The semifinals wouldn't start until tomorrow anyway. Only a few people had any chance of advancing. There was no point in watching.
Back at the hotel, Luo Ya sat on the sofa in his pajamas and thought about his fight with Brownbeard.
"Training in isolation can't compare to real combat," Luo Ya thought. The fight with Brownbeard had only lasted a few hours,
but it had done more for him than a whole month of focused training. Take Dragon's Breath, for example. Before, he could only make it work sporadically.
After that fight, he could at least guarantee he'd pull it off every time.
After dinner in his room, Luo Ya went to the training ground to keep practicing the Dragon Claw Fist. Hand-to-hand combat wasn't his strong suit, after all.
Even if he couldn't win the tournament, he wanted to make sure he didn't lose too badly.