Rise Two Levels Again

Even the Cipher Pol agents watching from afar were terrified by the dreadful shockwaves of the battle.

"H-How can this Navy Colonel named Rochi possibly be evenly matched with Kerl?!"

The lead agent stared fixedly at the battlefield, his face filled with shock.

At that moment, Rochi, standing at the heart of the storm, truly felt a trace of long-lost pressure.

He had to admit that this pirate with a bounty of seventy-five million possessed Armament Haki even more formidable than his own, despite Rochi being at the peak of Colonel Level!

Every clash of fists left the bones in Rochi's arms numb.

Yet there was not the slightest hint of apprehension on Rochi's face.

Instead, his grin grew increasingly wild!

"What's wrong? Is that all the strength you have? Did playing doctor for two years dull your claws?!"

Rochi was like a lone boat amid a violent barrage of attacks, yet every dodge and block was precise enough to make one's scalp tingle.

Because his eyes had somehow turned scarlet!

Three black tomoe spun wildly within them at a dizzying speed!

Under the Three-Tomoe Sharingan's heaven-defying motion tracking and detail analysis, Kerl's seemingly flawless chain of killing moves had long since had every force trajectory seen through by Rochi!

What amused Rochi even more was—

As the battle continued to escalate, he sharply noticed an extremely unusual action from Kerl!

Boom!

Seizing the opportunity, Rochi unleashed a fierce Iron Body: Heavy Fist, smashing it hard into Kerl's chest.

By the instincts of any normal powerhouse, Kerl could have used a backward retreat to disperse the force and minimize the damage.

But!

Kerl's peripheral vision swept fearfully toward the broad stone-paved ground lying inconspicuously in the center of the backyard behind him!

To avoid backing into that area, Kerl actually halted his retreating steps, forcibly drew a breath, and took Rochi's punch head-on with his body!

"Pfft!" Kerl's face turned pale as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.

"Interesting..."

The red gleam in Rochi's eyes flared at once, and the mockery on his lips became more pronounced. "In a life-or-death battle, you'd rather suffer internal injuries than damage that patch of flooring?"

"What are you afraid of? Or is something hidden beneath it that cannot see the light of day?"

Upon hearing Rochi's words, Kerl's pupils abruptly shrank to pinpoints, and unprecedented terror flashed through his eyes!

"Bastard! Shut your filthy mouth! Die!!!"

The instant his mental defenses were pierced, Kerl lost his composure!

His originally impeccable fighting rhythm revealed an extraordinarily fatal gap because of that momentary agitation and panic!

"Got you!"

How could Rochi possibly let such an opening slip away?

At that critical instant, Rochi's speed surged once more to an unimaginable extreme!

Finger Pistol: Shura Piercing!

Rochi compressed all his Armament Haki onto the tip of his index finger. Like a black bolt of lightning tearing through space, he viciously thrust toward Kerl's heart during the defensive vacuum between his old strength fading and his new strength yet to rise!

Scht—!!!

There was no suspense whatsoever.

Rochi's finger, like a steel spear, brutally tore through Kerl's slightly loosened defenses and pierced straight through the left side of his chest!

"AAAAARGH—!"

Kerl let out a miserable, beast-like howl.

His massive body seemed to have been drained of all strength. With a thud, he dropped heavily to his knees before Rochi.

Blood gushed wildly from his chest, staining his white coat red and declaring the complete defeat and death of the seventy-five-million-berry pirate.

"N-No... impossible..."

Kerl covered his spurting chest with one hand, his whole body convulsing wildly.

Just then, the civilians who had previously been knocked unconscious by the Conqueror's killing intent gradually began to awaken due to the terrifying sounds of battle.

When they saw Doctor Kerl, covered in blood and kneeling on the ground, all of them let out despairing cries.

"Doctor Kerl!!!"

"You demons! Let him go! Let go of our benefactor!"

Hearing the civilians' cries, the struggling Kerl seemed to seize another moral lifeline.

He suddenly raised his head and roared miserably at Rochi through a mouthful of blood:

"Do you see?! You Navy, you World Government, are nothing but shameless lackeys and thugs!"

"I've saved countless lives on this island! I saved every single one of them!"

"I merely couldn't stand the Celestial Dragons' brutality and attacked them once! Why should I die for that?! You claim to uphold justice, yet you slaughter good people on this island! You're nothing but an executioner who cannot distinguish right from wrong!!!"

Kerl's roar sounded incomparably righteous amid his grief and pain, as though he truly were a tragic hero being persecuted.

Every islander present shed furious, anguished tears. The way they looked at Rochi, they wished they could devour his flesh alive!

Even the Cipher Pol agents in the distance felt, at that moment, that this pirate's words... fucking made some sense!

However.

Faced with Kerl's hysterics from the moral high ground and the hatred of the hundreds of civilians around him,

Rochi did not hesitate for even half a second, nor did he feel the slightest guilt.

He bent down slightly, his handsome face, splattered with droplets of blood and looking strangely alluring, slowly moving close to Kerl's ear.

"Cannot distinguish right from wrong?"

Rochi's voice was extremely low and cold, like a judgment from the depths of hell, devoid of any human emotion.

"Aren't you taking yourself a little too seriously?"

"To me, this world has never had any such thing as good people or bad people."

Rochi grabbed Kerl's enormous bald head, forcing him to raise his neck. His gaze was as cold as iron.

"Whether I'm good or bad is not for a dead man like you to judge."

Crack—!!!

A crisp sound of bone breaking rang out, chilling enough to make one's scalp go numb.

Rochi gave Kerl no further chance to spout nonsense and brutally snapped his cervical spine with one hand!

The pirate who had roamed the New World had his eyes bulge instantly, his neck drooping like a limp noodle as all life left him.

"Doctor Kerl is dead! Demons! You demons wearing Navy uniforms!"

The civilians completely broke down. Some burly men who had lost their minds even grabbed stones and wooden clubs from the ground, intending to fight Rochi to the death.

[ Ding! Killed a Commodore Level pirate! Obtained 5000 experience points!]

[ Congratulations, Host! Experience points full! Leveled up twice in a row! Current level: Level 45!]

Hearing the long-lost heavenly sound of leveling up in his mind and feeling the surging power in every limb and bone swell once more,

Rochi exhaled a satisfied breath.

He did not even spare the charging civilians a glance. Instead, he slowly turned around and walked with steady steps straight toward the bluestone-paved ground Kerl had desperately protected during the battle.