Big Axe Hero Jaba

Somewhere in the West Blue.

Aboard the Oro Jackson.

A figure was sent flying like a cannonball by someone, plunging straight toward the distant sea.

"Hey, Jaba, Vikengam's a Devil Fruit user. Isn't it a bad idea to knock him into the sea?" Roger sat beneath the mast with a bottle in hand, laughing heartily.

But Jaba clearly had no intention of paying him any attention. He pushed off with his feet, stepped onto the deck railing, and shot after Vikengam, who had been sent flying.

Just as Vikengam was about to fall into the sea, a wave of frigid air erupted from his body. The instant before he touched the water, it froze everything within a hundred meters, nearly freezing the Oro Jackson in place as well.

With a bang, Vikengam crashed heavily onto the ice, shattering the newly frozen surface and falling into an icy pit.

At the same time, Jaba arrived close behind. He had no intention of giving Vikengam an opening. He swung his battle axe fiercely through the air, sending a sharp slash tearing toward the pit.

Almost at the same instant, a chain axe flew out of the pit. Its refined steel chain surged like a sea dragon, accurately smashing the axe blade into the incoming slash.

But it was of little use. After a brief collision, the chain axe was knocked away by the overwhelming force.

Yet the force of that pull happened to yank Vikengam straight out of the icy pit.

He tugged hard on the chain wrapped around his wrist, sending Vikengam through a graceful half-turn in midair. He narrowly vaulted over Jaba's slash, while his chest expanded as though he had just taken a deep breath.

"Frost Breath!" Vikengam roared, exhaling a blast toward Jaba.

The biting cold swept past at high speed, instantly turning the moisture in the air into sheets of ice crystals that fell along the trail of frost.

"Useless!" Jaba had no intention of dodging. He stomped on the air, bursting it into crashing waves, and rammed into the freezing mist. With one axe swing, he split it apart and caught up to Vikengam in the blink of an eye.

Then he twisted the wrist of his other hand, spinning the hand axe into a blur in midair before chopping down at Vikengam.

"Chop Wood!"

At that critical moment, Vikengam's eyes glowed crimson. A single tomoe spun rapidly within his pupils as he activated his Sharingan.

Relying on the Sharingan's exceptional dynamic vision, combined with the Cat-Cat Fruit's reflexes, he barely managed to keep up. He raised a hand, grabbed the whipping chain in midair, and pulled hard, straightening it into a steel bar before him.

Jaba's axe blade followed immediately after, striking the chain. It first pressed down, bending the straight chain into an arc, before the force behind it sent Vikengam crashing downward from midair.

But before that, the freezing air had already struck back on its own. It traveled along the chain and reached Jaba's hand axe. In the blink of an eye, frost covered its blade and continued spreading toward his palm.

Normally, Jaba would have used his Haki to directly suppress and shatter the spreading frost. But considering their prior agreement, he had promised not to use Haki during this sparring match. After a moment's hesitation, he tossed the hand axe into the air and abandoned it.

On the other side, Vikengam landed on both feet and instantly shattered the ice beneath him, sending countless ice crystals flying. At the same time, he yanked hard with his left hand and flicked his wrist twice, making the chain axe sway like a long whip as he swung it at the diving Jaba.

One axe is already useless. Next... Vikengam calculated as the Sharingan in his eyes spun fiercely.

"Next, the winner will be decided. Watch closely, kid!" As if he had seen through Vikengam's thoughts, Jaba grinned arrogantly in midair. The battle axe remaining in his right hand shook violently, then came down in a simple downward chop without the slightest flourish!

In the distance, Rayleigh watched from the Oro Jackson with a smile and supplied in a magnetic voice, "Split Mountain!"

The fierce slash howled downward. Though there was only one strike, it seemed to contain countless variations, locking firmly onto Vikengam and making him feel there was nowhere to escape!

It was not Haki. Jaba had not used the power of Haki; he had merely suppressed Vikengam through sheer presence!

Even as Vikengam's Sharingan spun madly, he could not find the slightest flaw in that simple strike, much less evade it.

It sounded slow, but in reality, all those thoughts took only an instant.

Since he could not dodge it, then he would not dodge!

Vikengam twisted his feet, shifting into a stance better suited to absorb the impact. Then frost burst completely from his body as he shouted in a low voice, "Ice Bone Clang!"

This was completely different from the endurance training he had done with Bartholomew Kuma at Mary Geoise.

This time, an ice wall at least half a meter thick appeared around him first, directly encasing and freezing Vikengam within it. Immediately afterward, his skin could be seen forming into sturdy crystalline ice armor inside the wall as he fully entered a defensive stance.

Then Jaba's downward chop fell, striking the ice wall with savage force.

The overwhelming power instantly shattered the ice wall before smashing into Vikengam's crystalline armor. Just as that force was about to penetrate Vikengam's body, the frozen figure shattered on the spot. Broken ice and crystalline powder turned into a cloud of icy dust beneath the impact, concealing the entire area.

"Hm?" Jaba raised a brow, somewhat surprised.

Before he could make a judgment, there was a clatter as chains shot up from beneath the shattered ice. They coiled toward him like giant serpents, wrapping around his entire body in an attempt to crush him.

"Without Haki, detecting my movements in this frozen land won't be so easy, Senior Jaba!" Vikengam's triumphant voice followed.

"Don't get too cocky, brat!" Jaba remained calm. Before the chains could tighten and bind him, he scooped his battle axe downward, caught the chain against the inner edge of the axe blade, and yanked upward.

The movement was perfectly timed, precisely peeling the chain away from his body.

Though he could not see Vikengam's figure, he relied on his vast combat experience and instincts to kick straight into the icy mist.

Vikengam, who had been about to charge out and surprise Jaba, changed expression and crossed his arms before himself.

With a bang, Vikengam was kicked back into the icy mist, crashing hard onto the already shattered ice. Before he could get up, Jaba had already pressed his battle axe against Vikengam's shoulder.

"It's over, scholar." Jaba smiled.

As his words fell, the other hand axe he had thrown into the air earlier happened to drop back down, and he casually caught it. The entire sequence was both effortless and imposing.

"You really didn't use Haki? Observation Haki, for example?" Vikengam glanced at the axe blade on his shoulder and asked helplessly.

"If I'd used Haki, this shoe of mine wouldn't still feel frozen." Jaba laughed.

The foot he had used to kick Vikengam was covered in frost all the way to his knee.

As he spoke, a burst of Haki trembled lightly from within him, shattering the frozen frost and scattering it away.

"Fine, I concede." Vikengam did not try to deny it and admitted defeat cleanly.

Only then did Jaba put away his hand axe and hang it at his waist. He casually pulled Vikengam to his feet and said, "For a scholar, you're already quite a fighter. Your physical abilities and strength are both excellent. Especially when you activate that 'ghost eye' of yours, your reaction speed and dynamic vision improve noticeably. Of course, your weakness is obvious too: you lack combat experience. You fight too rigidly, so anyone can tell at a glance what you're planning next..."

"It's Sharingan, not some ghost eye. That sounds completely lame." Vikengam complained first, then added, "Still, thanks for the guidance, Senior Jaba."

There were quite a few people on these seas who used axes as weapons, but few of them were truly powerful.

Among the more famous ones was the vicious man known as Silver Axe. And Jaba, the future Pirate King's left-hand man, known as Mountain Devourer, was undoubtedly also a true Big Axe Hero.

Vikengam also favored this type of weapon. The equipment he carried with him was this chain axe that never left his side, named Merciless. It had been painstakingly forged by a master craftsman of Mary Geoise.

However, Vikengam's axe techniques were not very good. He was still too young, and due to his previous status, he had rarely fought anyone in a true life-or-death battle, leaving his style full of flashy but impractical moves.