"Shigure: Thrust!"
Seeing Smoker driven back head-on, Tashigi drew her sword and stepped forward, the famed blade Shigure swiftly stabbing toward Mark.
Mark neither dodged nor evaded.
"Armament Hardening!"
Just as Shigure was about to pierce Mark's chest, jet-black Armament Haki covered it. Shigure's blade collided with the Haki, producing a crisp clang.
"Thrust... perfect. I happen to have a thrust move too."
Mark held the fingers of his right hand together like a blade, jet-black Armament Haki covering his palm.
Smoker's brow throbbed. That blackened palm gave him an unprecedented sense of danger, and he immediately shouted at Tashigi:
"Danger, Tashigi! Get out of the way!"
But it was already too late.
Tashigi was too close to Mark.
So close that, at Mark's speed, it took only an instant for his palm to plunge into Tashigi's chest.
"Martial Art: Hand Stab!"
Squelch!
His palm pierced through her chest.
Drip... drip...
Blood slowly trickled from the corner of Tashigi's mouth. Her lips trembled slightly as she looked at the blood continuously spilling out, her gaze gradually becoming unfocused.
Swish!
Mark gently withdrew his hand. Blood dripped down his palm, falling onto the ground in a striking crimson.
Feeling the sticky mess on his hand, Mark frowned. Activating his Devil Fruit ability, he devoured all the blood. After rubbing his hands together, he said something utterly out of place:
"Pure and natural. What a pity... it burst!"
Tashigi collapsed to the ground with a thud, gradually losing all signs of life.
Smoker's eyes nearly split with rage. White mist billowed from his body as he roared murderously:
"You damned trash! Filthy garbage of the sea, die!"
His entire body transformed into white mist and swept toward Mark.
At that moment, Smoker's mind was completely consumed by killing intent. Tashigi's death had left his mind blank, filled only with murderous rage.
Seeing Smoker launch a desperate attack without any regard for defense, its momentum actually gave him a slight sense of danger, and Mark's expression turned serious.
Streams of white smoke blanketed the air for dozens of meters around them, filling the area with mist and limiting visibility.
Mark activated his Observation Haki.
Suddenly—
Swish!
A fist wrapped in white mist smashed toward Mark's head. Fortunately, he had activated Observation Haki beforehand and used Silent Step to dodge it.
Swish, swish, swish!
After Mark evaded, even more White Fists followed in rapid succession.
The fist shadows filling the sky carried no technique at all, striking straight at Mark.
Although Mark had the support of Silent Step and Observation Haki, the barrage of fists still hit him many times.
"So this is Smoker's strength? He's really strong!"
Mark wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and slowly dispersed the Dark Water in his hand.
Only after Smoker had gone mad did his strength truly live up to the name of a Logia-type Devil Fruit.
Both its range and power were formidable.
When Smoker had attacked, Mark's use of Dark Water had failed. This power only worked on Devil Fruit abilities that had taken physical form.
But Smoker's body had already transformed into white mist spanning dozens of meters around him, without any solid form. Naturally, Dark Water failed as well.
That was the troublesome part of a Logia.
Yet Mark was still certain of victory.
If that ability could not be used, then he would switch to a more forceful method.
"Dark Emperor (Dark Annihilation)!!!"
Bzzzz!
Darkness like rippling water spread from around his body, covering the entire area of dozens of meters that had been shrouded in white mist.
Once the darkness covered the ground, rings of ripples converged from the outside inward, gradually gathering in Mark's hand.
After all the darkness condensed into Mark's hand, a massive black sphere more than ten meters in diameter slowly rotated above his palm, wreathed in surging dark flames.
Like Dark Fist, Dark Emperor imitated Ace's ultimate move, Flame Emperor, but in Mark's hands, it possessed even greater destructive power!
Ace: I'm suing you for plagiarism...
Mark: You still have a year before you set sail. I should be the one suing you for plagiarism...
Ace: MMP!
The moves Mark had independently developed so far included Dark Fist (Ace's Fire Fist), Dark Emperor (Ace's Flame Emperor), Attraction Force (Luffy's stretching ability)...
He copied whatever he could from the two brothers' abilities without the slightest shame, and he had used those moves to knock down enemy after enemy.
That included Smoker, the smoke guy before him.
Once Dark Emperor formed, the three to five Marines nearby immediately retreated. The surrounding civilians were also silent with fear, fleeing if they could.
A sphere of dark flames more than ten meters in diameter slowly rotated in Mark's hand. Anyone who saw that thing knew its attack power was not to be underestimated.
The faint burning sensation of the dark flames came from the corrosive nature of the Dark-Dark Fruit. It was not actual burning.
Mark magnified that corrosiveness, turning it into dark flames.
And these dark flames, which could corrode and devour, inflicted even greater damage.
With a light cough, Smoker was forced out of his fully elemental state and back into human form. Once he was forced to become human again, the white mist around them gradually dispersed.
Mark's face was slightly pale as he looked at Smoker. Carrying Dark Emperor, he slowly walked toward him, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
"Smoker, the positions of hunter and prey... have changed. I won't be going to a place like Impel Down..."
"Filthy garbage of the sea!!!" Smoker panted heavily, his face turning even paler.
The law of conservation of energy absolutely held true.
Smoker's ability to transform into white mist across dozens of meters was a variant application of elementalization. For him, it was an ability that could only be used by overdrawing his stamina.
Admiral-level powerhouses could use such abilities freely because their Devil Fruit development had awakened and their stamina was incredibly strong.
But Smoker was still far from an Admiral. By using that power, his stamina had already been exhausted.
Smoker now found even moving difficult. He could only watch as Mark slowly approached him.
Mark stopped and hurled Dark Emperor toward Smoker.
Dark Emperor swept toward Smoker at tremendous speed.
Rumble!
Dark Emperor exploded upon striking the ground.
The blast radius engulfed Loguetown's entire square and even half of Loguetown. Its power rivaled Ace's Flame Emperor, and in an instant, countless people in Loguetown were killed or injured.
Waves of air surged from the center of the explosion.
"This level of attack... whew..." Mark exhaled deeply, a satisfied smile appearing on his slightly pale face.
That move had consumed half his stamina, but its destructive force was equally astonishing.
Half of Loguetown had been destroyed by that single strike.
"Uh..." Just as he turned to leave, his Observation Haki detected a trace of life.
He looked in the direction indicated by his Observation Haki.
A blood-soaked figure appeared before him. The Marine uniform on his body had been blasted into tatters, and his flesh had been torn open by the explosion.
"Smoker... that guy actually didn't die!!!"
Mark found it somewhat unbelievable. Dark Emperor's power was beyond question. Even he could not have survived such an explosion.