Demon King

At that moment, Locke felt the energy within the fruit spread from his stomach to his limbs. In the process, his body continuously grew stronger. The Haki training method Master Koushirou had taught him had originally been beyond his physical strength to practice, but now Locke felt fully capable of training it.

After circling through Locke's limbs, that energy surged straight toward his brain.

Once it reached there, the energy stopped. Locke felt the barrier that had been preventing his awakening suddenly open, and his mastery of the Illusion-Illusion Fruit underwent a complete transformation.

If the illusions Locke had created before had merely been illusions, then now they could become real. These real illusions were somewhat like the Shadow Clones from Naruto, but the greatest difference was that Shadow Clones could only use their owner's abilities, while the illusions Locke created could use any ability Locke could imagine, even ones he did not know himself.

As for the illusions' attack power, it depended on Locke's own physical strength. The more stamina he expended, the stronger their attacks became. Locke had no way to test the upper limit right now, and his opponents were not about to give him the time.

Just as Locke got to his feet, the enemy attacked again. Having only just stood up, Locke had no choice but to roll aside, barely avoiding the attack.

Locke dodged the attack, but it struck the tomb chamber wall directly.

With a loud bang, the entire tomb chamber began to shake, and dirt and stones continuously fell from above.

"Kid, stop right there! You dared steal something Sis had his eye on? You're dead!" Sis shouted as he attacked Locke again.

The people locked in the melee also noticed what was happening. Seeing their captain chasing down an unfamiliar kid, along with the red light that had filled the tomb chamber disappearing, they quickly understood what had happened.

They immediately abandoned the three brothers and charged toward Locke.

Sis's punch had broken Locke's disguise, revealing his true appearance. Moreover, the Awakening Fruit's effect had brought his Fruit ability to the critical stage of awakening, leaving him unable to spare a hand to fight back. He could only keep dodging Sis's attacks.

As Locke struggled to fend for himself, he saw the sailors closing in around him. He knew what he needed most right now was time—time for his Fruit ability to stabilize completely.

So, after dodging Sis's attack once more, Locke ran straight toward the tomb chamber exit.

"Get after him!" Sis roared at his crew before chasing after Locke.

Hearing Sis's command, the crew members rushed toward the exit as well. Soon, only the three brothers remained in the tomb chamber.

After watching everyone disappear through the exit, the three brothers could no longer maintain their transformations and reverted to normal. Only then did they see that their bodies had gained many more wounds. The melee had not been easy on them either. If Locke had not suddenly appeared, they probably would not have held on much longer.

"Big Brother, who was that guy just now?" Panda, the youngest, asked.

"I don't know either, but he saved our lives!" Big Bear said.

"Yeah! Big Brother's right!" the third brother, the polar bear, agreed.

"What do we do now?" Panda, the fourth brother, asked again.

"Let's tend to our wounds first, then go out and take a look," the eldest replied.

"We'll do as Big Brother says!" The third and fourth brothers both nodded.

Very quickly, the three used their clothes to roughly dress their wounds. Then, led by their eldest brother, they slowly made their way toward the tomb chamber entrance.

They moved very carefully, afraid that the sailors outside had already dealt with Locke and were waiting for them to walk into the trap.

The way was not very long. Though they walked slowly, they soon reached the exit. When the three cautiously emerged from the cave entrance, they found no one outside.

However, not far from the entrance, they discovered that the person who had saved them in the tomb chamber had already been caught up to and surrounded.

Yet that group did not seem to be in a hurry to attack. Instead, they started talking.

"Kid, who the hell are you? Don't you know how death is spelled?" Sis asked viciously.

Surrounded and with the energy in his body not yet stabilized, Locke had already prepared to counterattack even at the cost of being injured. Yet Sis did not attack. Instead, he stood there talking to him.

"You don't even know who I am?" Locke asked, stalling for time.

"Is he famous? Have any of you seen him before?" Locke's question left Sis stunned, and he quietly asked the people beside him.

Because of Locke's words, the crew began whispering among themselves, only to find that none of them recognized him.

"Just look at yourselves. I can tell you country bumpkins have never heard of me. Listen up! I'm the captain of the Phantom Pirates, Phantom Locke."

"Phantom Locke? Never heard of him," Sis muttered.

"Fine, Phantom Locke, what's your bounty?" Coby, who had been so arrogant earlier, asked loudly.

Feeling the energy within his body gradually calm down, Locke no longer wanted to play around with these people. "My bounty? I just set sail, so I don't have one yet!"

After saying that, Locke looked at them with a teasing grin.

"Damn it! Kid, you dared trick us!" Coby was enraged by Locke's words and immediately attacked him.

Seeing Coby make his move, the surrounding crew members followed suit.

"Perfect. I can test out my new move." Locke watched them charge at him with complete confidence.

"Phantom: Demon King!"

As Locke's voice fell, purple flames wrapped around him. The flames grew larger and larger until they formed a Demon King over eight meters tall, holding a massive hammer made of fire.

The appearance of this Demon King was based on a boss from a game Locke had played in his previous life. In that game, the Demon King's entire body was made of fire. He stood amid lava, and every movement he made dealt incomparably devastating damage.

The one Locke created still differed somewhat from the one in the game. The game version was surrounded by orange-red flames, while Locke's was wreathed in purple fire. Its attack power was also nowhere near the game's version, but Locke believed that while it might not be enough to handle the captain called Sis, it was more than enough to deal with these small fry.