Under siege, part three

Rogge and the others had kept their secret far too well. Those prisoners' lives were in Ares's hands, so they were even less likely to let anything slip. Over the past year, almost no one outside their group had known that Ares also possessed the Venom-Venom Fruit.

Ares spent very little time training. He devoted most of his time to research, studying the Venom-Venom Fruit he had obtained. It was a creation-type fruit, unlike the Chop-Chop Fruit, which required immense physical strength.

Moreover, the stronger the poison he consumed, the stronger the poison his body could produce.

At first, the Venom-Venom Fruit could only produce mildly corrosive poison, something akin to stomach acid in the human body. Its power was pitiful.

But Ares was an expert in this field. Over the past year, he had researched all kinds of poisons. What counted as poison, anyway? Any liquid that could kill a person with a single drop qualified.

Seeing the Hydra behind Ares, Kuzan charged forward. Waves of freezing air swept toward it, freezing the poison before it could even touch Aokiji's body.

"Flame Dragon!"

Ares picked up Lassoo. Lassoo opened its mouth and spat out a stream of flames, which merged with the Hydra. The poison dragon ignited at once, becoming a dragon of fire.

"Oh, not bad! This guy actually has a flair for combat now. He used to be a total weakling." Rogge brightened at Ares's performance.

Ares had always been the weakest member of the crew. Rogge had taken a gamble by having Enel kill Magellan, hoping they could extract his Venom-Venom Fruit. Getting it would be ideal, since it could transform Ares.

Now, the results looked pretty good. Ares had even developed a few tricks of his own.

"Don't underestimate Ares. He's poured a lot into