A Breakthrough at the Brink of Life and Death

"What kind of Devil Fruit power is this? Hina is curious," Hina said blankly.

"Curious or not, I'm not telling you. I figure your Marine higher-ups should know. This area should be under your jurisdiction, right? It's very close to Alabasta."

"What an unromantic man," Hina said.

"I couldn't possibly get involved with a thirty-year-old auntie, could I?" Rogge said with a shrug.

A vein immediately popped on Hina's forehead. She hated it most when people brought up her age. Thirty? She was only twenty-nine this year. She had entered the Marine elite camp in her teens and studied under Zephyr. Smoker had been her classmate, and it was because of Smoker that she had picked up a smoking habit.

At twenty-nine, she was a flower of the Marines and a colonel at Marine Headquarters, stationed on the Grand Line's front line near the Red Line. There was no shortage of men pursuing her, and there were even more Marine officers from her own generation.

Normally, she should have been at the peak of her charm, at her most attractive. But age was forever a woman's greatest enemy, especially when Rogge called her an auntie. Hina could not take it anymore.

Black Spear!

Hina stretched out her hand, and a black spear emerged from the center of her palm. Gripping it, she charged forward and thrust straight at Rogge's heart.

Rogge twisted aside to dodge the attack, then grabbed the Black Spear and crushed it with a hard squeeze.

Hina had indeed discovered how troublesome Rogge's power was. It seemed difficult to attack him with weapons; anything that struck at him would be shattered in his hands.

"What a troublesome ability," Hina said. Then two more weapons appeared in her hands—this time, a pair of tonfas. Her movements were incredibly swift. The spear had been a long weapon for close combat, but the instant she switched to tonfas, her weapons became short-range tools that combined offense and defense.

Wielding the tonfas, Hina launched a fierce assault. It was clear that her combat techniques surpassed Rogge's. Though Rogge had once been a soldier and his physical condition was not poor, the training he had received could never compare to that of a student taught by a Marine admiral, not to mention that they came from entirely different worlds.

Hina noticed this during the fight, which further convinced her that Rogge was not impossible to deal with. Other than his troublesome power, she could handle him in every other respect.

Faced with Hina's strange weapons, Rogge repeatedly used his fists and arms to block. But he was still flesh and blood, and close-quarters combat truly could limit a Devil Fruit user's movements.

Rogge tried several times to use his power to break down Hina's tonfas, but she saw through his intentions each time and evaded with clever fighting techniques.

But Hina did not know that Rogge was actually enjoying this battle. Wary of his power, she did not use her own ability much, since she knew it would be ineffective against him.

With insufficient intelligence on Rogge, she chose to keep circling him with the fighting style that appeared effective for now.

The Cage-Cage Fruit and the Vine-Vine Fruit seemed to work on similar principles. The only difference was that besides creating vines, Jelly's Vine-Vine Fruit could also transform his own body. That made it a special type among Paramecias, similar to Katakuri's Mochi-Mochi Fruit.

Hina could create Black Cages, but she could not turn her body into Black Cages. It was somewhat like the Gold-Gold Fruit, though it was probably an inferior version of the Iron-Iron Fruit.

Rogge was enjoying the hand-to-hand combat. He needed battle to improve himself. In his view, before entering the New World, he needed to raise his strength as much as possible. Once he entered the New World and faced those true monsters, he did not want to be left without the ability to fight back.

Nor did he want to be so passive that he could only rely on the power of some pirate crew. Rogge had no desire to bow beneath anyone, even if it meant death.

After several dozen exchanges, Hina frowned. She discovered a problem: Rogge, who had struggled to withstand her attacks before, was actually adapting to her rhythm. He could even find opportunities to counterattack. She had not expected this. Rogge's fighting techniques had clearly been somewhat rusty earlier, yet now they were becoming fluid.

This made Hina uneasy. There was something else troubling her as well—the situation on the other warships did not seem promising.

Hina knew her subordinates' strength well. Though they were not elites from Marine Headquarters, they were still among the stronger soldiers in the New World. Their discipline and combat experience were not something Marines from the Four Seas could compare to.

Yet cries of agony from soldiers continued to ring out from the three warships, making Hina increasingly uneasy. She had seen the people aboard Rogge's ship earlier. Aside from Rogge, there were five others. Four had boarded the warships and taken the initiative to attack, while two remained on the pirate ship.

In comparison, her side had over a thousand people across five ships, while the other side had only six. Yet nearly ten minutes had passed, and there was still no clear winner. Instead, the battle was only growing fiercer.

"Hina is uneasy. She has to finish this guy quickly," Hina muttered. Spikes suddenly protruded from her tonfas, increasing their lethality and restricting Rogge's next moves.

With those spikes in place, if Rogge wanted to deal with them using his own body, he had better be prepared to be torn to pieces.

"Oh? Playing dirty now?" Rogge looked at the spikes on Hina's tonfas and leaped several meters backward, opening the distance.

"The battle is over. Hina has no time to waste on you." Hina charged forward with her tonfas. One end of each short weapon had transformed into a sharp conical spike. Though short, the force was concentrated at the tip. If Rogge took even one hit, he probably would not be able to keep fighting.

"In such a hurry? Looks like my companions have put you under pressure." Rogge chuckled. Facing Hina's thrust, he raised his fist and drove it straight into the attack.

"Here it comes!"

Hina knew Rogge was about to use his power. The moment one tonfa struck his fist, the tonfa in her other hand began to spin, smashing viciously toward Rogge's head.

"Not good..." Rogge realized he had no time to react. With no other choice, he could only watch as the tonfa swung toward his head, its spikes clearly visible.

At that instant, Rogge's pupils seemed to expand infinitely, and the entire world seemed to stop. The tonfa slowed down. Rogge could clearly see it moving—slowly, so slowly—as if space itself had frozen.

At that moment, Rogge had only one thought!

I can dodge it!

Rogge lowered his head!

Bang!

The air exploded as the short tonfa scraped past Rogge's hair, its strike producing a thunderous boom.

"How is that possible? He dodged it?"