Thunder Little Bagua

"Damn it, don't get too cocky!"

Enraged and alarmed, the other pirate beside Ryan Hunter could no longer stand still.

He had a sturdy build, with muscles knotted like rock, every inch of him brimming with explosive strength.

He was Finn Harris, once the vice-captain of Ryan Hunter's crew and a Muscle-Muscle Fruit user with a bounty of 130 million Beli.

Thanks to his Fruit ability, he could freely strengthen the muscles throughout his body. Even normally, he possessed several times the strength of an ordinary person; when he went all out, he could easily overturn a small pirate ship.

Before the words had even faded, Harris stomped hard on the ground, instantly cracking the earth beneath his feet.

The muscles in his right arm swelled wildly. He clenched his fist and threw a vicious punch at Beiyuan Heng with a howling gust of wind.

The air ahead was violently compressed into a pale white Air Bullet the size of a fist. Accompanied by a piercing shriek, it shot straight for Beiyuan Heng's chest.

A hint of interest flashed through Beiyuan Heng's eyes, and his previously lazy, unfocused gaze instantly sharpened.

Just as the Air Bullet was about to strike his chest, Beiyuan Heng suddenly moved.

"Paper Arts."

His body relaxed in an instant, drifting sideways in an extraordinarily bizarre posture like a feather floating through the air. The Air Bullet grazed his clothes and smashed into the stone wall behind him.

"Boom!"

The Air Bullet blasted a deep hole into the wall.

When Harris saw that his attack had missed, his face immediately darkened, and he completely lost his patience.

He stepped forward again, gathering strength in both hands. The muscles in his arms bulged as he ignored the pirates and underlings watching nearby, firing dozens of air shells at once like a torrential downpour.

Explosions rang out one after another. Flames shot skyward, and the scene instantly turned into a wreck. Most of the surrounding buildings were blown apart, with rubble flying everywhere.

Many pirates who had been watching the show failed to dodge in time. They were either sent flying by the shockwaves or struck by debris, collapsing to the ground and groaning endlessly.

Seeing the devastation before him, Harris threw back his head and laughed arrogantly. "Let's see how you dodge now!"

But Beiyuan Heng had already vanished from the smoke-filled battlefield.

"Paper Arts: Following Shadow."

A cold voice came from behind Harris. This was an advanced technique Beiyuan Heng had developed himself based on the basic Paper Arts.

The instant Harris fired those air shells, he had completely shifted his body into Paper Arts. Using the airflow created by the explosions, he moved silently behind Harris like a ghost, without making the slightest sound.

Even Beiyuan Heng himself had spent nearly a week practicing it over and over before fully mastering this move.

"Shigan: Fang."

Beiyuan Heng gave a low shout. His fingertips instantly hardened with Iron Body, becoming like sharp steel. Then he thrust forward violently, lightning-fast, striking Harris directly over the heart.

Yet the sensation of piercing through a heart never came. Instead, it felt like he had struck resilient rubber, and intense resistance traveled through his fingertips.

Relying on his years of battle instinct, Harris sensed the lethal danger. He activated his Fruit ability in advance and adjusted the muscles throughout his body to their most resilient state, barely blocking the fatal blow.

Harris's entire body stiffened, cold sweat instantly soaking his back. He hurriedly leaped backward, opening the distance from Beiyuan Heng, his eyes filled with lingering terror.

Had he been even a moment slower, he would already have been dead.

However, few of the pirates present understood just how perilous that exchange had been.

They only saw Beiyuan Heng's attack get blocked by Harris, and they immediately began shouting and jeering.

"Brother Harris, take him out!"

"Get revenge for us! Teach this Marine brat a lesson!"

Listening to their shouting, Harris felt both furious and helpless. He stared fixedly at Beiyuan Heng but did not dare rush in again.

"Enough! Shut up!"

At that moment, Ryan Hunter let out a roar, his voice exploding like thunder. The entire scene fell silent in an instant.

All the pirates who had been shouting shut their mouths in fright and lowered their heads, not even daring to breathe loudly.

"What a bunch of trash!"

Ryan Hunter coldly swept his gaze across the surrounding pirates, his eyes filled with disgust and contempt. Those fools could only watch the excitement and blindly cheer; they were completely useless.

The only sounds left were Harris's heavy, ragged breathing and the dripping blood from the assassin who had been instantly killed earlier.

Ryan Hunter snorted coldly and grabbed the spiked club beside him.

The two-meter-long club, covered in sharp iron spikes, felt as light as a little wooden stick in his hand.

The instant he picked it up, his body abruptly turned into a black shadow, moving so fast that only an afterimage remained.

In the next instant, his massive figure had appeared directly above Beiyuan Heng.

"Whoosh!"

A sharp whistle cut through the air as the spiked club swept down at Beiyuan Heng with unstoppable force, like Mount Tai bearing down upon him.

The club howled through the air, and the powerful wind pressure blew Beiyuan Heng's hair backward. His cheeks even felt a faint sting.

Faced with this overwhelming blow, the laziness in Beiyuan Heng's eyes completely vanished, replaced by blazing fighting spirit.

He had been worrying about finding a suitable opponent. Ryan Hunter's appearance was exactly what he wanted.

"Now this is more like it."

A spirited smile curled across Beiyuan Heng's lips. With a light kick, he sent a long sword lying at his feet into the air, then steadily caught its hilt and gripped it tightly.

"Clang!"

Sword and club collided with a piercing metallic ring, sending sparks scattering.

A powerful shockwave spread outward from the two of them, making the surrounding rubble jump.

An irresistible force traveled from the spiked club through the sword and into Beiyuan Heng's arm. Fine cracks instantly covered the blade in his hand, while the ground beneath his feet was pressed into a shallow pit by the immense force.

Beiyuan Heng was slightly surprised, but the excitement in his heart only grew stronger.

Ryan Hunter, on the other hand, was even more shocked. He had created this move by imitating Kaido's Thunder Bagua.

Almost no one in the first half of the Grand Line could withstand it, yet this young Marine had actually blocked it head-on.

At that moment, a cold glint flashed in Beiyuan Heng's eyes, and he exerted a slight force with his arm.

"Iron Body: Utsugi Resonance."

The immense force from the spiked club actually passed through Beiyuan Heng's body and transferred back into the club in Ryan Hunter's hands!

The powerful recoil instantly made Ryan Hunter's hands tremble violently. He nearly lost his grip on the club and staggered back two steps, leaving deep dents in the ground beneath his feet.

"You little brat!"

Ryan Hunter was thoroughly enraged. With a roar, silvery-white fur burst from beneath his skin and covered his entire body. His frame continued swelling, his eyes turned blood-red, his fangs protruded, and he became increasingly feral.

Dog-Dog Fruit: Honey Badger Form!

"Not bad. It's been a long time since I met someone like you."

Beiyuan Heng tightened his grip on the long sword, the fighting spirit in his eyes growing ever fiercer without the slightest trace of fear.

As Ryan Hunter exerted his full strength, the spiked club in his hands erupted with even greater power and smashed viciously toward Beiyuan Heng again.

The long sword in Beiyuan Heng's hand could no longer endure the strain. With a crack, it shattered into dozens of fragments that scattered through the air.

With the sword no longer in its way, the spiked club charged straight at Beiyuan Heng's face with earth-shattering force. Its iron spikes gleamed with icy light, as though they would smash his skull to pieces in the next instant.

Beiyuan Heng stopped holding back as well. Both his hands instantly hardened with Iron Body, and he directly reached out to catch the spiked club covered in iron spikes.

The sharp spikes stabbed fiercely into his palms, yet they could only leave shallow white marks and could not pierce his Iron Body defense at all.

Ryan Hunter had completely entered his full beast form. His reason had been replaced by savage animalistic fury, and his attacks became even more violent. The heavy spiked club moved like a toy in his hands, sweeping wide and striking hard, every blow carrying tremendous force.

Relying on his exquisite Paper Arts footwork, Beiyuan Heng nimbly weaved through the gaps in the club's attacks while constantly counterattacking with his Iron Body-hardened hands. Every collision produced a dull, thunderous boom.

For a time, smoke filled the battlefield, and the entire ground sank several centimeters from the force of their fight.

Every clash left the watching pirates horrified. They retreated again and again, afraid of being caught in the aftermath of the battle.

The intensity of this battle had long surpassed the standards of the first half of the Grand Line. It was more like a confrontation between powerhouses of the New World!