Dark Hell Paradise Drop

With a thunderous bang, a shallow crater exploded where the chief instructor had been standing, while his figure vanished from the spot.

He moved so fast that only a blurry afterimage and a piercing shriek remained in the air as he instantly crossed the distance between them.

The hoof strike, carrying all his fury and strength, tore through the air as it came crashing down.

Facing this terrifying speed, far beyond what the naked eye could track, Dawn showed no fear. He did not dodge. Planting his feet firmly and lowering his waist slightly, he tensed every muscle in his body, intending to take the blow head-on.

"Tekkai."

"Bang—!"

The chief instructor's full-powered Gazelle Hoof Strike landed squarely on Dawn's chest. The shockwave from the collision spread outward, whipping Dawn's long golden hair.

Yet the sight the chief instructor had expected—his opponent's breastbone collapsing as he spat blood and flew backward—never appeared. It felt as though he had kicked an ancient mountain of steel.

The recoil left his hoof numb, even raising wisps of white smoke. Dawn merely swayed slightly from the waist up. His feet had not shifted in the slightest, and not even a pale mark had been left on his chest.

"Impossible...!"

The chief instructor's eyes were filled with horrified disbelief. He had never seen, nor even heard of, anyone whose Tekkai could be this overwhelmingly powerful.

"Got you."

Dawn's icy voice pulled him back from his shock.

Only then did the chief instructor realize that his wrist had somehow been firmly seized by one of Dawn's hands, which was like an iron vise.

He instinctively tried to break free, only to discover in terror that the immense strength granted by his Zoan Devil Fruit had vanished without a trace, like a clay ox sinking into the sea.

Dawn pressed his free hand against the chief instructor's heart. Darkness silently churned in his palm.

"Air Pressure Gun!"

Pff—!

A muffled impact sounded from inside the chief instructor's body. He shuddered violently, his eyes bulging as they filled with bloodshot veins and disbelief.

His lips moved, but no sound came out. The vitality drained from his body like a receding tide.

What Dawn had released from his palm was an air cannon compressed to the extreme within another dimension, then unleashed instantly at point-blank range, directly shattering the chief instructor's heart.

The huge gazelle-man body collapsed limply and quickly reverted to human form.

Dawn released him. Darkness surged around him, forming a curtain that wrapped around both him and the chief instructor's corpse.

A moment later, the curtain dispersed, and Dawn held a Devil Fruit—the Zoan Cow-Cow Fruit, Model: Gazelle.

He casually took an empty wooden box from his storage space, placed the fruit inside, closed the lid, and stored both the box and its contents back in the other dimension.

Only after finishing all that did he turn his gaze toward Lucci, who had watched from beginning to end. There was no fear in Lucci's eyes; instead, they burned with blazing fighting spirit.

"Staying here and being taught by this bunch of weaklings will only waste your time and talent."

"Come with me. I can give you a broader stage and stronger opponents."

Lucci showed no fear as he stepped forward.

"They really are trash, but that doesn't prove you're stronger than me. You want to recruit me? Let me see what you're made of first!"

The moment he finished speaking, Lucci vanished from where he stood. When he reappeared, he was already in front of Dawn.

"Finger Pistol: Spot!"

His right index finger turned into an afterimage, piercing toward Dawn's vital points across his chest and abdomen like a violent storm, accompanied by a shriek that ripped through the air. This assault was several times fiercer than those of the instructors before him.

Dawn calmly raised one palm in front of himself.

"Pff pff pff pff—!"

A series of dense, muffled impacts rang out. Lucci's lightning-fast Finger Pistols all struck Dawn's broad palm.

Yet the expected sight of the palm being pierced never came. Instead, Lucci felt as though his fingers had struck an ultra-dense alloy, and a terrifying recoil traveled up through his finger bones.

"Crack... crack..."

The crisp sound of fracturing bones rang out. Lucci's face went pale as his extended right index and middle fingers bent at unnatural angles. Agonizing pain surged through them—his finger bones had actually been shattered by the hardness of Dawn's palm alone.

Lucci's pupils shrank to pinpoints as a raging storm rose in his heart! How was this possible?! How could a human body be this tough?!

In the instant his movements slowed from shock and pain, the hand Dawn had used to block every Finger Pistol suddenly closed like the sturdiest iron vise, tightly clamping around Lucci's wrist.

Alarm bells blared in Lucci's mind. He immediately exerted himself to break free, but Dawn's hand did not budge. Its strength was like a mountain, impossible to shake in the slightest.

"Your strength, speed, and skill are far better than those of others your age, but you still have a long way to go."

Dawn's assessment was calm, his tone revealing neither pleasure nor anger.

The next moment, he suddenly exerted force through his arm and swung Lucci's entire body around like a weightless rag doll!

"Boom!!"

Lucci's body slammed viciously into the hard ground with a dull thunderous crash. The earth cracked as dust billowed up.

Without pausing in the slightest, Dawn swung Lucci up again, changed angles, and smashed him down once more.

"Dark Hell Paradise Drop!"

"Boom!!"

"Boom!!"

"Boom!!"

Dawn simply repeated the motion of swinging him up and smashing him down, as if beating an old sack. The earth groaned in agony while muffled crashes echoed rhythmically through the dark cage.

After being smashed around so violently, even Lucci, whose physical abilities far surpassed those of ordinary people and who instinctively used Tekkai to defend himself, could not endure it.

The violent impacts churned his organs. Blood flowed from his mouth and nose, and his consciousness rapidly faded.

Only after a full three minutes did Dawn stop this extremely violent act. He casually tossed Lucci, now unconscious and limp as mud, onto the ground beside him.

"Tch, you couldn't even take a beating. Looks like you need more training."

Ignoring the unconscious Lucci, Dawn began searching through the instructors' corpses one by one, feeling around for anything valuable.

After searching, he found only some loose change and insignificant personal belongings on a few of them. In the inner pocket of a female instructor's clothing, however, he discovered a folded sea chart.

He unfolded the chart and read it carefully. It contained detailed routes and annotations. According to the notes, it appeared to mark another training base established by Cipher Pol. It was not far from Guan Hao Island, and at his speed, it would take less than a week to get there.

"An unexpected gain. This will be the next stop. Hopefully, I'll run into some acquaintances..."

A cold smile curled at Dawn's lips as he put away the sea chart.

With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the dark cage. Moonlight spilled down once more, illuminating the corpses scattered across the wreckage and the unconscious Lucci.

Dawn walked over and easily slung Lucci over his shoulder. The white pigeon, Hattori, cried anxiously as it circled overhead. In the end, as though it had made up its mind, it flapped its wings and followed, feathers drifting through the night wind.

Carrying Lucci, Dawn concealed himself in darkness again and made one final sweep of all Guan Hao Island.

After confirming that there were no survivors left, he canceled Gravity and slowly rose into the air, flying toward the three-masted sailing ship hidden above the clouds.

TO BE CONTINUED