Dark Hell Paradise Drop

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

He was so fast that he left only a blurred afterimage and a piercing screech in the air, crossing the distance in an instant.

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

Faced with this terrifying speed beyond the limits of human vision, 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.

"Iron Body."

"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 chest collapsing as he vomited blood and flew backward—never appeared. It felt as though he had kicked an ancient mountain of steel.

The recoil numbed his hoof, even sending wisps of white smoke rising from it. Dawn merely swayed slightly, his feet not shifting an inch. There was not even a white mark on his chest.

"N-No way!"

The chief instructor's eyes were filled with incredulous horror. He had never seen, nor even heard of, anyone whose Iron Body could be this powerful!

"Got you."

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

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

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

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

"Air Pressure Pistol!"

Pfft—!

A dull sound came from within the chief instructor's body. His body convulsed violently, and his eyes bulged, bloodshot and full of disbelief.

His mouth opened, but no sound came out. The breath of life ebbed from his body like the tide.

What Dawn released from his palm was an Air Cannon compressed to the extreme within an alternate space, then unleashed at point-blank range, directly shattering the chief instructor's heart.

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

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

A moment later, the curtain dispersed, and Dawn held a Devil Fruit in his hand—the Zoan Devil Fruit, Ox-Ox Fruit, Gazelle Form.

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

Only after finishing did he turn his gaze toward Lucci, who had watched from beginning to end. There was no fear in his eyes; instead, blazing fighting spirit burned within them.

"Staying here to be 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 test what you're made of first!"

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

"Finger Pistol: Madara!"

His right index finger became an afterimage, tearing through the air with a shriek as it stabbed at Dawn's vital chest and abdomen points like a raging storm. This assault was several times fiercer than those of the instructors before.

Dawn calmly raised a hand before him.

"Pfft pfft pfft pfft—!"

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

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

"Crack... crack..."

Clear sounds of bones breaking rang out. Lucci's face suddenly turned pale. His extended right index and middle fingers bent at unnatural angles as searing pain shot through them—his finger bones had been shattered by the sheer hardness of Dawn's palm.

Lucci's pupils shrank to pinpoints as monstrous waves crashed through his heart! How was this possible?! How could a human body be this tough?!

In the instant his movements faltered from shock and pain, the hand Dawn had used to block every Finger Pistol suddenly closed, gripping Lucci's wrist tightly like an unbreakable iron vise.

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

"Your strength, speed, and technique are all far better than those of your peers, but you still have a long way to go."

Dawn gave his assessment calmly, with no emotion detectable in his voice.

The next moment, his arm suddenly exerted force, swinging Lucci's entire body up like a weightless rag doll!

"Boom!!"

Lucci's body was smashed violently into the hard ground with a dull roar. The earth cracked, and dust flew everywhere.

Without pausing in the slightest, Dawn swung Lucci up again, changed the angle, 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 though beating a worn-out sack. The earth groaned in pain, while dull impacts echoed rhythmically within the Darkness Prison.

Even with Lucci's physical constitution far surpassing that of an ordinary person, and even though he instinctively used Iron Body to defend himself, he could not endure such savage battering.

The violent shocks churned his internal organs, blood spilling from his mouth and nose as his consciousness rapidly blurred.

Only after a full three minutes did Dawn stop this incomparably brutal act. He casually tossed Lucci, now limp as mud and completely unconscious, onto the ground nearby.

"Tch, you couldn't even take that many hits. Looks like you still need more training."

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

After searching for a while, aside from finding some loose change and unimportant personal belongings on a few of them, he finally discovered a folded sea chart in the inner pocket of a female instructor's clothing.

He unfolded the chart and studied it carefully. Detailed routes and notes were marked on it. According to the annotations, it appeared to indicate another training base established by CP. It was not far from Crown Sky Island, and at his speed, it would take less than a week to reach it.

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

A cold curve formed at the corner of Dawn's mouth as he put away the sea chart.

With a wave of his hand, he dispelled the Darkness Prison. Moonlight fell once more, illuminating the corpses scattered across the ground and the unconscious Lucci.

Dawn walked over and easily slung Lucci over his shoulder. The white pigeon, Hattori, cried anxiously as he circled in the air. At last, seeming to make up his mind, he flapped his wings and followed, feathers drifting through the night wind.

Carrying Lucci, Dawn concealed himself in darkness once more and made one final sweep of the entire Crown Sky Island.

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

TO BE CONTINUED