The Fall of the Five Great Families (2)

The laughter came to an abrupt halt.

The wild grin on Avery's face instantly froze, twisting into an absurd yet terrified expression.

His trusted men's joy stiffened on their faces like cheap masks. Everyone's gaze seemed tugged by invisible strings as they snapped toward the center of the thinning smoke.

A figure slowly strolled out.

But that... was absolutely not a human figure!

It stood over five meters tall, with short, thick, powerful limbs and sturdy, sharp webbed claws at the ends of its toes—features unmistakably belonging to a sea otter.

Its pair of yellow, oval pupils were cold and utterly devoid of emotion. Most peculiar of all, its body was covered in strange rings resembling the growth rings of ancient trees, giving off an ancient, solid aura.

In his beast form, Adams opened and closed his broad lower lip and spoke clearly in a voice as deep as rolling thunder:

"This level of fireworks isn't even enough to scratch my itch. This is your final trump card? What a disappointment."

Avery looked as if he had been struck by lightning. His eyes widened so far they nearly split as he screamed in instinctive terror:

"No... impossible! You... you're actually a Zoan ability user?! If you had this kind of power... why... why did you never use it when you destroyed our bases before?! Were you playing with me?!"

Extreme fear had left the mafia godfather, who had ruled the West Blue for years, nearly incoherent.

Adams fixed Avery with his yellow oval pupils and said flatly,

"What adult gets serious with a child?"

Those words were like a red-hot blade, viciously piercing the last remnants of Avery's pride and sanity. Overwhelming humiliation and even deeper terror instantly drowned him.

"Ahhh! Kill him! Keep firing! Empty all the ammunition! Now!!"

Avery completely lost control, roaring hysterically at his trusted men. Yet he abruptly turned and fled desperately toward the shore at the fastest speed of his life. He was certain that as long as he reached the sea, he would be safe.

The twenty trusted men were scared out of their wits by their leader's mad order and the monster beyond their comprehension. They looked at one another, their faces filled with despair.

But long-standing habit and fear of Avery ultimately overcame their instinct to survive. Gritting their teeth, they raised their scorching weapons again and tried to make one final stand.

Adams could not even be bothered to look at them.

He merely raised a massive webbed claw and casually slapped the ground.

Rumble—!!!

As though an earth dragon had turned over, the vast stretch of ground before him suddenly heaved upward from the point beneath his claw like a brittle cracker.

Rocks, soil, and gravel surged together into a terrifying wave more than ten meters high, crashing down like a tsunami upon the twenty men and the attacks they had fired.

"No—!" "Help!!"

Their desperate cries were instantly swallowed by the torrent of earth. The shriek of machine guns and hum of light guns abruptly ceased. The immense tide of earth and stone crashed down mercilessly, burying everything beneath it and leaving only a newly formed mound of earth and dead silence.

After dealing with them, Adams floated into the air and stepped on the air with explosive bursts. Like a silver-gray meteor, he shot straight at Avery!

As Avery fled, he felt a vicious gale descend upon him from behind. The horrifying pressure nearly froze his blood. He turned back in despair and saw only those cold yellow oval pupils rapidly filling his vision.

Bang!!

A heavy impact rang out as Adams slammed his enormous beast-form body directly into Avery's back.

"Puh—!"

Avery's eyes bulged grotesquely as he sprayed out a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs. He was hurled forward like a kite with its string cut, plowing a deep trench dozens of meters long through the soft sand. Finally, with a boom, he smashed apart a huge reef by the shore and barely came to a stop.

He lay amid the shattered stones, with an unknown number of bones broken as blood swiftly stained the white rocks beneath him red.

Adams turned gracefully in midair and landed lightly. He walked step by step toward the utterly defenseless Avery, his massive shadow completely swallowing the other man.

The fear of death stimulated what remained of Avery's consciousness. With difficulty, he shifted his eyes and caught sight of the rolling sea not far away.

A flicker of frenzied desire to survive sustained him. With a final burst of strength from nowhere, Avery suddenly clawed at the ground with both hands, dragging his broken body as he desperately wriggled toward the water. Then, as a wave rolled in, he threw himself forward with every last bit of strength.

He succeeded. Half his body slammed into the icy seawater.

The ecstasy of survival and his obsession with revenge brought him a final burst of strength. He actually struggled to twist his head around and, facing the slowly approaching Adams, revealed a hideous grin mingling extreme pain and venomous hatred as he rasped:

"You lowly... creature!! Just wait... I... I'll definitely come back... for revenge!!!"

Adams watched Avery sink into the sea, his yellow pupils showing not the slightest ripple, only indifference.

"You can't escape."

The moment he spoke, a sudden change occurred.

The seawater around Avery, which had been rising and falling rhythmically, suddenly began to boil. The waves gathered wildly and, under the control of an invisible force, instantly took the form of an enormous dragon's head.

"What...?!"

The wild joy and hatred in Avery's eyes were instantly replaced by boundless horror and disbelief.

The dragon head formed from seawater did not hesitate at all. Carrying immense force, it violently rammed forward!

Boom!!!

A heavy crash of water rang out. Avery felt as though an entire warship had struck him head-on. His body, which had just entered the sea, was brutally "dug" out of the water by that tremendous force and flung into the air like a doll. He traced an arc of despair before crashing back onto the beach in front of Adams, spraying sand and mud everywhere.

He lay limp on the ground, drenched from head to toe. His bones were shattered and his organs ruptured. He no longer even had the strength to cough. Only utter terror and bewilderment remained in his eyes at the impossible scene he had just witnessed.

Adams did not even spare him another glance. He merely raised one hind leg and casually swung it forward.

An incomparably huge cyan vacuum slash tore through the air, precisely sweeping across Avery's neck.

Slash—!

There was no resistance whatsoever. A head with terror and confusion frozen across its face flew into the sky, spun several times, and fell into the waves nearby, soon swallowed by the reddened seawater. The headless corpse twitched twice before falling still.

Adams released his transformation and returned to human form. Without giving Avery's corpse another look, he shot into the sky. After confirming his direction, he sped toward his next target without the slightest pause.

His list of targets was still long.

TO BE CONTINUED