Weevil, Dead

Heh-heh-heh...

Weevil clenched his fist, producing a sharp cracking sound as if it echoed from the depths of the underworld.

"You killed my mom, so I'm gonna kill you! No!!! All of you are gonna die!!!"

Bang!

Weevil suddenly exploded into action, lunging with a punch toward Zephyr... no, toward Carl, who stood opposite him. Right now, the person Weevil hated most in the world was Carl, the man who killed his mother.

"Holy shit! Rokushiki Secret Technique: Rokuogan!"

Carl's hands instantly coated in Armament Haki, fists clenched and pressed together, meeting Weevil's punch head-on. The collision of their techniques burst into a violent shockwave!

Creak, crack...

The small vessel beneath their feet groaned under an unbearable strain, but Carl ultimately could not match Weevil's brute strength. Seeing that Carl was about to give way, Zephyr immediately rushed to support him.

"Rokushiki Secret Technique: Collapse Fist!"

A sandbag-sized fist slammed like a shooting star into Weevil's head. Weevil reeled backward from the blow, yet he seemed largely unaffected.

He simply shook his head, rubbed the spot where Zephyr had struck him, and then roared as he charged at Zephyr.

Regaining his breath, Carl hastily shouted to Zephyr, "His upper body defense is too strong! Try attacking his lower body."

Carl was not just talking nonsense. Weevil's upper body was as bulky as an ox, but his two legs were as thin as noodles, making him look far from sturdy.

"Let me try!" With that, Zephyr rapidly engaged Weevil in close combat, constantly searching for an opening to attack his lower body.

Carl picked up the Karasu that had fallen to the ground, gripped it tightly with both hands, and prepared to launch a sneak attack at any moment...

No, how could a marine's actions be called a sneak attack? This was righteous backstabbing!

As the two exchanged blows, the small boat quickly became precarious, on the verge of sinking at any second. Soon, however, the opportunity arrived.

Zephyr caught Weevil's elbows with both hands and quickly adjusted his center of gravity, violently sweeping his right leg against Weevil's supporting foot to throw him off balance.

"Hah! Down with you!!!"

Zephyr began to exert force, his muscles bulging high. Having lost his balance, Weevil was thrown over Zephyr's shoulder in a textbook throw.

With a heavy boom, Weevil crashed violently to the deck.

Carl's eyes lit up. A prime opportunity!

He immediately raised Karasu and leaped high into the air, driving all his strength into a slash toward Weevil's right knee—more specifically, the patellar ligament of the knee!

Sshh...

"Aaha-ah-ah!" Weevil let out a miserable shriek, backhanding Carl away with a single slap while clutching his knee and rolling around on the ground in agony.

"Instructor Zephyr, break his leg!"

Zephyr nodded, channeling power into his right leg. Finding a gap in Weevil's rolling movements, he delivered a precise kick straight to Weevil's injured knee.

With a crisp snap.

Weevil's right leg went completely limp, accompanied by a long, drawn-out wail.

"Strike while he's down!"

The exact same thought surfaced in the minds of both Carl and Zephyr simultaneously. Zephyr took the initiative, immediately launching an attack on Weevil's other leg and dismantling his left leg with swift efficiency.

Now Weevil had completely lost his mobility, leaving only his upper body with any remaining lethality—though not much of it.

As the saying goes, pull a single hair and the whole body moves. Every part of the human body is crucial, and the loss of his legs drastically reduced Weevil's threat level.

Right now, he was simply a lamb waiting for slaughter.

Half an hour later, Weevil had lost consciousness, but not his life. His vitality was simply too monstrous; he hardly seemed human at all.

"Instructor Zephyr, what should we do? Kill him?"

Zephyr nodded, panting heavily. The battle with Weevil had worn him out considerably. Advanced in age as he was, even with Carl and Ain to assist him, his stamina could not support him fighting for days and nights on end—not without burning through his life force.

"You brat, you're asking me? Didn't you want to kill him all along?"

Carl chuckled and scratched his head, walking toward the unconscious Weevil with Karasu in hand.

"This guy is a bit strange. Look at the scars on his body, Instructor Zephyr!"

Zephyr followed the direction of Carl's finger. There were three startling scars on Weevil's body, as if he had suffered catastrophic injuries in the past where his entire left arm and head had been severed or severely slashed.

"I noticed it long ago. At first, I simply assumed his regenerative power was overwhelmingly strong, allowing him to recover even from attacks like those."

"But on second thought, that's completely impossible. If he truly possessed such potent regeneration, how could scars possibly remain?"

Carl nodded in silence. He now seriously suspected that Weevil was some sort of stitched-together monster manufactured by the Marine Science Unit, though it was merely a suspicion without conclusive proof.

"Never mind, Instructor Zephyr. These aren't things we should be worrying about. Let me send him off!"

"Go ahead! I won't interfere."

Zephyr walked aside and breathed at an even pace. Moments later, the sound of a blade piercing flesh echoed out as Zephyr slowly closed his eyes and shook his head in a sigh.

Expending an immense amount of effort, Carl finally managed to send Weevil on his way out of this wonderful world, but the blade of the newly acquired fine sword Karasu now bore a crack.

Carl guessed it must have happened when he blocked that blow from Weevil earlier. The sword was effectively ruined, but it was no great loss—after all, there was still a Black Blade waiting in the Florian Triangle!

"Instructor Zephyr, I've fired the signal flare. Bais and the others should be back soon."

Zephyr nodded and turned toward the cabin of the training ship. As he reached the entrance, he looked back and said, "Carl, remember to call for reinforcements from Marine Headquarters. Our ship might not make it back to headquarters."

"Yes, sir. Don't worry."

Another half hour passed as several rescue boats slowly approached the training ship. The recruits swarmed onto the deck, breathing a sigh of relief when they saw Carl smoking a cigar by the railing.

"Carl, how's Instructor Zephyr? Is he alright?"

Carl turned back with a smile. "Don't worry! Instructor Zephyr is fine, just a bit tired. Don't disturb him; let him get some proper rest."

"Then, Carl, what about that battle just now..."

Only then did the recruits notice that the training ship was already battered and scarred, riddled with holes and slash marks, with the entire vessel groaning audibly.

"That pirate with a bounty of 320 million Beli... was he killed by Instructor Zephyr?"

"Yeah, the corpse is over on that other boat. If you're going to take a look, you might as well search that ship while you're at it! There should be some gold and silver treasure on board—remember to bring it back to be confiscated."

"Of course!!!"

Soon, most of the recruits had rushed over to the teetering small boat.

Gazing at Weevil's giant, toddler-like physique, the recruits drew in sharp intakes of breath.

"So this is the kind of opponent Instructor Zephyr and Carl were up against? Terrifying!"

"Look, he actually has the exact same mustache as Whitebeard. Could they really be father and son?"

The recruits excitedly swarmed around Weevil, pointing and chattering, until the boat could no longer support the weight and they finally hurried back to the training ship, laden with the treasure Miss Bakin had coerced Weevil into plundering.