Big-Nosed Broken-Glasses Man, Woman?

The meteor hammer moved at lightning speed, its chain extending automatically as it wrapped toward Orton.

Orton disdained dodging, holding his ground to take the attack head-on.

However, the giant axe was not infallible this time, for Kotahan's head was still inside the meteor hammer. Who would have thought it could turn corners while being smashed down?

Orton's giant axe slashed directly toward the direction the meteor hammer was swinging, but the meteor hammer made a bizarre mid-air change in trajectory, and the spot the axe struck became the long chain trailing behind the meteor hammer.

Yet the chain kept lengthening, and the giant axe felt as though it had struck cotton; instead, the chain repeatedly wound around the axe, burying the blade deep into the ground so it could not be pulled out.

Sensing trouble, Orton realized his own hand was also entangled in the chains.

Meanwhile, the meteor hammer delivered a heavy, direct blow straight at Orton's head!

With a loud bang, Orton's face was battered beyond recognition, his nose flattened, and his entire head bloodied and horrific to behold.

Orton cried out in pain, his face covered in blood and his eyeballs glowing red.

This left Aeneas somewhat baffled. Wasn't he supposed to be a cyborg?

"If you two are going to attack Orton, you'd better do it now, or once that person appears, we're all finished!" A human face actually emerged on the surface of the meteor hammer, shouting to Aeneas and Emondi.

After letting out a shriek of pain, Orton finally freed his hand from the grip of the chains. He grabbed the swaggering meteor hammer with a single massive hand and exerted a sudden burst of force. Kotahan, transformed into the meteor hammer, felt a searing pain in his head, as if he were being torn apart.

"No matter what, let's attack right now!" Emondi snapped back to reality, instantly charging toward Orton with his knuckles primed. "If we can kill Orton, we might just be able to recruit Kotahan!"

Aeneas cared little about recruiting Kotahan; he was not a member of the Underground Syndicate.

What interested him was just who this "that person" Kotahan had mentioned actually was.

Yet Aeneas's movements were hardly sluggish. Instantly, the aura of Pit Grit erupted, and he directly activated Knuckled Down, stepping with golden light. His speed was so astonishing that he almost caught up to Emondi, who had just used Soru to dash forward!

Orton was far from idle. He grabbed the meteor hammerhead holding Kotahan, depriving his opponent of the ability to control his own power. Then the chains began to retract, and the lower half of his body—which had been left far behind on the second floor—curled back around toward Orton's position.

Snap! Reversing the meteor hammer, Orton whipped Kotahan out with a flurry of motions. Mid-air, the meteor hammer and chains merged back into Kotahan's original form. Without even a cry of pain, he passed out cold, collapsing into the street ruins not far away.

Aeneas and Emondi had no time to spare for Kotahan, though as a Devil Fruit user, he likely wouldn't die so easily.

"Knuckle Twin Blades!" Emondi swept his left and right hands through the air in a blur, simultaneously kicking the shaft of Orton's giant axe aside. Two deep, lengthy gasps were carved across Orton's chest, yet not a single drop of blood flowed out.

Aeneas followed closely behind, charging fiercely under the effect of Knuckled Down. He unleashed a ferocious left straight punch, though it felt somewhat soft and powerless against Orton.

Just as Emondi and Orton both harbored a fleeting suspicion that Aeneas was intentionally pulling his punches, Aeneas suddenly struck out with a right straight punch trailing sparks and lightning, pummeling Orton's chest right over his heart in a blur of afterimages.

Terrified, Aeneas had punched clean through?

A hand had just driven straight into Orton's chest like that?

Yet the tactile sensation of flesh and blood never followed. Aeneas felt as though he had punched one of the walls of the underground base they had previously stayed in, complete with electrical wires crisscrossing through it.

"Zzzzt!"

Sure enough, the buzzing sound of electric sparks rang out the next moment. Aeneas quickly pulled his hand back with a look of horror, for the sight was simply too terrifying.

"What on earth are you?" Aeneas blurted out.

Orton simply lowered his head slightly to gaze at Aeneas's face.

"It's you!" Orton growled with mounting fury. On top of that, to discover his own body had been pierced by a brat pushed his rage past the breaking point. "Die!"

Orton's thick arm pressed downward, his palm lunging to grab Aeneas.

Unlike the bulky Kotahan, Aeneas slipped away with a graceful slide, darting backward. Meanwhile, Emondi—who had failed to draw half the aggro—retreated to safety as well.

Neither dared to act rashly now, for the machinery beneath Orton's skin stood fully exposed.

"He really is a cyborg!" Emondi exclaimed in shock. "Kotahan clearly knew this guy's head wasn't mechanical, which is why he specifically targeted the head, but he passed out before he could warn us."

Emondi glanced over at the prone, motionless figure of Kotahan.

Aeneas was equally stunned, staring at his right hand in disbelief. He had even felt a trace of dread when piercing Orton's chest, fearing his withdrawn hand would be covered in gore.

Though long accustomed to slaughtering beasts, Aeneas had yet to conquer the aversion to inflicting such ruthless methods on humans.

Fortunately, Orton was merely a cyborg; his chest contained no flesh, no blood, no heart!

Aeneas hoisted his iron sword from the ground, watching as Orton slowly regained his bearings and raised his giant axe. Yet his movements had grown abnormally sluggish, his overall state volatile, and his head shook violently.

He looked precisely like a robot on the verge of spiraling out of control and exploding.

At that very moment, a big-nosed man with broken glasses adjusted his spectacles and stepped out leisurely from behind Orton.

"This won't do. Is he losing control again?" the big-nosed, broken-glasses man murmured flatly. "It seems we still need to reduce his cognitive faculties. Experiment number eighty-six, failure!"

Aeneas stared blankly at the big-nosed, broken-glasses man.

He felt as though he had seen him somewhere before.

"I remember!" Aeneas slapped his forehead. "Yesterday! I almost wiped out a pirate crew at the port, and you were among them!"

"Indeed, that was me," the big-nosed, broken-glasses man smiled. "But that hardly matters now, because you are about to die."

"Oh, I truly hate to do it. Such a lovely little boy." The big-nosed, broken-glasses man suddenly struck an alluring, seductive pose.

Aeneas felt a wave of nausea, but the feeling vanished almost instantly as the man's body bizarrely shed a layer of "skin".

The true form revealed beneath was none other than a woman?

Aeneas's eyes nearly bulged out of his head. She was a woman with wavy reddish-brown hair, clad in the barest scraps of fabric that highlighted her full, alluring assets. After that layer of "skin" sloughed off and pooled around her feet, it unveiled a pair of slender, straight, beautiful legs.

A mere shred of fabric barely managed to preserve her modesty near the upper thighs, an extreme enticement that left both men struggling to stand their ground.

Yet Aeneas was still young, whereas Emondi had already instinctively arched his back and jutted his hips.

What on earth was going on?