Chapter 89
Adrian, who was watching from a distance, gasped.
"Is the battle between monsters really this crazy and philosophical?"
"It's truly remarkable that Shanks, with the body of an ordinary person, was able to rise to the position of the Emperor of the Sea. Whitebeard, Big Mom, and the Beasts —weren't they all renowned Monster with extraordinary physical abilities?"
Even Bullet couldn't completely ignore Sengoku the Buddha's furious all-out attack.
Bullet's upper body was ripped open while he was being sent flying through the air, revealing his massive, bulging muscular physique. A deep gash was left on his full pectoral muscles by the Buddha Form's heavy punch, and the fist mark turned bluish-black almost instantly.
The intense pain jolted Bullet awake from the influence of the Positive Hollow almost instantly.
Boom!
Bullet unleashed a ferocious burst of Conqueror's Haki, instantly erasing the youthful restlessness that had inexplicably surged in his mind.
The overwhelming, Conqueror's Haki seemed to materialize, and the vast expanse of purple-blue light completely enveloped the sea.
This outburst also reflects the raging anger in Bullet's heart.
"White Ghost... I remember that's your name, right?"
After finally regaining his footing, Bullet looked at Adrian for the first time, the rookie Pirates whom he had previously completely ignored.
"Remember this: I will kill you!"
Bullet pushed off with both legs, the air beneath his feet exploding, and he charged forward like a cannonball.
Fueled by rage and indignant shame, Bullet's speed at this moment was even greater than when he had just fought Sengoku.
"That sounds like quite intimidating talk," Adrian, standing atop the Mist Theater, a slight smile playing on his lips. "So, Mr. Bullet, are you going to use force, or force?"
Bullet's terrifyingly powerful punch, capable of shaking mountains and destroying cities, slammed into White Hollow. His extremely high-intensity Armament Haki, comparable to black alloy, suddenly erupted, and the remaining force of the attack directly shattered half of the Mist Theater!
Adrian reappeared above the remaining Mist Theater, his expression unchanged, still bearing that amiable, squinting smile.
"Unfortunately, Mr. Bullet, it's very difficult to defeat your opponent without thorough prior research."
Enraged, Bullet paid no heed to anything else. An endless torrent of Armament Haki from his body, flowing forward like a tsunami, utterly destroying all the White Hollow within sight.
"That's some terrifyingly powerful Haki; it almost hit me."
Adrian stood high in the sky, looking down at Bullet. Newly created Mini Hollow kept appearing around him, forming a new white square maze in the blink of an eye, slowly enveloping Bullet.
White Hollow: The Heart-Ravaging Maze!
"But just as your Haki is boundless, so too is my White Hollow!" Adrian slowly merged into the Heart-Ravaging Maze. "Now, how will you kill me?"
Sengoku, watching from afar, nodded slightly as he saw Bullet finally engaging in combat with White Ghost.
Devil's Heir and White Ghost are definitely the most prominent Rookie Pirate on the high seas during this period, especially the latter.
If these two Great Pirate, whose combined Bounty exceed one billion Beli, were to engage in a fierce battle that would not stop until they were dead, then the Navy's mission would be much easier!
Trying to get a bargain!
Not shameful at all!
"However, White Ghost's Devil Fruit ability is truly bizarre and troublesome," Sengoku, a complex look flashing in his eyes as he gazed at the Heart-Ravaging Maze that shrouded the sea. "We'll have to send him to Impel Down..."
Just then, facing the Heart-Ravaging Maze enveloped all sides, Bullet and the others jumped away with lightning speed, quickly returning to their own Pirates ship and decisively activating their Devil Fruit abilities!
Fit!
Battleship Muscleman: Medium Bullet!
Appearance!!
[Chapter 157 Reaching a Consensus?]
As Devil Fruit User, Bullet's ability to wander the seas alone suggests he has his own unique strengths!
Paramecia - Combine-Combine Fruit that can arrange and combine any object, making it merge with itself!
And a submarine resembling a whale, its interior filled with weapons and steel [the Catapult]!
After leaving Roger Pirates, Bullet, now alone, regarded the [Catapult] as his only companion.
When facing enemies with special abilities, he will also use his abilities to combine with the ship to fight them.
At this moment, Bullet merged with the Catapult, forming a huge steel robot that was tens of meters long and tall!
"Warship Boa Sandersonia... no, Warship Boys—oops! Battleship Muscleman??"
For a moment, Adrian was unsure whether he should express his envy.
Fists are made of flesh, after all.
Only mecha can truly represent a man's romance!
Just then, the Battleship Muscleman suddenly raised his hands.
Under the manipulation of the Combine-Combine Fruit's power, the Medium Bullet's two steel arms simultaneously transformed into two dark, cold cannons and machine guns.
With a furious shout, the mech warrior opened fire!
Ratttttt--!
The deafening high-frequency bursts of gunfire, the thick muzzle flashes spewing out, and the bullets, the size of pebbles, shot into the Heart-Ravaging Maze like a rainbow, trailing smoke and fire.
However, Bullet's confident attack failed to achieve the slightest effect.
Although White Hollow is only the most basic type in the Hollow-Hollow Fruit's creation sequence and doesn't even possess any harmful abilities, it still has a series of characteristics that Ghost can have!
The barrage of gunpowder capable of obliterating half a small island was utterly ineffective against the White Hollow, who was immune to physical attacks.
A dense hail of bullets pierced through the Heart-Ravaging Maze, striking the vast Seawater below and creating clusters of leaping waves.
As Bullet launched his offensive, Adrian reacted and immediately launched a counterattack.
Faced with such a physically powerful Monster, ordinary Mini Hollow, or even Giant Hollow, are ineffective.
Bullet had already experienced the terrifying power of the Emotion Ghosts series beforehand, so his vigilance was probably at its peak, and he wouldn't be hit by the Emotion Ghosts again.
A clear and logical battle plan flashed through Adrian's mind.
The next moment, his figure vanished from the Heart-Ravaging Maze and appeared out of thin air on the churning sea, only a few centimeters away from the azure Seawater below.
Adrian plunged half of his hand into the sea, closed his eyes slightly, and sensed the ocean spirits in the New World's Seawater, whose quality was far superior to that of the Four Blues or even the Paradise stage, silently activating his abilities.
Sea Ghost - Vengeful Vortex!
The once turbulent sea suddenly erupted into a raging torrent, with giant water snakes, each as thick as a person's embrace, crisscrossing beneath the surface and twisting the deep Seawater into massive eddies.
Under Adrian's guidance, this powerful Ghost vortex, both in terms of its strength and its range, spread straight toward the Battleship Muscleman.
As the Bullet cannon spewed its ammunition, deep-sea eddies silently swept past.
Like a hunting widow, the deep-sea vortex "bit" most of the Battleship Muscleman's right leg, and the ocean vengeful spirits that made up the vortex gnawed at the steel body that was so different from the Seawater.
This imposing steel mech is about to become a crippled warrior in the next moment.
Bullet once again manipulated his abilities, shrinking the size of the Medium Bullet by several degrees.
The Devil's Heir, his upper body bulging with muscles, leaped out from the Battleship Muscleman. He grabbed a bulging hard spot on the Battleship Muscleman's body, veins bulging on his neck, and with a roar, threw the Battleship Muscleman, transformed from a submarine, onto the distant sea.
It's unclear what Bullet designed for the internal structure of the Battleship Muscleman, but this seemingly clumsy and sturdy Battleship Muscleman floats on the sea like an inflatable doll.
Watching Bullet tread on the air, remaining suspended in mid-air.
Adrian squinted and smiled, "Mr. Bullet, it seems your previous words weren't as convincing as I thought."
Upon hearing what White Ghost said, Bullet fell silent for a moment.
He admitted that he had underestimated this Rookie Pirate whose name he had never heard of before!
Although we don't know its exact strength, the Hollow-Hollow Fruit's ability is truly troublesome and difficult to deal with!
And it's absolutely disgusting!
This was precisely the method of countering the enemy that Adrian developed based on his own abilities.
With a unique panel in the world of Pirate King, Adrian can clearly observe the strengths and weaknesses of his own abilities.
His shortcomings are currently very obvious.
Not high enough level!
Insufficient attributes!
In terms of hard power, we are still quite far from reaching the top level of the ocean.
Although Swordmaster are extremely rare throughout the Four Blues, to truly gain entry into the top tier of powerhouses, one must at least be a [Great Swordmaster]!
However, Adrian also has his strengths, namely three abilities that have been upgraded to the maximum level: [Ghost Body], [Ghost Domination], and [Observation Haki: Future Sight]!
After fighting Borsalino and Sengoku in the Sabaody Archipelago, Adrian had a basic understanding of his current "level" in the pyramid of power at sea.
A speedster who takes an unconventional approach!
A top-tier ability user with severely deficient physical abilities!
This is Adrian's current strength level.
When facing Kizaru, who also lacked physical strength, Adrian was able to easily defeat him using his Emotion Swordsmanship; however, when facing Sengoku the Buddha, whose offensive and defensive attributes were almost off the charts, Adrian couldn't even leave a scar on him.
At this stage, Adrian believes he is no match for Bullet in terms of absolute strength, namely physical attributes, basic skill level, Armament Haki, and combat techniques.
However, in actual combat, Bullet couldn't even touch the hem of his clothes and could only passively take hits!
Of course, if Adrian were to inexplicably get carried away and insist on a head-on clash of Swordplay with Bullet, he would only end up being defeated instantly.
"White Ghost..."
Bullet repeated the name several times.
Sengoku, who was watching the Sengoku from the sidelines, was puzzled when he saw the two who had been fighting so fiercely suddenly stop and look at each other from a distance.
Could these two Pirates suddenly reach a consensus while fighting?
If these two don't fight to the death, how can the Navy scavenge for scraps?
[168. Chapter 158: Bullet's Disheartened Despondency]
In fact, Sengoku wasn't very confident about capturing Bullet and sending him to Impel Down.
Yes, as Marine Headquarters Admiral, he is the strongest person at the very top of the pyramid of power in the sea.
The Sengoku the Buddha was uncertain.
The operation to arrest Bullet was largely to comply with the demands of the World Government.
Of course, the navy's own sense of Justice and professional ethics also played a role.
After the Sabaody Archipelago incident, the World Government and the Celestial Dragon Race were eager for Sengoku to immediately apprehend White Ghost.
After some maneuvering by the Fleet Admiral Kong, Sengoku finally shifted his target to the equally powerful Devil's Heir, Douglas Bullet.
The Navy and the World Government expended enormous human, material, and material resources, and even relied on intelligence from the World Economy News Paper Office, before finally locating the elusive Bullet.
There's no way around it; Bullet has a submarine capable of diving into the deep sea, and coupled with his innate, incredibly powerful Armament Haki, he can practically ignore most of the extremely dangerous situations on the high seas, making him seem rather unpredictable in his actions.
However, Sengoku wasn't unsure of defeating Bullet; he wasn't confident of "catching" Bullet.
As Devil Fruit User, if Bullet were to lose a battle, he could use the opportunity to merge with his submarine and slip away into the Seawater.
However, the Human-Human Fruit, Model: Daibutsu from the Sengoku period did not have this function.
This Buddha Form...
It doesn't leak air, but it's not waterproof either!
If Bullet escapes by submersible, Sengoku can only watch helplessly.
As for sending the remaining navy into the sea to pursue Bullet...
That was practically a farewell gift for Bullet; did he really think the title of "Devil's Heir" was just for show?
Sengoku believed that if the World Government and the Marine Headquarters really wanted to capture Bullet, they would have to send one of the other two.
It means you have to choose between Black Arm Zephyr and Iron Fist Garp!
Although Bullet is powerful, his overall strength at this stage is not comparable to that of Marine Admiral, and Sengoku is confident that he can suppress him in battle.
If Bullet escapes by diving underwater, then Zephyr or Garp, who are both Devil Fruit users and have never eaten a Devil Fruit, will be able to come in handy!
"If I added Garp or Zephyr, this setup..." Sengoku pondered silently, "Would it mean we'd have to execute the Navy's Buster Call on Douglas Bullet?"
As for the White Ghost, who had just fought Bullet, this gave Sengoku an even bigger headache.