But I Came Anyway!

At the edge of town, where Randall and Christa were.

"I came here for him. I'll give him the punishment he deserves!

I swear!"

Randall spoke with absolute conviction.

But Christa reached out with her little hands and wrapped them around Randall's neck.

"No, don't go!

He's so strong! Strong like a monster!

I don't want you to go!

You'll... you'll die.

I've already lost Mom, and I only just found you..."

Christa trembled all over.

Randall sighed inwardly and said:

"Don't worry!

He's strong, sure.

But I'm stronger!

I'll definitely win!"

Randall stroked Christa's head reassuringly, then added:

"I'll leave a strand of Qi on you to keep you safe. I'll come back once I've dealt with him!"

"What if you don't come back?"

Christa buried her little face against Randall's neck, her voice muffled.

Randall fell silent for a moment, then said:

"My boat is at the easternmost edge of town.

If I don't come back, take the boat and leave on your own. Find the Marines.

Tell them Randall, Zephyr's student, sent you.

The energy I leave behind will be enough to protect you at sea."

Christa shuddered, but said nothing more.

Silence.

In the clearing, under everyone's gaze.

Texas showed no mercy to the frightened little boy.

He raised his chainsaw and brought it down viciously, as though he were facing a lifeless tree.

The child's slender neck would be little sturdier than paper against that wildly spinning chain.

"Tempest Kick!"

As the bewildered crowd watched, a blue slashing wave shot in from the distance, heading straight for Texas.

At the sight of that familiar slashing wave, excitement suddenly lit up Texas's previously calm eyes.

That was the Marines' Tempest Kick!

He quickly pulled back the hand that had been about to take a life and held it up in front of him.

A moment later, the spinning chainsaw and flying slash collided violently.

An unbearably piercing screech rang through the sky, and everyone covered their ears in pain.

Then the air currents from the collision began to surge outward.

The little boy, who was closest, took the brunt of it and was blown clean away.

After several seconds of deadlock, the flying slash, with no further energy to sustain it, was finally cut apart by the spinning saw blade and vanished into the air.

Texas looked toward the direction the slash had come from, excitement in his eyes.

He could feel it. Whoever had come this time was stronger than the last Marine!

Something whistled through the air.

A figure shot in from the distance like an arrow, reaching the air above the clearing in an instant before landing opposite Texas.

Ten meters separated them.

Texas regarded the suddenly arrived Randall with interest and said:

"A Rear Admiral this young?"

Randall replied flatly:

"Just an ordinary Recruit Training Camp cadet!

And you're the assignment I need to turn in for graduation!"

As he spoke, he studied Texas.

The chainsaw was intimidating. Right-handed, excellent coordination, most likely an expert at close combat.

And now that he was actually facing the man, the impression that he was a lunatic was even stronger.

Meanwhile, Texas was also studying Randall.

But when he heard Randall call himself an ordinary Recruit Training Camp cadet, he froze for a moment.

An ordinary cadet?

You?!

Ordinary?

You're at least as strong as that Rear Admiral who came before!

But he quickly figured it out.

He said:

"I see. You're a talent the Marines have been training in secret?

Such strength at your age. Truly rare.

But the Marines must be very confident to dare send you here.

Or... were you so full of yourself that you came on your own?

You should never have come!"

Randall neither confirmed nor denied Texas's guess, saying:

"But I came anyway!"

The instant he saw this man, his keen combat instincts had told him he was no match for him.

In just a few seconds, he had inwardly hurled a mountain of curses at the Marines' intelligence department.

This bastard's this strong, and his bounty is barely over a hundred million.

Are they trying to get people killed?!

But now that he had encountered him, he wasn't going to run.

His opponent was strong, sure. But so what!

Wasn't fighting powerful enemies exactly what he had always sought?

"I'm here! So your good days are over!"

His opponent might be stronger, but that didn't stop Randall from talking big.

"Ha ha, hahaha, hahahahaha!"

He opened with the classic villain's laugh.

"They've sent someone interesting this time! Looks like I'm in for a wonderful experience."

The moment he finished speaking, Texas vanished from where he stood.

Randall's pupils constricted, and he hurriedly dodged.

He had only just moved away when a shrill grinding sound rang out, and a gash split open in the ground where he had been standing.

Randall had barely regained his footing when his expression changed again.

That piercing sound rang out behind him once more.

Bzzzt—

Shave!

Texas gave Randall no chance to catch his breath.

The instant Randall reappeared, Texas was beside him again.

In just a few seconds, the two had exchanged more than a dozen attacks.

When they appeared again, they were still standing ten meters apart.

But Randall was no longer as composed as before.

Still, aside from a few cuts in his clothes, he was unhurt.

"Looks like your strength doesn't live up to your big talk!"

Texas raised a hand and wiped his face.

Randall's Finger Pistol had just left a small cut there.

He licked the blood from his finger and said:

"If that's all the strength you have, you'll end up just like that last Marine.

Oh, I forgot. You don't know what happened to him yet.

I'll let you see before you die.

After all, he's a rare work of art. I keep him in my room especially."

As he listened to those deeply insulting words, Randall clenched his fist.

A blaze of anger rose within him.

His eyes, bright as the blazing sun, fixed unwaveringly on Texas.

"Haha, yes! That's the look!"

Texas clapped his hands in a fit of manic excitement and said:

"When I showed him my works of art, that was exactly the look in his eyes!"

Armament: Iron Fist: Impact Steel!

Randall could bear to listen no longer. He coated his right hand in Armament Haki and punched straight out.

With a roar like thunder rolling down from the heavens, a surging column of faintly black air hurtled straight toward Texas.

The power of the attack startled Texas. Not daring to take it head-on, he dodged rather awkwardly.

But while he could dodge, the underlings behind him lacked that ability.

Like pencil marks wiped away by an eraser, the dozens of underlings caught within the column of air vanished before they could even feel a thing.

Then it punched straight through the buildings beyond them as though they were made of paper.

For a moment, everything was utterly silent.