Gern adapted

"Damn it..." Doger's arms went numb from Gern's kick.

He immediately sprang back a step. Under the influence of his power, the ground beneath him split open, forming a deep pit to block Gern's pursuit.

Doger spat out a mouthful of blood and grinned viciously. "Marine, I'm a Split-Split Man who ate the Split-Split Fruit!"

As he spoke, Doger stomped hard. The ground cracked instantly, and countless rocks rose into the air. He could freely control any material he split.

Under Doger's control, the rocks split into blades and shot toward Gern like a torrential downpour!

"A Paramecia-type Split-Split Fruit?" Gern raised an eyebrow, the Black Blade: Eight Desolations angled toward the ground. Tiny white particles coiled around its edge. "Interesting."

"Split Rock: Scattershot!"

The flying rocks split further into countless sharp fragments, covering such a wide area that they sealed off almost every route Gern could use to dodge.

Gern merely chuckled and raised his left hand, gathering a tiny sphere of white light in his palm.

"Heavenquake: Barrier."

Hum! The sphere instantly expanded into a hemispherical shield of vibrations.

Every incoming fragment was shaken into powder the moment it touched the barrier. Not even a speck of dust passed through.

"That power..." Doger's pupils contracted as he watched the air fracture.

"Sorry, I don't feel like wasting time on someone like you." Gern's voice was icy, and his figure abruptly blurred.

The air beneath his feet compressed and burst, propelling him toward Doger again at a speed bordering on teleportation!

"Tremor Flash: Glide Rail—Second Acceleration!"

Whoosh! Gern's figure blurred abruptly, becoming an afterimage that seemed to tear through space before Doger's eyes.

Then Eight Desolations swept out horizontally. Before its edge arrived, high-frequency vibrations compressed and distorted the air ahead, producing a piercing series of explosive cracks!

"Then I'll destroy your blade!" Doger roared through gritted teeth, crossing his arms as pitch-black Armament Haki instantly coated them.

At the same time, he unleashed his power in full-"Disintegration!"

The instant the blade collided with his arms, Doger's Split-Split Fruit power ate into it furiously, attempting to disintegrate the Black Blade: Eight Desolations at a material level!

However, the Vibration Particles and Armament Haki coating the blade formed a nearly impenetrable defense. Not only did the edge remain intact, but it also erupted with dazzling white light as it vibrated!

Crack! The bones in Doger's arms groaned under the unbearable strain. Countless fine cracks burst across his skin, seeping blood!

"How is that possible?!" He staggered backward, his eyes filled with horror.

His power couldn't even damage that blade?!

"Your Split-Split Fruit can break down matter, but..." Gern slowly drew his blade back, his gaze cold as ice. "Haki really is a wonderful thing. That's why you need to train it."

"How could a Marine captain's Haki be... this strong...?"

"Honestly..." Gern abruptly sheathed his blade. "You aren't even worthy of Eight Desolations."

As he finished speaking, the muscles in Gern's left arm suddenly tensed, and a dark red sheen began spreading across his skin.

With a low shout, pitch-black Haki spread from his arm toward his shoulder like something alive, finally enveloping his entire left arm.

More astonishingly, the white Vibration Particles wrapped around the Haki began bouncing violently like boiling droplets, giving off a sizzling hiss.

"Hey, hey, hey! Wait, I surren-" Doger's pupils shrank sharply.

He could feel the air around him trembling. The loose stones beneath his feet began bouncing uncontrollably.

"This boring game is over." Gern's voice was bone-chillingly cold.

His right leg suddenly slid half a step backward, and the ground cracked into a web of fractures.

He slowly drew his left fist back. With every inch it moved, the surrounding air distorted further.

When his fist reached its limit, the Armament Haki covering his arm suddenly shimmered, and the Vibration Particles shook wildly.

"Black Tremor: Star-Shatter!" The instant he punched, time seemed to stop for a second.

Boom! The space in front of his fist first caved inward, then shattered like glass!

A spiderweb of spatial fractures more than ten meters across abruptly spread before Doger, and a terrifying shock wave fanned outward.

The Armament Haki defense Doger hastily raised shattered like paper. His abdomen caved in instantly, and his shirt ripped apart under the vibrations.

"Gah!" Blood sprayed from Doger's mouth. His body flew backward like a kite with its string cut, smashing through three rock walls before finally coming to a stop.

Amid the dust, Doger lay sprawled in the rubble, every bone in his body shattered and his eyes rolled back.

"So... this is what a move combining Armament Haki and Heavenquake can do?"

Gern slowly withdrew his fist. The air around him still vibrated at high frequency, giving off a low hum.

"That felt so damn good!"

A long while later, the warship slowly reached shore. The Marines quickly disembarked in formation and surrounded the entire beach with practiced efficiency.

The remnants of the Rupture Pirates had long since lost their will to fight. They slumped on the ground as the soldiers deftly handcuffed them.

"Reporting! We've found 'Island-Splitter' Doger!" one soldier suddenly shouted, clear surprise in his voice. "He... he's still alive!"

The surrounding soldiers froze at those words and turned toward the massive figure lying in a pool of blood.

Doger's abdomen was caved in and his right arm broken, but his chest still rose and fell faintly.

This clearly didn't match the Decapitation Demon's methods as they knew them from the rumors of the past two years.

"Captain Gern... didn't execute him this time?" a young soldier muttered, his eyes full of confusion.

Gern stood on a raised reef and turned his head slightly at the remark.

The sea breeze stirred his justice cloak, revealing the Black Blade: Eight Desolations at his waist, its bandages freshly rewrapped.

"Didn't the mission say to take him alive? I'm just carrying out my orders. Nothing unusual about that," Gern said casually, a meaningful smile tugging at his lips.

"Besides, three hundred and sixty million alive is worth a lot more than a severed head."

The soldiers exchanged glances before understanding dawned on them. Doger was a rising newcomer about to join the Golden Lion.

Marine Headquarters surely hoped to extract more information about the Golden Lion's Flying Pirates from him.

"That's Captain Gern for you. He really thinks of everything!"

"Captain Gern isn't like the rumors say, either..." As the soldiers' comments reached his ears, Gern merely smiled without confirming or denying anything.

Then he walked slowly over to Doger, who had been bound with Seastone Handcuffs, bent down, and whispered in his ear, "You should thank me for my 'mercy'..."

Doger's clouded pupils suddenly contracted, but his gravely injured body could no longer muster any further response.

When Gern turned toward the warship, his gaze swept over the pirates being escorted away, his eyes terrifyingly calm.

There was neither anger nor pity in them, as though he were looking at a pile of cargo awaiting processing.

Cruelty or mercy? That depends on who benefits. Gern sneered inwardly.

While aboard Zephyr's ship, he had needed to use the most extreme methods to guard against any eventuality and force Zephyr to let him operate independently.

Now that he was carrying out missions independently, what he needed was the most flawless mission report and the fastest route to promotion.

Perfectly completing his very first mission and capturing a pirate worth more than three hundred million alive-

That would make Headquarters remember him in its record of military achievements far more readily than all the heads he had taken at Zephyr's side.

Besides, he had previously put on an act of "cruel justice" to make Zephyr let him operate independently. Now he needed to show some change to make that decision look justified.

After all, only then would Sengoku and the others understand, accept, and feel certain that Gern truly needed to follow his own path.

"Set course for home." With that thought, Gern leaped onto the warship's deck, his voice carrying clearly throughout the ship.

"Report to Marineford. 'Island-Splitter' Doger of the Rupture Pirates, with a bounty of three hundred million and sixty thousand Beli, has been successfully captured. Mission complete."