Whoever Dodges Is Lowly Trash

"You two, get farther away. Don't hold me back..."

Hughes's body, which had been scattered by the blow, turned to flames and re-formed. He waved at Lisanna and Elfman as they ran over, telling them to get farther away.

His half-narrowed eyes fixed on the monster ahead, Hughes's lips gradually curled upward.

Mira's family really did have a connection with magical beasts like Forest Vulcans. Later, Lisanna would be toyed with twice in a row by the same Forest Vulcan in the eastern forest outside Magnolia, and now Mira was struggling desperately in a Forest Vulcan's hand.

"Fire Pistol!"

Hughes called out softly. Searing flames rapidly shifted in his hand, and in an instant, a long spear formed from the gathered fire.

He turned his hand over, tightened his grip, and hurled it. The flaming spear pierced the air with a sharp crack, its tip aimed straight at the Forest Vulcan.

The Forest Vulcan easily dodged with a jump on the spot. The spear sank into the ground with a thud, accompanied by the Forest Vulcan's mocking laughter.

"Too slow... too slow..."

Hughes nodded calmly. He thought so too.

The Forest Vulcan was incredibly fast, and he knew it. Otherwise, he would have spewed flames to surround it completely, trapping and incinerating it.

He raised a finger and pointed at the sky.

"Too late to dodge. Good luck!"

Countless sharp arrows of flame poured down from the sky like raindrops, radiating scorching heat.

The spear had only been a feint. The rain of arrows he had secretly released into the sky was the killing move.

Countless flames struck the Forest Vulcan's thick arms, which it held over its head for cover, with a series of thuds. Then they set its fur alight, and it continued to burn.

Mira? You asked how Mira was doing?

Hughes could only wish her good luck too. There was no way he could afford to hold back in front of a cunning Forest Vulcan.

He hadn't forgotten that Forest Vulcans, magical beasts unique to Earth Land, survived by taking over human bodies.

If he were taken over, everyone here would be done for!

Bathed in a rain of fire, flames erupting all over him, Hughes pulled his straightened right arm back. Fire blazed around his right fist as he kicked off the ground and charged straight at the battered Forest Vulcan.

"Fire Fist!!"

Hughes shouted in midair and swung his right arm forward. Roaring flames blasted from his right fist, growing larger as they traveled until they formed a flaming fist as big as the Forest Vulcan, smashing it flying.

After landing, Hughes shook his head. His Fire Fist was far too weak. Leaving aside whether it could compare to Ace's or Sabo's at point-blank range, it might not even match the Gum-Gum Fire that King Luffy had come up with on the spur of the moment.

"Hughes, Mira should be all right, shouldn't she?"

Elfman called out from behind him, while Lisanna gazed into the distance, in the direction Hughes had sent the Forest Vulcan flying.

"She's not dead. Mira's practically a child of destiny herself. A little crisis like this won't kill her!"

Hughes, who didn't know how Mira was doing himself, casually fobbed Elfman off.

"Is that so? But I ate her!!"

A sinister voice suddenly rang out, accompanied by claws like dead wood.

The claws gleamed coldly as they easily tore through Hughes's body, sending claw-shaped streaks flying.

"Boom, boom..."

Several deep gouges appeared in the ground.

"A demon! I actually have the power of a demon now!!"

The Forest Vulcan, its appearance greatly changed, roared at the sky.

Having turned his body into an element to evade the sneak attack, Hughes re-formed and looked toward the demon in the distance. It resembled a dark, withered tree, with purple, eyeball-shaped crystals covering its body.

Whoa! Would you look at that. Mira refused to accept that demon and fought desperately to reject it, but after the Forest Vulcan took her over, her entire body turned demonic just like that.

Still, I said the demon Mira took over in the church was just a low-level demon, but old man Mashima next door always insisted it was the demon king Satan.

Even their arms are different. How could it possibly be the demon Satan?

Hughes raised an eyebrow as the newly confident Forest Vulcan finished roaring at the sky, then rubbed its hands together and walked toward him.

Magical beasts like Vulcans, whether Snow Mountain Vulcans or Forest Vulcans, could only take over one human body at a time.

"Hey, you two, get even farther away. Don't worry. Once I kill this thing, Mira can come out!"

Hughes stood where he was, flames covering his body as he clenched his fists and gathered strength. His eyes blazed as he stared at the demonized Forest Vulcan. Now he no longer had to hold back as he had before.

"Human, if you've got guts, don't dodge!"

The demonized Forest Vulcan looked down at Hughes, a vicious grin on its ferocious face. It raised its coldly gleaming claws high and slashed down at him.

"Dodge? Whoever dodges is lowly trash!"

Hughes stared wide-eyed into its demonic eyes and roared.

Flames burst from beneath his feet like thrusters, propelling him into the air. The next instant, his flame-wreathed fist smashed forward.

The sinister claws collided with the flaming fist, and the two held in a stalemate for a moment!

"Bang!"

The Forest Vulcan proved slightly weaker and was driven back, staggering several steps.

Forest Vulcan: (⊙ˍ⊙)

What the hell?! It had taken over a demon!!

"You can't take over another human now, can you? Come on, trade blows with me! Kill me!!"

Suddenly acting mad, Hughes wore a savage grin, his expression wild. Though his body was slight and small compared to the demonized Forest Vulcan, it radiated a terrifying aura.

He boldly closed in, his clenched fists wrapped in condensed flames. He swung both fists in a blur of afterimages, pounding the Forest Vulcan again and again.

Amid the dense barrage of booming impacts, the immense force kept driving the Forest Vulcan backward, its legs plowing two furrows into the ground.

"Human, you're asking for death!!"

The demonized Forest Vulcan flew into a rage. Taking advantage of a pause in Hughes's attacks, it opened its abyssal maw.

A cold, evil aura gathered, and a massive beam shot from its mouth.

"Boom!!"

After the blinding light flashed, Hughes was revealed with half his body blasted apart, along with the forest behind him, which had been completely obliterated, leaving the ground bare.

"Human, ha-"

"Fight me hand to hand, you lowly trash! What are you doing firing light beams?!!"

"Bang!"

With only half his body remaining, Hughes flashed in front of its head and struck it with a heavy punch.

"Come on, keep going! Kill me!"

Hughes opened his mouth wide, his madness-filled eyes looking hungrily at the Forest Vulcan, which had fallen into a sitting position on the ground. His destroyed body also began returning to normal!

"Hurry up, you lowly trash!"

Hughes appeared abruptly in front of the Forest Vulcan and snapped at it.

He twisted his body and whipped his raised right leg into the Forest Vulcan's head with a fierce rush of air.

"Crack!"

Mottled cracks appeared across the Vulcan's hard head...

"Ah, you demon!!"

The frightened Forest Vulcan pushed itself up from the ground and slammed its hand down repeatedly. Beneath it, Hughes was scattered into nothingness and reassembled again.

"That's it, that's it! This feels so good! Hurry up and kill me, hurry up and kill me, you lowly trash!"

"Bang! Bang! Bang..."

The earthquake-like shaking made Lisanna and Elfman, who were hiding in the distance, look at each other.

"Hughes is a good person, right?" Elfman scratched his head and asked uncertainly.

"Elfman, you should be asking whether Mira will be all right!"

"Oh, oh!"