The violent power bursting from Kai's fist crashed into Morrison's left ribs with devastating force.
It was a blow wrapped in black Armament Haki—
a punch that seemed capable of smashing through anything in its path.
Boom—!
A thunderous impact exploded outward.
The sound rang like a cannon blast.
In that instant, the force in Kai's punch erupted like a volcano, pouring into Morrison's body in a crushing wave.
Faintly—
the sound of bones breaking could be heard.
Crack!
A sharp, vicious pain exploded through Morrison's body.
His face twisted instantly.
The agony was so intense it felt as if his entire body had been torn apart.
"AAARGH!"
He screamed.
Anyone watching could see that the entire left side of his ribs had caved inward under that one punch.
No one could tell how many bones had shattered.
It was a punch so violent that it broke the sound barrier.
The sheer destructive force was naturally terrifying.
At the moment of impact, even the air around them seemed to distort under its pressure.
The force surged through Morrison's ribs, spread through his body, and tried to tear apart his internal organs along with the rest of him.
At the same time, the burst of power exploded outward as a shockwave and hurled Morrison hundreds of meters through the air.
His body spun wildly, completely out of control.
Pfft!
Blood sprayed from his mouth as he flew.
His face turned deathly pale.
His aura weakened sharply.
A trail of blood streaked through the sky behind him.
Kai's punch had shattered Morrison's ribs so thoroughly that even the man's clothes had been blasted into scraps.
And it did not stop there.
The blow had also reached deep into his body and inflicted heavy internal damage.
As a Logia user, Morrison had always neglected his physical body.
He had relied too heavily on his Devil Fruit for too long and had rarely tempered his flesh through real physical training.
As a result—
Kai's punch landed and instantly left him heavily injured.
A great pirate with a bounty over one hundred million berries had been beaten half to death by a single blow.
The intangibility Morrison had always been so proud of was nearly useless in front of Kai's Armament Haki.
This punch had struck his real body cleanly.
Then at last—
BOOM!
Morrison's body flew hundreds of meters and slammed hard into the side of a small hill.
The impact blasted a crater into the rock and sent cracking fractures racing across it.
Crack!
Crack!
Sharp sounds echoed in every direction.
The web of cracks spread wider and wider, covering the hill in jagged lines that made the whole thing look ready to collapse.
Then—
Rumble…!
The hill trembled.
Large fragments of stone fell in chunks, smashing to the ground around its base.
Pfft!
As Morrison's back smashed into the rock, he vomited blood again.
His face turned even paler.
The bones in his back felt as if they were coming apart.
Pain flooded every part of him without pause.
It hurt so badly that for one brief instant, he wanted to die just to make it stop.
His ribs had been shattered.
Several bones in his back had cracked as well.
He had been driven straight into a state of severe injury.
"Cough—! Cough—!"
Morrison coughed violently.
That one punch had nearly displaced his organs.
It wasn't just his outer body that had been damaged.
His insides had been hit hard too.
Gradually, once his body had been sent flying far from the battlefield, the swamp domain he had created began to fade away as well.
The ground slowly returned to its normal state, no longer shifting or swallowing everything like a bog.
"Damn it…"
"Damn it all!"
"That little brat…"
"How can he possibly be that strong?!"
"I couldn't even clearly see his attack!"
"I'm a pirate worth over a hundred million berries!"
"And I still couldn't even follow the movement of a five-year-old?"
Morrison was furious, shocked, and afraid all at once.
All he had managed to catch was a vague blur.
He hadn't been able to react at all.
Kai had simply been too fast.
Far too fast.
And even worse—
there was Kai's Armament Haki.
"So he really does have Armament…"
"No wonder my intangibility meant nothing to him."
"A five-year-old brat who not only has Conqueror's Haki, but has mastered Armament this well too? Who would ever believe it?"
"What kind of monster…"
"…is he?!"
The more Morrison thought about it, the more shaken he became.
As he felt the pain stabbing through his ribs and waist, his face twisted and cold sweat poured down his skin.
Just one punch—
and half his life had nearly been taken away.
"His speed…"
"his strength…"
"his Haki…"
"He's overwhelming in every category."
"How did the sea produce a monster like this?"
His throat ran dry.
His face stayed pale.
His entire body trembled.
For the first time in years, Morrison began to feel regret.
As a Logia user, he had gone this long without ever meeting an opponent he truly feared.
Naturally—
that had bred arrogance in him.
He had begun looking down on everyone.
He had even started believing that no one on this sea could defeat him, much less kill him.
But now—
after meeting Kai—
he finally understood the truth.
It wasn't that no such person existed.
It was only that he had been lucky enough not to meet one until now.
And today—
his luck had run out.
A five-year-old monster stood before him.
That monster didn't just have Conqueror's Haki—
he also possessed Armament Haki, the very power designed to counter Logia users, and he wielded it with terrifying proficiency.
If Morrison hadn't seen it with his own eyes, he would never have believed that a five-year-old child could be this strong.
"With one punch, he nearly took my life."
"He's too strong."
"He's far beyond anything I can handle."
"Damn it! Why did I have to get involved in this today?!"
"The Cerberus Pirates getting wiped out had nothing to do with me."
"So why did I come here?!"
His heart was full of regret.
He should never have interfered.
Now things had turned disastrous.
Not only had he failed to drive off the Marines—
he himself had been dragged into this, and the Swamp Pirates were now on the brink of total destruction.
A moment later, Morrison let his body melt into mud again and used his Logia transformation to slip free from the cratered hillside.
Soon after, he reformed on the ground.
But the damage from Kai's Haki-coated punch remained very real.
Those injuries weren't disappearing any time soon.
And his condition was still terrible.
At that same moment, everyone on the battlefield was shaken to the core by what they had just seen.
"This…"
"Is that for real?"
"A pirate with a bounty over a hundred million got sent flying with one punch by that five-year-old brat?!"
"That kid's strength is insane!"
Kurrin, the captain of the Cerberus Pirates, was trembling openly now.
The sight of Morrison being blown away with a single punch made him realize something at last—
that five-year-old was far, far more terrifying than anything he had imagined.
Even a Logia user, a pirate worth over one hundred million berries, couldn't withstand one punch from that little monster.
That alone was enough to tell him just how terrifying Kai really was.
"For the Marines to deal with our Cerberus Pirates…"
"did they really have to send out a monster like that?"
"This isn't giving us a chance to live at all!"
"What did we ever do…"
"…to deserve the Navy sending something like him after us?"
Kurrin felt like crying.
The Marines were truly inhuman.
To think they had actually sent a monster like this.
They really had thought highly of the Cerberus Pirates.
On the other side, Colonel Trull and his Marine branch soldiers stood frozen, staring blankly at Kai and Morrison.
"W-what the hell…?"
"He's too strong!"
"One punch sent that Logia user Morrison flying!"
"I thought Logias were supposed to ignore all attacks!"
"Then why did that five-year-old nearly beat him to death with a single punch?"
"A five-year-old with this kind of combat power…"
"That's terrifying!"
The Marines were completely shaken.
Trull took a long breath and forced himself to speak.
"The saying that Logia users can ignore all attacks…"
"…only applies when they're facing the weak."
"To a true powerhouse…"
"a Logia user's intangibility means nothing."
"Because real monsters wield the sea's most terrifying power."
"Haki."
"Armament Haki is precisely what negates a Logia's intangibility."
"That's why Morrison was so badly hurt by that one punch."
Hearing that, the Marines were even more stunned.
"Armament Haki…"
"He's only five, and he's already this strong?"
"What does that make the rest of us?"
"Compared to him, it feels like we've wasted our entire lives."
"Who exactly is that kid?"
"He's ridiculously strong!"
Voices rose in every direction.
And while listening to his own men, Trull's eyes suddenly widened.
A shocking guess surfaced in his mind.
"N-no way…"
"Could it be…"
"that he is…?"
Visit my patreon for more chapters
Advance 60+ Chapters Available
patreon.com/ZeusOp