After so many failed attacks, Doflamingo finally snapped.
He erupted.
The Conqueror's Haki he'd been leaking all over the area exploded outwards.
Waves of red-black lightning tore across the battlefield, slamming into Raleigh's body and face like a physical force.
It didn't hurt, but Raleigh could feel the pure, murderous rage behind it.
'So, this is what happens when you really push one of these Conqueror's types,' Raleigh thought, letting the waves of Haki wash over him.
'Interesting.'
He'd seen it before.
Conqueror's Haki was all about an unshakeable will, an "invincible heart." If you shattered that will—really broke them—their Haki would often weaken with it.
'But this brat…' Raleigh looked at Doflamingo, whose face was a mask of pure, unadulterated hatred.
'If I crush him, will his break? Or will it just make him stronger?'
Suddenly, Doflamingo wasn't just some punk to beat up.
He was a research subject.
There weren't many Conqueror's users running around the North Blue, and Raleigh had zero interest in heading to the New World yet.
This kid would have to do.
Doflamingo saw the shift in Raleigh's eyes—from bored indifference to a sudden, intense interest.
It was the look a scientist gave a bug.
It made his skin crawl.
"Alright, brat," Raleigh said, cracking his knuckles. "I'm not interested in playing house anymore."
That was the last straw.
"I... AM... DONQUIXOTE DOFLAMINGO!" he screamed, his voice shredding.
He drove his own fingers into his palms, shredding them.
Blood dripped as silver-gray threads, now stained crimson, erupted from his hands.
"String-String Fruit—God Thread!"
Doflamingo flung his left hand high.
The five bloody threads shot into the sky, then, with a flick of his wrist, they screamed back down like divine punishment, blanketing the entire area.
SHIIING!
The sound was deafening.
The threads punched straight through Raleigh's body and deep into the solid ground, disappearing dozens of meters underground.
Dust and debris exploded everywhere.
Doflamingo stood panting, his hands bleeding, cautiously staring into the smoke.
'That had to work. It had to.'
He didn't think he'd killed the monster, but he just needed to hurt him.
He just needed an opening to grab Trebol and run.
A gentle breeze finally cleared the dust.
A manic, bloody grin split Doflamingo's face.
He saw him.
It was Raleigh's massive figure, frozen in a mid-run pose, impaled by a dozen of the ultra-sharp threads.
His eyes were wide, as if in disbelief, staring down at the strings piercing his chest.
"Fufufufufu... Fufufufu! I... I WON!" Doflamingo shrieked, high on the thrill of it.
"I WON! I'm the one who survive! Fufufufu!"
He was still laughing when a tall figure blocked the sun.
"What are you laughing at, kid?"
The voice came from behind him.
Doflamingo's blood ran cold.
His smile vanished. He didn't even turn around.
He just reacted.
"String-String Fruit—Excessive Whip!"
He snapped a compressed, super-strong bundle of strings from his right hand backward in a vicious lash.
It was unbelievably fast.
But Raleigh was faster.
A massive hand grabbed him by his short blond hair.
The whip did hit, its sharp tip relying on sheer speed to cut a gash an inch deep into Raleigh's side.
It didn't matter.
Raleigh just slammed Doflamingo's head straight into the solid bluestone pavement.
BOOM!
The ground shattered.
A three-meter crater exploded under the force, spider-webbing out in every direction.
Raleigh lifted Doflamingo's limp body by the hair.
The kid's sunglasses were gone, his eyes rolled back, white and vacant.
He was out cold.
"Release our king, you lowly commoner!"
Freed from the Haki, the Donquixote Family, who had been paralyzed on the sidelines, went berserk and charged.
"Sticky Chains!" Trebol, his nose still running, was in the lead, firing a disgusting wad of mucus at Raleigh.
Raleigh moved to dodge, but his feet were stuck.
The solid ground beneath him had suddenly turned into a swamp-like mud, trapping his legs.
"Give the young master back!" a sharp voice shrieked, echoing from somewhere underground.
Torturing Raleigh's ears.
A new figure charged at Raleigh.
He was a boy in a suit and sunglasses, with a ridiculous watermelon-cut hairstyle.
A spoon was still sticking out of the corner of his mouth, as if he'd just finished a coffee.
He held a bamboo pole as tall as himself, leaping high into the air.
"Demon Bamboo!"
The vibrant green pole whistled as it descended straight toward Raleigh's head.
Raleigh, still holding Doflamingo's unconscious body with his right hand, simply raised his left.
"Fist Bone—Shockwave!"
"Be careful, Vergo!" one of the other family members screamed, but it was way too late.
A terrifying, invisible shockwave formed in Raleigh's palm.
Even one-handed, it was massive overkill.
The bamboo, supposedly hard as steel, didn't even make contact.
It shattered into a dozen pieces in mid-air.
Vergo's pupils dilated.
His heart felt like it was going to burst from his chest. 'How can someone be this strong?!'
Boom!
Just like Doflamingo before him, Vergo's body was launched backward.
He rocketed through a streetlamp, shattered a thick brick wall, and plowed straight through five consecutive buildings before disappearing into a cloud of rubble.
'That was Vergo, right?' Raleigh thought, idly. 'The first 'Heart.' Beaten by Law later on. Guess his talent was pretty limited after all.'
"Damn it!"
That strange, high-pitched voice shrieked from above.
Pica loomed over Raleigh, who was still stuck in the mud.
"Die, Marine scum!"
Clad in golden armor, Pica slammed both his house-sized fists straight down.
Raleigh just calmly glanced up.
"Hah. Ignorant."
"Armament Haki: Body Hardening."
Raleigh's entire upper body turned a gleaming, metallic black.
He always took a fight seriously, even against small fry.
The impact was surprisingly light.
It didn't hurt Raleigh at all, but it did succeed in driving him deeper into the ground, burying him up to his waist.
Pica stared at the completely unharmed man, a wave of agony shooting up his own arms.
His hands were trembling.
'This guy... is he human or a demon?! That kind of defense is monstrous!'
"Tch," Raleigh clicked his tongue. "Having only one free hand really is a pain."
With a casual flick of his wrist, he flung Doflamingo's body, sending it tumbling into a nearby pile of rubble.
Seeing their young master finally free from the demon's grasp, Pica felt a brief surge of relief.
That relief was instantly replaced by an icy chill that shot up his spine.
"Hey," Raleigh said, cracking his knuckles. "You got to punch me. so its now my turn."
Pica's heart stopped.
'This is no joke!' Vergo's miserable fate was proof: this man was not human.
"Fist Bone—Shockwave!"
"Stone-Stone Fruit—Stone Press!" Pica panicked, activating his ability.
He ripped a massive stone pillar from the ground to block, while at the same time, streams of rock flowed over his body, forming a secondary layer of armor.
"Pathetic," Raleigh said, amplifying the power.
The shockwave hit the pillar and shattered it like glass.
It punched through the rock armor as if it were paper.
Pica only had time to spit out a mouthful of blood before he, too, was sent flying, crashing through another building and collapsing it.
With Pica's power gone, the mud around Raleigh's legs instantly hardened back into solid ground.
Raleigh simply punched the earth, shattering the soil that trapped him.
"Tsk, tsk. Such troublesome abilities," he muttered, dusting himself off.
He flashed away from his spot just as a massive ball of snot landed where he'd been standing.
"But your ability," Raleigh said, glaring at Trebol, "is, by far, the most disgusting one here."
That sticky, gooey bastard... Raleigh didn't want to get anywhere near him.
As the fight wound down, the Marine soldiers, finally free from Doflamingo's Haki, were scrambling to their feet.
"Surround them," Raleigh casually ordered Cleveland.
"Yes, sir!" Cleveland tightened his grip on his sword.
He felt a deep, burning shame.
He had been completely immobilized by the Haki, unable to lift a finger to help.
He'd been useless.
He'd sadly realized that if Raleigh hadn't been here, they wouldn't just have failed the mission; they would have all been slaughtered.
He looked at the man standing at the forefront.
Cleveland had thought no one could ever fill Sakazuki's shoes, but this lazy, perpetually bored Rear Admiral... he was a monster.
Raleigh felt someone staring at him.
He turned and saw Cleveland.
He had that look.
That wide-eyed, hero-worshipping, "I will die for you" look.
It instantly freaked Raleigh out.
"Whoa, man," Raleigh said, taking a half-step back. "What are you doing? Don't look at me like that."
"Rear Admiral Raleigh!" Cleveland slammed his fist over his heart, completely misreading the situation.
"Cleveland is willing to charge into battle for you!"
Raleigh let out a quiet sigh of relief.
;Oh. Okay. He's just being military. Not weird.;
He turned his attention to the sword in Cleveland's hand.
"Cool. Give me that."
Cleveland, baffled, obediently handed his sword to the Raleigh.