"This person… his reflexes are incredibly fast."
At some point, Gion had emerged from the cabin of the paddle-ship.
She stood on the railing, her eyes locked on the chaotic battle taking place on the pirate ship nearby.
She wasn't looking at the blood or the chaos. She was focused entirely on the lanky Marine Captain.
"This strange combat style…" Gion muttered, narrowing her eyes. "I don't think I've ever seen anything like it in the Marine training manuals."
She was carefully observing the captain's every move, trying to find similarities between his techniques and those in her memory.
"It looks like a dance," Gion observed. "But every step is a trap."
Meanwhile, high in the air, the pirate captain Humphrey Don was in trouble.
His joints were locked tight by the Marine Captain's limbs. He was plummeting from the sky toward the hard wooden deck, face first.
"Let go of me! Let go!!"
Humphrey screamed, nearly losing his mind with fear.
With the damned Marine Captain clinging to his back like a spider, Humphrey couldn't even raise his arms to shield himself.
He was about to test the hardness of the deck with his nose!
"You asked for this!" Humphrey roared.
Suddenly, his body began to swell. His skin turned green and rough. The joints that had been tightly locked by the Marine Captain shifted and expanded, turning into the thick, muscular limbs of a beast.
He was forcing a full transformation!
RIIIP!
His clothes tore. His broad frame instantly broke free from the Captain's grappling technique. The Marine was thrown off by the sudden expansion of muscle.
THUD!
Humphrey landed heavily on the deck on all fours. The impact was like a cannonball hitting the ship. Every Marine soldier and pirate near him was thrown off their feet by the shockwave.
Hiss—
When the dust settled, a monster stood there.
It was a massive lizard, easily three meters long.
A pair of cold, vertical serpentine pupils stared at the Marine Captain. A forked tongue flickered in the air, tasting the scent of sweat and fear.
A gaping maw filled with viscous saliva revealed rows of razor-sharp teeth, looking like a bear trap waiting to snap.
"My turn, Marine!" the lizard hissed, its voice deep and distorted.
Without warning, the fully transformed Humphrey Don charged across the deck. He moved with terrifying speed for his size, his claws digging into the wood.
The Marine Captain showed no panic.
He didn't retreat. Instead, he advanced, spinning on his heel.
"Iron Leg!"
CLANG!
His left leg, turned black with Armament Haki, struck the lizard's armored head.
The collision between the resilient, ancient scales and the Haki-hardened bone sent sparks flying. It sounded like metal hitting metal.
CRACK!
The force was so great that spiderweb cracks spread across the deck beneath their feet.
The surrounding soldiers and pirates quickly retreated to the edges of the ship. They realized that getting caught between these two monsters would mean instant death.
The Marine Captain backflipped away, landing lightly. He shook his left leg.
"Tough," he thought. "After fully transforming into a lizard, his strength and defense have doubled. It's like kicking a steel wall."
His leg throbbed with pain. In that clash, he hadn't gained the upper hand.
However, he looked at Humphrey Don. The giant lizard was shaking his massive head, swaying dizzily from the impact.
"He's strong, but he's slow," the Captain analyzed. "I can win this."
Humphrey Don shook his head fiercely, forcing himself to regain clarity.
"Damn you!"
Seeing the infuriating lanky man still wearing a relaxed smile, Humphrey was driven mad with rage.
"Die!"
He dashed quickly across the deck again. His massive claws thrust forward, aiming to skewer the Captain.
The Marine Captain prepared to dodge. He started to shift his weight to the side to perform a cartwheel evasion.
But suddenly, he stopped.
His eyes darted behind him. Directly in the path of the lizard's charge stood three young Marine soldiers. They were injured and couldn't move fast enough.
"If I dodge... they die," the Captain realized.
He gritted his teeth and planted his feet firmly. He abandoned the dodge.
"Armament: Iron Wall!"
He coated both hands and his chest with Haki. He grabbed the charging lizard's forelimbs head-on.
BOOM!
The impact was tremendous. The Captain slid backward, his boots carving deep grooves into the wood, but he stopped the charge.
"Heh," Humphrey hissed, a flicker of triumph in his reptile eyes. "So that's your weakness! You care about the trash!"
Humphrey realized he had the advantage. He used his massive weight to press down.
As a Zoan-type user, his weight in full beast form was over a ton. Now, leveraging gravity and muscle, he pinned the formidable Marine Captain beneath him.
The Captain was forced down to one knee. His hands gripped the lizard's wrists, his arms trembling under the pressure.
"You're done for, brat," Humphrey growled.
He opened his jaws wide, aiming to bite the Captain's head off in one chomp.
"Captain!"
"NO!"
The Marine soldiers witnessing this screamed in horror. They frantically swung their cutlasses, trying to rush to his aid.
"Stop them!" the pirates roared.
"Don't let them interrupt the Boss!"
The pirates formed a wall, blocking the soldiers. They knew that once their captain killed the Marine officer, the battle was won.
Humphrey Don felt a thrill of excitement. He was going to win. He was going to crush this arrogant dancer.
"Do you really think you can defeat me just by being heavy?"
The Marine Captain, kneeling on the ground, suddenly raised his head. Sweat dripped from his nose, but he was grinning.
"What?!" Humphrey blinked, confused.
Before the lizard could bite down, the Captain moved. He didn't try to push the lizard away. He pulled him closer.
The Captain instantly closed the gap, pressing his shoulder tight against Humphrey's lower jaw, jamming his mouth shut.
"Leverage!" the Captain shouted.
He dropped onto his back, pulling the lizard with him. He placed his feet on the lizard's stomach. Using the lizard's own forward momentum, the Captain kicked his legs up.
"Circle Throw!"
WHOOSH!
The massive lizard was launched into the air.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Humphrey Don crashed into the mast, then the railing, and finally rolled across the deck.
The scales of victory began to tilt.
"!!!"
Humphrey Don scrambled up, his heart exploding with fury. He had never suffered such humiliation. He was being tossed around like a toy!
Blood trickled from his eyes. His scales were cracked.
"Enough games!" Humphrey roared. "Get away from me!"
A sudden surge of hysterical strength erupted from him. He swatted the Marine Captain away with his tail.
"I'll kill them all! I'll sink this ship!"
Humphrey Don realized he couldn't beat the Captain in a technical fight. So, he went berserk. He charged toward the other end of the deck, where the ordinary Marine soldiers were huddled.
"STOP!" the Captain shouted, scrambling to his feet. He rushed to intercept, but he was too far away.
Humphrey Don opened his mouth, ready to massacre the soldiers.
"Now you'll know the taste of pain!"
But suddenly—
A shadow fell over the ship.
BOOM!!!
An explosion, unexpected by everyone, suddenly erupted on the deck. It wasn't a bomb. It was a person landing.
The once-rampaging lizard stopped moving. He was pinned flat to the deck under a single, shiny black boot.
Raleigh stood there, his white coat fluttering in the dust. He looked bored.
He slowly increased the pressure on his leg.
Crack...
The sound of scales shattering echoed through the silent ship. It was followed by the sickening sound of ribs snapping under immense force.
"Guh..."
The pain came too swiftly and too intensely for Humphrey Don to even let out a cry. His eyes bulged out of his head.
CRACK-SNAP.
The sound wasn't just bones. It was the ship itself.
Beneath Humphrey Don, the wooden deck began to groan. Dense, spiderweb-like cracks spread outward from Raleigh's foot, covering the entire center of the ship.
'This is troublesome,' Raleigh thought calmly. 'This ship is going to sink.'
During the earlier fight, the deck had already taken a beating. But Raleigh's landing was the final straw. He had stomped too hard.
"This is bad! Get to the warship now!" Raleigh shouted loudly to the stunned Marines.
He looked down at the lizard struggling under his foot.
"You are annoying," Raleigh said.
He extended a single index finger.
"Shigan."
Thwip.
His finger moved faster than a bullet.
It pierced through the hard, armored scales on Humphrey Don's head as easily as poking a hole in a coconut.
Humphrey Don's body convulsed once.
Twice.
And then fell still.
Raleigh withdrew his finger.
He grabbed a nearby unconscious pirate, wiped the lizard blood from his hand onto the pirate's shirt, and then casually tossed the pirate into the sea.
"Sir?"
The lanky Marine Captain approached, limping slightly. He raised his hand to salute, his eyes full of awe.
"Save the salute for later," Raleigh waved him off, feeling the deck shift beneath his feet.
"Get the men out of here.!"
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