The initial exchange had revealed more than either Marine would admit aloud, but both Finn and Sakazuki felt a quiet relief settling into their bones.
Douglas Bullet wasn't as powerful as his reputation suggested.
Finn had once fought Charlotte Linlin head-on. That monster woman had displayed strength that made the earth tremble and the sky crack. Even giving everything he had, Finn had only managed to match her level for a brief window of time. If he was being honest with himself, he was still a tier below Big Mom in terms of raw power. That old woman might be a bastard with the personality of a spoiled child, but her talent was absolutely real. Decades of combat experience in the New World's most brutal waters had forged her into something genuinely terrifying.
Douglas Bullet, for all his reputation and experience, couldn't match that standard. Not against Sakazuki. Not against Finn.
Even accounting for the fact that their attacks had been probing strikes, Bullet hadn't demonstrated the overwhelming strength his legend promised. The rumors claimed he'd fought Silvers Rayleigh to a standstill, matching the Dark King blow for blow.
Finn had just blown him away with a single technique.
Therefore, regardless of whether Bullet was holding back or had some other trick prepared, one conclusion crystallized in Finn's mind with absolute clarity: Douglas Bullet is weaker than me.
That knowledge brought confidence. The kind of confidence that came from seven years of calculated survival and relentless advancement, from understanding exactly where he stood in this world's brutal hierarchy.
Both Marines visibly relaxed, their postures shifting from wary tension to controlled readiness.
Some distance away, Bullet finally arrested his backward momentum, skidding to a halt amid a spray of dirt and broken stone. He looked down at his torso, at the countless shallow cuts crisscrossing his muscles. The sharp wind pressure had sliced through his initial defense, leaving bloody tracks everywhere. The wounds looked dramatic, blood spattering his skin and making him appear severely injured.
In reality, they were superficial. Painful, certainly. Humiliating, absolutely. But not debilitating.
Unlike Finn and Sakazuki's assessment of him, Bullet's evaluation ran in the opposite direction. He acknowledged that Finn possessed genuine power, that perhaps the man wasn't the shameless fraud Bullet had imagined.
But I'm still stronger, Bullet thought with absolute conviction.
This was the confidence of someone who'd stood at the apex, who'd sailed with the Pirate King himself and survived the New World's most brutal gauntlets. Confidence born from surviving battles that would have killed lesser men a hundred times over.
"You two," Bullet called out, rolling his massive shoulders until the joints popped audibly. "Chatting so leisurely. You really think you can beat me that easily?"
Sakazuki glanced at the man, then turned to Finn. "Seems you're looking down on him."
"Not looking down," Finn replied with an easy smile. "Just think his reputation doesn't match reality."
"Maybe." Sakazuki's hands dripped with molten magma, small droplets hissing as they hit the scorched earth. "But that guy is genuinely strong. You're not planning to challenge him to some honorable one-on-one duel, are you?"
"Hahaha!" Finn's laugh was genuinely amused. "When did Marines start playing by pirates' rules? Sure, I think I could handle him alone, but let's just finish this together. We don't have time to waste on him."
The casual dismissal, the complete disregard for his presence, ignited something violent in Bullet's chest. Anger flashed through his eyes. His foot slammed into the ground with earth-shattering force, and the terrain instantly fractured. Then chunks of earth and stone began spreading up from his legs, crawling across his body like living things.
In mere moments, the entire right half of his body was completely encased in dirt and rock, transforming him into something monstrous.
This was the power of the Gasha Gasha no Mi, the Clank-Clank Fruit. The ability to merge, to fuse everything into a single unified whole. To integrate external matter directly into his own body.
But Bullet wasn't finished.
After half his form was covered by earth and rock, a dangerous gleam flashed in his eyes. The layer of earth and stone instantly became wrapped in jet-black Armament Haki. But it wasn't the standard hardening. The Haki flowed like liquid across the surface, moving and shifting with fluid grace.
Second-stage Armament Haki. Advanced application. Internal Destruction.
"Entertain me!" Bullet roared domineeringly, and his monster-like figure charged directly toward Finn.
Finn didn't move. His hand simply rested on Shindokutō at his waist, fingers curled around the demon sword's hilt.
Just as Bullet closed the distance, Sakazuki moved. His transformation mirrored Bullet's technique. The entire left half of his body liquefied into boiling magma, the natural terrain around his feet assimilating and transforming into more molten rock through his awakened power. The magma, too, became wrapped in tremendously powerful Haki, flowing and pulsing with destructive intent.
Sakazuki's figure shot forward, directly intercepting Bullet's charge. His magma-coated fist drove toward Bullet's incoming strike.
A ferocious look crossed Bullet's features, his lips pulling back in a sinister grin. "Get out of my way!"
CRACK.
The two fists collided. The impact of their Armament Haki sent visible shockwaves rippling outward, and the space between them seemed to fracture and distort. A flash of genuine surprise crossed Sakazuki's face.
This bastard's power increased?
In just an instant, Bullet's devastating punch suppressed Sakazuki's strike. The overwhelming force threatened to crush straight through the Admiral's defense.
But Sakazuki's reputation as one of the Marines' three monsters wasn't exaggerated. He hadn't earned that title through luck or connections.
The ground beneath his feet instantly transformed into magma through his awakened ability. It erupted violently, providing tremendous counter-force that traveled up through his legs. He twisted his waist, and more thick, boiling magma began accumulating from his shoulders down his arms, making his limbs swell to twice their normal size.
The magma appeared to compress, condensing under impossible pressure, shrinking back before it exploded outward with volcanic fury.
"Ashen Eruption!" Sakazuki roared.
The explosive force erupted again, and the disadvantage reversed completely. What made it even more terrifying was the magma's horrific temperature. Even separated by layers of Haki, Bullet's fist began turning red, as if the heat would burn straight through his advanced armament and cook the flesh beneath.
It took only a heartbeat for Bullet to gain the advantage in pure strength, and only another heartbeat for Sakazuki to turn the situation around completely.
But before Sakazuki could capitalize on his recovered position, the battlefield dynamics shifted again.
"Merge!" Bullet's grin turned triumphant.
Sakazuki's expression changed drastically. He suddenly felt the magma erupting from his body lose his control, responding to some external will.
The next instant, a massive amount of molten rock surged away from Sakazuki and covered Bullet's body entirely, transforming him into a genuine magma monster. But the heat that should have reduced any living thing to ash didn't harm Bullet at all.
More than that, it seemed to become his strength.
The moment Sakazuki lost control, Bullet seized the opening. He exerted force, and his punch from top to bottom finally overwhelmed Sakazuki completely.
Sakazuki's magma arm shattered into countless burning fragments that splashed across the ground. Bullet's fist continued its devastating arc, slamming into Sakazuki's shoulder where the magma had exploded away, driving him down into the earth.
BOOM.
The ground detonated completely. Lava and sparks flew in every direction as Sakazuki crashed into a crater.
After knocking Sakazuki down with a single devastating blow, Bullet roared and launched himself toward Finn, the stolen magma still coating his massive form and radiating deadly heat.
Finn watched the exchange with genuine surprise, then laughed with what sounded like amusement.
Sakazuki got careless. Let Bullet play him completely.
Given Sakazuki's level of Devil Fruit mastery, if he hadn't been careless, even if Bullet's fusion ability could forcibly seize control of the magma, it shouldn't have been possible to accomplish so easily in a single motion.
"Demon's Wrath!" Bullet bellowed, his fist wrapped in stolen magma crashing down toward Finn's head.
"Gravity Domain: Almighty Push," Finn said softly, almost conversationally.
Just as the boiling magma was about to drip onto Finn's face, powerful repulsive force burst outward from his body in all directions. The technique instantly blocked Bullet's violent assault, stopping the attack dead.
The magma and earth coating Bullet's body was repelled by the overwhelming gravitational rejection, tearing away from his form and sweeping outward behind him in a spray of superheated debris.
But Bullet himself managed to withstand the impact. Ignoring the cracked, bleeding skin on his knuckles, he gritted his teeth and pressed his fist down toward Finn's skull, as if he wouldn't be satisfied unless he landed at least one clean hit.
"FUSED!" Just when his strength was about to fail, Bullet shouted again.
The ground beneath his feet suddenly changed consistency, becoming like a swamp that swallowed his legs. Massive amounts of earth and rock forcibly integrated into his body through the Clank-Clank Fruit's power, making him grow even larger and more massive.
Not only that, Finn suddenly felt the repulsive barrier collapsing. Bullet's power seemed to be expanding rapidly, exponentially increasing.
In that moment, Finn recalled Sakazuki's situation just seconds ago. Combined with the current development, understanding crystallized.
"I see," Finn said softly. "Fusion... isn't just simple combination."
Douglas Bullet's fusion ability genuinely enhanced his overall strength. He'd seized earth and stone and merged them into his body, apparently just growing larger and appearing somewhat bulkier.
But the reality was far more sophisticated. The soil and rock weren't just attached to his body's surface. They were integrated inside, growing within him. In a very real sense, the earth and stone had become part of his actual body.
Though the principle behind this fusion remained mysterious, it undoubtedly enhanced his strength dramatically.
"You understand? Too late!" Bullet's grin turned vicious.
The next instant, his fist broke through Finn's repulsive barrier. The massive appendage, now composed of flesh, earth, rock, and rubble fused into a single unified whole, crashed toward Finn's head.
At that moment, Finn moved.
As he raised his arm, Armament Haki like flowing clouds enveloped his entire upper body, black and gleaming. Without dodging at all, he met Bullet's ferocious fist and struck out with his palm.
His Haki-coated palm hit the incoming fist through the air, never making physical contact. The powerful palm pressure and domineering impact set off an invisible shockwave between them that spread outward in concentric rings.
The next second, Finn was blown backward by the reactive force, retreating more than ten meters before he arrested his momentum.
But Bullet refused to relent. He charged after Finn like an enraged bull.
Finn remained calm, almost relaxed. He met Bullet's fist with his palm again, striking through the air. Then he didn't resist at all, allowing himself to be thrown backward again by the tremendous impact.
Afterward, Bullet went into a frenzy, attacking repeatedly with single-minded determination. And Finn continued his strange response, slapping Bullet's fists away each time before immediately getting "knocked away" by the force.
They repeated this pattern more than ten times.
Eventually, Bullet's breathing grew labored. He lowered his body slightly, stopped his relentless assault, and looked at his arms left and right. A serious, almost troubled expression entered his eyes.
"Do you feel it?" Finn asked with a grin, not even slightly winded.
Bullet didn't respond verbally. Instead, he shook his entire body violently, dislodging all the earth and stone coating his form. The integrated material crumbled away, revealing his true body beneath.
His hunched spine straightened again. His breathing, which had become rapid and harsh, smoothed out somewhat.
But his brow remained furrowed, troubled by something he couldn't quite identify.
He tried again, absorbing earth from beneath his feet through the Clank-Clank Fruit's power. But as soon as the earth and rock spread to his knees, he immediately withdrew the ability and stared at Finn with dawning comprehension.
"It's useless," Finn said, his tone almost gentle, almost educational. "Your ability is fusion. The core principle is your original body. No matter what you merge, it integrates into your physical form, becomes indistinguishable from your actual flesh, and becomes one unified whole. So as long as your ability's core concept doesn't change, no matter how many times you try, the result will be identical."
During the previous exchanges, every time Finn's palm had made contact with Bullet, he'd applied gravitational force to the man.
That gravity had doubled Bullet's weight the first time. Tripled it the second time. Increased it further with each subsequent strike.
After just those dozen brief clashes, Bullet's weight had expanded dozens of times over. He was now under tremendously amplified gravity, his own mass working against him.
At the same time, because of the Clank-Clank Fruit's fundamental nature, whenever Bullet used his fusion power to absorb something into his body, the weight of those absorbed materials, like soil and rocks, would instantly increase dozens of times over the moment they integrated.
In other words, the more things Bullet absorbed and combined, the greater his own weight became, and the greater the pressure he'd have to bear.
Unless he found some way to break or dispel the gravitational enhancement Finn had applied to him, his originally extremely powerful Clank-Clank Fruit would be, in a very real sense, forcibly crippled by Finn's ability.
"I see..." Bullet slowly raised his arm and clenched it into a fist, his knuckles cracking.
After a brief pause, he looked back at Finn and said in a deep voice, "That's an excellent application of your ability. But you probably didn't realize something. Or rather, you rarely use this kind of technique..."
Finn's brow furrowed slightly. "What are you talking about?"
"As the saying goes," Bullet said, his voice rising, "the greater your mass, the greater your strength!"
The next second, his figure vanished completely.
Then he suddenly materialized directly in front of Finn, having covered the distance in what seemed like an instant.
Surprise flashed through Finn's eyes. He clearly hadn't expected Bullet to move so fast despite carrying dozens of times his normal weight.
But his body reacted instinctively. Before Bullet's fist could land, Finn lower his gravity and took a rapid step with Soru and disappeared from the spot.
Bullet's punch crashed into the ground where Finn had been standing.
The earth within a radius of one kilometer began shattering and shaking, concentric cracks spreading outward from the impact point like a spiderweb.
As he'd claimed, his power had actually increased.
"Hahahaha! Interesting!" Finn called from his new position on the fractured ground some distance away. "You took advantage of the increased weight to amplify your strength? You really do have rich combat experience!"
Bullet slowly extracted his heavy fist from the crater he'd created, looking at Finn with an expression that mixed respect and wariness. "Same to you. Didn't you also exploit my ability against me?"
Bullet spoke confidently, but his heart was heavy.
Because he'd begun to realize something that disturbed him greatly: Finn didn't seem to be taking this fight seriously at all.
It felt like the Marine was using Douglas Bullet as some kind of... test subject.