In front of the Fourth Division Captain's manor, ten thousand meters deep in the sea.
Two figures, one large and one small, were engaged in a fierce battle, ignoring the terrifying high pressure of this ten-thousand-meter deep sea.
One person stood on the murky seabed, three meters tall, with white hair and a body of muscles that looked like they were cast from steel and iron.
With every movement, he stirred the surrounding seawater, turning it into a terrifying current that blasted outward.
The other person was like a giant, over ten meters tall, with flame-like hair and a large string of prayer beads around his thick neck.
Despite his massive size, he wasn't clumsy at all in this ten-thousand-meter deep sea.
He was as agile as a bighead carp, moving so fast that he carved out channels of white water trails in the sea.
The white-haired man was, naturally, Carlo.
And the other one was Babel.
Babel was a Senior Combatant of the Rocks Pirates and the strongest Fishman in the entire crew.
He was a Catfish Fishman.
His bounty was seven hundred million Berries.
Half a year ago, he was invited by Carlo to join the Sky Pirates.
He became the Third Division Captain of the Sky Pirates.
And Kaido was the second division captain of the Sky Pirates.
However, it was only temporary.
With his temperament, he would never be willing to serve under someone else.
Not to mention Carlo, even Rocks couldn't make him completely submit.
The reason he temporarily joined Carlo's command was entirely because he owed Carlo too much money.
"Carlo! Watch out! Next, I'm going to use the secret technique of Fish-Man Karate!"
After clashing with Carlo for more than a dozen rounds, Babel spoke loudly, opening his wide catfish-like mouth.
As a Fishman, he had special vocal techniques; even underwater, he could transmit his voice to Carlo's ears.
Opposite him, Carlo stood on the pitch-black seabed, his skin supported by an inch-thick layer of majestic Haki, pushing out the ten-thousand-meter deep seawater and high pressure, preventing them from advancing an inch.
The training content mainly included exercising the body and Armament Haki, as well as the ability user's resistance to the sea.
After two long years of cultivation.
Now, he could easily stay in this ten-thousand-meter deep sea for more than two hours.
And that was two hours of intense exercise.
Hearing Babel's voice, Carlo didn't speak, but simply beckoned with his hand.
Babel nodded, his massive body swimming backward rapidly. After pulling back a distance of over a hundred meters, his thick right arm began to gather power, and he charged straight at Carlo.
His speed was extremely fast, like a deep-sea torpedo, cutting through the seawater. In an instant, he crossed the hundred-meter distance and rushed in front of Carlo. His huge fist, fully charged and wrapped in pitch-black Haki, punched out at Carlo.
"Fish-Man Karate Secret Technique! Vagabond Drill!!"
"Boom!"
The seawater in front of Carlo exploded violently, and the rampaging power, like a deep-sea current, impacted his entire form.
Facing such a fierce punch, Carlo also clenched his fist and swung it out.
The moment the punch was thrown, his entire skin turned burning red, his heart throbbed, and hot steam rose from his body.
His entire right arm pierced through the seawater, and in the churning current, it actually ignited with a surging fire.
"Kings Fist!"
Two fists of vastly different sizes collided violently in this ten-thousand-meter deep sea.
The seawater within a radius of several hundred meters exploded.
The seabed beneath Carlo's feet cracked, and countless mud and sand churned and surged.
Babel on the opposite side cried out in pain, and his massive body flew backward like a cannonball, flying straight for over a thousand meters before floating weakly in the water with a bitter smile on his face.
"As expected, I lost again. The boss is the boss. Even as an ability user, even in the deep sea, I can't defeat him."
One punch sent Babel flying a thousand meters.
Carlo originally wanted to continue training.
But his ears suddenly twitched, as if he heard some sound. He looked up at the dark deep sea above, kicked his feet, and his body immediately shot upward like an arrow, surfacing toward the sea.
A few dozen seconds later.
Boom!
A spray of water shot up into the sky from the sea surface.
Carlo shot straight out from it. Behind him, one large and two small pairs of golden wings snapped open, and with a gentle flap...
"Boom!"
A turbulent air wave suddenly exploded above the sea surface.
On those golden wings, brilliant blue lightning flashed, stirring the violent airflow and pushing him to instantly soar to several times the speed of sound, splitting the sea below as he flew toward the coast.
On the sea surface below, Babel also surfaced, chasing closely like a speedboat.
Ten-odd seconds later, Carlo easily flew several thousand meters, dove from the air, and landed steadily on the beach in front of the manor.
His body of over eight meters shrank, and the wings on his back retracted into his body.
He returned to his human form of just over three meters.
The moment he returned to human form, the sound of sizzling electricity suddenly rang out in the air.
Then, the air behind his head exploded, and a pitch-black phantom crushed the air wave, smashing down violently, aimed straight at the back of his head.
"Great Majesty! Thunder Bagua!!"
Red light flickered in Carlo's eyes, and the corners of his mouth curled up. Without even looking, he suddenly turned around and threw a punch.
The punch exploded through the atmosphere, rubbing against it to create raging flames, like a meteorite, knocking away the incoming spiked club with a "clang".
The shockwave from the punch, its momentum undiminished, slammed into the charging Kaido's chest.
"Bang!!"
Amidst a bang like a beating drum, Kaido groaned, his burly body flipping backward like a windmill, plowing a several-hundred-meter-long trench in the sand, and finally, he was stuck in the sand headfirst.
With a splash, the sand churned, and Kaido pulled his head out of the sand, spat out the sand in his mouth, and glared at Carlo in embarrassment and anger.
"Bastard Carlo! You knew I was going to sneak attack you?"
"Predicting the future, kid."
Carlo pointed to his eyes.
"You should learn your lesson, Kaido."
"Boss Carlo." Pathesius ran over excitedly, holding a large bath towel and presenting it.
"Mm." Carlo took it and wiped the seawater off his body.
Pathesius respectfully handed over a trimmed cigar and took out a lighter, lighting it.
His movements were so proficient it was heart-wrenching.
Carlo took a puff of the burning cigar and then looked at Kaido, who was walking over.
He spoke in a voice that everyone present could hear:
"How many times have you lost now? Kaido."
Hearing this, the anger on Kaido's face stalled, "Who knows, anyway, it's not more than a thousand..."
Carlo looked at Pathesius.
Pathesius hurriedly whispered: "Captain Kaido, your record of defeats exceeded a thousand matches half a year ago. This is now your 1,357th defeat."
"1,357?? Is there a mistake! How could there be so many! Pathesius! You kid wouldn't be tricking me, would you?!" Kaido went wild, jumping and shouting.
Pathesius gave a bitter smile and didn't answer.
Carlo continued: "Then how much money does he owe me now?"
Pathesius said respectfully: "Calculating at ten million Berries per match, Captain Kaido now owes you, Boss, 13.57 billion Berries."
"13.57 billion???"
Hearing the number from Pathesius's mouth, Kaido was struck like a bolt from the blue. His cow-like eyes widened, and his mouth hung open like a hippopotamus.
But he quickly recovered from his daze and said angrily: "It's impossible to be that much! Didn't I pay you back over a billion Berries earlier?"
Carlo: "That little bit of money isn't even enough for the interest."
Kaido stiffened his neck: "Then what about my salary and commission? You didn't give them to me either, saying they were used to offset the debt..."
Carlo rolled his eyes and said crossly: "You still have the face to mention salary? How many times have you broken my manor every time you challenged me? You come over to freeload food and drink every day, and you eat and drink so much, damn it, that I have to send people to buy grain every day. Are you a glutton?"
Kaido's loud voice instantly weakened, and he said weakly: "You eat way more than I do..."
"That's my money! I'll eat however I want!"
Carlo's voice grew louder.
Kaido, however, became a bit dispirited.
Seeing Kaido cower, Carlo felt refreshed.
"Speak up, why did you come to find me again?"
Kaido squeezed out a wry smile:
"I came to get you to see a beauty. A great beauty came to Hachinosu today. I heard she's the Captain of the Kuja Pirates, which is Gloriosa's former pirate crew.
Everyone on the island says that woman is as beautiful as a monster, able to hook people's souls away. Even Rocks and Newgate couldn't help but run over..."
"Is it Shakky?"
Carlo's expression moved slightly.
Thinking about it for a moment.
It makes sense.
At this point in time, it really is the time when Shakky disbanded the Kuja Pirates and came to Hachinosu to open the Rip-off Bar.
And a few years later, she would become the fuse for that major incident.
Regarding Shakky, Carlo didn't feel much.
Unlike other pirates, who were head over heels for this number one beauty in the world.
In his view, the vast majority of pirates on this sea were damn well sexually repressed.
Who would have thought that one Shakky could make countless people in the world go crazy.
Even heroes like Rocks, Whitebeard, and Roger would be infatuated with her.
It's simply nonsense.
Just a woman, no matter how beautiful, so what?
Just a pink skeleton.
How strong were the mindsets and wills of Rocks and the others? Even if Mount Tai collapsed before them, they probably wouldn't change their expressions.
A mere Shakky could actually disturb their minds.
But for Carlo.
Just a Shakky.
What kind of beauties hadn't he seen in his previous life?
Not to mention Shakky, even if Hancock and Nami came, he could click fast-forward without changing his expression.
However, he had no interest in Shakky.
But as for Roger, he was still very interested.
If he remembered correctly, not long after Shakky arrived at Hachinosu, Roger arrived.
In these two years, he had challenged every powerhouse on Hachinosu Island no less than five times.
It was also because of this that his strength grew by leaps and bounds.
Now, he was already at the Eight-star Peak Great Perfection in comprehensive evaluation, just a bit away from entering the Nine-star top-tier combat power.
[Host: Sorus Karlo, 20 years old]
[Physique: Eight-star — Steel and Iron Bones — 88.888]
[Haki]
[Observation Haki: Nine-star — Future Sight — 91.84]
[Armament Haki: Eight-star — Internal Destruction — 89.205]
[Haoshoku: Eight-star — External Release — 88.12]
[Devil Fruit Power: Awakened — Eight-star 85.782]
[Comprehensive Evaluation: Eight-star Peak Great Perfection]
[Comment: When Imu, Rocks, Harald, Whitebeard, Golden Lion, Garp, Sengoku, Roger, Patrick Redfield, Rayleigh, and others are not around, you are invincible!]