Bang!!!
With the sharp crack of a gunshot, the battle began.
The one who fired the first shot was "Gun-Tail Snake" Suleiman Shaon. Grinning viciously, he pulled the trigger of his flintlock pistol. The bullet flew straight forward and struck Perona directly in the forehead.
"Hehehe! Just as I thought—pretty girls are always stupid! On the battlefield you dare stand there so casually in front of your enemy—"
His mocking laughter suddenly stopped.
Right before his eyes, the bullet had clearly pierced through Perona's forehead.
Yet there was no blood.
No shattered skull.
It was as if the bullet had simply passed through thin air.
"Hey! Hey! That bad uncle just attacked me from behind!!"
Perona puffed out her cheeks angrily and waved her small parasol.
Then she floated straight up into the air.
At the same moment, Mafia Victor leapt sharply to the right.
The next instant—
A storm of gunfire rained down over the place where the siblings had been standing.
"A military unit!? No… an ability user?!"
Watching from a distance, Colonel Crone was shocked.
There were only four people on the battlefield, yet the amount of gunfire just unleashed was enough to rival an entire battalion.
"Heh… revealing your Devil Fruit ability so openly. Is that really wise, Mr. Bege?"
Mafia Victor did not stop moving. With each step, the zipper beneath his feet snapped open and closed, propelling him several meters forward at a time.
Using the momentum of the zippers, he dashed across the walls of nearby buildings and rapidly closed the distance toward Suleiman Shaon and Capone Bege.
"Hmph… against a fighter like you, I can't afford to hide my trump cards."
Capone Bege reacted quickly.
"Men! Open fire!!"
He spread open his right palm.
A miniature door suddenly appeared in the center of his palm.
Standing inside the tiny doorway were several miniature men in black suits holding cannons.
The tiny soldiers fired volleys of cannonballs in Mafia Victor's direction.
At that moment, Mafia Victor had already landed atop the fountain statue in the center of town.
The cannonballs exploded against the statue, blasting it into rubble.
Yet none of them touched him.
It was as though he could see the future.
Without even looking directly at the attacks, he effortlessly dodged every shot.
Just as he leapt into the air to evade another cannonball—
BOOM!
The ground beneath him suddenly exploded.
A massive mouth burst from underground and snapped upward toward Mafia Victor.
It was Suleiman Shaon, transformed into a gigantic snake.
Caught mid-air with little room to maneuver, Mafia Victor could only twist his body aside to narrowly avoid the snake's venomous bite.
But Suleiman's massive snake body twisted and coiled around him.
The enormous green-scaled serpent wrapped around Mafia Victor three full times, suspending him in the air.
"Hehehe! Victor boy, try my special service!"
The snake tightened its coils.
Even a body made of iron would be crushed into scrap under such pressure.
Perona gasped in alarm and immediately started descending from the sky to rescue him—
But then she realized something strange.
Inside the coils of the giant snake…
There was nothing.
Mafia Victor had unzipped his own body into two sections and slipped through the narrow gap beneath the snake's coils.
The two halves quickly zipped back together.
But before he could fully restore his body—
A bullet shot directly toward his right eye.
Suleiman's snake tail had transformed into a rapid-fire rifle.
He had specifically chosen the moment when Mafia Victor's legs had not yet fully zipped back together, leaving him unable to move.
A perfect stationary target.
But Mafia Victor reacted instantly.
The end of his left sleeve suddenly separated and extended outward, forming a blade made of zipper teeth.
He grabbed the chain blade with his left hand and slashed backward.
CLANG!
The bullet shattered instantly.
As the chain blade swung through the air, it suddenly transformed into a flexible whip and lashed violently across the giant snake's belly.
"AAAAH!! You little bastard!!"
"Gun-Tail Snake" Suleiman screamed and rolled across the ground.
That strike had been devastating.
The chain blade's destructive force had ripped apart the soft armor hidden beneath his scales and injured his internal organs.
"Suleiman, move—"
Capone Bege paused briefly.
"…Ah, never mind. Just fire!"
The gunfire from Bege's army immediately covered the entire area where Mafia Victor and Suleiman were fighting.
"AAAAAH!! Bege, you bastard!!"
When the smoke cleared, a massive crater remained in the ground.
Suleiman had clearly burrowed underground to escape the indiscriminate bombardment from his own ally.
But Mafia Victor had vanished as well.
"Boss! To your right!"
A voice whispered near Bege's right ear—one only he could hear.
Bege instantly turned his head and raised both hands.
A torrent of cannon fire blasted toward the right side.
The already damaged Black Axe Bar collapsed completely under the bombardment.
But Mafia Victor was faster.
He had already predicted the attack.
Landing in the sparsest point of the barrage, he dodged the explosions and suddenly burst forward toward Capone Bege.
With every step he took, tiny golden sparks scattered beneath his feet.
It was the technique—
Metal Zipper – Spark Pilgrimage.
"Tch! Damn brat…"
"Cavalry unit—charge! Rifle squad—open fire!"
Capone Bege's legs suddenly transformed into tank treads, allowing him to retreat rapidly.
His speed was almost equal to Mafia Victor's.
At the same time, four cavalry squads—each composed of ten miniature soldiers—leapt out from his body and rushed toward Mafia Victor from both sides.
Meanwhile, a drawbridge-like opening appeared across Bege's chest.
Inside it, twenty riflemen knelt and fired a coordinated volley at the approaching Mafia Victor.
But that wasn't all.
A massive shadow suddenly appeared at Victor's side.
Suleiman Shaon burst out of the ground again in his giant snake form, sliding rapidly toward Mafia Victor with jaws wide open.
The cavalry had already arrived as well.
Several gleaming blades were about to strike Mafia Victor.
A perfect encirclement.
"You bad guys!!"
"Mini Ghost – Firefly Brigade!!"
Perona's clear voice rang out.
Hundreds of small white ghosts with strange faces suddenly swarmed down from the sky like a cloud of insects.
The cavalry units were the first victims.
Each ghost exploded the moment it touched a target—like a tiny air bomb.
Within seconds, the forty-man cavalry force was nearly wiped out.
It was Perona.
She had spent time in the air creating hundreds of mini ghosts.
These ghost-like spheres did not yet possess the depressing abilities of her future Negative Ghosts.
But they were extremely easy to produce in large numbers.
When they collided with objects, they exploded like compressed air bombs.
Individually their power wasn't great.
But their numbers were overwhelming.
Suleiman shrieked and shifted into a half-snake hybrid form covered in scales.
Using slippery movements, he barely avoided several exploding ghosts.
At that moment—
Mafia Victor suddenly swung his hand.
A zipper shot forward and locked tightly around Suleiman's neck, dragging him violently toward Victor.
BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!
More than a hundred rifle shots had been meant for Mafia Victor.
Instead—
They all struck Suleiman Shaon.
He screamed once before reverting to human form and collapsing unconscious.
Mafia Victor grabbed Suleiman by his green ponytail.
Then, like throwing a shot put, he spun him around twice and hurled him directly toward Capone Bege.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
Bege had no time to react.
The flying body of Suleiman slammed into him and knocked him flat onto the ground.
Meanwhile, Mafia Victor had already closed the distance.
And high in the sky—
Perona had begun creating a second wave of mini ghosts.
The battlefield had completely reversed.
The offense had changed hands.