Chapter 113: Demon vs Hunter (3)

After a short-lasted darkness, Shanks regained his consciousness and opened his eyes.

'...Did we lose?'

His blurry vision slowly became clear as they focused on a gigantic golem that stood in the middle of Fish Man island. Its humongous fist was descending ferociously, and Shanks lamented,

"Captain Roger... I still have a long way to go."

He fought with all that he had. He thought that he's gotten a lot stronger than before, that he was ready for whatever was about to come to him. However, what happened after?

An utter defeat.

"The island..."

Fish Man island was the hometown of his friends. Just as how his previous captain, Gol D. Roger, and 'Whitebeard' Edward Newgate protected this island up until today, he too wished to give an aid. Therefore, Shanks used all remaining strength in his body to stand back up, but... his body simply didn't respond.

The gigantic golem—Shanks knew that it was Bullet's doing. The moment that descending fist touches the ground, the entire island will be wrecked. Considering how this island houses countless number of individuals, a single punch will be enough to give a rise to a high number of casualties, one that Fish Man race may never be able to recover from.

'If only you were here, captain Roger..."

Shanks could do nothing but watch helplessly. Then, his eyes sighted at the last moment,

'Who is that...?'

One man standing right under the descending fist of a golem, shrouded by a gray smoke. This man, seemingly unafraid of the ferocious fist, held his hand up.

Then, Shanks came to witness a miracle.

__________

One by one, the injured and unconscious Fish Man who were hiding from the behemoths peeked out from their hiding and viewed the approaching fist of a golem in fear.

"Why..." Embedded deep in the rubbles, Arlong roared in rage, "WHY IS IT ALWAYS YOU DAMN HUMANS?!!" Slamming his fist against the rubbles, Arlong glared at the distant golem, "TAKING EVERYTHING AWAY FROM US!!! GO TO HELL, INFERIOR MONKEYS!!!"

"Huff... huff..." With severe injuries and an evident exhaustion, Neptune stood back up thanks to the support of his equally injured sons. He stared hollowly at the golem, and let a dry chuckle, "Is this the end of Fish Man island?"

The sons followed their father's gaze with dark expressions of their own.

"BARORORO!" World laughed maniacally as he repeatedly slammed his gigantic blade against Maynard who was barely surviving through. World purposely targeted the unconscious Fisher Tiger whom Maynard was trying to protect, such that Maynard had no choice but to block his attacks.

CLANG!

"Smoker!!!" Maynard's eyes trembled as they moved back and forth between World who stood right in front of him and Bullet's golem, "E-Everything is fine, right?!! Do something, my man!!!"

In Ryugu Palace above, Otohime watched the scenery with a pale expression.

<Everyone, please give your votes! If we set our minds and accept them first, the co-existence of Fish Man with people above can come true!>

Her statements from the past replayed in her mind as she spectated how the humans were destroying their home.

"SHANKS!!!" Uta screamed in panic, while Shirahoshi covered her eyes up, not wishing to watch the scene any longer.

In this sense, Douglas Bullet truly deserved the moniker of 'Demon Heir.' His act of killing and ruining lives of the others had no motive other than that of selfishness.

'You know, Bullet,' Smoker, watching as the gigantic fist of the golem flew toward hiim, thought, 'I've been questioning your past actions for a while.'

In the canon, Bullet kept himself hidden after a successful escape from the Impel Down. Only when he believed to have a proper plan in achieving his goal did he reveal himself to the world.

'Your acts of destroying towns and kingdoms in "Four Blues" and "Paradise"... it was as if you were asking others to look at you, as if you were trying to divert the attention for someone.'

The smoke surrounding began to swirl into a singular point, in front of Smoker's right hand that had its index finger stretched out as if using 'Shigan'. The smoke particles collided, and upon collision, the generated energy was transformed into heat. The heat, blazing in a form of a sphere, was currently condensed into a form of a dense ball by Smoker, ready to be fired at any moment.

'But I guess that doesn't matter as much. Let's put an end to your unreasonable wrongdoings, shall we?'

Before the golem's gigantic fist, termed 'Ultimate Faust' by Bullet, landed on Smoker and the ground below him, Smoker released his technique,

'Arcane Shot.'

The dense ball of energy, resembling a miniature sun, blasted forth in a form of a laser at a blink of an eye. There was a blinding light that caused everyone to shield their eyes upon the collision of it to the golem's fist, and when the light faded,

BOOM.

the golem's fist was found detached from it and crashed on the ground, having been melted and formless.

Tssss...

The smoke was generated from the quickly solidifying pile of metal. Similarly, the remainder of golem's arm was emitting smoke generated by the sheer heat. Smoker, raising his hand up, clenched it into a fist.

Swoo...

The levitating smoke mystically changed its direction and entered the gaps of the gigantic golem. Noticing this phenomenon, Bullet, with a deep frown, began reconstituting the golem's damaged arm while readying another punch with its fine arm. And then,

"Arcane Storm."

BOOOOOM!

The entire golem exploded from the inside as the ferocious swirl of gray smoke ground its way out from the inside. The storm continued expanding as the broken parts of the golem swirled along in a disastrous manner. In the eye of the storm, the core of the golem where Bullet is situated was revealed, to which Smoker's eyes gleamed upon noticing.

SWOOSH!

"WHITE HUNTER!!!" Bullet roared as he collected the flying metals amidst the storm and quickly assembled a much smaller robot that encased him. However, his attempt was of no use as Smoker was found right in front of his robot with his glowing palm in contact with the mid-section of it. Bullet's eyes widened, and then Smoker launched his attack.

'Arcane Impact.'

There was a force unlike any other, one that completely shattered Bullet's robot-like object and reached all the way to Bullet himself. Bullet quickly reduced the magnitude of the impact through the shielding of his body via Armament Haki: Emission and prevented a critical injury to the body, but the force was enough to blast him out of the storm to the ground.

BOOM!

The smoke storm vanished in an instant with the metal parts reduced into sprinkles of dust that glittered as they fell from the sky. Smoker, who stopped the operation of 'Arcane Drive,' slowly flew down from the sky to where Bullet crashed, unscathed.

Upon landing, Smoker found that Bullet, who already recovered from the attack, was flying at him. Bullet, with a roar, encased his fist with Armament Haki: Emission and swung it at Smoker, who side-stepped and placed his palm over the side of Bullet's outstretched arm.

BOOOM! There was a potent impact generated from the combustion of black smoke that knocked Bullet's arm to the side and caused said arm to bleed. Ignoring the pain, Bullet turned around and attempted an elbow smash, which Smoker evaded by leaning back, before counter-attacking by placing his hands on the ground and placing the tip of his shoe on Bullet's chin.

BOOOM! Bullet coughed blood as the rigorous blast of black smoke penetrated his skin and dealt an internal blow. A few of his teeth flew out, but setting his bloodthirsty eyes on Smoker still, Bullet attempted to grab Smoker's outstretched leg, which failed as said leg simply dispersed into white smoke.

"RAAAA!!"

Bullet, with gritted teeth, landed back with a stomp and caused the ground to break. The terrain that Smoker stood on top of suddenly sank, causing Smoker to jump up to avoid losing his balance. Seizing this chance, Bullet assembled the pile of flying specks of dirt over his Haki-imbued fist and created a gauntlet in an instant, before launching himself at the airborne Smoker. Not afraid to face it head-on, Smoker countered Bullet's attack with his own Haki-imbued fist,

BOOOOM!

there was a shockwave along with the intense black lightning and Bullet's gauntlet immediately shattered into pieces, before Smoker intentionally loosened the strength behind his arm and let Bullet slide past him. Revolving his body around, Smoker then attempted to slam his heel at Bullet's cheek, which Bullet blocked with his huge palm.

BOOOM!

Then, a combustion of black smoke came forth once more, blasting Bullet to the unstable ground below.

"Huff... huff..."

With his nose bleeding freely and his eyes bloodshot, Bullet stood back up, breathing heavily. Engulfed by the intensity of the battle, he relentlessly charged at Smoker again and punched—

Tap.

"...How?"

Bullet gazed in disbelief, at his fist that was blocked by Smoker's palm without any damage.

"..."

Without any response, Smoker pulled Bullet's fist, causing Bullet's body to stumble forward, and,

BOOOM!

slammed his other fist right onto Bullet's exposed face, causing the spillage of blood. Bullet wobbled a few steps back, trying not to fall down. Smoker, casually shaking his wrist and walking up to the wobbly Bullet, punched him in the face again,

BOOOM!

Bullet, unable to withstand this time around, fell to his knees. With his vision hazy and his visage bloody, he weakly stared at Smoker who stood in front of him, impassively.

BOOOM!

Then, Smoker sent a powerful side-way kick that landed on Bullet's cheek, which sent Bullet's head crashing into the ground. Without stopping, Smoker then slammed the same foot down toward Bullet's neck, to which Bullet managed to respond by crossing his arms together at the last moment.

BOOOM!

An explosion of black smoke came, and Bullet's arm sprayed blood before falling to the sides without any strength. Pulling his head out of the ground, Bullet willed his legs to stand up even under the immense stress, and laughed.

"KAHAHAHA!!! Huff... huff..."

Smoker didn't respond, but Bullet didn't seem to mind. Bullet tried to raise his hands up, but they didn't move. Clicking his tongue, Bullet assembled the lying rubbles nearby around his legs and coated them with the little of Haki that remained in him, before launching himself at Smoker again.

BOOOM!

Smoker, with an equally Haki-coated leg, met Bullet's kick with his own. The air exploded from the collision, before an intense shockwave was generated from the combustion of Smoker's black smoke, which blasted Bullet's leg back, broken.

With only his left leg remaining intact, Bullet placed his entire weight on it. With his crazed grin still intact, he bent said leg down, planning to attack Smoker again.

Both of them instinctively knew, that this would be the final clash.

Bullet placed his focus on his left leg, then propelled himself from the ground,

"Det Sterkeste—"

Bullet couldn't continue. With his grin frozen, he slowly lowered his head and saw a big hole om his chest.

"Arcane Shot."

Smoker stated with his index finger stretched out, which had its tip emitting a gray smoke.

Thud. Bullet fell to his knees, unable to continue. He laughed weakly,

"Ka… hahaha… it's your victory… White hunter."