26 Chapter 25

The bullets flew from my left and right. The close-ranged-weapon-holding marines all charged at the pirates, who similarly dashed in a similar manner. The noises of metals clanging, the war cries, and the terrifying sounds of the weapons tearing through a human flesh—dominated the beach.

CLANG!

And in the above at the sky, Rear Admiral Stainless clashed his katana sword against Bruiser, who held a much thicker-looking razor blade. At some distance away, Kuzan was facing Vane, generating various ice-made structures, only for Vane to break them over and over with his brute strength alone. On the other hand, Gion, who was standing next to me until now, charged at the enemies with a sword in her hand. And upon her slashing it once,

BOOM!

a huge gale was formed, blasting few pirates back. Unfortunately, her sword broke again... with that single strike alone.

And back to where I stood now, I took a deep breath out, causing the white smoke to be exhaled from my mouth. Simultaneously, with my hands in my pocket, my body slowly began to wither away into the wisps of white smoke.

At the next moment, my body entirely disappeared in an instant.

'White Out.'

Immediately after, the huge volume of smoke suddenly stormed into the middle of the battlefield, rendering multiple pirates confused.

"Cough, cough, what's with this sudden smoke?!" One pirate shouted in confusion, before he was struck down by a marine soldier's sword.

And in this state, upon my will, numerous smoke-hands suddenly emerged from the smoke that clouded the whole battlefields, which shot out at multiple pirates, all at once, before gripping onto their bodies.

"Don't panic!!" One marine soldier shouted, "This is the ability of Ensign Smoker!! Use this as an opportunity to strike the enemies down!!"

"""RAAAAAA!!!!!""" The marines, with their morale having gone up, roared as they launched their attacks at the immobile pirates.

Now, quickly reforming my body next to a marine who had a bullet travelling at his head, I casually stopped the flying bullet by pinching it, before flicking it back at the owner. Next, I vanished into another location with the use of Soru, before breaking a sword from decapitating another marine with a kick, rendering the pirate with the now-broken sword in his hands, dumbfounded.

"T-thank you, Ensign Smoker!"

I replied plainly while punching the face of the pirate, "Now's not the time to thank me. Focus on the enemies."

Turning my head around, I inspected Gion from some distance away, who was facing a man with a peculiar-looking katana blade; he seemingly stood out from this bunch of pirates, with a red bandanna on his head and sunglasses on his eyes.

"I am Rendall, the 4th strongest of the Goldtooth pirates," Rendall's eyes gleamed lustfully, as he held his blade with two-hands, "Soon enough, you'll scream this name as I attack you with another sword of mine..."

"That sword," Gion, who wasn't bothered by Rendall's words, pointed her finger at his sword, "Without a doubt, it has to be one of the 21 Great Grade Blades—Konpira. How do you have that?"

Rendall seemed irked by her demeanour, but replied with a smirk, "Oh, so that's this sword's name, eh? Didn't even know until now."

"...You don't deserve that sword." Gion frowned in disdain, but her eyes gleamed in excitement, "But I do."

BOOM!

Then, Gion dashed and slashed one of her two blades at Rendall, who raised his sword—Konpira—up to block Gion's attack. Naturally, Gion's sword broke, and she quickly threw it away, but to Rendall's shock, he found himself kneeling due to her sheer strength.

'Well, it seems that she should be fine,' I thought before an axe suddenly phased through me, causing my chest to disperse into puffs of smoke, before reforming quickly. Turning around, I was met with the sight of a terrified pirate, who stood with his hand outstretched.

'Tobu Shigan.' Upon a flick of my finger, said pirate was knocked back with his eyes whitened out from the impact on his chest.

Just then,

BOOOOOOM!

A huge explosion suddenly occurred some distance away. Following after was the grey, mushroom-shaped smoke that rose from the impact, and narrowing my eyes, I cleared up the smoke by snapping my fingers, only to see the blue-haired teen staring at me with many marine soldiers fallen around him.

And I instinctively knew, that he was strong.

"Heya! I'm Avery, a 14-year-old guy! You seem to be around the same age as me, and I can tell that you are pretty strong," The boy, whose name was now revealed to me as Avery, smiiled jovially, "so... you wanna play with me?"

Immediately after, his form vanished, before appearing right in front of me.

"HA!" / 'Kami-E!'

Bending my torso sideway, I dodged a straight from Avery. Then,

BOOOOOOM!

another explosion suddenly occurred... from Avery's very own arm that was outstretched right next to me.

'...I see,' From within the smoke, I thought calmly, with my body being reformed from the dispersed smoke, 'It wasn't any sort of weapon. This self-proclaimed "Avery," is the user of Bomb Bomb fruit, one that belonged to Mr.5 of Baroque Works in the canon. Coupled with the physical prowess that he performed just now, he is quite a force to be reckoned with.'

But thankfully, there is good news—that the ability to 'detonate' any part of his body is mainly oriented toward the physical force rather than the secondary characteristics such as heat. Although the high enough 'pressure' can damage me as well, as long as I don't allow him to contact me directly, the advantage should be on my side.

"Oh, wow!" Avery, who watched me being reformed from smoke with wide eyes, exclaimed excitedly, "So you too have a superpower just like me! LAHAHA, this is going to be even better!!"

Without bothering to respond to him, I acted,

'Soru.'

SWOOSH! Dashing at a rapid speed just when Avery vanished from his spot, we reappeared in front of one another at the same time.

I smashed my fist on his chest just as he landed a kick on my side. I glared at him, who stared back at me with craziness in his eyes.

"I knew it...! You can keep up with my speed—"

"White Blow."

BOOOM!

Then, before Avery could detonate his body, I sent him blasting back with the sudden explosion of the huge volume of smoke from my fist—which completely differed from the canon Smoker's version of 'White Blow' that consisted of elongating his arm.

But... something fell off. Instead of a usual human flesh, I felt as if punching against an iron wall—

SWOOSH! Avery then reappeared in my sight with his face expressing joy. His top was ripped from my attack, however, there was no wound at all.

Lifting my right arm up, I let Avery's punch slip by. Then, using Kami-E, I bent down to dodge his overhead kick, before standing back up and side-stepping to evade his other hand, which tried to grab onto me.

And there, my eyes widened; Avery's hands—they were black in colour.

'Armament Haki...!'

"LET'S HAVE SOME MORE FUN, LAHAHAHA!!!" Avery laughed crazily, just as the back of his elbow suddenly made a miniature explosion, propelling his fist toward me from a strange angle,

Tap. And his fist directly touched my abdomen.

'Tekkai—'

"Hectopascal Punch!!!!"

BOOOOOOM!

My vision blurred, with me being flown all the way to the metal wall of the G-2, away from where the battle was ongoing. Before the collision, I regained my bearing and dispersed myself into the smoke to stop the propulsion, and reformed my body such that my feet were on the vertical plane of the metal wall.

'Soru—!'

Immediately after, Avery appeared right at the metal wall where I was standing until a millisecond ago, and punched his fist forth,

BOOOOOM!

that exploded and landed a huge dent in the metal wall.

"LAHAHAHAHA!!!!!" Turning around, Avery launched at me like a mad bull while laughing like a madman, "I can't believe it, you're still alive!!!"

BOOOOOM! Side-stepping to let Avery's fist collide the ground this time around, I thought,

'Thankfully, he doesn't seem to have Observation Haki. If he did, I would've gotten hit a couple of times already. Also, his Armament Haki is amateur-ish at best; I've been hit by the ones much stronger before.'

BOOOOOM! Getting used to Avery's simplistic attack patterns now, I believed that I've now found a way.

'Armament Haki, along with his inherently tough skin. Simple attacks won't work, but the hard blows will do.'

BOOOOOM!

Now, landing at some distance away from Avery as he punched an empty terrain yet again, I raised my right hand up such that its palm was facing up.

Swoo...

Then, the wisps of smoke around my body swirled onto my palm, forming a swirling ball that had the size of a watermelon.

"Ohh!!" Avery, sighting my technique, momentarily ceased his attack and looked at it with an interest, "So you're finally going attack!!"

'The mechanical "swirl" allows me to condense a huge volume of smoke into this ball. High density, and most importantly, high pressure such that upon my release, it will explode.'

Crouching his legs down, Avery then blasted himself at me.

"LAHAHAHA—"

"White Blast."

BOOOOM!

Upon my call, the dense ball of white smoke exploded toward the approaching Avery at high pressure, and pushed the latter back all the way to the metal wall. But that wasn't the end.

'Transmutation: Black.'

The trail of white smoke that lied all the way from my hand to Avery who was stuck in the wall, suddenly shifted into pitch black colour in an abrupt manner.

'And this black smoke consists of inflammable colloids, such that its exposure to oxygen is suitable enough... for the spontaneous combustion reaction.'

Whoosh!

Fire. It was the blazing red fire that now surrounded Avery, daring to consume him ruthlessly.

"La... hahaha," However, my opponent seemed to be far from over, grinning before he was completely engulfed by the fire, disappearing from my sight. Then,

BOOOOOOM!

another explosion detonated from his body, dispersing the fire away in an instant.

"You're really really strong... and now, you really got me fired up." Avery stood up from within the smoke, with burns all over his body and a bruise on his abdomen, before wiping the trail of blood on his mouth. Then, his fists coloured black—indicating the use of Armament Haki—yet again.

"Lahaha, I feel calmer now, for some reason."

"Was smoke therapy for your liking? Then I'm sorry to disappoint you, for the next one's going to hurt."

I grinned, just as the two of us began to walk toward each other.

'I am a human, but at the same time, smoke. I can manage outward appearance, but at the same time, adapt the characteristics of smoke, including... light-weight.'

As I breathed out, the white smoke was exhaled rather than the usual air. My body felt notably lighter than before, and I was confident now, that based on what Avery showed me so far,

'He will no longer be able to match my speed.'

SWOOSH!

Then, the both of us vanished into the thin air, before reappearing in the middle, with my fist slammed onto Avery's cheek.

"White Blow—!"

BOOOM!