"Huh, looks like they're not all small fry. There are a few decent ones here after all, Brother Katakuri."
With a single blow, ninety percent of the people in A Block were wiped out, leaving only a few still standing in the arena.
"One….one strike! The two of them have taken out almost all the contestants in a single blow! Looks like this might be the shortest match in Corrida Colosseum's history! So this is the strength of the sons of an Emperor of the Sea?!"
"Only the Fish-Men martial artist, Hack, the army of Elizabello II, and a few others have managed to withstand this attack. It seems the victor of A Block has already been decided!"
"Who would have thought a full-out brawl would end so quickly? But don't worry, there are still plenty of exciting matches to come. Even without counting the final, there are at least seven more today!"
Expanding the five rounds into eight was a rough adjustment made based on the number of contestants.
The colosseum could only hold a limited number of people, each arena could fit about two hundred at most. Any more, and those near the edge would get bitten off by the fighting fish before the match even started.
And there was another issue - connections and politics.
Just by looking at the participant list, Doflamingo could pretty much predict who would advance. Letting those monsters fight each other to wear themselves down was the best way to boost his own people's odds, but he didn't do that.
He could have easily placed members of Big Mom's crew, Whitebeard's crew, and the Beasts Pirates in the same block, which would have exhausted a lot of their strength. But after the whole Quake-Quake Fruit matter, he still had business to conduct.
Who knew which force might hold a grudge and think Doflamingo had done it on purpose? So instead, he split their powerhouses across different arenas, giving them equal chances to advance. If they got taken down in the finals later, they'd have no one to blame but themselves.
He arranged it so that ordinary contestants would be eliminated while the chosen ones could still advance. It looked clean and fair on the surface, but behind it was a web of manipulation. Doflamingo had clearly put a lot of thought into it.
Technically, as the arena champion, Diamante could have gone straight to the finals. But Doflamingo made him participate too, though he was only grouped with some no-name contestants.
"So strong…"
"Far from that. The one who summoned the genie is Charlotte Daifuku, and the one covered in heat is Charlotte Oven, both sons of Big Mom, each with a bounty of 300 million Berries.
They're among Big Mom's stronger children, but not the strongest. The one wearing the scarf is the most troublesome one."
Logically speaking, Luffy had seen much grander battles during the Summit War, but at that time, his sole focus was on rescuing Ace, paying attention only to those directly blocking his path. Those monsters were dealt with by stronger people, and since Luffy's attention wasn't on them, he didn't pay much heed to the battles.
This was the first time he was watching the battles of New World powerhouses up close as a spectator.
Back then, Luffy had seen Yamato fight, but he was far too weak at the time to see anything clearly. Only now has he truly grasped the extent of that power.
With Ace's explanations, Luffy gained a clearer understanding of many things.
In a sense, Rayleigh had really only taught him the basics. When it came to the New World, Luffy was practically clueless. Rayleigh had given him only a general idea, never going into details.
If you compare it, Rayleigh had only read out the name of the book, Law had simply read out the table of contents back on the ship, and his brother Ace was the only one explaining the contents in full.
"But… why do I feel like Hercules kind of looks down on them?"
Luffy looked rather surprised, which was exactly what Ace had expected; after all, Luffy was the type who always overreacted. But Hercules's calmness struck him as strange.
Ace remembered clearly. This beetle had incredibly high intelligence. In fact, in Ace's mind, Hercules was smarter than Luffy. And since it was always by Luffy's side, its composure could only mean one thing. It had seen even greater battles before.
"Hm? Hercules has always been like that, nothing strange about it."
Everyone has their own little secrets, and Hercules was no exception. There was one thing it had never told Luffy: its origin.
Although it had left Wano Country not long after it was born, during its short time there, it had witnessed battles between the officers, and had even seen Kaido and Yamato fighting each other.
Those brutal fights to the death, where neither side could be killed, were far more thrilling than what was happening now.
Oven and Daifuku were just warming up. Just as the more experienced spectators in the stands believed Katakuri would be the eventual winner, Katakuri himself was already analyzing the opponents he would face in the finals. Until then, he had no intention of showing his true strength.
The audience might just be here for the spectacle, but things were completely different in the arena. Even those who hadn't been eliminated by Daifuku and Oven's attacks could feel the immense threat bearing down on them.
"That was close…"
Looking at the burn marks on his left arm, the muscles all over Hack's body were tensed. He had been positioned near the edge of the arena, where the power of Oven's Heat Beating had already weakened considerably by the time it reached him, but even so, it still caused him serious trouble.
On the other side, the number of soldiers from the Prodence Kingdom had sharply decreased. Only Dagama and two guards remained standing in front of King Elizabello II. They had barely managed to withstand the residual power of Oven's Heat Beating, using human shields Dagama had bribed beforehand.
"Your Majesty, are you all right?"
Dagama's tone was anxious. The Prodence Kingdom had great ambition for the Quake-Quake Fruit, and given King Elizabello II's unique ability, Dagama had made extensive preparations before the battle began.
The strategy was simple: bribe other contestants to buy time for Elizabello II, allowing him to charge up his King Punch.
This was the signature technique that allowed the Prodence Kingdom to hold its ground in the New World—the Elizabello family's secret art, the King Punch. The power of that punch was tremendous; on the battlefield, Elizabello II had once destroyed an enemy fortress with a single strike.
But the drawback was that the attack required a long buildup, and after unleashing it, Elizabello II was completely drained, unable to throw a second punch. It could only be used as a decisive, deterrent weapon.
According to Dagama's plan, as long as they could buy enough time for Elizabello II to release his King Punch, victory would be assured. But the reality of the arena was far crueler than he had anticipated.
"Just a little more, just a little more time!"
Elizabello II didn't stop, continuously swinging his fist toward the air. The sweat streaming down his forehead made it clear that he was giving it everything he had.
And at that moment, someone far stranger appeared.
Splash… The sound of running water echoed. At the edge of the arena, Bartolomeo was urinating toward the spectator stands.
Faced with the audience's outraged shouts, he didn't show a trace of shame. Instead, he shook himself off and then pulled out a black ball from his pocket.
"How disgusting! Just looking at your smug faces pisses me off! You're enjoying this show, huh?! Are you?!"
He clenched the black ball tightly in his hand and hurled it toward the audience.
"Go to hell, all of you!"
The threatening words, coupled with the bomb-shaped black ball, sent fear rippling through the stands the instant it hit the ground. Men, women, and toys alike all fled far away.
The narrow seating area immediately became congested with fleeing people. Some tried bribing others to make way; some feigned pity to earn sympathy, but in the face of death, all of it was useless.
No one was willing to yield their spot, and the passageways became even more congested. By the time the black ball landed, the crowd still hadn't dispersed. In the struggle for survival, all sense of decorum vanished, and everyone revealed their ugliest side.
And when they realized it wasn't a bomb at all, just a harmless black ball meant to scare them, their pent-up emotions erupted, and countless random objects flew toward Bartolomeo's direction.
Using his Barrier-Barrier Fruit, Bartolomeo had blocked Oven's wide-range attack and became one of the few remaining survivors.
"Brother Katakuri, I think that rooster-headed guy makes a fair point. These people really are annoying."
"Is that so? You two deal with the others. Leave the rooster-head to me. One more minute, and this match should be over by then."
Katakuri had already foreseen the outcome. If he sent Oven and Daifuku to deal with Bartolomeo, they would only waste time because of the Barrier-Barrier Fruit. Although Bartolomeo himself wasn't particularly strong, his Devil Fruit was an absolute bug.
Its bizarre defensive ability left most people helpless. Oven and Daifuku's attacks weren't enough to break through his barrier. Three forces remained in the arena, perfectly becoming the three brothers' opponents.
"Tropical Fist!"
Flames flared in Oven's eyes as he locked onto Hack as his target. In an instant, he closed the distance between them. Their fists clashed repeatedly, and even with Haki reinforcement, the stench of burnt flesh filled the air.
Even when his punches didn't directly land, the intense heat they carried scorched his opponent, quickly forcing Hack to reveal an opening and sealing his defeat.
Meanwhile, on Elizabello II's side, his King Punch still hadn't finished charging. However, Daifuku's genie had already reached him. Dagama and the last two guards were struck down by the genie one after another.
"No other choice… I'll have to use the weaker one first."
Seeing the genie closing in, Elizabello II had no choice but to end his charge prematurely and swing a punch toward Daifuku.
"Light Edition: King Punch!"
The summoned genie shattered on impact, bursting into a puff of smoke under Elizabello II's strike. But in that very moment, Daifuku leapt high into the air, dodging the King Punch's trajectory.
"So this is that attack, huh… Looks like Morgans exaggerated again."
As one of the rulers of the Underworld, Morgans often attended Charlotte Linlin's tea parties. The Charlotte family knew all too well just how fond that albatross was of overhyping things.
The so-called King Punch was said to be powerful enough to knock down even a Four Emperor, but in reality, it posed no real threat to them. If it were truly such a strategic-level weapon, Prodence Kingdom's territory would have expanded long ago.
Even though this was a weaker version of the punch, it was enough for Daifuku to gauge its power. Though the genie had been destroyed, within the blink of an eye, the cloud of smoke reformed into a new one.
"Genie-uine Rage Hunt!"
The genie swung down its halberd, leaving a massive wound on Elizabello II's body. Even the Light Edition: King Punch left him stiff after release, making him a sitting duck in Daifuku's eyes.
With Daifuku's main body delivering a kick straight to his head, the contestants from the Prodence Kingdom were completely wiped out.
Only Bartolomeo remained, the lone fighter not from the Charlotte family. Yet instead of being afraid as he faced the three brothers, he actually saw it as a golden opportunity.
[Luffy-senpai! You're watching me, right?! Then let me show you what I can do!]
A puddle of drool trickled from the corner of Bartolomeo's mouth, as if he were imagining something very special.
His luck so far had been nothing short of miraculous. Even without a navigator, he'd managed to reach the New World alive thanks to the advice of the granny from his hometown. And with the "bug-like" Barrier-Barrier Fruit, as long as he raised his barrier in time, he was practically invincible.
But his opponent wasn't just anyone, and in Katakuri's eyes, a few seconds was all it took for a decisive strike.
As Katakuri's fist swung toward him, Bartolomeo raised his barrier just like before. But Katakuri seemed to have predicted this. The moment the barrier appeared, his punch suddenly changed trajectory, bending midair and bypassing the barrier completely.
This was Bartolomeo's first time facing a pirate from the top echelon beneath an Emperor of the Sea, and he had no idea how far Katakuri's mastery of Observation Haki went.
Before he could even expand his barrier to the side, Katakuri's fist smashed directly into his head. His body went limp, collapsing onto the arena floor.
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