"Little raccoon, you've lost. Your clones were decent, but your real body isn't so great."
Mizerka's tsunami wasn't just a simple indiscriminate attack. At the very least, she used the water currents to help Solitaire get close to Pato, who, after all, was a genuine Devil Fruit user.
As a Devil Fruit user, being soaked extensively in seawater had already drained his strength, and those clones naturally turned back into ordinary leaves, scattering across the arena.
Ordinary people didn't lose their strength like Devil Fruit users did, but they still choked quite a bit.
"Mizerka, Solitaire, get out of the way, something big's coming!"
"Hold on a second!"
Seeing the electric sparks flickering on Speed's hands, Mizerka and Solitaire instantly tensed up. After the mini tsunami, the entire field was covered in water. If Speed discharged electricity now, it'd be an indiscriminate attack.
Jumping off the arena would mean forfeiting, so the two of them had no choice but to leap high into the air. The very moment they did, dazzling lightning flashed and filled the entire arena.
When the lightning disappeared, no one else was left standing in the arena. The Beasts Pirates trio had successfully won.
But for a person to surpass the speed of lightning was still extremely difficult; at least, not something they could do yet.
Mizerka's and Solitaire's hair alone showed that they hadn't completely dodged the lightning. They'd been hit by it, at least a little.
"Speed! You totally did that on purpose!"
"What? No way! I just wanted to make use of Mizerka's ability. The water will dry up in a bit anyway."
"Cut the crap! Let's fight it out right now! We've still got one extra among us anyway. Someone's got to leave the arena!"
Under Gatz's bewildered gaze, battle broke out again in F Block. This was the first and only time that a team who had already secured victory started fighting each other afterward.
Unlike Marco or Katakuri, they didn't directly decide who would step down; rather they just chose the most straightforward method: another fight.
Mizerka tried to persuade them, but it was useless. With no opponents left to fight, she too was eventually dragged in.
"Uh... as we can see, the Beasts Pirates' approach is quite unique. Perhaps it's this very brutality that makes them stronger. F Block winners: Speed and Mizerka!"
During the battle, Speed's Zebstrika and Mizerka's Simipour both relied heavily on their elemental abilities. Solitaire's Ambipom, on the other hand, was somewhat restricted. In a one-on-one fight, Mizerka wouldn't have been able to beat Solitaire.
The fact that Solitaire's number was ranked higher was proof enough of that. But by using Speed's lightning, Mizerka managed to make Solitaire withdraw early on.
"Boss Red, I lost."
Walking down from the arena, Pato looked crestfallen, but Redfield merely brushed the fur on his body.
"It's fine, Pato. Just watch from the sidelines.
You're still young, losing is inevitable."
Pato's name had been given by Redfield, and it had been derived from Redfield's own name. One could say Redfield had passed his name on to Pato.
In his heart, Redfield already saw Pato as his own child. A small defeat like this meant nothing at all.
Meanwhile, in the spectating area of the contestants who had advanced, Buggy wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Although the area was meant for those who'd moved on to the next round, the others had their own reasons for not staying here.
Only Buggy remained. The reason was simple: it was easier for him to show off here.
"Captain Buggy, another two strong opponents, huh? Looks like you'll have another chance to shine!"
"Heh heh... yeah, it's going to be an exciting final! I'm going to rest for a bit to conserve my strength. Don't disturb me!"
After shooing away his underlings, Buggy sank into his worries once more.
While Buggy was worrying, the dark side of Dressrosa was beginning to gradually reveal itself. The underground area of the Corrida Colosseum, in the treatment room for the defeated, those who were injured in battle and had no powerful backing, were all gathered here.
"Next!"
A shout came from inside the treatment room. A wounded person, led by a soldier, walked into the room and lay down on a bed. But what awaited him wasn't a doctor's treatment. It was a hidden trapdoor.
With a startled cry, the injured man fell straight down into the underground.
Mountains of broken toys were piled up below, and in the shadows, the faint figures of other people could be seen.
"Ah, another newcomer. Looks like another loser, huh?"
Destruction Cannon Ideo sat atop a mound of toys, watching the newly arrived unlucky soul with mild interest.
Blue Gilly, King Elizabello II, Dagama, Bartolomeo, Jeet and Abdullah, the Funk Brothers, Orlumbus. Whether they were commander of a kingdom or bounty hunters, criminals or kings, as long as they didn't hold a title like Shichibukai or Emperor of the Sea, whom Doflamingo didn't wish to provoke, they had all been gathered here.
"Stop being noisy! We've been played by Doflamingo! This whole thing was a setup from the start! Your Majesty, this is an act of war…war against our kingdom!"
Dagama looked unhappily at King Elizabello II. Though Elizabello also hated what had happened, there was nothing he could do.
"Even my King Punch can't break these walls... it seems we're out of options."
Looking at the iron bars and towering walls around them, King Elizabello II smiled bitterly.
There wasn't even a single guard present. When he realized something was wrong, he had tried blasting through the walls to escape, but it hadn't worked at all.
"Isn't that obvious? We're underground, who knows how many meters below the surface? These so-called walls are probably part of the island itself. Do you have the ability to shatter an entire island with one punch?"
Blue Gilly found nothing strange about the situation. Shattering an island with one blow; such a thing wasn't humanly possible. Elizabello II's King Punch was indeed ridiculously powerful, but not to that degree.
"These iron bars might even contain Seastone... but what exactly is Doflamingo planning? To offend so many people at once, doesn't he fear we'll all rise up against him?"
"Behehehehe, you don't need to worry about that. Doffy naturally has a plan. And besides, even if you all joined forces, you wouldn't stand a chance against our Donquixote Family."
While they were discussing Doflamingo's intentions, Trebol arrived with Sugar by his side.
"No need to worry. No one will remember you. Soon, the world will forget you entirely."
Trebol's body oozed with sticky mucus as he grabbed one of the prisoners and dragged him out. The others suddenly felt as though they had forgotten something, but in Sugar's hands, a new toy had appeared.
In the underworld below, Sugar was using the power of the Hobby-Hobby Fruit to turn the captured people into toys one by one. There were too many contestants; if too many accumulated, handling them would be troublesome. That's why Trebol always accompanied Sugar to deal with them little by little.
And throughout this entire process, no one above cared about what became of the losers. They were all far more interested in the upcoming matches.
"Ladies and gentlemen! The arena has been repaired! Up next is G Block's match, this is already the second-to-last round of the preliminaries! I'm sure it'll be every bit as exciting as the earlier ones!"
"There's one contestant to watch out for, Suleiman the Beheader!
He once achieved great merit in the "Sea Battle of Dias", only to be exiled as a war criminal by the very nation he loved.
We don't know exactly what happened, but after leaving his homeland, this Class A-l war criminal began to move within the shadows of the underworld, eventually becoming a feared executioner who takes pleasure in 'executing' his enemies."
"Gladiator Ricky! Although today's gladiators haven't performed particularly well, with only Rebecca advancing using a special way, there's no denying that Ricky is also a powerful gladiator!"
Ricky was also an alias. Many contestants in this tournament were using fake names, and beneath Ricky's mask was none other than King Riku - Riku Doldo III himself.
He too wanted to take revenge against Doflamingo, but there was no path forward for him. In the end, he came here. In a sense, his intentions were the same as Rebecca's.
"All right, now for the main event! The guests from Beasts Pirates aren't limited to the three young ladies from before. Compared to them, these next two are even more formidable!"
"As you all know, within the Beasts Pirates, those with single-digit Numbers are the real powerful monsters."
"The one who just bathed the arena in lightning, Speed, is the number No. 21! But now, these two are No. 9 and No. 8!"
"Let's see just how much of a shock the sibling duo, Ulti and Page One, will bring us!"
While Gatz was filled with excitement, Page One's face was full of resignation. In the end, he couldn't act separately from his sister. Ulti had dragged him up to the stage with her.
"I'm telling you, Sister, can't you behave normally for once in public?!"
Seeing Ulti starting to act all strangely again, Page One's expression wasn't good. But thanks to his mask, no one could see the helplessness beneath.
"Pay-tan, you've changed. You're getting older and starting to dislike your sister now."
"Don't get the wrong idea. I disliked you before too, I was just embarrassed to say it out loud."
"You liar! You weren't like this when you were little!"
"Well, you weren't like this back then either!"
To them, this was just a playground, and this kind of argument wasn't anything new. In any case, Ulti was almost always the one who came out on top.
In private, Page One usually just went along with her, but in the arena, it felt more like public execution. Page One absolutely didn't want to end up on the newspaper headlines for some ridiculous reason.
At that moment, Page One thought this place was his personal hell, but in the next second, his opinion completely changed.
The fighting fish in the water were once again drawn to the commotion above the water. One of them leapt out, snapping its jaws toward Page One, only to end up as Page One's catch instead.
"The fish here... actually bite the hook on their own?!"
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