"Tch. Fire again? Seriously?!"
With a flash of Chikara, Victor split the five-meter-wide fireball in half—then instantly sensed danger. He kicked off the air with Geppo, just as jagged stone spikes erupted from the ground where he'd stood.
"HAHAHA! I control flames and earth—the mythical Qilin's power!" Pizarro's voice boomed.
"You wish you were Kaido," Victor sneered internally. "Even if I can't beat him yet, I sure as hell can crush you."
"Hey, asshole! Stop wrecking the environment! Those trees took decades to grow!"
Victor blurred through the air with Soru, appearing beside the Qilin's massive face—
'WHAM!'
A Ryou-infused fist smashed into its jaw. Blood sprayed as the beast tumbled like a ragdoll.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" Pizarro roared, shaking his dazed head. "My Zoan form quintuples my defense! You CAN'T hurt me!"
"You're not a frog in a well—you're a frog in a 'puddle'." Victor raised Chikara. "In this world, there are countless ways to break you."
'ZING!'
The blade hummed as swirling white air pressure coiled around its edge. Then—
'SLASH!'
A crescent of sword energy sheared through the Qilin's thigh, sending an arc of blood flying. The attack continued, carving a gaping trench into the earth behind it.
"GRAAAH!"
Pizarro staggered. Another ability that bypassed his defenses. His confidence wavered.
Victor never touched the ground, nullifying earth-based attacks. Fireballs? Either dodged at hypersonic speed or bisected mid-air—'this was the man who'd split Kaido's Bolo Breath.'
'Slash! Slash! Slash!'
More sword waves tore toward the Qilin. In this form, Pizarro was too slow, too massive to evade. Desperate, he conjured earthen shields—
'CRUNCH!'
They bought milliseconds. Not enough.
The battlefield became a scarred wasteland. Every Qilin movement quaked the earth, every missed defense gouged craters.
"FALL BACK! Their clashes are leveling the area!"
"Is this the power of a Mythical Zoan?! It's nothing like regular Beast forms!"
"His regeneration's insane—wounds stop bleeding instantly!"
"Victor's fighting differently… stronger than ever!"
---
Pizarro realized: Defense alone wouldn't save him.
Gritting his teeth, he reverted to hybrid form—now a three-meter-tall human-Qilin fusion, resembling Kaido's build but with distinct draconic features. Speed regained.
Victor analyzed coldly:
"Mythical Zoans truly are broken. Fire and earth manipulation now—who knows what else later? Kaido had 'multiple' elements. And his defense/regeneration… this guy's a future monster."
"Pizarro's only 24. Give him a few years, and he'd be a catastrophe. No wonder he got locked in Impel Down's Level 6."
"Can't kill him outright, though. Who knows where that fruit would respawn?"
Sheathing Chikara (its current sharpness could accidentally decapitate Pizarro), Victor switched to Ryou-laced fists.
---
"Huh? Victor's fighting something!"
Hina, Rebecca, and Wendy—detouring toward the commotion on their way back to base—froze at the sight.
"So 'this' is why he left! Did he… save Smoker?" Wendy worried.
"SMOKER! Who the hell did this to you?!" Hina roared, spotting his battered form.
"That thing," the blue-haired woman answered for him. "A terrifying pirate."
"Oh. If Victor's handling it, Hina won't interfere."
Then Hina noticed Smoker's position—head resting comfortably against the woman's chest.
A vein throbbed on her forehead.
"Comfy, Smoker? How bad are your injuries, really?"
'PROD!'
"Gh—!" Smoker's face twisted in agony (no Logia intangibility in his state), but he refused to vocalize it.
Rebecca and Wendy muffled giggles, turning back to the battle.
---
Victor was pummeling hybrid Pizarro with Ryou strikes. Even when blocked, the internal destruction made the pirate's arms numb with pain.
The once-lush Sabaody grass? Obliterated. Now a warzone of craters and fissures.
Pizarro's body sagged, eyes glazed. He was getting 'beat into submission'.
The spectators watched, awed. Victor embodied the strength they idolized—'if only he were a pirate, they'd pledge their lives to him.'
"Enough."
With a thunderous shout, Victor drew Chikara once more.
A colossal black sword wave erupted from the blade—a crescent of annihilation that seemed to devour the very air in its path.
Pizarro had no strength left to dodge.
The attack struck his chest first, carving through flesh like parchment, hurling him backward in a grotesque slide. Blood sprayed as the wave split the earth beneath him, leaving a canyon in its wake.
Only the Qilin's freakishly durable bones saved him. The sword energy ground against his sternum, unable to fully bisect him—a weakness Victor had noted earlier. 'This was why he'd chosen the slash to end it.'
Pizarro's body toppled like a felled tree, the residual energy finally releasing him as it soared into the sky.
He lay motionless, eyes rolled back, reverting to human form. A horrific gash stretched across his chest, still pumping crimson.
'Click.'
Sheathing his sword, Victor strode forward. Observation Haki confirmed it—Pizarro was out cold.
Grabbing the pirate by the ankle, Victor began dragging him toward Smoker's group. The unconscious body bounced limply over rubble, leaving a smeared trail.
The crowd parted like the Red Sea as Victor approached. His aura alone forced their gazes downward—none dared meet his eyes.
Reaching Smoker, Victor dropped Pizarro with a 'thud'.
"Smoker. Your attacker has been handled." A pause. "Did you buy your cigarettes? If yes, we leave. If no—go get them now."
"Go to hell."
Smoker's face burned scarlet. He turned his head away, as if physical denial could erase the embarrassment.
The three girls burst into laughter—only the blue-haired beauty looked confused.
"Hina. You're carrying Smoker," Victor said flatly. "I'll handle this trash. Let's move."
Hina's eye twitched. After a glacial stare at the woman still cradling Smoker, she yanked him onto her back, ignoring his hiss of pain (broken ribs and all).
The blue-haired woman bit her lip, hesitation in her eyes.
Just as they turned to leave—
"Mr. Victor! I was just looking for you!"
Ben came sprinting up, panting. His gaze flicked to Pizarro's crumpled form, a calculating gleam flashing behind his smile.
'(Word travels fast. A Level 6-worthy pirate, defeated single-handedly… My standing just rose 'tremendously'.)'
"The Claw Pirates—I've got news."
Victor halted. "Where'd they go?"
"Their last sighting was here on Sabaody. Two years ago." Ben wiped sweat off his brow. "They coated their ship at Grove 40… then vanished into the sea. No traces since."
A grim truth settled between them.
"In Sabaody? That usually means one thing," Victor said coldly.
"Gone. Eaten by the depths." Ben nodded. "Unless… they skipped Fish-Man Island. Hid on some uncharted rock in the New World."
'(But we both know how 'likely' that is.)'
Victor's fist tightened.
Somewhere out there—whether in a watery grave or a forgotten island—the ones who slaughtered his parents awaited.
And he would dig them out, even if it meant draining the ocean itself.