Rakuya could only laugh at Ufole's earnest warning. Was the kid scared silly, or just not thinking straight?
Flowing Cloud, the man who leveled the Holy Land, afraid of Whitebeard?
Turn tail because a single crewman from Whitebeard's fleet showed up?
"Uh…"
Ufole froze, realizing how stupid his reminder sounded the moment Rakuya asked. Flowing Cloud was the one who flipped the world over with one hand and pressed it down with the other. He blew up the World Government. What would he possibly be afraid of?
Whitebeard? At worst, Flowing Cloud and Whitebeard would slug it out for days. Beating Flowing Cloud was harder than climbing to heaven.
Seeing Ufole about to die, Rakuya exchanged for an elixir.
"Here. Take it. You will live."
He flicked his wrist. A walnut-brown pill arced into Ufole's palm.
"L Lord, this is…?"
"You talk too much. It will not kill you." Rakuya's brows drew together, voice brooking no argument.
Ufole flinched at the tone, then gulped it down.
Gulp.
Light flared across his body, crystalline and pure. A gentle radiance wrapped him from head to toe. Before his eyes, the torn flesh began knitting itself together at a speed visible to the naked eye.
"What the… this…!"
Even Momousagi's eyes widened. What kind of medicine drags a dying man back from the brink in a breath and seals his wounds besides?
Feeling life surge through his veins, Ufole trembled with joy. "Thank you for saving me, Lord. Thank you."
Rakuya waved it off. "Ufole, was it Marco the Phoenix who did this to you?"
"Y yes. I have a secret technique for running away. He still ran me down. I barely crawled out alive." Ufole gave a bitter smile. If Flowing Cloud had not come, he would have died here.
"Ufole, hand over the Devil Fruits. Otherwise I will take your head."
A brazen voice slashed through the trees as a gale ripped across the clearing.
A heartbeat later, a high, piercing cry cut the sky, sharp enough to rattle the mind, like a bird shrieking over the sea. The sound spread over the whole island.
Momousagi's face hardened. Ufole blanched.
A great bird wreathed in azure flame wheeled beneath the sun, crying again and again as it circled lower.
"Marco the Phoenix."
Ufole could not stop the tremor of fear. This was the one who nearly killed him. Only his trump card let him slip away. If not for Flowing Cloud, he would already be a corpse.
"A phoenix…"
Momousagi stared upward, dazed.
The flaming bird of legend. A division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates. Marco the Phoenix.
"Ufole. Those fruits are not yours. Touch Pops' property and you die."
The young man's voice boomed from the blue fire as the phoenix stooped, killing intent rolling down like a tidal wave.
"Heh. You want to kill him. Did you get my permission?"
Rakuya tilted his chin, smiling.
"Who do you think you are?"
With a violent snap of its wings, the phoenix dived like a falling star, talons outstretched for Rakuya's throat.
"You have no idea." Rakuya's eyes stayed cool. "Even in front of me, Whitebeard himself would not dare be this loud."
"Big talk. You dare insult Pops. I will kill you too."
"Carry that much killing intent and you always pay a price."
"A price?"
Marco's laugh was cold as those claws flashed down.
"Nine Tails."
Rakuya did not waste another breath. He pulled the summoned beast from his System space and set it down in front of him.
In an instant, the little fox swelled, growing dozens of times over. The cute, cat-sized creature became a towering engine of slaughter, nine tails lashing the sky.
"Master. Your command."
Scarlet chakra roared off the Nine Tailed Fox, a blinding radiance washing the island in bloody light.
"Beat him to death," Rakuya said, voice flat.
"As you wish."
Malice boiled from the Nine Tails, thick and suffocating.
Ufole and Momousagi stood rooted, shock stamped across their faces.
"W what is that?"
"Such a foul aura. What is he?"
"What…"
Even Marco's expression shifted. But to flinch now would be to turn himself into a joke. He drove on, talons descending.
Before him stood a colossus drenched in evil intent, its power dwarfing his by orders of magnitude.
The Nine Tailed Demon Fox's chakra swelled like a storm, spilling across the island and swallowing everything in its path.
"Damn it. What is that thing?" Marco's face went tight. Beneath that miasma he felt a second, even more terrifying force.
The Nine Tails planted its paws and the sea itself heaved. It did not fear seawater. It was no Devil Fruit user. It could sprint across the ocean if it wished.
"Armament Haki."
Black sheen slicked over Marco's talons as he slashed for the fox's face.
"Foolish human."
The Demon Fox swatted once. A chakra-laden paw smashed into the Haki-coated strike. Marco went cartwheeling for dozens of meters, bouncing across the sand before he skidded to a stop. The malignant chakra clung to his skin and burrowed inward.
"You are a Devil Fruit user… Mythical Zoan?" Marco gasped, eyes wide.
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