In the middle of the street, a large group of Navy troops pushed forward, while the remaining subordinates nervously drew their weapons, aiming ahead.
Marika and Tina exchanged glances, one with a gentle smile, the other with a cigarette in her mouth, looking relaxed; quite impressive, about the same size as Marika's.
The two women were one above the other, their gazes locked, as if even the air had frozen at that moment. The smoke from Tina's cigarette rose, slightly obscuring her vision.
In the next instant, the figure inside the window vanished.
Whoosh!
A gust of wind swept in, blowing Tina's pink long hair. She squinted her eyes, shifted her body, and watched as a huge broken stone pillar shot past her side, crashing heavily into the retreating Smoker and Fullbody behind her.
Boom!
The violent impact nearly knocked their eyes out of their sockets, and their bodies followed the pillar, slamming into the Navy reinforcements arriving from behind, with a loud crash.
Tina turned her head to glance at the fallen Navy men, then looked back at Marika, who had already reached the ground, exhaling a puff of smoke, "It seems you won't surrender obediently. Tina is quite frustrated."
"Oh my, how could a pirate surrender obediently to the Navy?"
Marika smiled, walked toward Mute, and grabbed the black circle binding him, "Quite sturdy..."
She gave it a slight tug, then released it, saying, "Mute, can you walk by yourself?"
"Mm!"
Mute nodded heavily.
Although his upper body was bound, his legs were still mobile.
"Take the subordinates and retreat, protect the stolen treasure, or else Sage will be even angrier."
Marika instructed, turning to Tina, "As for this lady, let me handle her."
Tina lifted her sunglasses onto her hair, adjusted her gloves, and stood her ground on the street alongside Marika.
A gust of wind from who-knows-where blew, lifting both her Navy cape and Marika's hair tips.
Swish!
As the wind rose, Tina's figure moved rapidly, appearing before Marika, her arm stretched out to strike down.
"A very straightforward attack."
Marika smiled and raised her hand to strike back. As soon as her arm touched Tina's, Tina's arm suddenly elongated, turned a deep black, coiling around Marika's wrist and extending up her arm.
"Penetrate, will you..."
Tina shifted forward, about to penetrate Marika's body entirely, but at that moment, a foot kicked her torso.
Bam!
Tina flew back and landed quickly, sliding backward on the ground. She bent over, clicked her tongue, and remarked, "Did you dodge? Tina is surprised."
Marika looked at the iron ring encircling her forearm and glanced at the leg position she had kicked from, seeing a similar material tightly binding her calf.
"A strange power, able to penetrate my attacks."
If she hadn't changed her stance quickly, her arm might have folded up.
"Of course,"
Tina said, "I ate the Cage-Cage Fruit, as a Fence Person, anything I penetrate becomes a hard fence. It's only a matter of time before you're securely locked up."
No matter what material, she didn't care, as she could go through anything, turning it into the strongest cage.
"Next time, you won't escape! Soru!"
As a top Navy student and Zephyr's disciple, whether Smoker or herself, mastering a few Six Styles was inevitable.
In the blink of an eye, Tina approached Marika, stretching her arm again to strike forward.
At that moment, her extended arm was grabbed by several soft black objects, which coiled around her limbs and neck.
Hair?!
Marika opened her eyes, which had been smiling all along, revealing a gaze as cold as the moon. "Can these penetrate too?"
Her waterfall-like black hair danced wildly, swiftly extending around them, twisting like snakes, with a few strands tightly binding Tina, furrowing her brows.
"Is this... Life Return?"
Tina was surprised, and before she could react, Marika's gentle voice echoed beside her ear.
"Finger Spear: Snake Thrust."
The hair wildly moving around coiled into spirals at the front and thrust toward Tina's body with immense speed.
Bang!
The highly penetrating hair pierced the ground, creating a hole in the stone slabs of the street. With a clanging sound, the strands binding Tina fell, and several black iron rings slipped smoothly through the hair, falling to the ground.
"Even hair can bind, but it seems it's useless. Looks like soft objects..."
Marika paused, took a deep breath, "Life Return: Constrict."
Her hands and feet, locked by the iron rings, shrank at that moment, allowing the rings to slip off and fall to the ground, before returning to normal.
Looking at Tina, who had slipped out of the hair's binding and fallen to the back, she continued, "You won't completely lock me up."
"Tina is very surprised."
Tina intensely stared at Marika, "Life Return, it's a Secret Technique only learned through meditation and total control over the body. I'm surprised you can use it, and just now... was that Finger Gun?"
"Indeed."
Marika smiled gently, "Because the Captain loves to teach people to train. Though I only like cooking, with the Captain's expectations, I had to master some techniques."
For someone who has mastered Life Return, learning the Six Styles is no big deal.
Even if Marika wasn't very interested, she still learned a few moves, besides Finger Gun...
"Soru."
Marika's figure vanished from her position, appearing before Tina, swinging her arm back and bringing out a Breaking the Sky sound, crashing into Tina's body.
Tina's pupils shrank. Instinctively, she reached out to catch it, but at that moment, strands of hair coiled around Marika's wrist, forming a thick wrist guard made of hair.
"Tekkai Hair Wrist."
A light shone on the hair, solidifying it. As Marika swung, it pierced through Tina's arm and torso, but the massive force exploded forward, pushing Tina away, crashing her into a nearby building.
Boom!!
The tremendous force smashed Tina against the building, creating a hole. The supporting pillars shattered, and the structure collapsed halfway.
"Oh my, even if something can pass through anything, it can't penetrate something much larger than itself."
Marika laughed softly, the hair around her wrist retreating. Due to its size, the black iron ring binding the hair wrist simply slipped down.
She looked toward the collapsed building, smiling, "Do you want to continue fighting, Navy lady?"
Bang!
No sooner had she finished her sentence than a dark long object shot out, piercing through one of Marika's flying hair strands, embedding itself deeply into the building behind.
It was a black iron spear.
A hand extended from the rubble, brushing away the fallen stones. Tina crawled out, dusted off her clothes, pulled out a cigarette box from her pocket, took one out, placed it between her red lips, and lit it with a lighter.
"Tina is very angry."
Blowing out a puff of smoke, her hands opened wide, and from her arms extended black iron staffs, shaped like spears.
The meaning in her eyes was unmistakable.
"Looks like it won't end anytime soon."
Marika smiled, and the hole in her dancing black hair filled in once more.