"Heh… heh…"
Bullet slowly wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. His knuckles ground against the wound, smearing fresh crimson across his skin as the grin stretching his lips widened—so wide it looked as though it might tear his face apart.
"Class dismissed?" His voice rasped like sandpaper scraping steel, every syllable boiling over with raw battle lust."Roger is dead… and with him, I lost my only goal."
Bones cracked audibly as he straightened, his massive frame rising like a mountain pushed upright by sheer will.
Corded muscles rippled beneath his skin, gleaming with a metallic sheen under the sun. Armament Haki flowed across his body like a living thing—first as fine, blackened patterns, then swelling and converging into surging tides.
"But—!!" Bullet suddenly roared, slamming his right fist into the ground.
BOOOOM!!
From the point of impact, pitch-black Armament Haki erupted outward like a tsunami.
The earth disintegrated on contact. Stones were crushed into powder before they could even scatter.That pure, overflowing torrent of Armament Haki distorted the light itself—warship wreckage in the distance twisted and warped as if kneaded by invisible hands.
[Demon Form]
By pushing his Armament Haki to its absolute extreme, Bullet amplified both his speed and strength to terrifying levels, his entire body turning jet-black—like a demon clawing its way out of hell itself.
That, too, was one of the reasons he was known as the "Devil's Heir."
"Th-this… is this really something Armament Haki can do?" Lipo stared at the transformed Bullet, her rabbit ears snapping straight up.
"It's like…" Tesoro's pupils trembled as his throat bobbed dryly."…a demon."
"Armament projection and total integration?" Gern murmured. His black hair whipped wildly in the wind as he slowly raised the black blade Bahuang.The high-frequency hum of violent vibration echoed across the battlefield.
Then, in a sudden motion, he reversed his grip and drove Bahuang straight into the ground.
The blade sank deep into the rock—
VMMMM—
A pale shockwave rippled outward from the embedded sword. Wherever it passed, Bullet's overflowing Armament Haki was forced aside, splitting and diverting like waves crashing against a reef.
Amid the humming resonance, Gern released the hilt, leaving Bahuang standing upright in the trembling earth.
"Using vibrations to counter Haki? Interesting," Bullet licked his teeth.
The next instant—
Both figures vanished.
"But choosing to abandon your weapon against me—don't you think that's a little too arrogant? Heaven-Shaking!"
Bullet's fist surged forward, Armament Haki condensing brutally at the knuckles.There were no flashy techniques—only the absolute extremes of power and speed, carrying force enough to obliterate a mountain as it rocketed toward Gern's face.
"Arrogant?" Gern's pupils contracted. The moment his Observation Haki locked onto the trajectory, his body responded on instinct.
He didn't block head-on.
With a half-step sidestep, he twisted his body. His left arm flared with black lightning Haki, elbow raised like a shield, striking precisely at the inside of Bullet's wrist.
"Black Quake — Flow Sever!"
THUD!
The impact rang heavy and dull. Bullet's punch was forcibly deflected, grazing past Gern's ear.
The shockwave alone pulverized all rubble within a hundred meters into dust.
But Gern's counter came even faster.
He planted one hand on the ground and spun, both legs lashing out like whips. His heels, wrapped in high-frequency震波, scythed straight toward Bullet's waist and abdomen!
"Black Quake — Kagura Dance!"
Bullet snarled, refusing to dodge. His abdominal muscles locked down instantly, Armament Haki converging into a steel-like defensive shell.
BOOM!
The kicks landed—but Bullet didn't budge an inch. Instead, he used the force of Gern's strike to launch his own counterattack, his left fist firing like a cannon!
At the brink of impact, Gern kicked off the ground, arms crossing in front of him.
CRASH!
The punch blasted through his guard. His arms went numb as he was hurled backward, boots carving twin trenches into the earth before he barely managed to stop.
He hadn't even stabilized—
Bullet was already on him again, charging like a wild beast. His fists blurred into afterimages, a storm of relentless blows raining down!
Every punch compressed the air violently, spawning countless visible vacuum ripples that overlapped and shattered the ground.
Gern's figure flickered within the storm.
His unique, micro-vibration–level Observation Haki was pushed fully open, allowing him to evade with the smallest possible movements.When he couldn't avoid a strike completely, he severed its momentum with vibration-wrapped punches.
Even so—
There was no denying it. Bullet's growth was terrifying.He was nothing like the man who'd once been humiliated and one-shot while posturing years ago.
"What's wrong? Can you only dodge?!" Bullet laughed wildly, suddenly shifting his stance and firing an uppercut straight toward Gern's chin!
"No," Gern replied calmly, eyes sharpening as something feral ignited within them."If anything… I'm starting to like you more, Bullet."
He stopped holding back.
His right fist ignited with purple-black Haki, vibrating particles collapsing violently at the knuckles as he drove it forward to meet Bullet's punch head-on!
When their fists collided—
A spherical shockwave detonated outward.
The ground within a hundred meters caved in instantly, earth exploding skyward in a towering plume.
Agony tore through Bullet's hand. Fine cracks spidered across his finger bones under the relentless high-frequency vibration.
Gern's right arm, by contrast, merely went numb. He shook it once.
Both men leapt back at the same time—
And the fire in their eyes burned even hotter.
"HAHAHAHA! Now this is more like it!" Bullet laughed, shaking his own numbed hands as Armament Haki surged back over them."You're no worse than Roger, you bastard!"
Gern didn't answer.
Instead, he slowly assumed a strange opening stance.
Left palm pushing forward.Right fist drawn back at his waist.
His presence suddenly compressed inward, all turbulence vanishing—like the dead calm before a cataclysmic storm.
Bullet's pupils shrank. His beast-like instincts screamed danger.
The next moment—
Gern disappeared.
"Quake Step — Flash Shift!"
Almost simultaneously, Bullet's Observation Haki shrieked in warning. He twisted violently, unleashing a whipping roundhouse kick behind him!
BANG!
Gern's knee strike collided with Bullet's leg, the air exploding between them.
But Gern's assault didn't stop.
His right fist shot out like a venomous serpent from an impossible angle, aiming straight for Bullet's throat!
Bullet leaned back in desperation. The punch skimmed his neck, tearing open a thin line of blood.
"RAAAH!!"
He roared, both arms snapping shut like iron clamps around Gern's shoulders, trying to crush him with sheer brute force.
But in that instant—
Gern's body began vibrating at extreme frequency, partially phasing, slipping free of the hold like a fish through water. He reversed his motion and brought a hand blade crashing down toward the back of Bullet's neck!
"Not a chance!!"
Bullet bellowed as Conqueror's Haki exploded outward, forcibly blasting Gern away.
Seizing that sliver of space, Bullet drew his right fist back to its absolute limit.Armament and Conqueror's Haki intertwined, spiraling together as he drove the punch straight into Gern's chest!
There was nowhere to evade.
Gern crossed his arms and took it head-on.
BOOOOOOM!!!
The impact sent him flying hundreds of meters before he finally skidded to a halt.
"SHRK!!"
From the collapsing dust cloud, a pale beam suddenly fired out. Bullet tilted his head just in time—still, a gash opened along his cheek.
"Just as I thought, Bullet."
From within the smoke, Gern rose to his feet, patting the dust from his clothes. A wild, manic grin spread across his face.
"Looks like my 'Calamity' has found another excellent candidate."
Bullet slammed his fists together, muscles swelling like blocks of iron as he laughed madly.
"Oh? Is that so?!"
The sea wind howled across the battlefield, carrying smoke and ash as their Conqueror's Haki clashed once more—
And this time—
The sky split open.