"Be careful — that jitte is almost certainly a Sea-Prism Stone weapon."
Robin wasn't close to the battlefield, but she was still observing the situation in her own way. A mouth had sprouted on Sabo's body, quietly warning him.
In truth, she could have simply reached out and disarmed Smoker, or even taken down both Smoker and Tashigi herself. But if she did that, seeing the Demon King Armament in actual combat would be impossible.
"Sea-Prism Stone?"
"They actually used precious Sea-Prism Stone to make that thing — are the Marines idiots?" Sabo quipped.
Did the Marines have that much Sea-Prism Stone?
Without Inazuma exporting Sea-Prism Stone products, the Marines' internal supply should have been quite scarce. With such limited resources, instead of manufacturing Sea-Prism Stone handcuffs and bullets, they used it to make jitte?
Though, if they made bullets, they'd be consumables.
And Sea-Prism Stone bullets were only really useful for ambushing Logia users. Ironically, three of the five strongest Logia users in the world were Marine Admirals.
"Tashigi, stay focused!" Smoker rolled to retrieve his jitte and moved to Tashigi's side.
"Tashigi doesn't need help!"
Although she said that, Tashigi didn't look angry when she glanced at Smoker. Instead, she chose to stand shoulder to shoulder with him.
"He's no ordinary kid," Smoker said gravely. "We take him down together!"
"Tashigi understands." Tashigi nodded and spread her arms. "Tashigi will restrict his movement. Smoker, you engage him in combat."
After dividing their roles, Tashigi unleashed Awase Habaki once more. This time, the iron bars she produced numbered far more than two — black iron bars slithered like dark serpents, lunging toward that small figure.
"Awase Habaki — Black Mamba!"
Sabo vaulted into the air, dodging one Awase Habaki. But another was already hurtling toward him like a spear, aiming to impale him mid-air!
In mid-air, dodging was nearly impossible. Sabo still couldn't use Moon Walk.
But he didn't need Moon Walk!
Facing the incoming attack, he simply turned his body into a mass of flame, letting the iron bars pass through. Then, like a whirlpool, he reformed his body. Stepping on the Awase Habaki as a foothold, he immediately broke into a sprint, charging toward Tashigi who was using her ability.
"Kid — stop right there!"
How could Smoker let him reach their support?
He stepped through the air several times, using the crisscrossing Awase Habaki Tashigi had released earlier as stepping stones. Like a monkey, he caught up to Sabo and thrust his jitte toward Sabo's chest.
Sabo already knew the jitte contained Sea-Prism Stone — he wouldn't try to tank it with his body. He gripped the water pipe with both hands and deflected Smoker's jitte aside. Then he immediately raised his leg and delivered a flame-wreathed kick straight at Smoker's chest!
Smoker reacted quickly. He twisted his body to avoid the kick, then thrust his left hand directly into the flames around Sabo's right leg and grabbed Sabo's ankle!
His Armament Haki wasn't much to speak of, but grabbing a kid was more than enough!
"What?!" Sabo's expression changed. Before he could counterattack, he felt a tremendous force yanking at his right leg.
Smoker swung him through the air and slammed him into the ground with bone-crushing force!
With enough speed and force, even hitting water could shatter a person's body.
Unfortunately, Smoker forgot — the ground couldn't use Haki.
After being slammed into the ground, Sabo's body was like fire falling into fire. His form instantly burst apart, scattering into a radiating flame vortex.
The blazing inferno ignited the ground beneath him before converging once more, revealing the blond kid in his blue tailcoat.
"Tch — troublesome Logia," Smoker cursed under his breath.
He had almost no experience fighting Logia users. Even though his superiors were among the world's strongest Logia users, sparring with Marine Admirals — even in training — always ended in him being instantly defeated.
This showed just how high the floor was for Logia users. Without this fruit, Smoker and Tashigi wouldn't be so disadvantaged.
The real issue was: who could have imagined Inazuma had another Logia user?
A Raiden Shogun, a Snow Woman, and now a kid. The most ridiculous part was — lightning and flash, ice and snow, magma and flame… Three great elemental powers, huh?
Are you the Marines' Three Admirals, or are we?!
"Firefly!"
Realizing it was difficult to close the distance to Tashigi, Sabo immediately opted for ranged attacks.
Sparkling green flames, like the glow of fireflies, scattered from his hands in a shower of glittering points. On a night like this, it looked almost dreamlike.
But the more beautiful something was, the more dangerous it proved. One moment Tashigi was still mesmerized by the beauty of the fireflies — the next, the moment they made contact with any surface, they exploded!
"BOOM!"
One firefly detonated, and the resulting shockwave immediately destabilized all the others. And so…
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In the blink of an eye, the entire area had become a terrifying bombardment zone!
Seeing this, Smoker immediately wrapped an arm around Tashigi's waist and retreated with her, pulling clear of the blast radius.
"Let go of me, Smoker."
"This isn't good — we should pull back," Smoker said helplessly.
"Tashigi won't flee from a child — how embarrassing!" Tashigi refused to retreat and struggled stubbornly.
By now, Sabo had caught up.
In terms of pure hand-to-hand combat, Sabo was inferior to Smoker — this was evident from how every exchange saw Smoker pushing Sabo back. But aside from a few exceptions, Logia fruits simply didn't play by the rules.
In the New World, plenty of people could pull off Flame-Flame Fruit-style abilities, but those required being a pirate with a bounty in the hundreds of millions. And for most of them, the fire was more for show than substance.
But Sabo could release scorching flames at will and even compress them. The firefly attack just now was exactly that — compressed flame.
Once compressed flame was released, it often generated far more powerful energy.
"You trying to run?"
Smoker continued to retreat, but Sabo gave chase without mercy.
His body transformed into a fire serpent, covering hundreds of meters in an instant to cut off Smoker's escape route.
Smoker held Tashigi with one arm while swinging his jitte with the other.
Although it was blocked by the water pipe, the tremendous force still jolted Sabo's body. The Tashigi he was holding also struck immediately, thrusting a black spear at Sabo.
[
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