Bang!
Bang, bang, bang!
A huge crowd of pirates had gathered around the sprawling harbor, watching the battle unfold.
At first, no one had taken it seriously.
A giant?
So what?
He was still just a kid.
And who was his opponent?
A vicious pirate who had already made a name for himself on the seas several years ago—the Bloodsword Maniac.
The man was infamous for torturing his enemies.
After his battles, it was often difficult to say that his opponents had merely died.
Their corpses were usually mangled beyond recognition.
He had one particular quirk: the sight of blood drove him mad.
The crazier he became, the more he wanted to cut people.
The more he cut, the more blood spilled…
Until he completely lost himself.
“HAAAAAAH!”
The Maniac swung his greatsword wildly, practically mauling Loki.
And “mauling” wasn’t just a figure of speech.
The lunatic really did use his teeth in battle.
Their weapons collided for who knew how many times.
This time, however, the Maniac suddenly opened his mouth and lunged for the hand Loki was using to grip his iron club.
His unnaturally sharpened teeth sank into one of Loki’s fingers.
Loki’s eyes went wide.
Even through the bandages covering them, those frightening demonic eyes seemed to burn through the gaps.
“BASTARD!”
Power suddenly surged through Loki’s body.
He seized the Maniac and hurled him away.
Then he raised his hand to inspect it.
A chunk of flesh was missing from his right index finger, leaving the wound dripping with blood.
Seeing it only made him angrier.
“So that’s what giant flesh tastes like?
Doesn’t seem any different from a normal person’s~”
The Maniac climbed back to his feet.
He looked mostly unharmed, except his mouth was covered in blood and he was still chewing.
His eyes glowed red, and his entire face had twisted into something ferocious.
Loki charged him, and the two clashed again.
Anyone watching could tell that Loki had almost no technique whatsoever.
He simply gripped his iron club and swung it around with overwhelming force.
That wasn’t surprising.
Growing up, most of Loki’s “fights” had consisted of leading the beasts of the Underworld into villages and causing destruction.
He had always relied on the monstrous strength he was born with.
Even as a newborn, Loki had survived falling from Elbaph’s Sun World into the Underworld.
During that very first fall, he had even managed to kill one of the beasts living below.
By the age of ten, he had subdued the beasts of the Underworld, and while still a child, he had already been capable of defeating adult giants.
Loki was now around twenty-three or twenty-four years old.
For the exceptionally long-lived giants, he was basically still a child…
“DIE!
DIE!
DIE!
DIE!”
In the blink of an eye, the battle changed dramatically.
At some point, Loki had knocked the Maniac to the ground.
He planted one foot on him, raised his enormous iron club, and brought it down.
Then raised it again.
And brought it down again.
Over and over.
As the crater beneath his foot grew deeper and wider, the harbor gradually fell silent.
Blood seeped through the shattered stones and spread into a pool.
Where had the Maniac gone?
There was nothing left to find.
By the time Loki finally stopped swinging, his opponent had been reduced to a carpet of flesh and blood, practically fused with the ground.
“He actually did it,” someone muttered.
“Looks like he still isn’t satisfied.
See the way he’s glaring at us?” another pirate said with a dismissive laugh.
“Anyone want to avenge the Maniac?” someone called out.
“Don’t be stupid.
Who’d do something like that?
We’re just here to watch!”
At some point, the crowd had become even larger.
Word of the commotion had apparently spread, drawing more and more people toward the harbor.
“What are you all doing?”
“Oh?
You came too?
Get over here and watch!”
A towering man wearing a pair of glasses marked with twin X’s walked over.
Axe symbols decorated both his shirt and trousers, and an enormous battle-axe was strapped across his back.
The moment Shiki saw him, he visibly clicked his tongue and moved a little farther away, clearly unable to stand the man.
Kyo.
The man who would one day be known as Silver Axe.
“Well?
Want to give it a try?” Ochoku egged him on.
“That brat’s been shouting for someone strong to step up!”
“Maybe not,” Shiki mocked.
“What if he goes up there and gets himself killed?
Imagine the entire pirate crew getting flattened by some kid.”
“Shut the hell up, you balding yellow chicken!” Kyo shot back immediately.
“Quit trying to stir shit up!”
“WHAT?!
You bastard!
You got a problem with this incredibly handsome, unbelievably badass, lion-like hairstyle of mine?!”
“No.
I’ve got a problem with you!”
They hadn’t exchanged more than a few sentences before they were already arguing.
Typical pirates.
At that moment, John suddenly lowered his bottle of liquor.
Hm?!
Every nearby gaze immediately snapped toward him.
Even Shiki and Kyo stopped insulting each other for a moment.
“Hey, hey…
no way.”
“You’re serious?
Careful Hua Ye doesn’t kill you.”
“Huh?
What the hell does that mean?
Who’s killing who?”
“I just think this looks fun.” John spread his hands.
Beneath the long violet bangs hanging over his face, a pair of narrow eyes could barely be seen.
He glanced toward Rocks and Hua Ye—or more accurately, only Hua Ye.
“You don’t mind, do you?”
“Do whatever you want,” Hua Ye replied without the slightest change in expression.
“Then don’t blame me for having some fun.”
John grinned, shoved both hands into his pockets, and staggered toward the battlefield like a drunken bum.
Hiss—!
A wave of sharp breaths swept through the crowd.
The pirates who had packed the area so tightly immediately opened a path for him on their own.
They said the shortest distance between two points was a straight line.
John walked straight down the path and soon reached Loki.
“Hm?
You’re next?”
Loki used his club to fling a pirate corpse toward John, his voice thick with provocation.
John stopped walking.
The corpse landed right beside his feet.
He glanced down at it, seemed to recognize something, and raised an eyebrow.
“Oh?
Isn’t this guy one of Ganzui’s men?
That bastard still hasn’t shown up?”
He said it casually, then simply stepped over the corpse and stopped in front of Loki.
Loki looked down at John from above.
He wasn’t stupid.
The moment John stepped forward, Loki had noticed the obvious change in the surrounding pirates.
He studied him more carefully before asking uncertainly, “You’ve been to Elbaph before?
With Rocks?”
“Now, now, don’t worry about little details like that!” John spread his arms, his smile widening.
“I only came out here because I wanted to play with you for a bit.
Relax.
It’s just to kill some boredom.
I won’t kill you.”
“Damn it!
Another bastard looking down on me!”
Loki stopped talking and attacked immediately.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
After bringing his club down several times, however, even Loki began to realize something was wrong.
Why did it feel like he hadn’t hit anything?
When the dust kicked up by the iron club finally cleared, Loki saw John standing right beside it…
No.
The bastard was leaning against the club with his eyes closed, dozing off!
“Aaah…” John yawned and lazily lifted his eyelids.
“Little Loki, did you just do something?”
“BASTARD!”
Loki pulled his club back, leaped high into the air, and brought it crashing down again with the full advantage of his enormous body weight.
The ground practically blossomed beneath the impact!
Many of the watching pirates were secretly stunned by Loki’s strength.
Some even noticed that he seemed stronger than before.
But it still didn’t matter.
Loki couldn’t hit John.
“That idiot John is playing with a kid and he’s still using his Devil Fruit,” Newgate said from the sidelines, having already seen through what was happening.
“Think Loki will figure it out?” Rocks asked with interest.
For no particular reason, his thoughts drifted to the wife and child he had sent back to his homeland.
He didn’t even notice the slight softness that appeared on his otherwise vicious face.
Watching Loki get toyed with by John, Hua Ye frowned faintly.
He didn’t particularly care about the outcome, but there was one thing he didn’t understand.
Why was Loki still holding back?
“Loki…
are you still not going to use your power?”
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