“Boom!”
Alber crossed his wings in front of himself like a massive shield, and the explosive force contained within Bullet’s punch was almost completely blocked by Alber.
The intensity of the burning flames was enough to show that Alber had shifted all of his attributes toward defense at this moment.
The shockwave generated by the impact directly sent many people flying. Even Alber’s feet sank deep into the ground, yet Bullet’s hatred-filled strike still failed to inflict any effective damage on Alber.
“H-He blocked it?! How is that possible?! On the ship, only Captain Roger, Mr. Rayleigh, and Mr. Gaban should be able to take that attack head-on…”
Shanks and Buggy had also arrived by now. Originally, they had been wandering around elsewhere, but after hearing that a newly arrived pirate was challenging people here, they came to watch the excitement. They never expected it to be Bullet.
Seeing Alber take the blow completely unharmed, Buggy found it unbelievable. After all, he knew Bullet’s strength very well. Only when fighting Roger would Bullet suffer crushing defeat.
Most other people were no match for Bullet. Though still young, Bullet was already a genuine monster in Buggy’s eyes, with barely any peers who could rival him.
Rayleigh and Gaban could also fight Bullet, but neither of them had much interest in doing so, while Bullet’s attention was mostly focused on Roger.
As for how much strength Rayleigh and Gaban actually used when fighting Bullet, only they themselves knew.
And this defensive power was the rare racial talent of the Lunarians. Even attacks that could make Kaido feel pain could be forcefully endured by the Lunarians through their natural gifts alone.
Although Alber had not yet reached his peak, the boost granted by Kirin as a Mythical Zoan was far stronger than Ancient Zoan’s Pteranodon.
Moreover, under Nereus, Alber had the time to slowly train and learn.
Unlike the original timeline under Kaido, where, as one of the few reliable people in the Beasts Pirates, he had to handle countless matters and could never truly rest.
Besides, Bullet himself was still in his growth phase and had yet to undergo his enlightenment-like transformation, so for the moment, he still could not break through Alber’s defenses.
“This much strength… are you trying to tickle me? Kirin Flames!”
Flames spread forward along his wings as the phantom of a Kirin formed from fire appeared behind Alber, immediately lunging forward to bite Bullet.
“That’s what I should be saying to you! Are these tiny flames supposed to warm me up?!”
Alber relied on his racial talents, while Bullet was forcibly enduring everything with Haki. Though his defense was more than sufficient, Alber’s Kirin Devil Fruit ability, while capable of interfering with opponents and creating helpers, lacked sufficient single-target damage.
Against an opponent like Bullet, Alber’s slight lack of offensive power became apparent.
And situations like this were not uncommon. Tank-like monsters could be found everywhere on this sea, while fragile assassins were the rare type instead.
When both sides’ attacks were unable to quickly defeat the other, battles of attrition naturally became the mainstream.
Taking advantage of the brief opening while Bullet drew back his fist again, Alber flapped the wings on his back and rose into the air.
He had indeed blocked that punch just now, but the feedback from his body told Alber that if he engaged Bullet in close-quarters combat, he would eventually lose. An extremely terrifying power was hidden within the other man’s body.
Using his Devil Fruit ability to wear down the opponent’s condition was the more reasonable fighting method.
The moment Alber widened the distance, the nightmare monsters swarmed forward and directly submerged Bullet beneath a tide of bodies.
Those monsters shaped like child soldiers fearlessly charged at Bullet. Even when blasted into pieces, they would recover before long.
But what Bullet hated the most was still the nightmare monster commanding them from the rear—Gray.
Bullet and Gray shared the same surname because, back then, Gray had proclaimed that all the child soldiers were his children in order to better exploit them.
And over countless battles, Bullet had gradually gained the title of “National Hero,” with the nation he belonged to even beginning to gain advantages in war.
Because Gray had discovered Bullet’s talent, his military rank continuously rose as well. But as Bullet’s strength increased, Gray realized he could no longer control him, and even began to feel threatened by Bullet.
In the end, Gray betrayed Bullet as well, intending to have him die in the final decisive battle so he alone could claim all the merits.
However, the victor was still Bullet, while Gray and the kingdom Bullet had once served both became history upon the seas.
Having grown up crawling through battlefields, Bullet had seen and used ambush tactics countless times. If someone could not deal with sneak attacks, that only meant they were not strong enough.
“Bullet.”
As the nightmare monsters reassembled once more, Bullet raised a hand toward the arena beneath his feet. A dark purple energy began spreading outward from his palm, absorbing the rocks that made up the arena.
This was Bullet’s Devil Fruit ability – the Paramecia-type • Clank-Clank Fruit.
It was precisely this fruit that had allowed Bullet to survive the danger-filled battlefields, and its ability was very simple: it could fuse inorganic matter that he touched into his body and recombine it.
This fruit was practically born for warfare, displaying enormous advantages on battlefields filled with weapons and military equipment.
At present, Bullet’s fruit had not yet awakened, and in an environment like Fish-Man Island, the things he could fuse with were actually quite limited.
All it did was slightly enlarge his body and cover him in a layer of rocky armor—better than nothing, at least.
“That Bullet is starting to use his Devil Fruit ability too. Is making this much commotion really okay?”
Bullet’s Devil Fruit ability could practically be called a terrain destroyer. Once activated, it had an enormous impact on the surrounding environment. At the very least, the original arena had already ceased to exist under the effects of his ability.
“Captain Roger said not to cause trouble, but this is an arena built by the Ryugu Kingdom itself, so this probably doesn’t count… right?”
“You two, stop right there!!”
Just as Buggy and Shanks were discussing whether Bullet’s actions counted as breaking the rules, an extremely angry and resentful voice sounded from not far away.
There really was someone overseeing the place, but the one in charge was not Alber. It was Nanamo.
During the battle just now, she had been tossing a gold coin in her hand the entire time. Because of the shockwaves from the fight, the coin had accidentally fallen to the ground.
But before Nanamo could pick it back up, Bullet’s fruit ability activated, affecting a huge area around him and directly fusing the gold coin into the rocky armor.
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