Chapter 245: Have You Ever Seen Our Full Might?
"Red Ogre, an axe swing that sluggish hardly befits the legendary leader of the Giant Warrior Pirates."
"Release that girl! If you call yourself a warrior, face me in an honorable duel!"
Had Ginny not been held captive in his opponent's grip, Brogy's axe wouldn't have merely aimed to sever the man's escape route; it would have come crashing straight down onto his flesh.
Hostages were always a filthy, complicated problem to deal with—even more so for straightforward Giants who preferred meeting brute force with brute force.
Ever since the "Supreme Hostage Strategy" meta dropped, countless powerhouses had found themselves completely paralyzed by opponents far weaker than themselves simply because a hostage was involved.
"You're not getting away. With the two of us standing here, don't even think about laying a finger on our benefactor's friend."
Dorry emerged from the opposite flank at that exact moment, completing the pincer maneuver around Rook.
"Release the young lady," Dorry boomed. "We can make an exception and overlook your cowardly interference in our sacred duel. We swear upon the name of Elbaf that we will allow you to leave this island safely."
The Giants of Elbaf were often stubborn and headstrong, but they fiercely adhered to the honor of a warrior; an oath sworn upon their homeland was worth its weight in gold.
Unfortunately, their opponents were men who knew nothing of honor.
"Rokuogan!"
Bishop, who had remained hidden in the shadows until now, suddenly materialized at Dorry's flank. Both of his fists thrust forward simultaneously, unleashing a devastating shockwave aimed straight at the giant's temple.
Simultaneously, Kuma's palm slapped his own chest. In the blink of an eye, he blurred across the battlefield like a teleporting phantom, reappearing directly behind Rook and bringing his palm crashing down toward his torso.
Whether his palm struck Ginny or Rook didn't matter. As long as he could repel one of them away from the other, the immediate crisis would be defused.
The displacement granted by the Paw-Paw Fruit was virtually indistinguishable from genuine teleportation. Yet, relying on his sharp Observation Haki, Rook managed to react just in time, executing a crisp Soru to evade Kuma's sweeping palm.
What was truly terrifying, however, was that Ginny executed the exact same evasive maneuver simultaneously, mirroring Rook's movements down to the millimeter to evade Kuma's grasp.
"A Devil Fruit user..." Kuma murmured.
"You almost snatched her away just now," Rook sneered, widening the distance between himself and Kuma. "This woman was specifically requested by a very high-ranking VIP. I can't let you rescue her that easily."
Rook didn't bother explaining the mechanics of his ability; he simply backed away from Kuma. Like a puppet on invisible strings, Ginny retreated at the exact same speed and distance, mirroring him flawlessly.
BOOM!
At the same time, a deafening crash shook the earth as Dorry's colossal frame collapsed heavily to the ground. Although he hadn't lost consciousness, he struggled to push himself back up.
"So this is the strength of the 'Blue Ogre'?" Bishop taunted coldly. "Pathetic."
"You cowardly scum who only know how to sneak-attack..." Dorry growled from the dirt, furious yet unable to force his limbs to obey. "If we hadn't just finished our duel, an attack like that wouldn't have even scratched me..."
Dorry's frustration was palpable, but there was nothing he could do. Both he and Brogy were teetering on the absolute brink of physical exhaustion—and it wasn't just today's clash that had worn them down.
Ever since they arrived on this island eighty years ago, they had used the volcano's eruption as their signal to engage in an endless, uninterrupted deathmatch. To date, they had fought nearly sixty thousand duels.
On average, they fought twice a day every single day; their physical stamina had never been given the chance to fully recover.
Even Brogy, who hadn't fallen yet, was currently being unilaterally suppressed by Bishop's relentless assaults, barely able to lift his head.
"If you were restored to your absolute peak," Kuma asked quietly, looking up at Dorry, "how strong would you be?"
"Crushing these two cowards..." Dorry panted, "...would be child's play."
Dorry didn't understand why Kuma was asking, but he answered honestly without hesitation.
"In that case... I have a method," Kuma said calmly. "Please trust me. Do not resist."
"Mhm."
Dorry grunted his assent. An instant later, Kuma's palm pressed gently against the giant's temple. Slowly, a titan-sized, crimson paw-print bubble emerged from Dorry's massive frame and floated into the sky.
Instantly, Dorry felt the crushing weight of exhaustion and agony vanish from his limbs.
"That bubble contains all the physical damage and exhaustion accumulated inside your body," Kuma explained. "I have repelled it out of you. You have roughly three hours before it returns. Please lend us your strength."
Not everything Kuma repelled dissipated naturally. If no one willingly absorbed the accumulated pain and fatigue, the sphere would eventually gravitate back into the body it came from.
Kuma certainly couldn't absorb the accumulated physical trauma of a Giant; he could only temporarily eject it from the battlefield.
"Gahahaha!! Three hours?!" Dorry roared, his voice shaking the trees. "We won't even need three minutes to crush these worms! Brogy! Get back!"
With his exhaustion and pain completely purged, while he wasn't quite at his historical prime, Dorry had instantly recovered seventy to eighty percent of his combat power—a night-and-day difference from his battered state moments ago.
Leaping to his feet with terrifying speed, Dorry swung his massive hand toward Bishop. Meanwhile, Kuma flashed over to Brogy's side and repeated the exact same technique.
Immediately afterward, Kuma moved through Luna and the rest of the crew, repelling the lingering psychological debuffs from their systems one by one.
When threatened with hostages, rather than wasting breath trying to negotiate with the enemy, it was infinitely more practical to restore your own side's fighting forces first.
Dorry's sudden, explosive recovery caught Bishop completely off guard. He barely managed to scramble out of the way of the giant's grasping hand, instantly realizing the titan's speed had multiplied several times over.
"Rook! Grab the woman and pull back! Something's wrong!"
"Gahahaha! Didn't you just say we were weak and pathetic?!"
"Gabababa! Then let us show you what true Giant strength looks like!"
"Hakoku!" (Sovereign State)
Broadsword and battleaxe swung forward in perfect, terrifying unison. Bishop frantically attempted to evade, executing consecutive Geppo leaps into the air, yet he couldn't escape the catastrophic attack radius of the twin weapons.
As the blades closed in around him, the suffocating pressure of their combined Haki locked his body in place like an invisible vise. The twin streams of Haki ground together like a titanic millstone, instantly crushing Bishop's body to pieces.
His bizarre mask and pristine white suit were pulverized into fine dust, scattering into the wind alongside his shattered form.
Standing nearby, Rook froze in absolute disbelief. They had factored Kuma's combat capabilities into their threat assessment, but they never imagined the man's utility was this obscenely versatile!
Not only could he teleport and deal devastating damage, but he could cleanse debuffs and instantly restore his allies to peak fighting condition!
Regardless of whether the boost was temporary, the combat power of those two Giants had just skyrocketed to an apocalyptic level.
While a Giant's movements might look lumbering to an untrained eye, a single stride from them covered the distance of dozens—or even hundreds—of human steps.
Rook attempted to break through their encirclement several times, but failed at every turn.
Instead, his movement space was systematically compressed until he had nowhere left to run. Finally, out of options, he pressed his blade directly against his own throat, drawing a thin line of blood.
Suicide was hardly a threat to his enemies—except that the exact same bloody cut instantly materialized across Ginny's throat.
"Don't move! Any of you!" Rook screamed, his composure shattering. "I ate the Sync-Sync Fruit! This woman's body is permanently bound to my ability! Any physical damage I suffer is mirrored directly onto her!
"My ability is permanent! Unless I consciously deactivate it, killing me won't save her—she'll die right alongside me!
"With a single thought, I can force her to kill herself! No matter how fast you move, you can't outrun my mind!"
Rook began frantically explaining the rules of his Devil Fruit. He needed these people to understand that if a single hair on his head was harmed, the girl would die instantly.
Facing a fully restored Dorry and Brogy, he simply had no other way to survive.
"Release her, deactivate your power, and you can leave," Kuma said coldly.
"Impossible! Let me walk away first! Once I reach a safe location, I'll release her! Don't try any clever tricks—if I lose consciousness, my ability will trigger automatically! If you want her to live, you do exactly as I say!"
Ginny was Rook's only insurance policy; naturally, he refused to let her go. Ironically, right now, Rook was more terrified of Ginny taking accidental damage than anyone else on the island.
If anything happened to his hostage, his own life was forfeit.
The standoff seemingly reached a dead end. But right as the tension reached a breaking point, the sound of calm, measured footsteps echoed from the jungle foliage, and Nereus's towering figure slowly stepped into the clearing.
"Your Majesty Nereus?!" Kuma and Luna called out respectfully.
"Your... Majesty...?!!"
Those two words hit Rook's ears like a thunderclap. In that single instant, blood drained from his face as he realized he had just dragged down a catastrophe far beyond his wildest nightmares...
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