Chenos's outrageously arrogant words successfully enraged the Marines, and they immediately opened fire on him again.
The moment Kent heard what Chenos said, his brow furrowed—he realized something was wrong.
"Cease fire! That's his Devil Fruit ability! Switch to Seastone bullets!"
But Chenos wasn't going to give them any chance to swap ammunition.
"Rapid Blink!"
Chenos's figure vanished.
In the next instant, more than a dozen "Chenos" afterimages appeared—flashing behind Marine soldiers again and again. Each time, a single Finger Pistol plunged straight into a heart, killing on the spot.
In less than ten seconds, the three hundred-plus soldiers on the Vice Admiral's warship were wiped out.
Kent watched the massacre with bloodshot eyes and charged at Chenos in fury.
His speed was terrifying by normal standards—fast enough for most opponents. But against Rapid Blink, a fusion of Chenos's rebound ability and Soru, Kent's speed was nothing but a joke.
"Ah—pirate! Tell me your name! I'll kill you!"
Chenos shook his head, unimpressed.
"Fine. I'll grant you the reason you die. My name is Chenos—Captain of the Warriors Pirates."
Kent searched his memory. No such crew. No pirate named Chenos. With strength like this, Kent would have remembered. That only made him angrier—he decided Chenos was mocking him with a fake name.
"Coward! You won't even give your real name! Then die!"
Kent raised his massive axe and rushed in, ready to gamble his life for revenge.
Chenos shook his head again.
"No. You're just unlucky. You ran into the one man who counters you. Against my Rebound Fruit, you should be running as far as you can."
It was the truth—yet to Kent, it sounded like pure ridicule. His rage exploded.
"Split the Heavens!"
He lifted the axe with both hands and cleaved down. A colossal air slash erupted forward—so violent it split the surface of the sea in two.
Worse, the attack didn't stop. It carved forward for over a thousand meters before finally fading.
Looking into the gash it cut in the ocean, the seafloor was visible. Everything in its path was severed—fish, stone… even an unlucky Sea King was sliced clean in half.
The power of that strike was terrifying.
Even with the Rebound Fruit, Chenos couldn't simply "catch" something like that—if it hit him directly, he could be cleaved in two.
But Chenos's Observation Haki had already been fully activated. The moment Kent raised his arms, Chenos knew what was coming.
With a Rebound Step, he reappeared behind Kent.
"Finger Pistol: Bullet Barrage!"
Chenos condensed all the bullet damage he'd absorbed earlier onto his index finger. Combined with Finger Pistol's natural piercing power, the technique's lethality skyrocketed.
His right arm moved so fast it left afterimages—thrusting again and again into Kent's back like a heavy machine gun firing point-blank.
In less than a second, Kent's back was punctured into a bloody mess.
Kent's full-power cleave forced his body into a brief stiff recoil—normally under a second. Usually, that didn't matter: enemies either died, or they were forced to retreat far enough for him to reset.
But Kent had met the one opponent whose speed and fighting style punished that exact weakness.
He knew that if he didn't retaliate immediately, he would be beaten to death—humiliated—without landing anything.
The instant the stiffness passed, Kent swung his axe backward.
Chenos blurred—and appeared behind him again, aiming to finish the job through the existing wounds.
Kent had anticipated that.
His backward swing didn't stop after missing; he continued the momentum, spinning his entire body so the axe kept sweeping—trying to catch Chenos in the rotation.
But Kent didn't know what kind of monster had trained Chenos's Observation Haki: someone who taught him how to see through feints designed to deceive perception.
Chenos crouched calmly, letting the axe sweep over him.
Then he reached out, seized Kent's arm, and flowed with the rotation—using Kent's own force to keep himself locked behind Kent's back, always out of the axe's path.
Chenos drove Finger Pistol again and again—targeting the heart.
Kent's body was tough as iron, but under the repeated piercing strikes, a hole was punched straight through his back—aimed directly at his heart.
Kent's eyes hardened. He gritted his teeth and chose desperation.
If he couldn't kill Chenos, then he'd kill them both.
He swung the axe toward his own back.
Seeing that, Chenos smiled.
His right hand formed a claw. He thrust it into the blood-soaked hole Chenos had drilled open—then flashed backward, evading the blow.
Kent's suicidal swing didn't hit Chenos.
It hit Kent.
The axe tore into his already shredded back, ripping a massive wound open. The blade lodged deep—so deep he couldn't even pull it out.
Kent turned his head, staring at Chenos with humiliation and hatred—
—and collapsed dead.
Chenos exhaled. Kent had been powerful. He'd simply chosen the wrong matchup. In a real battlefield, Kent's destructive potential might have been even greater than Chenos's.
Even Fisher himself, fighting Kent head-on… the winner wouldn't be guaranteed.
But Kent's opponent had been Chenos—faster, more flexible, and perfectly suited to dismantle him.
Chenos kicked off the air with Geppo, flying back toward Fisher.
When he reached Fisher, he tossed something at his feet.
It thudded onto the ground.
A heart.
Chenos looked Fisher straight in the eye.
"This… is my explanation."
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