A sudden glimmer of starlight flashed through the dim eyes of Jarul, the giant elder whose body was like a small mountain.
At that moment, although he had guessed Moria's intentions, according to the rules of a ring battle, the defending side should indeed be the first to step into the arena.
Jarul pondered for a moment, then finally let his gaze settle on Dorry and Brogy, who had only recently returned home.
"Dorry, you shall take the first bout! Any problem with that!?" Jarul asked.
The moment his name was called, Dorry, who had long since been itching for action, immediately drew the newly forged greatsword at his waist and the heavy shield standard-issue among Elbaf warriors, then took a step forward.
"Of course there's no problem!"
"Gegyagyagyagya…"
"Come on, little fellows of the Straw Hat Pirates! Send out your challenger!"
"I'll use the heavy sword in my hand to show you what the glory of Elbaf means!!!"
Boom!!!
Dorry arrived at the center of the battlefield with a single heavy stomp, instantly kicking up dust that filled the sky.
But for the giants, this was already standard behavior. No one paid it any attention at all.
Moria, on the other hand, looked past the dust at Dorry's massive body, and the corners of his mouth curled into a faint smile.
"Sending out such a powerful fighter right from the start?"
"That's surprisingly bold."
"In that case, Drake, I choose you!"
"Hey! What's with that tone, like you're summoning a Pokémon!? Don't think that just because you got command rights, you're actually qualified to lead us!"
In truth, from the moment Dorry stepped onto the field, Drake had already known it was his turn.
After all, this had been arranged in advance.
But he still expressed extreme dissatisfaction toward Moria's tone, which made him sound as though he were commanding everything.
Still, no matter how unhappy he was, Moria was the commander personally appointed by Red.
Whoosh!
A pitch-black blur like a bolt of lightning suddenly flashed.
In the blink of an eye, Drake, who had just been standing behind Moria, was already holding a battle-axe and a sharp sword, standing directly across from Dorry.
"Oh? So you're my challenger?!"
Seeing Drake appear, a hint of a smile immediately flashed across Dorry's face. His pupils focused as he stared down at that tiny figure below him.
Drake, who had been sent onto the field, wasted no words and transformed directly.
His body suddenly swelled. His fairly pale skin was suddenly covered by a layer of rough, dark green hide, which stretched and expanded along with him.
In the blink of an eye, a clawed dragon roughly one-third of Dorry's size appeared on the battlefield.
Faint traces of lightning flickered around his body, though they were not particularly obvious.
X Drake, as the captain of the Marine Blade Squad, could be said to have been forced into joining the Straw Hat crew. After attacking the Celestial Dragons, he had completely lost any path of retreat.
But precisely because of that, over the past two years, he had constantly strengthened himself with the resources of the Straw Hat Pirates.
His own sense of justice had become lost and uncertain. Freed from the shackles of all kinds of complicated affairs, there was now only one thought in his mind…
To keep growing stronger!
Strong enough that he would no longer be lost! Strong enough that he could protect everything he wanted to protect!!!!
"Ancient Zoan, Allosaurus Form…"
"Dragon-type evolution!!!"
Whoosh—
A blazing white light suddenly erupted once more from Drake, who had just entered his dinosaur form, enveloping his entire body.
Under the power of that mysterious light, his body actually began growing again.
Eight meters… ten meters… twelve meters…
In the blink of an eye, the body shrouded in evolutionary light had actually grown to a height nearly equal to Dorry's.
If not for its tilted posture, it would even have been a head taller than Dorry!
Roar—!
A dragon's roar like a raging gale suddenly rang out, sweeping past Dorry's body and blowing toward the giants behind him.
For a moment, quite a few giant warriors who had come to watch the excitement staggered, unable to stop fear from rising in their hearts before this massive creature.
"W-what is that thing!?"
The evolutionary light scattered like specks of starlight.
A prehistoric beast with scarlet eyes and an aura of destruction radiating from its entire body appeared before everyone.
Perhaps it was because Drake truly had been dedicating himself to training, or perhaps his attributes were exceptionally compatible with his own ability and fighting style…
The current Drake had already successfully completed Dragon + Normal dual-type Pokémon-ization!
Although his Pokémon-ization was still in its most primitive stage, merely influencing his body through Pokémon power to make it stronger.
It was just like Zoro, who had evolved into a giant dragon form back on Amazon Lily.
But coincidentally…
For Drake, the best weapon was his own body!
The tyranny of Dragon + the stability of Normal had constructed the most suitable battle form for him!
"Can we… begin?"
After completing his evolution, Drake opened his beastly mouth, yet a hoarse human voice came out.
Across from him, Dorry was clearly startled by the giant dragon that had suddenly become as tall as himself.
But very quickly, the corners of his mouth rose again.
Dinosaurs?
He and Brogy had no idea how many they had cut down on Little Garden.
After all those years, there had been too many to count.
"Interesting! I never thought I'd be able to see a creature like this after returning to Elbaf!"
Rumble…
The heavy sword, more than ten meters long, was raised high. Dorry was the first to send out the signal for battle, and the sharp blade in his hand stirred up waves of fierce wind as it cleaved violently toward the dragon head below.
Seeing this, a scarlet light immediately flashed through Drake's eyes, as though he disdained Dorry's attack.
"You're probing me with such a ridiculous method? Are you even taking this battle seriously, you big idiot!!!"
Swish—!!!
In an instant no one had expected, Drake suddenly swung his claws to meet Dorry's heavy sword.
Amid a spray of sparks, Drake actually relied on his surging Armament Haki and hard, sharp claws to forcibly block Dorry's blade.
Immediately afterward, Drake's head shot forward like a bullet.
"X · Ice-Fire Dragon Fang!!!"
Fwoom!!! Hiss…
The power of flame and frost simultaneously appeared at both sides of Drake's mouth in that instant, each coating his sharp, protruding fangs.
The next moment…
Splurt!!!
Drake's head shot out and bit down on Dorry's shoulder. His enormous head actually tore a gash more than two meters long into Dorry's massive body.
His fangs crossed and pierced directly through Dorry's solid flesh.
Scorching flame and freezing frost respectively burned and froze the two bloody wounds.
"Aaah…!!!"
Dorry's body suddenly arched backward as he let out a miserable cry under the intense pain.
"Dorry!!?"
Seeing Dorry injured, shocked and concerned shouts immediately rang out from the giants' side.
Who could have imagined that one of the pirate captains under the Straw Hats would wound a giant warrior pirate who had sailed the seas a hundred years ago right from the start?
And judging from the wound, which was being continuously tortured by the entanglement of ice and fire energy, Dorry's injury was very likely no ordinary one.
However, Dorry was still one of Elbaf's strongest warriors in the past century.
After the intense pain passed, the blood of a warrior immediately surged within him, forcing his backward-falling body to steady itself.
"Graaah!"
Dorry let out a loud roar. A fierce light flashed in his eyes as he directly dropped the sharp sword in his hand, letting it stab into the ground, then reached out and pressed toward Drake's head to grab it.
But since Drake dared to make such an aggressive move, how could he possibly let Dorry have his way?
A sound of machinery mixed with electric current suddenly came from his neck.
In the next instant, his neck rebounded at an extremely high speed, once again returning to his Tyrannosaurus-like body.
Click… crack…
Faint electric sounds rang from Drake's neck.
Only then did everyone notice that after transforming into his dinosaur form, Drake's body actually bore traces of scientific modification.
"What is that!?"
Dorry, who had failed to grab his target, widened his eyes and stared at Drake's neck. For a moment, he was actually stunned, and could not help asking.
"This is the mechanical modification technology of the Straw Hat Pirates' Scientific Research Corps."
Drake did not hide anything. In fact, perhaps because this was being livestreamed worldwide, he even went so far as to say a few more words, which was rare for him.
"This is the research result of Queen, deputy minister of the Scientific Research Corps. It can implant special mechanical structures inside the bodies of Zoan ability users, allowing them to unleash powerful strength no matter what form their ability is in…"
"That guy! He definitely took benefits from Queen!"
On the Straw Hats' side, when they heard Drake actually begin explaining Queen's mechanical modification technology in detail, quite a few captains immediately curled their lips and cast disdainful looks at him.
Ever since the high-ranking members of the Straw Hat Pirates had greatly decentralized authority some time ago, the various major industries under the Straw Hats were now in a highly autonomous stage.
Now, in front of a worldwide livestream, Drake was openly promoting mechanical modification technology for Zoan ability users. Perhaps he had made some shady deal with Queen and was planning to use this opportunity to make a fortune!
In fact, their guess was truly correct.
Thanks to the discovery of wish power, Queen was currently researching a scientific project that used wish power to transform people who had already become Zoan ability users into other abilities.
Although the launch of this project had received strong support from both the Scientific Research Corps and the Straw Hat Pirates, there was still a massive funding gap relative to the scale of the entire project.
So Queen came up with an idea: separate out his one-way technology, establish a company, and prepare to earn some funds.
His first targets, naturally, were the Zoan ability users within the Straw Hat Pirates' own ranks.
Perhaps because he was also an Ancient Zoan dinosaur fruit ability user, Drake had been deeply tempted after witnessing Queen's mechanical modification technology, and he formed a partnership with Queen.
Now, with one side responsible for technical support and the other responsible for channels and transportation, the two had already served quite a few Zoan ability users.
This technology had now made quite a bit of money. Although Drake was devoted to training and rarely participated in such miscellaneous affairs, leaving them all to his subordinates, the benefits he had received from it were not small.
Every time there was a technological innovation or an upgrade to materials from the Munch-Munch Factory, Queen would also think of him first.
So at the moment Dorry asked, inspiration struck Drake like a blessing from the heavens!
Such a good opportunity—why not promote Queen's modification technology!?
As he thought of this, the Dragon Pulse that had already been gathering inside his body, which he had planned to use to catch Dorry off guard, gradually died down.
All that could be said was that humans really did have selfish motives.
Drake, who had originally been thinking of ending this farce as quickly as possible, suddenly wanted to drag the fight out a little longer.
However, Dorry across from him knew nothing of Drake's little scheme. Hearing that the other party had actually explained everything to him in full detail, he even nodded seriously.
"I see."
In truth, as a muscle-brained fellow, he had not understood a single word about mechanical modification.
But perhaps the other party had explained it so thoroughly out of consideration for his close relationship with the Straw Hats. Naturally, he had to give him face, didn't he?
"As expected of those little fellows' subordinate. To think you can do something like this so easily!"
"But…"
Dorry gripped his injured shoulder, and after confirming that it had not lost its ability to fight, he directly threw away the heavy shield that was affecting the movement of his shoulder. He then picked up his greatsword again and faced Drake with both hands on the hilt.
"A warrior of Elbaf will not retreat because of an injury like this!"
"Sun—Slash!!!"
Boom!!!
Powerful force surged out of Dorry's body like a storm, and jet-black Armament Haki, sticky as thick liquid, rapidly coated his heavy sword.
Clearly, this time, Dorry's attack would no longer hold back.
Seeing this, Drake's abyss-like giant mouth also curved upward slightly.
"That's more like it~"
"If the enemy is too weak, I wouldn't even know how to show off all the selling points!"
As he spoke, a crack suddenly opened on his back, and a missile launcher several meters long actually grew out of Drake's body.
Heaven knew how such a large thing had been stored inside Drake's human body.
But at this moment, it had indeed appeared.
After joining the Straw Hat Pirates, Queen's technological innovations had clearly advanced by far more than just one or two generations.
Boom!!! Boom!!! Boom!!!—
Missiles shot violently out from Drake's back one after another. They precisely locked onto their target in midair, then bombarded Dorry's injured shoulder from different angles.
"What?!"
The unexpected long-range attack made Dorry's expression freeze again.
The sword momentum gathered in his hands had no time to take aim, so he directly smashed it toward the nearest missile.
Rumble—
A deafening explosion rang out, and a small mushroom cloud appeared beneath the gloomy sky of the Underworld.
Yet Dorry's slash continued forward, drifting all the way toward the distant sky, splitting a thick layer of clouds in two before finally dissipating somewhere high above.
But a slash could only go in one direction.
The missiles, however, came from all directions!
Rumble!!!
Explosions sounded one after another immediately afterward. The warheads had struck Dorry's shoulder with precision and exploded there.
Thick black smoke directly enveloped Dorry's upper body.
But after firing the missiles, Drake did not pause for even an instant. His Tyrannosaurus claws charged rapidly across the ground as he directly swung a giant tail, extended to nearly a hundred meters long by the mechanical structure, toward Dorry's ankle.
"X · Dragon Tail Slash!!!"
(End of Chapter)