The dragon tail, lashing like a long whip, slammed hard into Dorry's shinbone. Empowered by the force of the Dragon Tail move, Dorry's thick lower leg bent sharply, showing faint signs of a fracture.
And using the force transmitted through his tail, Drake's massive body completed a magnificent spin across the ground, once again aiming that abyss-like maw at Dorry.
"X · Flying Dragon Fang!!!"
Whoosh—!!!
A familiar scene appeared once more.
Drake's head shot toward Dorry again like a cannonball, dragging fierce howling winds in its wake.
"Damn it!"
Drake's consecutive attacks made things extremely troublesome for Dorry, who was not the agile type.
Sensing the attack whistling toward him again, Dorry, unable to see through the smoke, suddenly gritted his teeth.
The next instant, he threw caution to the wind. A powerful aura gathered like a flood around the blade in his hand.
"Sun—Hammer!!!"
Boom—!!!
A deafening roar, accompanied by violent tremors, instantly swept across the entire battlefield.
Dorry used the great sword in his hand as a medium, driving it deep into the earth, then releasing endless sword intent and Haki underground in one explosive surge.
In an instant, a catastrophic earthquake swept in all directions. The ground shook, and layers of earth split apart.
Drake, who had been attacking with his head, had his massive weight work against him. One foot sank directly into a shattered layer of ground, his body swaying, causing the head that had originally been aimed at Dorry to miss him by a hair.
"Got you!"
Seeing this, Dorry, who had long since lowered his center of gravity in preparation, grinned. He released the hilt of his sword with both hands and grabbed directly for Drake's neck.
His thick arms clamped down like a sturdy pair of pincers, pinning Drake's long, snake-like neck in place.
"Guh—aaah!!!"
Ignoring the injury on his shoulder, Dorry gathered every ounce of strength in his body into his arms, rising slightly onto the tips of his toes.
Under that terrifying brute force, Drake's body was actually swung up by Dorry, spinning wildly across the vast land like a raging grade-eight gale.
Rumble, rumble, rumble…
Drake's enormous dinosaur body and elongated neck just so happened to give Dorry an excellent grip and posture for exerting force.
One circle, two circles, three circles…
Like winding a spring, Dorry spun faster and faster, soon whipping Drake's body into a blur before hurling him violently toward the distant wall of the World Tree.
Boom!!!
A great cloud of smoke and dust covered everything like a curtain.
Dorry stood where he was, panting heavily. As he stared into the rolling haze, his gaze suddenly tightened, and he abruptly looked down at his arm.
At some point, a row of sharp bite marks had appeared on it.
More importantly, the color of the marks was not the charred black from the earlier flames, nor the deep blue of frostbite, nor the bright crimson of flowing blood…
It was a thick purple color that made one feel disgusted from the bottom of the heart with a single glance.
"What is this!?"
An ominous thought abruptly rose in Dorry's mind.
Just then, movement came from within the dense smoke once more.
Drake, covered in dirt and debris, shook his head and walked out of the cloud of dust.
Judging from the toughness of his Tyrannosaurus hide, the impact just now did not seem to have caused him much damage at all.
On the contrary, the Straw Hat side watching from afar suddenly erupted into earth-shaking jeers.
"You look pathetic, Drake!!!"
"How useless~ You actually got baited by such an obvious opening?"
"Hey, hey, Drake, don't tell me you're going to lose such an important match in the very first position!?"
"…"
"…"
Seeing Drake's sorry appearance, the Straw Hat camp instead started laughing and mocking him like madmen.
They knew very well that Drake would not lose.
Because from beginning to end, Drake had barely used any Pokémon moves. He had been relying entirely on the modification device Queen had made for him.
Although moves were only another form of combat technique, after truly using Pokémon moves to fight against the native pirates of this world, they understood…
Just how powerful Pokémon moves could become when flexibly combined!
And Drake, who could undergo dual-type Pokémon-ization, had naturally already gained the ability to break through the numerical limits of the move panel.
However, in response to his own side's mockery, Drake, who had risen to his feet, shot them back a vicious glare full of malice.
"Idiots!!!!"
It was clearly only a low curse, but coming from the mouth of a giant dragon, it rang out like a great bell.
Immediately afterward, Drake turned his head again and looked at Dorry, who stood in place. In a deep, hoarse voice, he said:
"Can't you see?"
"I've already won this fight!!!"
"Hm?"
Drake's arrogant declaration immediately made everyone present, whether the Straw Hat side, the giant side, or the audience in front of their televisions, reveal confused expressions.
But at that moment, Dorry suddenly clutched his arm and let out a violent scream.
"Aaah—!!!!"
"Dorry!?"
Brogy, standing in the giant formation, shouted in concern.
As an old friend who had fought alongside him for more than a hundred years, he knew very well that Dorry's scream at this moment was absolutely not due to simple physical injury.
Only then did everyone notice that one of Dorry's hands was pressed over his wrist.
Through the gaps between his fingers, they could see a dark purplish-black color.
"Is he… poisoned?!"
Sharp-eyed Shanks was the first to discover the abnormality and murmured aloud.
"Poisoned?!"
With Shanks's reminder, the giants finally realized where the problem lay, and they all looked toward Dorry's wrist.
And in that brief daze, the toxic color around Dorry's wrist slowly seeped out from the edge of his broad palm.
"What… what kind of poison is this!?"
Gritting his teeth, Dorry struggled to raise his head and look at Drake.
The giants were a race of natural-born powerhouses, possessing extremely strong resistance to poison. Many toxins that might be fatal to ordinary people would only have a negligible effect on giants.
Moreover…
The giants were so enormous that, under the same circumstances, killing a giant with poison required a dosage far more troublesome than other methods.
That was why giants rarely worried about being poisoned.
And yet, right now, his wrist was in unbearable agony. Combined with his already injured shoulder, this entire arm had completely lost its ability to fight. It might even become a burden in the battle that followed.
If this were a normal battle, Dorry would have already swung his sword down and cut off the poisoned wrist to avoid affecting his movements.
But this… was only an arena match against the Straw Hat Pirates, wasn't it?
There should be no need for them to fight to the death, right?
"Relax! Hajrudin's side has plenty of antidotes for that toxin."
"As long as you surrender and go back in a bit, you can get detoxified right away."
Seemingly seeing through Dorry's hesitation, Drake shook the dirt off his body and took the initiative to reassure him.
Poison Fang, a Poison-type physical move.
Its effect was to attack the opponent with fangs, with a certain chance of leaving the opponent badly poisoned.
And the badly poisoned condition was an even more terrifying negative status than ordinary poisoning.
In the game, it manifested as damage increasing over time, with at most 15/16 of a Pokémon's HP being deducted in a single turn.
But in reality, the badly poisoned condition brought the victim unbearable agony.
Clearly, even Dorry, a battle-hardened warrior of Elbaf, found it difficult to endure this pain.
"So this is also a method of the Straw Hat Pirates, huh?"
Enduring the severe pain, Dorry raised his head, once again shocked by the methods Drake had displayed.
And although the battle had only consisted of a few exchanges so far, just as Drake had said…
The outcome of this fight had already been decided.
The poison did not merely bring him unbearable pain; it was also spreading through his body at an extremely rapid speed.
Perhaps… the moment the toxin spread throughout his entire body would be the moment he faced death.
It was just that, compared to the enormous body of a giant, the toxin's rate of expansion was not yet so fatal to him.
At the very least, it was still enough for him to endure several more rounds of combat!
Over the next dozen minutes, Dorry fully displayed to the world just how brave and fearless the warriors of Elbaf could be when facing a desperate situation.
Even though his pain was already written clearly across his face, he could still hold his sword with one hand and fight back and forth against the colossal dinosaur beast before him.
For a time, quite a few children in front of their televisions even began cheering for him.
"Do your best! Big long-bearded big brother!!!"
Unfortunately, the giants did not believe in light, nor did they believe in the existence of Ultraman.
Seeing that the deadly poison had already spread into Dorry's body, Elder Jarul, worried that the toxin might damage Dorry's internal organs, took the initiative to step forward and surrender on Dorry's behalf.
[Elbaf Arena Battle, First Match: Straw Hat Side's X Drake Wins!]
A huge virtual projection appeared in the form of text above the now-calm battlefield.
On one side of the text stood Drake, who had already returned to his normal form.
After reverting to human form, his face was cold and solemn, completely unlike the savage, crimson-eyed appearance from earlier. It was hard to believe that he and that terrifying beast from moments ago were the same person.
On the other side, naturally, was Dorry, who lost all strength to support himself and collapsed to the ground the moment the word "surrender" appeared.
Someone from the giant side had already taken the antidote provided by Hajrudin and sprinted to Dorry's side ahead of time.
Strangely enough, that antidote, which was only about the size of a sesame seed relative to a giant, immediately produced a miraculous effect after entering Dorry's mouth.
The toxin that had nearly covered a small half of his body vanished completely in an instant.
After a second bottle of Super Potion was taken, Dorry, who had been utterly weakened, actually stood up again, and the color in his face instantly recovered.
This absurd scene once again allowed the world to witness the brilliance and power of the Straw Hat Pirates' methods.
After securing one victory, Drake did not say much. He simply nodded toward the giants across from him, then returned to the Straw Hat formation with a cold expression.
"Hee-hishishi, nicely done, Drake!"
As the commander-in-chief of this operation, Moria praised him without stinginess.
Drake merely nodded slightly and coldly returned to the group.
Although he had won a match for the Straw Hats, a victory of that level truly did not amount to much for him.
Drake's Ability was Strong Jaw.
Compared to other people's Abilities, which could create bug-like effects at the drop of a hat, his Ability could honestly be considered ordinary. It only increased the biting power of his mouth.
But as the saying went, heaven never seals off all exits.
Drake, who had once envied the strength of other people's Abilities, was brought by Red into the Pokémon World to level up one time…
And to his astonishment, he discovered that he could learn almost every biting-type Pokémon move.
Red's explanation at the time was…
It might be because his animal form closely resembled Tyrunt from the Pokémon World, so he could learn the moves Tyrunt was able to learn.
Drake had no idea what kind of divine being Tyrunt was.
But he only knew one thing: as long as it was a biting-type move, regardless of its attribute, he could learn it.
And after undergoing Pokémon-ization, he could permanently record these moves into his own body.
There were not that many biting-type moves, but they covered quite a wide range of types.
Normal-type Hyper Fang, Fire-type Fire Fang, Ice-type Ice Fang, Electric-type Thunder Fang, Dark-type Bite, Crunch, and Jaw Lock, Poison-type Poison Fang, and even Psychic-type Psychic Fangs!
His originally simple and crude biting attacks had instead become flexible and varied with the support of these moves and their special effects.
And from then on, Drake had Queen devote great effort to improving his biting strength.
Now, after entering his Zoan form, not only could his neck extend modularly, but even his mouth and the spaces between his teeth contained intricate mechanical structures.
Unfortunately, Dorry had given him far too good an opportunity.
He had actually dared to keep Drake's mouth locked around his wrist for so long.
Although being swung around had indeed looked somewhat pathetic, it was precisely during that moment that Drake's flexible mouth had bitten into Dorry's body, allowing him to activate Poison Fang and decide the outcome of the battle in one move.
"It would've been nice if my opponent had been a little stronger~"
After returning to the group, Drake felt a slight trace of regret.
But when his gaze turned toward the other powerful fighters in the giant formation, an image instantly flashed through his mind of his teeth shattering after being punched by one of them.
Forget it, forget it.
Winning was enough.
His mission had already been completed. Next, it would depend on the others.
Drake crossed his arms over his chest and once again became the cool, aloof guy.
At that moment, another enormous figure walked out from the opposing camp.
It was none other than the other giant captain who had been Dorry's best friend for over a hundred years—Red Ogre Brogy.
"Little ones of the Straw Hat Pirates, I'll be your opponent next!!!"
Boom~!
The heavy giant axe slammed fiercely into the ground, stirring up a storm mixed with sand and stone that blew toward the Straw Hat formation.
Seeing this, Moria's grin widened, and he once again gave a slight wave to the people behind him.
"A guy whose strength is about the same as Dorry's, huh?"
"In that case, I'll leave him to you, Urouge!"
As Moria's voice fell, a tall, burly figure with two pure-white wings on his back immediately stepped out from the crowd.
Mad Monk Urouge wore a kind yet faintly eerie smile on his face.
"Leave it to me."
"But if I get beaten too badly by him later, don't you lot start booing me~"
(End of Chapter)