"Fralexi, go help Buggy and Enel. I'll handle things here."
Ayame swept her blade in a wide arc, forcing back several enemies at once, then turned her head and spoke to Fralexi.
"Got it, Ayame sis."
Fralexi nodded. Her right leg was strong and powerful — she drove it like a crane's claw straight into a pirate's chest, nearly shattering his ribcage entirely.
Her slender frame used the recoil to launch herself into the air. After an elegant backflip, she spread both arms wide, and the soft feathers that lined them unfurled, forming what looked like a pair of gliding wings.
Fralexi could not achieve true flight with her arm feathers, but gliding and briefly hovering in midair were well within her capabilities.
Naturally, this also included diving like a falcon to accelerate and strike enemies at maximum speed!
She flapped her arms forcefully, generating an air current that pushed her body downward. Then she tucked herself into as tight a ball as possible to minimize air resistance.
Fortunately, Fralexi's body was quite small.
Ever since Moli had taken her in, she had not grown much. Perhaps that had something to do with the experiments performed on her at the Enkanomiya Palace over the years.
With Fralexi's own consent, Keiko had applied some of the research results obtained from Abel — that is, King — onto Fralexi's body. Otherwise, this little girl would never have been able to keep pace with the likes of Buggy.
"Steel Wing — Feather Slash!"
The Armament Haki coating her wings made the feathers on Fralexi's arms harder and sharper than steel. She lunged viciously at Bald, locking onto his throat like a hawk zeroing in on its prey.
"Don't underestimate me!"
Bald was certainly not weak enough to be finished off like that. He barely moved, instead hurling an even more powerful fist upward. The tremendous force instantly overwhelmed Fralexi and sent her flying.
His counterattack was not over yet. After blasting Fralexi away, Bald took a heavy step forward with his right foot and gripped his axe with both hands. His Haki erupted from his body, coiling around him like steam.
"Fierce Axe — Spinning Heavy Strike!"
He avoided slashing techniques and instead swung the flat of the axe with the most brutal force imaginable!
If that strike had connected, even the bones of most people would have been shattered instantly!
But right now, he was facing three little monsters.
Buggy and Enel went without saying. Fralexi's body actually contained traces of Lunaria bloodline factors — they had simply been dormant before. This was also why she alone had been able to successfully withstand the research results taken from King.
Through experimentation, Keiko had activated the dormant Lunaria genes within Fralexi's body, granting her a terrifying boost to her physical abilities.
Of course, there was still a gap between her and a true Lunaria.
After all, King — a full-blooded Lunaria — had defensive capabilities that rivaled even the monster known as Kaido. Had King already been fully grown back in the undersea cave, Moli might not have found it so easy to capture him.
And so, facing Bald's axe, all three of them — Fralexi, Buggy, and Enel — chose to tank it head-on!
"Crane Claw!"
Fralexi's long, dark right leg lashed out with devastating force, like two slabs of steel slamming together!
Seeing Fralexi fight so fiercely, how could Enel possibly hold back? He threw a punch of his own, though to avoid accidentally hurting Fralexi, he did not use his Devil Fruit power. He relied solely on Haki and his raw physical strength to stand alongside her against their opponent.
Buggy, on the other hand, was far less restrained. He had been boiling with rage toward Bald for a while now!
After blocking Bald's axe alongside the other two, he grabbed the massive steel weapon with both hands and sneered.
"Let me show you the newest ability Lord Buggy has developed!"
His face twisted into a cold grin as he activated his Devil Fruit power.
"Chop-Chop!"
"— Shatter!"
CRACK!
A sharp cracking sound rang out. The next moment, Bald's axe actually began splitting apart from the center. Black fragments scattered outward in every direction like cubes.
"Eh?"
Bald clearly had not expected anything like this to happen. Without his axe, the combined attacks of the three people who had been locked in a stalemate with him landed squarely on his body!
Fralexi and Enel both seized the opening. One used her Steel Wings to tear open Bald's skin, while the other drove his fist straight into the wound and released the force of an explosion!
BOOM!
That single blow blasted Bald's chest into a mangled mess of blood and flesh.
It had happened so suddenly. He had not protected his body with Haki — he had poured all of it into the axe he was using to attack. And just like that, his defense was cleanly broken through.
THUD.
A massive hole opened in the big man's chest. His vision went black, and his legs gave out beneath him, sending him dropping to one knee.
"Whoa, Buggy — did your Devil Fruit awaken?"
More than the success of the attack itself, Enel was fixated on this question right now.
"No way, I'm still far from that."
Buggy shook his head. The Chop-Chop Fruit offered very limited direct boosts to his combat strength, which had forced Buggy to constantly think about how to make better use of his power.
"Right now it only works on inorganic matter. And if the target's Haki is resisting it, it won't work at all."
He explained. The only reason it had worked just now was because the combined Haki of all three of them had canceled out Bald's Haki. Otherwise, he would not have been able to shatter the enemy's weapon.
Even so, this was a major breakthrough. Before this, Buggy's ability could only affect his own body.
But through years of development, Buggy had already solved the problem of not being able to lift his feet off the ground. Now, with this latest progress, Enel felt a twinge of urgency.
By comparison, Enel's own Devil Fruit development was straightforward — simply increasing the power of his explosions.
"I know you two are close and all, but now's not really the time for chit-chat, is it?"
Fralexi landed on the ground and reminded them. After all, Bald was not dead yet.
He was a Zoan-type Devil Fruit user. Despite his injuries now, he might recover in moments.
'Damn it, Fralexi's getting the wrong idea about us again!'
Enel screamed internally, but he did not dare say a single word out loud. He quickly locked his gaze back onto Bald, preparing to deliver the finishing blow.
"Got lucky and ran into the dumbest one of the bunch."
Saya held a lollipop in her mouth, strolling casually through a crowd of laid-out pirates.
The leader of this group was Rickross, the user of the Rhino Fruit.
The man had not died yet, but his eyes had rolled back and he had lost consciousness. Only his mouth still mumbled:
"...Pirate... Pirate King... the Pirate King is at Kuri..."
[
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