"Boss... what kind of power was that?!"
When the crushing shockwave of Yamato's Conqueror's Haki cleared, only three figures remained standing: Capone Bege and his two senior lieutenants, "Weird Gun" Vito and "Killer" Gotti.
Bege wanted nothing more than to roar at his subordinates, If you don't know, how the hell should I?! But he didn't have the luxury of losing his composure.
As a veteran conspirator who operated on cold, calculated logic, Bege recognized the reality instantly: the moment the tall woman unleashed that absurd, mind-shattering pressure, his chances of winning this engagement dropped to zero.
Yet he didn't scream like a cartoon villain, nor did he fall to his knees to beg for mercy.
Instead, his ruthless tactical mind reached an immediate conclusion: Cut the dead weight, sacrifice the army, and survive.
Without a glance at his thousand unconscious men, Bege issued a cold, decisive order.
"Step up! Fire into the crowd!"
As he spoke, his palms slapped onto the shoulders of Vito and Gotti.
The power of the Castle-Castle Fruit surged. In the fraction of a second, Bege's legs retracted, morphing into high-speed armored tank treads. The iron treads spun violently against the stone floor, aiming to tear through the arena's thick outer wall and escape into the city streets.
Concurrently, Vito and Gotti—now pulled into the internal shooting ports of Bege's body—executed their Godfather's command without a second's hesitation.
TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!
The heavy Gatling cannon mounted on Gotti's left arm and the massive revolver in Vito's hands poured a lethal rain of lead directly toward the terrified spectators huddled near the exit arches.
Hundreds of heavy-caliber rounds whistled through the air, aimed squarely at defenseless civilians.
Bege was gambling on basic human empathy. He bet that Ornn and his companions wouldn't sit by and watch hundreds of innocent people get slaughtered, buying him the precious seconds he needed to break out of the facility.
He was half right.
Neither Ornn, Yamato, nor Rhea were cold enough to watch a crowd of civilians get mown down.
However, protecting the crowd didn't require all three of them to stand on defense.
"Phantom Ice Blade!"
Yamato shouted, her iron mace sweeping through the air as a chilling, azure frost erupted from the weapon.
With a powerful swing, the freezing air condensed into a massive, shimmering barrier of solid ice, bursting from the stone floor just yards ahead of the fleeing crowd.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
The barrage of lead slammed harmlessly into the thick glacial wall, melting into steam against the sub-zero frost.
"Ornn! Go after that bastard!" Yamato called out, stepping into a defensive stance in front of the ice wall. "I'll handle the crowd and secure the exit!"
"Got it!"
Ornn didn't waste a breath. The moment Yamato took command of the room, he sprinted straight toward the massive breach Bege's treads had punched through the arena wall.
Rhea, worried Ornn might struggle against three syndicate lieutenants on his own, flashed into motion to keep pace.
Though Ornn had started running first, Rhea—whose mastery of Soru was now amplified by the raw, kinetic power of the Lion King belt—moved like a streak of lightning.
Flexing her enhanced, cat-eared frame, she bounded off the crumbling stone pillars and vaulted across the ceiling beams, effortlessly overtaking Ornn. She burst through the wall gap a second ahead of him, landing squarely on the cobblestone street where Bege's tank treads were tearing up the pavement.
"Hold it right there!"
Rhea plummeted from the sky, her long, leather-booted leg snapping down in a vicious, whip-like axe kick aimed directly at Bege's head.
CLANG!
The impact sounded like a heavy iron sledgehammer striking a solid granite boulder.
Rhea blinked in shock; the sensation feeding back through her leg felt like kicking a mountain. Looking closely, she saw that the skin across Bege's face and neck had taken on the grey, weathered texture of solid stone.
It was one of the core defensive applications of the Castle-Castle Fruit. As a living fortress, Bege could instantly transform any part of his body into stone as dense as a castle wall with a single thought.
Thankfully, Rhea had the Lion King belt actively repairing her physical structure; otherwise, the recoil alone would have shattered her ankle against his stone skull.
Still, while the hardened stone absorbed the kinetic lethal damage, the sheer momentum of her kick threw Bege completely off balance.
The rolling fortress veered wildly off course, its iron treads losing traction on the wet cobblestones before plowing through the brick facade of a two-story residence.
The house collapsed in a cloud of dust and splintered wood, forcing Bege's treads to a screeching halt.
"Nice setup, Rhea!"
Ornn's voice boomed through the dust cloud as he leaped into the air.
Golden, molten magma surged from his calloused palms, coating the heavy iron head of his forge hammer until it glowed like a mini-sun. Holding the blazing weapon with both hands, Ornn brought it down with full force onto Bege's left tank tread.
BOOM!
[HEARTSTEEL PROC: STACK ACQUIRED]
The magma-infused hammer slammed flush against the iron treads. The force shattered the central gear mechanism, while the intense heat melted the iron links into a glowing slag that scorched directly into Bege's flesh.
"GAHH!"
Bege spat a mouthful of dark blood as the HeartSteel proc hit his internal vitality, while the molten heat seared through his defensive stone layer.
"BOSS!"
Vito and Gotti screamed in unison, ejecting themselves from the internal chambers of Bege's body to intercept Ornn and buy their Godfather time to recover.
Before Gotti could raise his heavy Gatling arm, Rhea flashed into his blind spot, delivering a heavy, bone-crunching hook straight to his ribs.
Gotti raised his iron arm to block, but the raw, beast-like strength granted by the Lion King belt blew past his guard, sending the heavy-set killer skidding across the dirt, gasping for breath.
For Ornn, the physical boost of an animal-type artifact was a modest addition to his already absurd constitution. But for a baseline human like Rhea, the Lion King was a night-and-day multiplier. She had only worn the belt for twenty minutes, yet the raw power felt so intoxicating that she couldn't imagine fighting without it.
Meanwhile, Vito's desperate attempt to stall Ornn proved entirely futile.
Lacking any specialized Devil Fruit powers, his high-caliber revolver rounds simply flattened harmlessly against Ornn's chest. Ornn didn't even bother dodging; he stepped through the gunfire, swung his hammer casually, and sent Vito crashing onto the pavement with blood spurting from his lips.
Seeing both of his loyal lieutenants broken and bleeding on the ground, Bege wiped the blood from his mouth, his dark eyes locking onto Ornn with cold, murderous intensity.
"To be forced into a corner like this..." Bege rasped, his voice gravelly. "This is the first time since I stepped into the underworld."
Ornn rested his glowing hammer on his shoulder, his expression unruffled. "It's also going to be your last."
"Is that so?" Bege sneered, his hands forming a strange, complex seal in front of his chest. "Then let's see if you can break a real fortress!"
As the seal completed, stone texture spread across his entire frame at blinding speed. His body expanded outward, blowing past human proportions as stone battlements, iron cannons, and fortified towers erupted from his flesh.
The ground groaned under his skyrocketing mass.
[Fortress: Full-Size — Big Boss!]
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