The Mid-Interior. Bacchus Island.
BOOM!
A muffled, tectonic roar thundered from the heart of the basin, sending a black cloud of startled birds screaming into the sky. The ground groaned and buckled, as if a giant had struck the island's very soul with a hammer.
Sabo, Buggy, and Carina skidded to a halt. They had just finished hauling the last of the rum and supplies to the ship's hold when the earthquake nearly knocked them flat.
"What in the hell?!" Buggy shrieked, wiping cold sweat from his nose. "Is this rock sinking? Are we sinking?!"
"That's the Captain," Sabo said, looking at the lingering scarlet glow reflecting off the canopy. He adjusted his top hat, a sharp glint in his blue eyes. "He's found the main course. We need to move."
They charged into the dense treeline, but were immediately cut off.
Forty black-clad poachers emerged from the ferns like shadows. Their leader, a bald titan of a man, rested a massive mountain-splitting axe on his shoulder. "This is Lord Truff's territory, rats. Slaughter the—"
"Save the monologue," Sabo interrupted. "I'm in a hurry."
A blue afterimage blurred across the leader's vision. Sabo appeared like a ghost in his personal space.
In a panic, the bald man brought his heavy axe down in a vertical cleave meant to split Sabo in two. Sabo didn't flinch. He didn't even draw his staff. He simply raised his right hand, coating three fingers in pitch-black Haki, his hand shaped into a three-pronged claw.
"RYUSOKEN."
CLANG!
The sound of metal meeting bone was deafening. To the poachers' horror, the refined steel blade—capable of felling ancient redwoods—was caught between Sabo's three fingers like a piece of brittle candy. With a casual squeeze, the steel spiderwebbed and disintegrated into a pile of scrap.
Sabo's hand shot forward, catching the man's throat. A burst of orange-red flame erupted from his palm, incinerating the leader instantly. He tossed the charred corpse aside like trash.
"He took out the Boss in one move?!" the remaining officers stammered, their knees hitting the mud.
"You're in the way," Sabo said, glancing back. "Buggy. Clear the path."
"QUIT ORDERING ME AROUND!" Buggy screamed, though he was already zipping forward. "Frogs in a well! I'll show you how a real pirate handles a blade!"
Two officers tried to bracket him. One hid behind a massive steel tower shield, while the other circled with twin cutlasses.
Buggy sneered, his body segments detaching into dozens of flying projectiles. His hands, elbows, and shoulders rained down on the shield like a hail of lead.
"Idiot! You can't break my guard with these love taps!" the shield-bearer mocked.
Buggy's floating head drifted into view, a wicked, sadistic grin stretching across his face.
CLICK.
The ten fingers of the two fists currently battering the shield suddenly detached. Under Buggy's mental command, thin, razor-sharp blades ejected from the base of his finger-knuckles. The severed, bladed fingers zipped around the edges of the shield like angry hornets, plunging into the officer's unprotected eyes.
"AAAAAAGH! MY EYES!" The man collapsed, his shield clattering into the dirt as he rolled in agony.
The twin-sword officer turned to run, but a sharp CRACK echoed through the trees.
A flintlock bullet from Carina's pistol tore through his kneecap with surgical precision. He crumpled to the ground, howling.
With their officers mangled, the rank-and-file poachers broke and ran.
"Too late for a tactical retreat!" Buggy laughed, reassembling his torso and pulling out a small, red glass sphere.
"SPECIAL MUGGY BALL!"
He flicked the bead into the center of the fleeing crowd.
K-BOOM!
A miniature sun blossomed in the forest. The shockwave leveled the surrounding brush and swallowed the poachers in a localized firestorm. When the smoke cleared, only charred ruins and whimpering remained.
"Clean and simple," Buggy said, dusting off his lapel and tilting his chin up with the arrogance of a Yonko.
"If you were any slower, the Captain would have been bored," Sabo said, stepping over the smoking debris without breaking stride.
"Hmph. It was my covering fire that ended it," Carina added, holstering her weapon.
The three pushed through the final layer of ancient brush and stood at the edge of the basin. The sight before them forced a collective pause.
The earth was pulverized.
The several-hundred-meter basin looked like it had been the epicenter of a meteor strike. The lush jungle had been flattened into splinters by a violent shockwave. The air shimmered with the heat of scorched stone and the heavy, fatty scent of roasted pork.
In a smoldering crater at the center, a mountain of an ancient boar lay on its back, foaming at the mouth, its Haki-hardened bristles burned to ash.
On the crater's rim stood their Captain. Ace's dark red windbreaker fluttered in the cooling breeze, his back to them, radiating an aura of absolute, crushing dominance.
Opposite him, Leona stood with her twin bone-cleavers held low, staring at Ace with a look that flickered between profound shock and a burgeoning, fanatical respect.
"Looks like we're just in time for the victory lap," Sabo said, adjusting his hat. Seeing Ace standing unscathed over the ruins of an 85-million-Berry veteran, a surge of pride filled the hearts of the Eclipse Pirates.
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