"Crack! Crack!"
The wooden giant began to crumble piece by piece.
"How… how is he this strong?!"
From within, Aramaki's voice trembled in fear as he exploded outward.
All around, a flurry of green leaves scattered into the air—greedy, ravenous, as they absorbed the surrounding light and cast the entire area into shadow.
Far off in the distance, Aramaki reappeared with lingering dread on his face.
Thank goodness he had already suffered defeat at the hands of Doflamingo. It was precisely because of that humiliation that he developed a new technique to survive the bizarre environment of Sky Island:
Energy Drain.
If not for that, this last attack might have completely destroyed him.
But now?
His regenerative power was second to none.
What just happened was simply because he had let his guard down. That wouldn't happen again.
The earth rumbled as trees surged forth in a wild cascade.
A massive new wooden titan formed—larger even than the ancient giants of legend.
On its shoulder slithered the grotesque body of Lily Carnation.
From the heights of Upper Yard, the citizens watched with wide eyes as this monstrous, god-like creature took shape.
Safely nestled inside its core, Aramaki felt a fleeting sense of security. He let out a triumphant roar.
"Come at me, spawn of the Demon! With you down, I'll finally make it to Admiral!!"
...
Bullet's gaze burned with intensity. This kind of regeneration...
If he had that Logia Fruit, how unstoppable would he be?
He tore off the upper half of his shirt, revealing dense, dark muscles that glistened like polished obsidian.
His voice was laced with contempt.
"What a waste... a Fruit that powerful in the hands of trash like you."
"What did you say?!"
Aramaki's eyes bulged, blood vessels surging in fury.
That tone—that mocking disgust—triggered his deepest trauma, dragging him back to the memory of being humiliated and ground into dust by Doflamingo.
Dozens of massive vine-like tendrils burst from the wooden titan's body.
They intertwined and fused into a gigantic spear aimed to skewer the entire residential sector.
And that wasn't all—an obsidian sheen of Armament Haki began creeping up the weapon.
Bullet grinned, baring perfect teeth as a wild, manic light filled his eyes.
"Now that's more like it. Let's see what you're made of."
From within him surged Armament Haki so dense it could wrap entire mountains.
It coursed into his right fist, warping the air around it.
BOOM!
The monstrous spear and Bullet's fist collided with an earth-shaking roar. Even far-off citizens of Upper Yard felt the ground tremble.
The contrast was absurd—one massive, one small.
But it was the spear that gave way.
Crack! Crack!
With a guttural grind, the spear was pushed back by Bullet's fist, unable to endure the sheer force.
Inside the wooden titan, panic once again took hold of Aramaki.
Why? Even after all this power… why is he still overpowering me?!
Sensing his panic, Lily Carnation's true body—long hidden—finally revealed itself.
It lashed out like a monstrous whip, spiraling toward Bullet with a piercing howl.
BANG!
Lily Carnation wrapped tightly around Bullet's body.
Its grotesque head lunged at his skull, jaws wide to bite.
Bullet didn't budge an inch. His right hand was still locked in struggle with Aramaki's attack.
This sensation—being bound so completely—reminded him of Seastone chains.
"Disgusting thing."
His gaze sharpened. With a sudden motion, his free left hand clamped down on the creature's grotesque form.
With a strength that could move mountains, he yanked back.
Aramaki stumbled forward uncontrollably, his body torn from its anchor as tree roots snapped from the cloud island beneath him.
With his focus broken, the spear he'd been controlling collapsed into splinters.
"You're not even worth my time!!"
Bullet curled his lips into a sneer.
He was thoroughly unimpressed.
He grabbed the monstrous body with both hands, and unleashed his full strength.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The roots anchoring the wooden giant snapped one by one.
Before Aramaki could recover—
BOOM!
The sound of an explosion echoed through the sky as Bullet dashed forward like a high-caliber sniper round.
"If that's all you've got, then just DIE!!"
"Damn it—!"
At the last second, Aramaki managed to coat his chest in Armament Haki.
THUD!!
The force of mountains and seas smashed into the wooden titan's chest.
CRACK! CRACK!
A gaping hole was blown through the giant's heart, front to back.
But Aramaki didn't fall.
The wooden giant wasn't his real body.
As long as plants still moved, his vitality remained.
The broken shell erupted into countless vines, which surged toward Bullet like a tidal wave.
Meanwhile, a brand-new Aramaki sprouted far away, completely unscathed.
"Try this one, Bullet!!"
His Fruit powers surged again, conjuring coils of vines that wrapped through the air.
From the sky above, it looked like a swarm of serpents descending to devour him.
"This weak-ass move? Do you even know who I am?"
Bullet smashed a fist into the ground.
The firm island cloud below warped and roiled like the primal White-White Sea.
A wave surged up.
The turbulent island cloud swallowed the vines and ground them into nothing.
Then Bullet charged.
Everything in his path—stone, wood, vine—was reduced to dust with a single punch.
Watching this, Aramaki's eyelid twitched.
He couldn't take a hit like that.
Massive logs erupted around him like a barricade, shielding his flank.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Bullet blasted through each ironwood pillar like it was paper.
What awaited him on the other side was an insane bloom of vines and blossoms.
Far away, Aramaki was desperately forcing the growth forward.
Endless white and purple flowers exploded into bloom.
Massive doses of atropine and scopolamine—hallucinogenic and neurotoxic—were released into the air.
Even at ten thousand meters high, the pure air turned to poison.
"You pitiful bastard."
Bullet muttered, his tone cold.
Even his body, as strong as it was, felt light-headed at the overwhelming scent.
No wonder that lightning brat had lost to this guy.
What a boring tactic.
"Lahahahaha! Go ahead, resist me if you can! Crawl before my invincible poison gas!!"
From Aramaki's perspective, it looked like Bullet was already succumbing—his movements sluggish.
Victory was near. All he had to do was wait for Bullet to collapse.
A grin stretched across Aramaki's face as he poured more poison into the air, never daring to move closer.
Getting into melee range with that monster would be suicide.
His strength and Haki were leagues below Bullet's.
...
"The strongest thing in this world… is a body forged through endless battle, and unshakable Haki!!"
Bullet had seen through the fear Aramaki was trying to hide.
This fight had become dull.
This garbage Logia user wasn't even one percent of what Doflamingo was.
Bullet drew his right fist back high, the veins on his arm bulging and writhing like snakes as power surged through them.
A strange ripple of energy pulsed through the air.
Black and red lightning—the mark of Conqueror's Haki—crackled around his fist.
A cold dread crept into Aramaki's heart.
That Haki… he'd seen it before.
"This next blow ends it!!!"
Bullet had gone completely berserk.
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Fanfic is finished 527 chapters in total on p@treon/tambeerg