Wang Zhi had both hands locked on his greatsword, bracing Napoleon's downward cleave leaving him no room at all to fend off Prometheus.
Linlin's left-hand homie shot free, a blazing bolt arrowing through the air toward Wang Zhi. Heat roared in its wake, swelling into a towering pillar of fire like a laser made of flame.
"Stolen Fire!"
In an instant, Armament Haki sheeted Wang Zhi's golden armor, blackening it to a coal sheen.
And then shiiing! a brilliant slash scythed in from behind him, cleaving the fire-homie's strike cleanly in two.
"Ares," Wang Zhi exhaled as the heat sheared past.
"You're no match for Linlin. Leave her to me!"
Tengetsu Ares hit the air like a launched rocket, streaking past Wang Zhi in a diagonal blur. That earlier slash had been his a clean cut that spared Wang Zhi from the worst of Linlin's wrath.
Linlin's eyes burned hotter at the sight of him, red glow swelling like a pair of lanterns.
Prometheus veered off Wang Zhi and pivoted toward Ares. Linlin twisted Napoleon in both hands, changing the line of attack an oblique sweep aimed to carve across Ares' waist.
Wang Zhi dropped to the ground in the opening that gave him and looked up. "Ares has grown this much in a year and he held his own against CP0's chief. He'll be fine."
Midair, Ares kicked into another gear. The air under his feet cracked with a sonic snap as he slipped past Napoleon's edge and closed right up on Linlin's face.
He didn't bother with courtesy. A fist the size of a boulder crashed forward.
"Linlin wake up!"
BOOM!
His punch buried itself in her cheek. That perfectly sculpted, dangerously alluring face twisted out of true under the impact, her massive body tilting then slamming into the tiles in a thunder of dust.
"What a punch!" Katakuri breathed from the corner, eyes sparkling, full of worship.
Perospero curled his lip. "Don't forget, Mama's skin is an iron balloon. Blades and bullets don't bite. That punch won't hurt her it'll just make her serious."
He was only five, but he'd seen this scene plenty. Mama always walked away without a mark.
Katakuri's glow dimmed a shade Perospero wasn't wrong. He just couldn't stand how Mama fought: letting opponents land hits because she trusted her body to carry her through. It was arrogance born of monstrous talent.
Perospero licked the candy in his hand and chuckled. "Among Captain Rocks' crew, Mama's one of the strongest. With no Shiki, no Newgate, no Captain Rocks here, no one stops her. Ares has only been with us a year no way he beats Mama."
Katakuri didn't argue. He kept staring at the center of the square, unblinking.
"Just watch," Perospero sing-songed. "Mama's going to teach him a lesson."
A tiny hand tugged Perospero's coat. He glanced down. "Compote? What is it?"
Charlotte Compote didn't answer she pressed a bounty poster into his palm.
Perospero glanced and snorted. "Compote, I've seen Ares' poster a hundred times. It's burned into my head. Two hundred and twenty million Berries."
"Brother… Ares' bounty… it changed," Compote murmured, still pushing the paper at him.
Changed?
Curiosity prickled up Perospero's spine. Ares had been missing a year what change? Katakuri leaned in too, face bright with interest, eyes flicking over the numbers.
"Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands… millions… billions…"
"…"
They stared at one another, speechless.
Perospero swallowed hard. His eyes went round as moons. The poster trembled in his grip. "He… he's at 2.2 billion Berries…"
What?!
It was the second-highest bounty he'd ever seen. The only man higher was Rocks himself.
Ares, worth more than Shiki, more than Whitebeard, more than Mama? The thought scrambled his brain. The World Government hadn't lost its mind so there was only one conclusion.
Ares' strength and the threat he posed
"Is… is this real?" Katakuri stammered. Even the beastlike fangs jutting past his lips quivered. The number was too staggering.
This wasn't the era, decades later, when bounties ballooned like bubbles. In this age, a few hundred million made a pirate a roaring name. And those around a billion? You could count them on one hand.
Men like Edward Newgate, Shiki the Golden Lion… Charlotte Linlin.
The children looked back to the broad, mountainous figure in the square. Katakuri's breath quickened; curiosity and anticipation lit his gaze. "He vanished for a year… For the Government to raise him that high what did Ares do?"
"I've never seen anyone's bounty jump like this," Perospero muttered. "It's like… like aw, forget it. It's just insane."
He had to see it with his own eyes how strong did Ares have to be to outstrip Whitebeard and Shiki?
In the square, Linlin rose from the settling grit, the red in her stare snuffed out. "Ares, your strength has grown a lot."
Her voice had gone cool again. And when Linlin was calm, she was far more terrifying than when she raged.
Faint marks lingered on her cheek, a whisper of ache beneath the skin enough to tell her exactly how much power he'd packed into that blow. Monster strength wasn't Linlin's title alone.
It belonged to Tengetsu Ares as well.
And with the training he'd bled through, his brute force had already begun to edge past hers.
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