Dozens of turquoise serpents charged forward like two-legged lizards, their forked red tongues flicking in and out. The closer they came to Davy Jones' crew, the hungrier their fangs gleamed.
"Why are there so many of them?!" Buggy nearly wished he had grown an extra pair of legs. If his powers allowed, he would have grabbed his own feet with his hands and flown off into the air.
Unfortunately, that was only a fantasy.
"Quit whining. And shut that crow's mouth of yours," Alvida snapped, wagging a finger at the red-nosed clown before turning to Davy Jones. "Captain, should we retreat?"
"We should head into the alleys," Kuro adjusted the gleam of his round spectacles and offered. "Their bodies are too large—once they crowd together, only a few at a time will be able to squeeze through."
"Great idea!" Buggy's eyes lit up. "As long as it's not—"
"Shut up!" Kuro and Alvida cut him off in unison before he could jinx it.
"We'll do that," Davy Jones gave the final word. Then he added, "Keep an eye on those birds in the sky. Buggy, Mikita—you handle them. The rest of us deal with the snakes on the ground."
"Aye!"
From the East Blue to the Grand Line, the more the crew had experienced, the less they would dare disobey their captain's authority.
The seas had no shortage of powerful fighters or cunning schemers. What was rare was a leader who could make the right decision swiftly and decisively.
So the aerial battle against the flock of strange birds was entrusted to Buggy and Mikita, while Davy Jones, Kuro, Alvida, and Hachi vanished into the shadow of a side street.
As predicted, the swarm of serpents crashed after them like a surging tide, cramming into the alley mouth in a writhing mass—exactly as Kuro had foreseen.
But what Kuro had not accounted for was the sheer brute force of these monsters. By crushing against each other, they smashed down the walls of the alley itself.
"Damn beasts," Kuro cursed under his breath, not daring to look back at them for fear of falling into the same hallucinations that had ensnared Mikita.
"Let me toss them something to chew on," Alvida muttered. She twisted the base of her spiked iron club, pulled out two of Buggy's bombs hidden within, and hurled them into the serpent pack without hesitation.
BOOM!
Orange fire erupted like a blooming carnivorous flower, consuming part of the horde. But the majority pressed on—unafraid, unrelenting.
"Buggy!" Alvida barked. "Your turn!"
"I know, I know!"
Buggy flung his remaining bombs, then unleashed a spray of bullets from behind his golden shield—barely managing to hold the charging serpents at bay.
At the same time, Davy Jones, Kuro, and Hachi were hardly idle. From the houses lining the alley, more creatures emerged, lunging at them to claim their share of flesh.
One monster, like an unopened flower bud, lashed out with two vine-like tendrils. They coiled around Hachi's legs, the snake-heads at their tips snapping at his octopus limbs.
Instinctively, Hachi slashed again and again, hacking the tendrils apart. He nearly stumbled before finally breaking free.
Another parasite, lurking in a cyan bone shell, thrust out hands shaped like human palms to claw at them…
The monsters were not only countless, striking from the shadows of the dead city, but each wielded sinister abilities: sapping strength, spreading confusion, leaving bodies vulnerable and weak.
Every effect was cripplingly negative for the crew.
That was why Davy Jones had chosen to push through rather than wage a stand-off. Clearing an entire city of such foul creatures was neither possible nor wise.
Even so—things went wrong.
Buggy was suddenly overwhelmed by the flock of strange birds above. They dived, pecking at every piece of his split body. However many parts he split into, that many were beset by the birds.
With bombs and bullets spent, his only weapons left were throwing knives and the golden shield. Enough to wound, but not to drive them off completely.
Mikita tried to help, but every time she stomped and leapt skyward to reach the birds, they scattered like flies. By the time she descended, they had already regrouped out of reach.
The birds clung to Buggy without end.
Stung and furious, he considered releasing the poison gas hidden within his shield. But then—amid the chaos—he locked eyes with a pair of cold, gray-blue eyes.
The captain's eyes.
At once, Buggy steadied himself. He staggered back, too abrupt in his movement—his hands came up empty. The Poneglyph stone had fallen from his grasp, rolling across the ground.
Yet its state was strange. The star-shaped carvings on its surface now blazed with light, as if it were a machine suddenly charged with energy.
The next instant, a shockwave erupted from its pentagonal surface—firing like a cannon blast straight into the flock of birds, reducing them to ash in an instant!
Buggy stared in astonishment at the monsters that had tormented him for so long, now obliterated by the stone. He quickly scooped it up.
"This thing's way more useful than knives or bullets," he muttered.
But the carved lines had already dulled again, the stone seemingly drained of power.
Buggy understood now. The Poneglyph needed time to accumulate energy, then could unleash it all in a single burst.
Yet even with the birds gone, more monsters were still swarming in from behind.
At this rate, they would be surrounded.
Suddenly, Davy Jones halted. Tentacles spread from his body.
The crew ran on a short distance before realizing their captain was no longer with them. They turned back in confusion.
What was the captain going to do?
Slowly, Davy Jones rose into the air, four tentacles propping him upright like great supports. He made no wasted movement. His eyes narrowed, fixing on the horde surging toward them.
It was as though a colossal, fearsome eye opened behind him. From it, a crushing force erupted.
A humming roar swallowed every other sound. A vast circle around him fell into instant, suffocating silence.
BZZT—
The weaker, wounded monsters collapsed in droves. Those that had been assaulting the crew slumped lifelessly to the ground.
The stronger ones froze as if the world itself had paused them—staring blankly, shuffling backward in fear. Not a single creature dared advance further.
This was the first time Davy Jones, after strengthening his Haki, had unleashed Conqueror's Haki deliberately—using it to cow and scatter a great mass of monsters.
He could only manage it once, and not with mastery yet.
The crew too had been caught in the indiscriminate wave. Staggering, dazed, some nearly collapsed where they stood. Only a few managed to keep their footing.
"This… this is the captain's…"
"My head's spinning… hold me up…"
"All the monsters… they're down…"
Buggy swayed, his mind shaken by the Conqueror's presence.
The others might not fully understand, but he knew the weight of such power.
Every man he had ever known who could wield Conqueror's Haki—who could project it outward—had become a name carved into history.
Captain Davy Jones would be no different.
Mikita herself nearly fainted from the pressure. But because Buggy's earlier blast with the Poneglyph had incinerated so many of the birds, the Goblin's Horn she carried had grown hot in her arms, restoring a trace of strength. She barely managed to stay standing.
She looked around in confusion, not yet knowing what had just happened.
As for Kuro, Alvida, and Hachi—they only half-understood Haki at all, and could offer her no answers.
"Let's move," Davy Jones said firmly, gazing at his shaken but loyal crew. "They won't be following us."
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