Even children with no prior knowledge could sense the danger of the battle that had just taken place in the arena.
Although it was called a warm-up, neither of them held back intentionally.
And now, Jigg was truly enraged.
"Kid, you better be careful! Rack Forging 6!!"
'Black Gear' Jigg struck first! Several gears of varying sizes appeared under his feet, not interlocking with each other. Instead, they acted as pulley boosters, greatly increasing his movement speed. To some extent, this move bore a striking resemblance to Victor's first technique created after eating the Zip-Zip Fruit, 'Metal Zipper: Spark Pilgrimage.'
In an instant, the distance between the two rapidly closed! As Jigg charged forward, his right arm extended backward, his right hand's five fingers spread open, each fingertip transforming into a high-speed rotating gear. He then lunged with full force towards Victor's head!
"Bevel Gear 9! Level 2 Fitter's Machining!"
A powerful, heavy blow! But Victor, with closed eyes, subtly dodged the attack with a slight sidestep. Then, his feet suddenly propelled him forward, and his figure instantly vanished from his original spot.
One of the Six Powers of the Navy, Soru!
Victor quietly appeared behind 'Black Gear' Jigg, delivering a heavy punch, devoid of Devil Fruit power, with cunning precision to Jigg's lower back.
The latter winced in pain, fiercely swinging his left arm, which had transformed into a giant gear, behind him. But it only produced a dull explosion in the air, again easily avoided by Victor.
Victor's fists sliced through the air with fierce whooshing sounds, delivering rapid, powerful blows, one after another, to various parts of Jigg's body not covered by gears.
"Uwaaahhhh!!!!" Jigg was exasperated by the continuous barrage of punches, like a machine gun.
He roared, and once again transformed his entire body into a gear-man, a giant gear form. Then he brought his arms together, the gears on both sides interlocking and then accelerating violently!
With a grating metallic screech, Jigg's arms formed a Giggantic gear assembly, and then all his body gears roared into action, generating immense power. He swung the gear-assembly arm-hammer around his body, rotating at a furious high speed!
"Quenched Steel Cut Gear 28!! Level 1 Fitter's Sawing Whirlwind!!!"
The entire arena was engulfed by this intense gear storm. The strong airflow even forced the spectators in the surrounding stands to close their eyes.
After a while, the storm gradually subsided. 'Black Gear' Jigg, panting heavily, released his gear-man form, but Victor was nowhere to be seen.
"Did that kid get completely annihilated by the captain's sawing whirlwind?"
In the stands, the red-haired brute Downey laughed gleefully. Then, he was kicked to the ground and brutally beaten by the angry members of the 'Victor Fan Club', with no mercy shown!
'Arc Gun' Bill, as a sniper, still had good eyesight. With his thick-bottomed glasses, he suddenly pointed to the sky and shouted, "Captain! Up there!"
Everyone looked up at the sky, only to see Victor leisurely suspended in the air, his feet constantly creating explosive sound booms from the air-stepping.
One of the Navy's Six Powers, Geppo.
"That's... the Navy's Six Powers? But how could Victor..." Robin covered her mouth in surprise. The Navy's Six Powers were impossible to teach to outsiders.
Perona crossed her arms and said airily, "It must have been those two big cats using the same techniques in front of Big Brother yesterday. Big Brother is an unparalleled combat genius! No matter what kind of technique, he understands the principle after seeing it once, and can perfectly mimic it after seeing it twice."
In the arena, 'Black Gear' Jigg, looking up at the sky, his eyes bloodshot, gnashed his steel teeth, making a grating sound.
"That's... that's! The technique used by the World Government's dogs!!" He let out an angry roar, the gear decorations on his clothes spinning faster and faster with the fluctuation of his mood.
Jigg's entire body transformed into Giggantic gears shimmering with a silvery-gray metallic luster. The gears tightly interlocked and rotated slowly, then spun faster and faster. His entire being was enveloped in intense steam, his arms closed and raised high, restructuring into a single-sided rail composed of racks. A sharply toothed black large gear was poised at the end of the rail, ready to launch.
"I won't hold back this time..."
The black gear, driven by the surrounding gears, spun at high speed, emitting a shower of sparks. With 'Black Gear' Jigg's roar, this black gear, like a dark steel meteor, tore through the air barrier and howled towards Victor!
"Quenched Steel Helical Gear 30! Steel Spiral Star!!"
Victor, in mid-air, smiled slightly. A sonic boom suddenly erupted from his feet, and he lunged like a cannonball towards the howling black gear!
A cold gleam quietly appeared in Victor's right palm. With a light arc, this high-speed, unstoppable, fatal gear was silently split in two by the famous sword 'Rai Urazu', sliding past Victor's sides and whistling into the sky.
Resin Zipper - Block.
Even a Paramecia user's 'super creation', as long as it has a physical form and is not covered in Haki, once it separates from the user's body, it conforms to the Zip-Zip Fruit's chain-opening rules.
Flying projectiles, ineffective!
'Black Gear' Jigg stared dumbfounded as his strongest attack was so effortlessly nullified by this zipper kid. This 'Quenched Steel Helical Gear 30: Steel Spiral Star' had once destroyed four Navy warships in a single blow! How could it be so easily cut in two by him?
Could he be a rare master swordsman?
As Jigg was stunned, Victor's fist appeared before his eyes!
"Hey! Big guy, grit your teeth!!"
Bang—!!
This Haki-covered punch landed squarely on Jigg's face!
Accompanied by scattered blood and shattered teeth, Jigg was violently blasted back more than ten meters, then slammed hard onto the ground, bounced into the air, rolled several meters, and finally collapsed motionless at the edge of the arena.
"Captain!"
The 'Machine Guild Pirates' shouted in worry, but entering the arena at this point would break the rules, and then their captain would truly lose. So, they could only anxiously cheer for 'Black Gear' Jigg in the arena.
Victor landed on the ground and slowly walked towards the fallen Jigg.
Jigg, his face covered in blood, struggled to get up: "Damn it... I'll, I'll kill you!"
Victor walked up to Jigg, grabbed him by the collar, and roared, "You idiot! Haven't I beaten some sense into you yet?! Do you even deserve to be a leader like this?"
Jigg looked at Victor blankly, not understanding what he meant.
And the pirates in the stands were also stunned, and silence fell.
Victor, furious at Jigg's lack of ambition, slammed him hard onto the ground and said in a low voice, "To throw away your career and future just because of a brawl, no one can blame you for that. But as a leader, you also threw away the future of all the employees in your shipyard who trusted you!"
"Have you ever considered whether these civilians are suited to be pirates? You can't even rob properly; your future will either be starvation or annihilation by the Navy! What is a leader for? A leader needs to lead his subordinates to a bright future! Have you done even a tiny bit of that?"
Jigg's face was covered in snot and tears, he didn't know when: "But... but we only know how to build ships... The World Government won't let us build ships, what else can we do? There's nowhere that will take us in!"
The pirates in the stands also wiped their tears and wept quietly. If civilians weren't forced, who would willingly become pirates? They had never resented their captain, but sometimes in their dreams, they would recall the peaceful and stable good old days when they weren't being chased. But the sea is vast, where could they possibly find a place for themselves?
"I'll take you in," Victor said calmly, hands in his pockets.
Jigg, his eyes blurred with tears, looked at the short blond man, suspecting he had misheard, and stammered, "We, we are highly wanted criminals by the Navy..."
Victor scoffed: "So what? My 'Coral' trading company happens to be short on a shipwright team. If you're not afraid of hard work, then come. As for the World Government and the Navy, let them come find me."
"Now, I'll only ask you one thing — are you willing to join 'Coral'?"
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