Vito was hanging on by a thread, if it weren't for his absurd self‑healing ability, he'd have died dozens of times already. For anyone else, these injuries would've been instant death.
Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!
His heart pounded like a war drum, steady at first, then faster, louder, almost frantic.
A scorching heat spread through his body, like a fire raging from within. A strange, powerful force surged inside him, fighting back against the mammoth's crushing grip.
Hiss… hiss…
As his heartbeat quickened, white steam began pouring from his skin, just like Luffy's Second Gear. The sheer heat made the mammoth's trunk sizzle against his body.
And on Vito's back, turquoise markings began to appear, glowing faintly beneath the rising smoke.
The mammoth sensed the shift. Vito's aura was transforming, growing more dangerous, more terrifying, as something dormant deep inside him slowly awakened.
"OPEN!"
With a roar, Vito tore himself free from the mammoth's hold. In that instant, the shattered bones in his body were forcibly realigned by powerful, spasming muscles.
HSS!
The pain was blinding. Vito hissed sharply, breath shaking. But the worse the damage became, the more monstrous his strength grew.
"This feels like… Second Gear's principle? Acceleration from a heart forced into overdrive by near‑death…?"
He theorized wildly, trying to make sense of the transformation.
"…Nah, whatever. It's a Devil Fruit thing. Don't think too hard."
His heart had already begun to slow, meaning this boosted state wouldn't last long. Once the heartbeat returned to normal, the power-up would end.
"Well, credit where it's due. If it weren't for you, big guy, I never would've awakened this."
He leapt, BOOM!, and the ground beneath him cratered. Vito shot into the sky like a streaking meteor, soaring high enough to look down over the entire island.
But that power came at a price. Just that single burst made his leg bones explode under the force, bending his feet into unnatural shapes.
"Mmph, damn… too much power. My bones can't handle it?!"
He bit down hard, summoning more Armament Haki to protect the bones in his arms.
Right now, his body was too strong for his brain to control. The reverse of a common training problem, his muscles were responding faster than his mind could keep up.
Just thinking about moving was enough to make his body act on its own. No adjustment period. No buffer. Just explosive reactions.
"Damn it, this power is freaking insane! And it hurts like hell!"
He couldn't hold back a scream this time. He tried lightly clenching his fists,
Crack crack crack…
His arm bones, barely healed, fractured again. Even protected with Armament Haki.
"Great. Guess I'm becoming the King of Bone Fractures."
The pain was so intense he didn't even dare grit his teeth, one wrong clench and his molars might shatter too.
Vito began to fall from above. He curled his blackened fists and threw a punch straight toward the mammoth's skull, carefully controlling the force, because even with Haki his bones were breaking.
BOOM!
The impact blasted the clearing apart. Dust burst outward like a localized storm. Trees snapped in perfect rows. The earth itself trembled violently.
Animals fled in blind panic, driven purely by instinct.
Just one punch, one, was enough to rival Whitebeard's quake fist.
The crimson mammoth's head slammed into the ground and sank deep, its enormous body trembling comically. In a cartoon, it might've looked funny. In reality? No creature survives that.
"Haa… hiss… haa…"
Vito, however, paid a brutal price. His arms suffered another complete compound fracture, on par with Might Guy after unlocking inner gates.
He couldn't even stand. His legs had twisted horribly from landing, the warped bones pushed into positions no human anatomy should ever allow.
From his neck down, he was a mess of shattered bones and mashed muscle, truly "broken into a thousand pieces."
"AAAHHHH, !!"
He couldn't stop the pained scream that tore from his throat. His chest heaved violently, every breath a stab of agony.
"…Won… I won…"
He whispered weakly.
He couldn't move at all, but he had an idea.
It was insane… but based on previous experiences, probably doable.
He could force his muscles to realign his bones.
He'd done smaller versions of this before, using tension and muscle contraction to hold broken fragments in place. He'd even forcibly rebuilt his skeletal structure after escaping the mammoth's grip.
Now all he had to do was repeat the process deliberately.
It would hurt. Badly.
But it was the fastest way to get moving again.
"AAAAAAGHHHHHHHH!!!"
His legs twisted, bones grating and grinding. Bit by bit, the shattered pieces were forced back into place by sheer muscular pressure.
His arms followed. Every bone snapped into alignment under brutal, animalistic force.
The pain was beyond words.
Once it was over, Vito lay panting, drenched in blood, looking like he'd been pulled from a pool of gore.
…
Hic.
Sitting cross-legged, Vito let out a very unheroic hiccup.
Beside him was a towering pile of colossal skeletons, the mammoth's massive tusks, the rhino's skull, and dozens more. On the fire pit, slabs of enormous bone-in meat roasted, the kind Luffy would've drooled over.
"Everyone in this world can eat like a pig and never gain weight… I guess that's the One Piece metabolism buff."
He was stuffed so round he looked like a balloon. After devouring a mountain of food, his body returned to peak condition, full HP.
The tiger watched him with worshipful terror, gnawing on raw meat. When Vito relaxed, the tiger even walked over and lay down beside him, offering its flank as a pillow.
Its body trembled, Vito's strength had frightened it into obedience.
"Ahh… I feel like I could eat a bit more."
Just those casual words made the tiger jolt violently, worried it might be on the menu next.
//----------------------------------------------------//
//--- Add to Collection!
//--- 150 P.S = 1 Extra Chapter