Chapter 7: Sudden Death
"My, my. Finally dropping the act, ?"
Oro snapped his fingers, remaining perfectly calm as he raised his right hand slightly.
'Golden Needle Rain.' I should really come up with some cooler names for my moves.
Countless pinpricks of golden light instantly materialized in the air. These were nano-sized gold particles he had scattered throughout Lamb House beforehand, now coalescing into hundreds of hair-fine golden needles.
Swish!
Like a swarm of angry hornets, the needles avoided a direct assault, instead arcing with precision to strike the three Homies.
Thump-thump-thump!
The dense volley pierced straight through the Homies' forms but failed to cause any lasting damage, the holes sealing instantly with blue soul-fire.
"Useless, brat!" Carmel sneered.
Oro shrugged indifferently and waved his left hand.
A thin wall of pure gold erupted from the floor before him. Clubs, corrosive sprays, and snapping jaws all slammed against it in a violent cacophony! The wall deformed under the impact, then suddenly stretched and flowed, engulfing all three Homies in a golden shell.
"What?!" Carmel gasped in surprise.
Oro recalled the smug grins of heroes in the movies and twisted his own lips into one.
"Whatever works."
"Works? You think this will—?!"
As Carmel moved to summon more Homies, she froze. Her arm was studded with countless golden needles. The true target of the needle rain had been her all along.
"Acupuncture isn't too painful. At your age, it's normal not to have felt it at first. Feeling dizzy is perfectly natural."
Oro reached forward and clenched his fist. The needles embedded in Carmel's flesh writhed like living things, twisting and burrowing deeper.
"Can you still move? Heh. Try using your Soul-Soul powers on these golden needles. You might be... pleasantly surprised."
Carmel glared maliciously at Oro, then suddenly burst into harsh, grating laughter. "Keh-heh-heh… HA HA HA!"
Oro frowned. What's she laughing about? Did I short-circuit something?
"Damn it! If you don't get out here now, the merchandise is gone!"
Oro's eyes widened. Instinctively, he tried to sheath himself in gold, but—
CRACK!
A powerful high kick, too fast to fully track, slammed into the right side of his face.
The impact sent Oro hurtling sideways. He crashed through the interior wall of the room with a thunderous boom!
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. What a pathetic sight, Carmel" A figure in a pristine white suit, white mask, and white top hat stood where Oro had been a moment before. "Are you really that old and rusty?"
SMACK! The suited man brought his palms together in a forceful clap, the shockwave dispersing the cloud of gold dust lingering in the air.
"Stop your nonsense! Kill him!"
"Hmph!You don't give me orders! Shave!"
The man vanished in a blur. In the next instant, he was above Oro's landing spot, his right leg raised high for a devastating axe kick.
"Rankyaku!"
A crescent-shaped vacuum slash tore through the air, not in a clean arc but in a jagged, lightning-bolt pattern!
Oro's pupils contracted. He pressed his right hand flat against the shattered floor.
Hummm!
The ground surged upward, a golden shield crystallizing instantly between him and the attack.
SCREEE—CHANG!
The storm kick smashed into the shield with a deafening metallic shriek. The golden barrier trembled violently, its surface denting inward—but it held.
Simultaneously, dozens of golden spikes shot up from the ground beneath the CP agent's feet!
"Kami-e!"
The agent's body seemed to become paper-thin, effortlessly slipping through the forest of spikes.
"Tekkai - Finger Pistol, Barrage!"
The moment he landed, his ten fingers became a blur. The sharp sound of ripping air filled the room as ten condensed shockwaves shot toward Oro's vital points from a distance!
Oro pushed off the ground, sliding back. The golden shield before him liquefied and reformed into a dense, interlocking net.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The finger gun strikes hit the network's nodal points. The kinetic energy dissipated with muffled thumps, unable to penetrate.
"Tsk. Troublesome brat." Beneath the white mask, the agent's brow furrowed. This kid's Devil Fruit control was alarmingly mature, seamlessly blending defense and counterattack.
"Enough! Time to end this!" The agent vanished again with a low shout.
This time, he was faster. Afterimages trailed behind him as he flashed around Oro in a high-speed circuit.
"Rankyaku!"
"Rankyaku: Scatter!"
"Storm Leg: Lotus Blossom!"
Straight-line slashes, scattered shots, and spiraling waves of vacuum blades assaulted Oro from every direction, carving the floor into a crosshatch of deep grooves. Dust and debris filled the air.
Unable to track the movement visually, Oro simply closed his eyes and pressed his palms to the floor. Golden energy swirled around him.
"Golden Bastion!"
At his command, countless palm-sized golden plates materialized, layering and spinning around him at high speed to form an impenetrable, revolving wall.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
A continuous, deafening rain of slashes hammered against the spinning golden defense, filling the room with sparks and the shriek of metal on force.
KABOOM!
At that moment, the entire front wall of Lamb House exploded inward with tremendous force!
A figure charged through the debris like an enraged adult rhinoceros.
"NO! DON'T HURT ORO!"
BOOM!!!!
Linlin's arrival was marked by a punch that shattered the very foundations of the house. The castle-sized structure groaned, on the verge of total collapse.
"Monster!" the CP agent cursed, his high-speed movement disrupted as he fought to keep his footing on the buckling floor.
"Got you!"
A glint flashed in Oro's eyes. The nano-gold dust in the air, which had been slowly gathering, finally enveloped the agent.
The man in white felt his body grow heavy, as if sinking into invisible quicksand. The microscopic gold particles were coalescing, trying to bind his limbs.
"Tekkai!" He hardened his body instantly, but it was a fraction too late.
WHOOOSH!
With another powerful swing, Linlin's massive fist connected squarely with the agent's chest.
CRUNCH!
The sound of breaking bone was unmistakable. The CP agent was launched backward, a spray of blood misting the inside of his white mask.
Linlin's combat instincts were terrifying. She pursued without hesitation, each step pulverizing the already crumbling floorboards.
Seeing the situation turn disastrous, the CP agent lunged toward the immobilized Carmel. The old woman's wrinkled face was a mask of pure terror.
Linlin didn't stop. Her fist rose again for another earth-shattering blow.
"Linlin! Stop! It's me! It's Moth—"
BOOM!!!!!!
Carmel, the human trafficker known as "Mountain Granny" for fifty years, was no more.
Blood and worse splattered across the ruins. The floor where she had stood was now a crater nearly five meters wide.
The expression beneath the CP agent's mask shattered into pure horror. He stared, dumbstruck. This child is SIX?!
Oro seized the opening. The golden debris at his feet surged upward like a wave, carrying him forward instantly. He clenched his right fist, a massive quantity of gold flowing over it to form a gigantic, spirally patterned warhammer.
"EAT THIS!"
The golden maul descended with the weight of a landslide, the wind of its passage howling, aimed to smash both the agent and the ground beneath him into paste.
The agent's eyes widened. With no room to dodge, he crossed his arms before him, reinforcing his "Tekkai" to its absolute limit.
KABOOOOOM!!!!!
The sound was that of a colossal bell being struck—a deep, percussive explosion that shook the very air.
Beneath the golden warhammer, the man in the white suit lay motionless, blood seeping from the cracks of his shattered mask.
With a final, deafening roar of rending wood and stone, Lamb House gave up the ghost and collapsed completely into a cloud of dust and memories.