On the road Mo Wu had taken—
At that same moment, on the other side of the beach—
"Drake, get out of here!"
Just moments ago, Milenko had been full of heroic spirit. Now he was filthy and battered, and even the Justice coat he wore behind him had vanished somewhere.
Grabbing Drake by the right arm, Milenko listened to the screams of his men dying around him. Tears were already flowing from his eyes, but there was no turning back now.
"Drake, my arrogance is what got all of you into this. Get on the boat and leave! You have to inform the other branches—the Hungry Bird has eaten a Devil Fruit!"
Giving his orders in a rush, Milenko pulled a brown notebook from his pocket. His eyes softened as he pressed it into Drake's chest and whispered, "Tell my wife… that I love her."
"N-no, Colonel! I'm staying! No matter what, you have a better chance of escaping than I—"
"Give me a chance to atone, Drake."
Milenko cut him off and didn't give him any chance to continue. He seized Drake with one arm, drew strength from the ground, and hurled him straight toward a small boat in the distance.
Then he turned and looked at the Hungry Bird—now utterly transformed from before, his body covered in scales, his frame terrifyingly muscular as he slaughtered Milenko's men nearby. Regret flashed through Milenko's eyes, only to be swallowed by murderous intent.
"Hungry Bird! Come at me, you bastard!"
"Hm?"
With casual ease, the Hungry Bird crushed a Marine's throat in one hand, then kicked aside a cannonball flying toward him. He didn't even glance at the explosion behind him before grinning.
"Foolish Milenko. To be fair, this really isn't your fault."
"After all, who could have guessed I'd discover this Devil Fruit in a well in Massimo Village?"
"Hungry Bird! I'm going to kill you!!!"
The memory of Massimo Village's destruction surged into Milenko's mind, and he threw back his head with a furious roar. If he hadn't hesitated that day, how could things possibly have ended like this?!
Narrowing his eyes as he watched the Marine who had pursued him for a month, the Hungry Bird's face twisted with depraved delight, his grin stretching wider and wider.
"I should be thanking you, Milenko. It was your mercy that spared me, letting me become…"
Boom!
Sand flew into the air.
In an instant, the Hungry Bird had slammed the charging Milenko into the ground under his foot. Milenko had been using Marine Six Powers: Shave, but it made no difference.
"In front of a lizard, your speed is still too slow."
The Hungry Bird extended a long tongue and licked across his nostrils and lips, laughing in pure exhilaration.
"This is me! The power of Hungry Bird, user of the Zoan-Type Lizard Fruit!"
"Die, Milenko. I'll make sure to take very good care of your Marines."
His scaled right hand lifted Milenko into the air. The Hungry Bird tightened his arm slightly, his slit pupils gleaming with mockery. He could already picture Milenko's head bursting like a watermelon in his grasp.
And then—
He froze.
His right arm had suddenly gone numb.
The Milenko whose death he had already imagined was now sitting in a pool of blood on the ground, staring blankly.
What happened?
"M-my hand?"
Confusion filled the Hungry Bird's eyes.
Then came a soft thud.
A familiar arm covered in scales landed on the beach not far away.
"AAAAAAAH! My arm!"
With only his upper arm remaining, blood pouring endlessly from the stump, the Hungry Bird threw his head back and howled. His agonized scream echoed across the beach, drawing the attention of both pirates and Marines fighting in the distance.
"Captain… Captain?!"
"How is that possible?! The captain ate a Devil Fruit! How could some branch colonel cut off his arm?!"
"Gah! Captain! Let's run! If even the captain can't beat them, we're done for!"
The pirates' morale plummeted with the Hungry Bird's wail.
In contrast, the Marines' morale soared.
"Brothers, kill them! The Colonel already chopped off their captain's arm!"
"Avenge the people of Massimo Village!"
"Charge, brothers!"
Roaring with hot blood, the Marines raised their blades and threw themselves at the pirates like a pack of wolves.
On the other side of the battlefield, Milenko, sitting dumbly in a pool of blood, had already gone blank with shock. He stared at the man standing behind the Hungry Bird—a man holding a long blade.
"Who was it?!"
"Who the hell dared sneak attack me?!"
The searing pain from his severed arm, the blood splashing across his face, the metallic taste on his lips—rage clouded the Hungry Bird's mind so completely that he hadn't even noticed the attacker standing right behind him.
"When I first imagined drawing my sword against another human, I thought it would be hard to accept."
A voice came from behind him, startling the Hungry Bird so badly that he forgot all about Milenko and spun around immediately.
It was Mo Wu.
His eyes were ice-cold as he looked over the battlefield, which resembled a living hell.
He flicked the blood from his blade. His nose twitched slightly as he inhaled the filthy stench of blood and gore, naked killing intent blazing in his eyes.
"But now I see it clearly."
"You lot are no different from demons."
"The same filth. The same stench."
Hearing the contempt dripping from Mo Wu's voice, the Hungry Bird's face grew more and more savage. His scales crept upward, spreading across his upper body, until his entire frame was covered in rough scales with a faint bronze sheen.
"You deserve to die!!!!"
Driven mad by rage, the Hungry Bird pushed the power of his Devil Fruit to the very limit of what he could currently achieve.
His head widened. His eyes became almond-shaped. His nose flattened, his nostrils broadened, and when he opened his mouth, rows of sharp teeth flashed into view. Razor-like claws extended from his fingers. His legs bent backward at the knees. A tail had grown from his back at some point, its pointed tip covered in the same scales as the rest of his body, like a natural spearhead.
A lizard.
A humanoid lizard.
At this moment, the Hungry Bird had all but lost his human form, becoming little more than a lizard wearing the shape of a man.
And for a lizard, regenerating a severed limb was hardly difficult. The stump of his right arm swelled, and a brand-new forearm burst out through blood and flesh, growing at a frenzied pace.
He clenched the regenerated fist, and a look of drunken ecstasy spread across his greenish, grotesque face.
So this is the power of a Devil Fruit.
"ROAR!"
He let out a savage howl at the emotionless man standing behind him. Then he kicked off the ground. The backward-bending knees of his transformed legs showed their worth as his figure blurred and shot upward, appearing above Mo Wu in an instant.
"Die for me!"
His fury exploded.
The claws on both hands grew once more, doubling in size.
"Heh…"
The Hungry Bird's eyes filled with savage delight, as though he could already see Mo Wu's head being pierced through.
How could an ordinary human possibly defeat someone empowered by a Devil Fruit?!
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