Robin's sudden, sharp counterattack caught Perospero completely off guard. He acted quickly, molding a thick wall of candy to shield himself from the assault, but the other fighters nearby were not as fortunate. They were swept away by a powerful wave of Tempest Kicks, crashing to the ground in rapid succession. Judge and his son, Ichiji, watched the display and could not help but shudder. The Straw Hat crew was truly full of monsters. It was terrifying to realize that a single crew member possessed such overwhelming strength. They silently promised themselves that they would never provoke this group again.
Reiju, however, was stunned for a different reason. She had spent a few days aboard the Thousand Sunny and had always seen Robin as a gentle, composed woman. While Robin sometimes made dark or unsettling comments, Reiju never imagined she possessed such lethal combat capabilities. It seemed that being the wife of the Lightning Great Swordsman, Carl, meant she was far from an ordinary person.
Perospero waited for the storm of Tempest Kicks to subside before retracting his candy wall. When he saw the large group of his subordinates lying defeated on the ground, his expression darkened with fury. As the eldest son of Big Mom, he felt humiliated by being outmaneuvered and bullied by a woman from the Straw Hat crew. He roared in frustration, "Candy Waves!"
He pointed his candy-cane staff forward, and a massive surge of sticky, purple syrup erupted from the tip, rushing to engulf Robin. Reacting instantly, Robin leaped into the air, using Moonwalk to evade the encroaching tide. As she rose, she kept her hands crossed in front of her chest. A fraction of a second later, a slender, conjured hand sprouted from the air directly behind Perospero. She channeled the power of the Six Styles, and a high-speed Finger Pistol struck out.
Perospero sneered, swinging his cane backward in a preemptive strike. "Pero Pero! I have been on guard against your tricks for a long time! Candy Man!"
The hot, sticky syrup instantly coated the conjured hand. Robin felt the intense heat burning through her link, and she immediately dismissed the limb, turning it into a flurry of flower petals before it could be fully consumed by the candy. Perospero snorted in dissatisfaction. Robin's Devil Fruit ability was a nuisance, but he remained confident. Although he had been defeated by Blackfoot Sanji in the past, he refused to believe he would lose to Nico Robin today.
"Colorful! Huge Finger Pistol!" Robin called out, initiating her next technique.
A giant, multi-limbed hand erupted from the earth beneath them. The massive finger thrust forward, piercing the air with a terrifying whistle. Perospero felt the pressure of a localized hurricane forming around the attack. Realizing he could not simply block such a force, he hastily layered walls of hardened candy to protect himself. However, the giant Finger Pistol shattered his defenses in one fluid motion, continuing its trajectory toward him like a bamboo spear breaking through a screen.
"Armament Haki? I see, you have coated your fingertips in Armament Haki!" Perospero gritted his teeth, careful not to bite his own tongue.
As the strike closed in, he decided to fight back with everything he had. He generated a massive volume of syrup from his cane, instantly forming a giant fist on the ground. He coated this construct in his own Armament Haki and slammed it upward to meet her attack. With a thunderous boom, the two forces collided, shattering the giant Finger Pistol into countless pieces.
Perospero laughed triumphantly. "Pero Pero Pero! You are just a little girl, and you have done well to reach this level, but do not dream of defeating me! I am the eldest son of my mother!"
Robin remained completely unmoved. The scattered petals from her previous attack suddenly swirled and combined under her mental command. They formed a super-long, slender arm that stretched forward, appearing directly in front of Perospero's chest in an instant.
"I am not just a little girl. I am Nico Robin, the wife of the Lightning Swordsman, Carl," she stated, her voice calm and firm.
The finger, now reinforced with a dense layer of Armament Haki, pierced directly through Perospero's abdomen. The conjured arm vanished into petals the moment the strike landed. Perospero gasped, looking down at his bleeding stomach in complete disbelief. He had never imagined he would be defeated so quickly.
As his vision blurred, he replayed the battle in his mind. Robin had been in complete control of the fight's rhythm from the start. She had accurately predicted that he would block her giant attack. At the very moment he felt the most proud of his defense, he had been at his most vulnerable. Robin had used the large attack as a distraction, hiding the smaller, faster strike behind it. She was fast, accurate, and ruthless. He had been outplayed.
"Damn it! I have brought shame to my mother," Perospero wheezed as he collapsed to the ground.
His breathing was shallow. While the wound was not immediately fatal, he was in no condition to continue the fight. The defeat of Big Mom's eldest son was a massive blow to the enemy's morale. The other children and combatants of the Big Mom Pirates looked on in shock, their fighting spirit evaporating as they were soon overwhelmed by the relentless assault of the Vinsmoke family.
Katakuri, Smoothie, and Cracker watched the scene, unable to process what they had just witnessed.
"Brother Peros, defeated?"
"How is this possible? Brother Peros is incredibly strong!"
The three Sweet Commanders were shaken, but the reality was undeniable. Law seized the momentary hesitation in Katakuri's defense to launch a surprise attack, saying with a smirk, "It is not impossible. Nico Robin is the wife of Carl. How could that man's partner be someone simple?"
Katakuri narrowed his eyes, his expression turning dangerous. So, she was truly Carl's woman. That explained the strength, but the insult to his family remained. Perospero had to be avenged, or the entire Big Mom Pirate crew would become a laughingstock.
High above the battlefield, Big Mom looked down at her fallen son. She did not show concern; instead, she roared in pure hatred, "Perospero, you useless waste! With strength like that, you are not worthy of being called my eldest son! If you are so pathetic, then go and die! Find a hole to rot in!"
The members of the Big Mom Pirates, already demoralized, felt their hearts sink further. The Straw Hat crew watched in silence, horrified by her words. She was truly a bizarre woman. Instead of worrying about her son or trying to boost her crew's flagging spirits, she chose to berate him. It made the rank-and-file combatants wonder if their own lives were ever worth anything to her.
"You should worry about yourself first, old woman!" Carl shouted with a mocking smile.
He swung his sword, forcing Big Mom to dodge yet another strike. Ever since she had narrowly avoided one of his more powerful attacks earlier, she had been terrified of taking his blows head-on. She dodged whenever she could, but she failed to realize that every time she retreated, her crew's morale plummeted further.
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