Chapter 183: No Technique, All Talent
BOOM!
Alber crossed his wings in front of him like a massive shield. The explosive force in Douglas Bullet's punch was almost entirely blocked by Alber.
The intensity of the flames burning upon his back clearly indicated that Alber had shifted all his attributes to focus entirely on defense.
The shockwave generated by the impact sent quite a few people flying away. Even Alber's feet were deeply buried into the ground, but Bullet's hatred-filled strike failed to deal any effective damage.
"H-He blocked it?! How is that possible?! On our ship, only Captain Roger, Mr. Rayleigh, and Mr. Gaban could take that head-on..."
Shanks and Buggy had also arrived at the scene. Originally, they were just wandering around elsewhere, but after hearing that a newly arrived pirate was challenging everyone at the arena, they came over to watch the fun. They never expected it to be Bullet.
Seeing Alber take that attack completely unscathed, Buggy found it hard to believe. After all, he was well aware of Bullet's strength. Only when fighting Roger did Bullet suffer miserable defeats.
Almost everyone else was no match for Bullet. Despite his young age, Bullet was an absolute monster in Buggy's eyes; among their peers, he had virtually no rivals.
Rayleigh and Gaban could also fight Bullet, but the two of them simply weren't interested in doing so, and Bullet's attention was almost entirely focused on Roger.
As for exactly how much effort Rayleigh and Gaban used when fighting Bullet, only they themselves knew.
And this incredible defense was the rare racial talent of the Lunarians. An attack that would even make Kaido feel pain could be tanked head-on by the Lunarian race relying purely on their innate gifts.
Although the current Alber had not yet reached his peak, the augmentation of the Mythical Zoan Kirin fruit was far superior to that of the Ancient Zoan Pteranodon.
Furthermore, under Nereus's tutelage, Alber actually had the time to slowly train and learn.
It wasn't like his original timeline under Kaido, where, as one of the very few reliable people in the entire Beast Pirates, he had an overwhelming amount of matters to handle and absolutely no free time.
Moreover, Bullet was similarly in a period of growth and hadn't yet experienced the profound enlightenment from his time in Impel Down. For the moment, he truly couldn't break through Alber's defense.
"Is this little bit of force... supposed to tickle me? Kirin's Flame!"
Flames spread forward along his wings, and the phantom projection of a Kirin forged from fire materialized behind Alber, snapping its jaws directly at Bullet.
"I should be saying that to you! Are these tiny sparks supposed to keep me warm?!"
Alber relied on his racial talent, while Bullet used Haki to tank the attack head-on. Although his defense was more than sufficient, Alber's Kirin Fruit—while excellent for disrupting opponents and creating helpers—lacked somewhat in single-target damage output.
When facing an opponent like Bullet, Alber's slight deficiency in attack power became apparent.
And this situation wasn't uncommon. The sea was teeming with massive "HP sponges," while fragile, glass-cannon assassins were actually the rare type.
When a situation arose where neither side could quickly defeat the other, wars of attrition became the mainstream.
Taking advantage of the brief opening as Bullet threw another punch, Alber flapped the wings on his back and launched himself into mid-air.
He had indeed blocked that previous punch, but the feedback from his body told him that engaging in close-quarters brawling with Bullet would eventually lead to defeat. The opponent's body harbored a terrifying amount of sheer physical power.
Utilizing his Devil Fruit abilities to whittle down the opponent's stamina was the far more rational way to fight.
The moment Alber created distance, the nightmare monsters swarmed forward, completely engulfing Bullet in a tide of bodies.
Those child-soldier monsters fearlessly attacked Bullet. Even when smashed into pieces, it wouldn't take long for them to reform.
But what disgusted Bullet the most was the nightmare monster directing them from the rear—Douglas Gray.
Bullet shared a surname with Gray because, back in the day, in order to better exploit those child soldiers, Gray had proclaimed to the world that they were all his own children.
Through years of continuous combat, Bullet had even earned the title of "National Hero," and the nation he served gradually began to gain the upper hand in the war.
Because Gray had "discovered" a talent like Bullet, his military rank constantly rose. But as Bullet's strength grew, Gray realized he could no longer control him and even began to feel threatened by Bullet.
In the end, Gray also betrayed Bullet, scheming to have Bullet die in the final, decisive battle so that he could claim all the military merits for himself.
However, the victor was ultimately Bullet, and both Gray and the kingdom Bullet once served became nothing more than history erased from the sea.
Having crawled his way up from the battlefield, Bullet had used his fair share of sneak attacks and underhanded tactics. If one couldn't handle a sneak attack, it only meant they weren't strong enough yet.
"Bullet..."
As the nightmare monsters reformed once again, Bullet reached down and placed his hand on the arena floor. A dark purple energy began to spread outward from his palm, absorbing the rocks that made up the stage.
This was Bullet's Devil Fruit ability—the Paramecia-type Gasha Gasha no Mi (Clank-Clank Fruit).
It was exactly this fruit that had allowed Bullet to survive the perilous battlefield. The fruit's ability was very simple: it allowed him to assimilate inorganic objects he touched, integrating them into his body to reconfigure them.
This fruit was practically born for the battlefield. In a warzone littered with military equipment and ordnance, it provided a massive advantage.
Currently, Bullet's fruit hadn't Awakened, and given the environment of Fish-man Island, the materials he could assimilate were actually quite limited.
It only allowed his body to grow slightly larger, encasing him in a layer of rock armor. It was better than nothing, but barely.
"That guy Bullet has started using his Devil Fruit powers too... Is making such a huge commotion really okay?" Buggy muttered.
Bullet's Devil Fruit ability was practically a terrain destroyer. Once activated, its impact on the surrounding environment was massive. At the very least, the original arena had already ceased to exist under its influence.
"Captain Roger said not to cause trouble, but this is an arena the Ryugu Kingdom set up themselves, so this shouldn't count, right...?" Shanks reasoned.
"The two of you, STOP RIGHT THERE!!"
Just as Buggy and Shanks were debating whether Bullet's actions constituted breaking the rules, an incredibly furious and deeply resentful voice rang out from nearby.
There was indeed someone watching over the arena. However, the one overseeing things wasn't Alber, but Nanamo.
During the fight just now, she had been casually tossing a gold coin in her hand. Due to the shockwaves of their battle, the gold coin accidentally dropped to the ground.
But before Nanamo could pick it up, Bullet's fruit ability activated, affecting a massive portion of the surrounding area and directly assimilating her gold coin into his rock armor.
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