Lucien moved first.
He broke left across the open ground toward the northern edge of the town, close enough to the tree line to make it look like he was running for it, far enough back that Sakazuki could still see him clearly. Behind him, the ground erupted. Magma hit the dirt two metres to his right and sprayed outward, and Lucien was already past it, reading the next one before it came.
The second attack came higher, aimed at cutting off the angle. Lucien dropped under it and felt the heat across the back of his neck as it passed. He came up running.
"I'll give you this," Lucien called out without looking back. "That fruit suits you. Can't think of a better match between a man and his ability."
A column of magma hit the building to his left and took the entire wall off it.
Lucien glanced at the smoking gap where the wall had been and kept running.
Sakazuki was walking, with the same flat expression, generating another column in his palm, as if the effort were beneath comment. He threw it the way someone throws something they expect to connect and is already thinking about what comes after.
Lucien stepped around it and kept moving.
"You've gotten faster," Sakazuki said.
Lucien didn't answer. He angled back toward the town deliberately, cutting across the northern road and pulling Sakazuki with him. If he went into the forest now, Sakazuki would just fire into the tree line until something stopped moving. He needed him closer first. Close enough that following felt like the obvious decision.
Another column came in low, and Lucien read it early, stepping left and letting it pass close enough that he felt the heat through his shirt. He turned back toward Sakazuki mid-stride.
"You're going to burn the whole town down at this rate," Lucien said.
"The town is not my concern," Sakazuki said.
"The people in it might disagree."
Sakazuki generated another column in his palm, unhurried. "Pirates don't get to lecture me about people."
He threw it. Lucien was already moving.
The road took him back past the outer buildings, and that was when the full picture of what Sakazuki had been doing to the town became visible.
A storage building on the left had a hole clean through its middle wall, the interior exposed and still smoking. The building next to it had lost its entire front face. Further down, what had been a row of covered market stalls that morning was now a line of blackened frames, the canvas and timber gone entirely, the stone foundations still radiating heat. A cart lay on its side in the road with one wheel melted into the ground.
Nobody was hurt that Lucien could see. The Marines had pushed the locals back early, and the streets were mostly clear. But the damage was the kind that came from someone who had simply pointed at things and kept walking, not adjusting, not calculating, just moving toward a target and letting everything in the way absorb the consequences.
Lucien looked at what was left of the market stalls. He'd bought food from one of them two days ago. The Old woman running it had overcharged him and hadn't apologized for it.
"That was a market," Lucien said, without breaking stride.
"It was in the way," Sakazuki said.
"Of what exactly?"
"Of you."
Lucien exhaled through his nose and kept running.
Another column came in from the left. He read it a half second before it landed and cut hard right, the heat catching his shoulder as he cleared it. He rolled, came up, and checked his position. Sakazuki was closer now. Still walking. The gap between them was about forty metres.
Lucien let it get to thirty.
Then he turned and ran north, directly toward the forest, making sure his white hair was visible the whole way.
***********
Across town in the eastern quarter, Idris moved Law through a service lane and stopped at the corner to check the next street.
Two Marines at the far end. He lined up the closer one, exhaled, and shot him in the shoulder. The second one spun toward the sound, and Idris put a round through his thigh before he could locate the source. He reloaded and moved Law forward.
Another Marine came around the far corner, and Idris shot him in the leg before he'd finished turning. He stepped over him and kept going.
Then he heard it. A sound like the earth opening up, deep and rolling, from the northern end of town. He looked up. A thick column of black smoke was climbing above the roofline, too large for a fire, wrong colour for timber. Another impact followed, closer this time, and the ground carried a faint tremor with it.
Idris looked at the smoke for a moment. Sakazuki was not being careful about where he was pointing that fruit.
He reloaded and checked the next stretch of road and stopped.
Borsalino was standing at the far end of it with his hands in his pockets, watching the smoke rise above the town. Another impact shook the air from the north and Borsalino glanced in that direction with an expression that sat somewhere between mild disapproval and complete indifference before looking back at nothing in particular.
Idris looked at him, did the calculation, and looked away. He found the gap he needed and moved Law through it without another glance toward the far end of the road.
The calculation stayed the same every time he ran it.
Don't touch it.
Move around it. Keep moving. Be grateful it isn't moving toward you.
He guided Law into the next alley and checked the street beyond.
Two Marines.
Two shots.
One shoulder. One knee.
Both dropped before either could shout.
Idris reloaded and kept moving.
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1 Chapter For Every 50 Power Stones. Please Do Support.