Chapter 173: Fighting Lucci (I)
Axel, who had already slipped away from Lucci's attack, tapped the floor lightly with one foot.
The movement looked almost delicate.
The result was anything but.
Cracks spread across the tiles beneath him, as if the floor had been struck by a heavy blade. Using the recoil, Axel shot upward like a cannonball, cutting a straight line through the air toward Lucci.
Ordinary people had no way to move freely once they left the ground. The air offered no foothold, no leverage, and no mercy.
But Lucci was no ordinary person.
Seeing Axel rush toward him, he kicked twice in rapid succession, stepping against the air with Moonwalk. Two faint bursts of pressure bloomed beneath his feet, and his body slid sideways like he was stepping across invisible clouds.
Axel had expected it.
His body stopped in midair.
At that speed, he should have continued forward from inertia alone. Instead, he halted as if the rules governing movement had been cut off. Even Lucci, who had already begun evading, failed to react in time.
Axel twisted sharply.
His wooden blade swept in a half-circle, drawing a clean 180-degree arc through the air before slamming into Lucci's broad chest with a heavy thud.
Lucci was driven straight down.
Boom!
The floor groaned under the impact. Tiles cracked, dust burst upward, and the entire room shuddered faintly from the force.
It had all happened in the span of a breath.
Jabra had not even begun his fight with Tom yet. Seeing Lucci crash through the dust, his gaze sharpened with concern, but the cloud swallowed the scene before he could make out what had happened.
Concern, however, was not panic.
Jabra knew Lucci's strength better than most. That strike had been heavy, but not enough to defeat him. If Lucci could be taken down so easily, he would never have been called the strongest monster in CP9 history.
More importantly, Jabra believed Lucci would not lose.
He forced his attention away from the dust and focused on the Fishman in front of him.
From Tom's size alone, Jabra guessed his speed would be lacking. The muscles were another matter. The man's build made it clear he possessed no small amount of power. Intelligence reports had also said Tom was a shipwright with monstrous strength, so Jabra did not completely dismiss him.
Tom, meanwhile, had also glanced toward Axel and Lucci's clash.
The outcome of this exercise would not be decided by him or the werewolf in front of him. It would be decided by those two.
Still, after seeing Axel's strange movements and the way he knocked Lucci down, Tom could not help muttering inwardly.
What a terrifying kid.
That side was more eye-catching, but his own opponent was already moving.
Jabra and Tom locked eyes.
Then both acted.
Jabra leaned forward like a hunting wolf and rushed in from his position. His clawed hands tore toward Tom with vicious speed.
Tom did not dodge. He raised his arms to meet the attack head-on.
Jabra, cunning by habit, did not choose a direct clash. He shifted his attack slightly, adjusting the trajectory of his claws to avoid Tom's counter. It would reduce the damage he dealt, but it also meant Tom would not be able to land a clean hit on him.
The moment Jabra's claws brushed against Tom's arm, he realized he had made a serious mistake.
His claws had only grazed Tom's skin. They left shallow scratches, nothing more.
But from that brief contact, an overwhelming force surged back into his hand.
Snap!
Jabra's claws broke.
A sharp pain shot up his fingers. His nails, strengthened through his Devil Fruit and years of training, had been torn off in that brief exchange.
He retreated at once, eyes narrowing.
Damn it. Is this really just a shipwright?
This was not merely "great strength."
This was absurd.
That power was on par with the Giant Race, perhaps even above most giants. Jabra had fought ordinary giants before, but even then, he had never been crushed so completely in raw strength. Otherwise, his claws would not have shattered from a single brush.
In Jabra's mind, Tom was immediately marked with a second danger label.
The first was Axel.
On the other side of the room, the dust began to clear.
Just as Jabra had expected, Lucci stood again.
After taking Axel's blow, he rose from the cracked floor as if nothing had happened. He rolled his shoulders slightly, loosening his muscles.
Axel watched him and clicked his tongue.
"Zoan types really are troublesome."
A well-trained Zoan user possessed terrifying vitality, rapid recovery, and physical strength that only grew more dangerous with time. Their defense, offense, and endurance were all difficult to deal with.
Paramecia abilities could be bizarre enough to overturn a fight. Logia powers could dominate the battlefield with elemental bodies and wide-range destruction.
Zoan types were different.
They were simple, direct, and brutal. They elevated the body itself. Once their physical training reached a high enough level, they became enemies who refused to fall.
Even with Vector Manipulation, Axel could not simply touch Lucci and destroy him from the inside. Against an ordinary person, he could control blood flow, crush the heart, and rupture vessels in an instant.
Lucci was not ordinary.
His Devil Fruit had not yet been developed to its peak, but it had already granted him formidable power, defense, and recovery. He was not an opponent who could be settled casually.
"Shave Blade!"
Lucci erupted with shocking speed.
Combining Shave and Moonwalk, he traced a sharp, zigzagging path through the air. His movements were fast enough that Axel's red eyes could no longer follow them directly.
He relied instead on Observation Haki and his own Calculation Power, reading the air currents and force fluctuations to locate Lucci's position.
In less than a second, Lucci had closed the distance.
Perhaps to return the earlier blow, he deliberately circled behind Axel, aiming to smash him down the same way Axel had done to him.
Axel shifted.
His body moved through the air along the same sharp, zigzagging line.
He dodged.
For the first time, Lucci's expression changed.
It was not because his attack had missed.
It was because Axel had used his technique.
Shave Blade.
The move was a combination of Shave and Moonwalk, so technically, anyone who mastered both could imitate the basic idea. But the specific timing, footwork, and cutting angles were Lucci's own.
Axel's movement had been identical.
After landing from the evasion, Axel looked at Lucci and saw through the question he had not voiced.
"As long as it's a method of applying force, I can learn it after seeing it once up close."
That statement was not arrogance.
It came from the nature of his ability.
No matter how complex the movement, as long as he understood the mechanism of force behind it, Vector Manipulation allowed him to simulate it with precise control.
"But honestly," Axel continued, "your pride is impressive. If you had attacked directly just now, I might not have had time to react. Instead, you circled behind me first. What, did you want to knock me down the same way I knocked you down?"
Lucci did not answer.
He stared at Axel with a solemn expression.
His body expanded again. His muscles tightened, pulsing beneath spotted skin as he gathered even more strength.
The next attack would not be a test.
.....
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