Doflamingo's cry for help quickly drew the attention of almost everyone. No one had expected the battle to be so one-sided. Even Drake, who had absolute confidence in Bellamy, couldn't have imagined that Doflamingo would be so useless.
In truth, Doflamingo's strength was by no means weak; otherwise, he wouldn't have held the title of Warlord for so many years. The problem was that the upper limit of the String-String Fruit was too low. Even though Doflamingo had developed it to its absolute peak, a string, no matter how strong, was still just a string. He couldn't use the String-String Fruit to touch upon other domains. With strings alone, it was impossible to stand at the pinnacle of this sea.
In fact, wasn't Bellamy the same? No matter how strong a spring became, it was ultimately just a spring. Once he reached his limit, he would soon discover that compared to Logia fruits, the limitations of the Spring-Spring Fruit were simply too great.
There was a reason why Devil Fruits were classified as "superior" and "inferior." For example, the superior version of the String-String Fruit might be the Arms-Arms Fruit or the Tool-Tool Fruit. The superior version of the Spring-Spring Fruit could be the Tool-Tool Fruit or the Bounce-Bounce Fruit.
What was a superior fruit? The so-called "superior" meant that any ability the inferior fruit could perform, the superior fruit could also perform. In other words, all the abilities of the String-String Fruit could, in theory, be possessed by the Arms-Arms Fruit or the Tool-Tool Fruit. In terms of the breadth of their domain, inferior fruits simply couldn't compare.
The only advantage of an inferior fruit was that its singular ability was easier to awaken. To date, almost no one had been able to train an ability like the Arms-Arms Fruit to the point of Awakening. The domain of "arms" was simply too vast. How many weapons have appeared in this world from ancient times to the present? From the most primitive stones to the most advanced laser cannons, the sheer number was almost impossible to count. No one would dare claim they could master every weapon.
In fact, right on this island, a low-ranking executive under Doflamingo, Baby 5, was the user of the Arms-Arms Fruit. It was already confirmed that the inferior versions of the Arms-Arms Fruit included the Dice-Dice Fruit, the Bomb-Bomb Fruit, the Chain-Chain Fruit, the Sickle-Sickle Fruit, and so on. The number of unconfirmed ones was even greater. In theory, all fruits of this type were inferior versions of the Arms-Arms Fruit.
With Doflamingo's talent for Devil Fruit development, if he hadn't rashly eaten the String-String Fruit back then and had chosen a Logia or the Arms-Arms Fruit instead, his current situation would be completely different. In fact, Bellamy felt that even Pica's Stone-Stone Fruit was more than a cut above the String-String Fruit. If developed properly, the Stone-Stone Fruit was nearly invincible on land.
Although people often say, "There are no useless fruits, only useless users," Devil Fruit abilities do indeed have their limits. The wider the range of a fruit's domain, the higher its upper limit. Conversely, fruits like the Gum-Gum, String-String, and Spring-Spring, whose names immediately reveal their singular domain, have a very low ceiling. Even if the user is exceptionally talented, once they reach the limit of that single domain, they will eventually hit a wall where they can progress no further.
Of course, such fruits were not without their advantages. The biggest advantage of a single-domain inferior fruit was that it was very easy to awaken. After Awakening, the user gains the power to change the rules within a certain range. Without eating a second Devil Fruit, this was perhaps the only path forward for inferior fruits.
There has always been an absolute rule in the world: a person can only eat one Devil Fruit in their lifetime. If they eat a second, they will immediately explode and die. Before Blackbeard appeared out of nowhere, people believed this rule was immutable. But that was not the case. A second, or even a third, Devil Fruit could be consumed.
How was it done? Only Blackbeard could answer that.
After Bellamy's Spring-Spring Fruit reached its limit in its single domain, it wasn't the end of the road. The combination of a second, or even a third, Devil Fruit could add countless variations to his spring domain. The same was true for Doflamingo's String-String Fruit. When it came to combining fruit abilities, a single-domain inferior fruit actually had a greater advantage than those incredibly complex superior fruits. The more singular the domain, the easier it was to combine with other fruits. For overly complex domains, the difficulty of development was already terrifyingly high; an ordinary user might spend their entire life without reaching its limit. For such a fruit, there was really no need to eat a second one.
On the other side of the battlefield, Drake was desperately tangling with Pica, the user of the Stone-Stone Fruit. Although the Stone-Stone Fruit looked very much like a Logia, it was actually a Special Paramecia. The user could assimilate with any stone they touched, incorporating its appearance, hardness, and other properties into their own power. This fruit was one of the Paramecia types closest to a Logia. Aside from not being able to turn into an element, its strength was in no way inferior to any Logia.
Unfortunately, Pica's application of the Stone-Stone Fruit was extremely shallow. Aside from transforming into a stone giant, manipulating rocks to attack, and moving through stone, he had no other techniques. To have developed a fruit so close to a Logia to this extent, Pica was truly one of a kind.
But even with just these simple abilities, Pica was able to completely suppress Drake. That was the power of the Stone-Stone Fruit.
In terms of its combat performance, the Stone-Stone Fruit strongly resembled a Logia. In reality, the user's body does not become rock; Pica could only hide his true body within the stone. Therefore, smashing or cutting the assimilated stone body was useless. To inflict damage, one had to directly strike the user's real body controlling the stone.
Because of this characteristic, Drake was completely helpless against Pica. No matter how fast he destroyed it, the stone giant Pica transformed into would be restored in the blink of an eye. Even if he landed a successful hit, Pica would dive underground and disappear without a trace the next second. A moment later, a perfectly intact stone giant would appear again. This almost cheat-like ability left Drake with no way to deal with him.
Conversely, Pica made almost no sound when manipulating the rock underground. With a single thought, several stone spikes would erupt from the earth. For a time, Drake was forced into a pathetic state.
However, Drake and Law's mission was simply to hold back these top executives and prevent them from interfering with Bellamy's fight. Although Drake couldn't finish Pica, Pica couldn't do anything to him either. If Drake, a master of the Six Powers, didn't want to fight, he could just use Moon Walk to leap into the air, and Pica would be left dumbfounded on the spot. The two of them being locked in a stalemate was actually exactly what Drake wanted.
But what he hadn't expected was that just as he had stabilized his own front, a huge variable appeared at the center of the battlefield.
Doflamingo had actually started shouting for help. It seemed he was on the verge of collapse.