"What's going on?"
"A meteor?"
"No, someone seems to have fallen!"
"Don't be ridiculous, is a person on fire?"
"..."
Dust billowed from the collapsed house. The huge commotion alerted the members of the Donquixote Family in the town.
"Cough, cough, cough~" Cross emerged from the ruins, his steps unsteady, coughing from the thick dust. The fiery ribbons and the flaming crown on his head emitted an extremely high temperature, constantly melting the surrounding snow. He looked around and muttered to himself, "This must be the ghost town on the mountaintop... I flew quite a distance!"
"Who the hell are you?" A surprised voice sounded in his ear, making Cross turn his head. He saw a man whose face was covered by a mask with circular lenses standing not far away. The man wore a long black coat over a light blue shirt and a dark blue tie. On closer inspection, he had stitched scars on both sides of his eyes, and his expression was full of shock.
"I know you... You're a member of the Donquixote Family... Gladius, right?" Cross raised an eyebrow, his memory retrieving the man's identity and name.
"You know me... Are you a Marine? Or a pirate?" Gladius frowned, his expression grim as he stared at the tall figure in front of him. The man was completely black, with a faint purple glow, backward-curving horns, a pair of enormous bat wings with a wingspan of over five meters, and a crown of flames with a menacing expression on his head. Four fiery ribbons hung down from the crown, wrapping around his body and the wings on his back. He didn't look human at all; he looked more like a fire demon that had crawled out of hell.
"Get out of the way, Gladius! You're no match for him!" At that moment, Doflamingo flew down from the sky, shouting a warning.
"Taking care of a Donquixote Family executive first sounds good!" Cross grinned, making up his mind. He flapped his huge bat wings, creating a powerful gust of air that sent him shooting out like an arrow.
"So fast..." Gladius was about to draw his gun and shoot when he realized his target had vanished. Cross had nimbly bypassed Gladius's front, reappearing behind him.
"Die!" Cross's sinister grin widened. He raised his arm and swung the Shusui in his hand, ready to deliver a horizontal slash to Gladius. But in the nick of time, Cross's Observation Haki sensed danger, forcing him to stop his movement and take two quick steps back.
In the next second, an invisible force, like a sharp blade, made a ssshh sound, leaving a deep, thin crack in the spot where he had just been standing.
Cross knew it was one of the invisible strings, as sharp as a piano wire, capable of easily slicing through rock and steel.
At that moment, Gladius reacted quickly. Upon sensing the movement behind him, he decisively turned around, pulled a pistol from his coat, and pulled the trigger on Cross.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunshots rang out, echoing in the snowy wind. Several hot lead bullets flew straight for Cross's chest.
Cross didn't dodge. He let the bullets hit his body, enduring Gladius's fiery gunfire as he moved forward and grabbed him by the neck.
"A-a Logia..." Gladius's face turned red as he felt intense pain and a sense of suffocation in his throat.
"Let go of my subordinate!" Doflamingo descended like a god, a furious expression on his face. He raised his hand and sent out five thin strings to slash at Cross's back.
Clang—
Cross turned around, still clutching Gladius's neck, and blocked Doflamingo's attack with Shusui. He then threw Gladius at Doflamingo, who was caught off guard and was sent tumbling to the ground by his subordinate, who was being used as a weapon.
"Young Master!!"
"Doffy!!"
"..."
A series of exclamations came from the other side of the street from the other members of the Donquixote Family.
Rumble—
Suddenly, the ground bulged, forming a large stone hand that grabbed Cross.
"Got you!" A high-pitched voice rang out. A very tall man with wavy hair and a blue winter coat emerged from the ground, glaring furiously at Cross.
"Be careful, Pica, use the mist!" Doflamingo got up from the ground in a somewhat undignified manner and hurriedly warned him. Gladius also stood up, coughing several times while rubbing his neck.
"Pff—" Cross tried to hold back his laughter at their appearance but couldn't. He burst out, "Hahaha~ Was that your voice just now? It doesn't suit your appearance at all! Hahahaha—"
"You're dead!" Pica was extremely sensitive about his voice. He immediately became enraged and, without thinking, commanded the stone hand to crush Cross's body.
Rumble!!
However, in the next second, the man-sized stone hand shattered. A large amount of rubble flew everywhere, and Cross shot out. He instantly closed the distance to Pica and slashed at him with his sword.
Ssssh—
A black-purple blade light flashed, and blood immediately spurted from Pica's chest. Pica's expression was one of disbelief. He let out a loud "Wah!" and spewed a mouthful of blood before falling straight backward.
"Pica!" The members of the Donquixote Family were shocked. They never expected Pica, one of their top executives, to be hit with a single slash.
"You bastard!" Doflamingo was furious. He raised his hand and created several razor-sharp strings, cutting at Cross.
Sss—
Rumble!!
The sharp strings sliced through the air at high speed, acting as invisible blades. Like a hot knife through butter, they cleanly sliced through three abandoned houses. The cuts were smooth and clean, and the houses fell apart and collapsed like a stack of dominoes, kicking up a cloud of dust.
Whoosh—
At that moment, a gust of wind rose from the swirling dust. Cross shot out like a cannonball, clutching Shusui with both hands, his target being the Donquixote Family members across the street. More specifically, a man with a green bucket hat, a cloak with circular patterns that looked like a blanket, a staff with a clover symbol on it, small sunglasses, and black hair with a glue-like beard connected to his chin, looking like a sloppy old man.
"Trebol, he's targeting you!" Doflamingo shouted, hurriedly giving chase.
"I'm telling you, I'm not that easy to take down! Beto Launcher!!!" Trebol was a little angry. He waved his hand, launching over a dozen chunks of brownish-yellow mucus at the oncoming Cross.
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