On the other side, Sherwin and his group followed Monet and arrived ahead of the others at the Corrida Colosseum built right beside the royal palace.
The structure of this colosseum was basically no different from the ancient Roman Colosseum on Earth, except that the one on Earth was oval-shaped, while the one in Dressrosa was perfectly circular.
In addition, because of the exaggerated individual strength in the world of pirates, the Corrida Colosseum was much larger in scale. To make the matches even bloodier and more thrilling, Donquixote Doflamingo had also arranged a large number of small Fighting Fish in the seawater surrounding the arena. They would pursue and attack any loser who fell out of the ring.
Under normal procedures, contestants were supposed to go to the preparation rooms inside the colosseum to select the equipment they needed and wait there for their turn to enter the stage.
But Sherwin and the others naturally did not need to go through such trouble. They were taken directly to the top-floor VIP seats.
At this moment, a rather ordinary match was taking place in the arena below. Sherwin casually glanced at it and, seeing that he did not recognize the fighters and that their strength was mediocre, withdrew his gaze. Instead, the little Felynes, along with Shirahoshi—who had not fought any less recently—watched the battle in the ring with great interest.
"Please wait here for a moment. Arranging the match will take a little time. I will go have someone bring some refreshments."
Monet gave a slight bow and then left the VIP seats.
"Shermie Meow, I'll be counting on you next."
Sherwin rubbed the little forest Felyne head.
"Got it, meow~"
(=ω=)
Shermie Meow narrowed her eyes and rubbed against Sherwin palm, then turned into a streak of lightning and vanished.
As the fastest member of the investigation team, possessing the widest range of Observation Haki, and, aside from Spirit Possession, having another form of "Observation" ability, Shermie Meow was naturally the most suitable Felyne to carry out Sherwin plan.
As for how to conceal her departure from Doflamingo, Sherwin had already discussed it with Huamei and the others when they decided to head to Dressrosa, so he was naturally well prepared.
The moment Shermie Meow left, Purah Meow took out a palm-sized "Shermie Meow" from her bag. Then, under Suika Meow ability, it grew to the size of a normal Felyne.
This "Shermie Meow" was, to put it plainly, just a Felyne-shaped Guardian. Because time had been short, it had very little combat capability.
It could only perform basic actions such as grooming its fur, rubbing against others, swishing its tail, and twitching its ears. However, that was more than enough to impersonate Shermie Meow, who did not need to enter the arena.
Moreover, to prevent it from being detected as abnormal by Observation Haki, Purah Meow had added an "aura" function to it—something mechanical constructs had no real use for and that even became a burden.
Unless it was a special type of Observation Haki like Klee Meow or Shirahoshi, or someone like Charlotte Katakuri who had trained his Observation Haki to the very peak, or someone like Sherwin who specialized in sensing the strength of aura and was extremely familiar with Shermie Meow, it was basically impossible to discover that this "Shermie Meow" was a fake.
In addition, the "Shermie Meow" itself also served as a safeguard and a communication tool.
Although the chance of Shermie Meow failing was almost nonexistent, in the unlikely event that she was struck by Sugar ability and turned into a toy—causing Sherwin to forget her existence—the artificial "Shermie Meow" before his eyes could remind him that one of their Felynes had been transformed into a toy.
As the Hunter roamed the seas, the word he relied on most was "steady."
At the same time, inside "Shermie Meow" there was a built-in communicator that didn't need to be connected to a Den Den Mushi, allowing Shermie Meow to stay updated on Sherwin side at any time and to contact him after completing all the arrangements.
This would prevent a situation where all the toys suddenly turned back into humans while Sherwin and the others were still playing some kind of Davy Back Fight with the Heavenly Yaksha, leaving them unable to react in time.
"Sherwin dear~"
Shermie Meow voice came from within "Shermie Meow" body.
"Mm, I'm listening."
Sherwin patted "Shermie Meow" and lightly tapped its head with his fingertip.
After confirming that the communication was working properly, Shermie Meow temporarily cut off her side of the transmission and continued carrying out the plan everyone had discussed.
Not long after Sherwin had replaced Shermie Meow with "Shermie Meow," Doflamingo walked in with his subordinates and the three members of CP0.
Sherwin glanced over them. Only Sugar and Trebol, who was responsible for protecting her, were absent.
In addition…
Why did Doflamingo look like he was in such a bad mood?
Sherwin tilted his head in confusion.
When he heard they were going to play a Davy Back Fight, hadn't he looked absolutely overjoyed?
Meeting Sherwin probing gaze, Doflamingo expression darkened even further.
However, he clearly had no intention of explaining. He led his subordinates to take seats on the other side of the VIP section. Soon after, attendants brought over large amounts of food, drinks, and fine wine.
At the same time, as the battle in the arena came to an end, the announcer stepped to the center of the ring and proclaimed to the audience in an impassioned voice,
"Breaking news! Today, the colosseum will host a special match— a Davy Back Fight between His Majesty our King and another Warlord of the Sea, the 'Hunter' Sherwin!!!"
"..."
"OOOOOOOOHHHHHHH——!!!"
After a brief silence, the entire colosseum erupted into thunderous cheers. Outside the arena, countless people who heard the news, along with "toys," began flooding toward the venue.
Even Shirahoshi and the Felynes, swept up by the atmosphere, cupped their mouths and shouted at the top of their lungs.
Only Trafalgar Law curled his lip in displeasure. "I'm obviously the 'Admiral'…"
"Fufufufufu… The stage has been set. Then let our game begin."
Having already composed himself, Doflamingo looked at Sherwin. "Why don't you open the show? The audience is waiting for the entrance of a Warlord."
"Sure."
Sherwin nodded indifferently.
Of course he could see Doflamingo intention of making him go first, and the reason wasn't hard to guess. But Sherwin himself had planned to take the first round anyway.
Because he needed to buy time for Shermie Meow, and at the same time, he intended to eliminate a few more of Doflamingo subordinates along the way.
So…
"If it a one-on-one, those few under you aren't enough to keep me busy. Send a few more out. Let me have a little fun."
Sherwin tilted his head slightly, his face full of provocation as he spoke.
The rules of the Davy Back Fight were inherently flexible. The events didn't even have to focus on combat, so as long as both sides agreed, fighting one against many was perfectly acceptable.
"Fufufufu… Since you're in the mood, then let my men play with you properly…"
Originally, according to Doflamingo plan, he had intended to send out Dellinger—who had nearly embarrassed him earlier—to take a beating and learn his lesson.
But after hearing Sherwin request, his suspicious nature immediately kicked in. He began to wonder whether Sherwin was trying to clear out some troublesome opponents in advance for Bartholomew Kuma.
In the Heavenly Yaksha view, as long as he kept one sufficiently strong subordinate to deal with Bartholomew Kuma later, it wouldn't matter if the rest were handed over to Sherwin to vent his anger on. However, he had no intention of being completely led by the nose.
So before Sherwin could say anything further, he seized the initiative and personally selected several of his men.
"Dellinger, Senor Pink, Lao G, Machvise, and Diamante—you'd better not disappoint Lord Hunter."
"Yes! Young Master!" ×5
The five who were called stepped forward in unison and responded loudly.
"Well? Are the five of them enough?"
"Hmm… They'll do."
Although he wanted to imitate Master Ye and take on ten at once, with Trebol and Sugar absent, there were only thirteen executives left by Doflamingo side. If he insisted on fighting ten, Doflamingo definitely wouldn't agree.
So Sherwin didn't bother to argue. After casually nodding, he leapt straight out of the VIP window, stepping through the air with Geppo and crossing the void, landing steadily in the center of the arena.
Led by Diamante, the five of them followed close behind, each using their own methods to ascend onto the stage.
Sherwin first drew the Longsword, then after a moment thought, shoved it back. Instead, he pulled out a strangely shaped longbow from his waist pouch.
If there were veteran players of Monster Hunter here, they would immediately notice that the bow in Sherwin hands looked very similar to the Diablos Bow from the game. However, the twin Diablos horns that formed the bow limbs in the game had been replaced with two massive sea conches shaped like bull horns.
In addition, the grip Sherwin held was itself a smaller shell.
The Kitty Baby Bow…
This bow, saddled with a rather regrettable name, was something Purah Meow had tinkered together while helping Klee Meow and Jinx develop their "big guy" some time ago. The two conches forming the bow limbs and the shell at the handle were actually modified dials.
The shell at the grip was an Impact Dial used as the trigger, while the two conches on the limbs were a Flame Dial storing Klee Meow fire and a Thunder Dial storing Shermie Meow lightning.
Precisely because of that, the naming rights to this bow had been snatched away by those two mischievous little Felynes.
Sherwin had struggled to resist…
The result, of course, was an unsurprising failure.
If he didn't need his stalling tactics to look more natural, he would never have taken this thing out to face an enemy.
Gently plucking the bowstring, Sherwin revealed a malicious grin toward the five before him.
Then come and taste the humiliation of being defeated by the "Kitty Baby Bow."