Mad Treasure—Carina's so-called "treasure hunter"—a vicious hulking brute over two meters tall, dark-skinned, muscles knotted like cables, his entire body wrapped in thick, heavy chains and sunglasses on his face, sprang up from his jewel-studded captain's chair. He stared at the horrifying gash split across the deck—and through that crack, at the uninvited guest out on the sea surface. Veins bulged on his forehead.
"WHO?!" Treasure roared like thunder, shaking the whole ship. "Which bastard dared wreck my precious ship?!"
Beside him, a dark-skinned man in a hood—Psycho P—was fumbling in a panic with several paint cans, his face deathly pale. "Boss! I definitely used my Color-Color Fruit power to make the hull transparent, yo! Sorry! Looks like the enemy has something like Kenbunshoku Haki and can sense us, yo!"
On the other side, Naomi—an older-sister type with a longbow on her back who'd been half-drunk and bleary-eyed—was jolted completely sober by the sudden attack. She quickly took down her bow, eyes sharpening as she stared beyond the crack.
At the same time, Tabito, who came treading the waves, was calmly sizing up his "loot." Up close, the ship was even more outrageously luxurious—each embedded gemstone the size of a fist, shining with flowing rainbow light, worth a fortune. And he could clearly sense several auras aboard that were far stronger than ordinary Pirates—especially that brawny man wrapped in chains, whose vitality was surging and whose soul strength far exceeded normal people.
So it really is a big fish…
Tabito sneered inwardly and patted the tiger-shaped corpse puppet beneath him.
The corpse puppet bent its limbs slightly, then exploded with force—carrying Tabito in a single leap that crossed dozens of meters, landing steadily on the wide but already-damaged deck of the Jeweled Shark.
"ROAR—!"
The moment it landed, the tiger corpse puppet threw back its head and let out an earthshaking roar. That roar carried the corpse puppet's unique deathly stillness and killing aura, striking straight at the heart for ordinary Pirates. Already in chaos, the Pirates were scared out of their wits; many screamed and jumped into the sea with repeated splashes like dumplings being dropped into boiling water.
"Damned beast!" Treasure stared at the monstrous tiger showing off on his beloved ship—and the indifferent black-robed young man. Rage burned through him. He stopped wasting words, snapped his arms outward, and barked, "Chains—Venom Fangs!"
Clatter—!
In an instant, countless thick black chains surged out as if alive—from the chains coiled around his body and from the torn metal of the ship itself—twisting into more than a dozen ferocious venomous snakes. With tearing whistles through the air, they stabbed from every tricky angle, aiming straight for Tabito's back and vital points!
Faced with the sudden assault, Tabito didn't even turn his head. As if he had eyes in the back of his skull, he held the Human Emperor Banner—now transformed into a dark-iron heavy spear—in one hand and casually swung it backward. The motion was clean, smooth, and terrifyingly precise.
Clang-clang-clang—!
A dense burst of metal-on-metal rang out. The chain tips were all swept away or knocked aside by the spear shaft—sparks bursting everywhere—not a single link getting within three chi of him!
Tabito was an unorthodox cultivator, yes—his main path was spirit and negative energies. But the cultivation path was a total leap in life's level; forging the body was just as crucial. And in his previous life's three hundred years, struggling to survive endless hunts, close-quarters slaughter had long since fused into instinct. For him, fighting up close with the Human Emperor Banner on his shoulder was far more satisfying than tossing techniques from afar! Unless the gap in strength was extreme or the situation special, he preferred the thrill of fists meeting flesh and weapons colliding.
The first probe failing, Treasure's expression turned uglier. Behind his sunglasses, his gaze grew heavy. The opponent's reaction speed and strength were far beyond what he'd expected.
"Chains—Storm!" Treasure roared, slamming his hands together.
Even more chains poured out like a tide, spinning and interweaving at high speed in midair—forming a gigantic spiral tempest made from countless chains. With a terrifying momentum that could shred anything, it engulfed Tabito, trying to grind him—and that freak tiger—into minced meat!
Without needing Tabito's command, the tiger corpse puppet kicked off hard and carried him in agile left-right hops across the deck, fast as lightning, narrowly avoiding the core shredding zone of the chain storm.
Under Tabito's control, the corpse puppet abruptly braked and pivoted, facing Treasure head-on. Tabito seized that fleeting opening—arm muscles swelling—and the dark-iron spear shot forward like a venom dragon bursting from its lair.
Whoosh—!
A condensed, razor-sharp gray-black spear qi blasted from the weapon, ripping the air with a shrill scream, going straight for Treasure's chest!
Alarm bells shrieked in Treasure's mind. Years of combat experience left no time to think—he practically threw himself sideways and backward on instinct, rolling in a miserable dodge.
BOOM!
The spear qi skimmed past him and slammed into the thick main mast. With a tremendous explosion, the mast—so thick it took several people hugging it to wrap around—was punched through and torn apart. With a tooth-grinding crack of splitting wood, the massive mast collapsed, smashing onto the deck and triggering chaos and screams.
Treasure scrambled up, shaken and pale, staring at the fallen mast—his heart bleeding. This ship was his precious darling.
"Who the hell are you? A Pirate? A Marine? Or one of those damned hyenas—bounty hunters?!" Treasure locked onto Tabito, trying to pry some information from his mouth.
Tabito still sat on the tiger's back, posture relaxed, as if the fierce exchange just now had been warm-up. He spoke lightly, his voice calm but leaving no room for doubt.
"Just treat me as a bounty hunter. I don't know exactly how many berries your head is worth, but since you're a Pirate, it should be worth something."
The moment he heard "bounty hunter," Treasure actually loosened a little inside. If it was about money, there was room to talk. He forced down his fury and flicked a look at Psycho P.
Psycho P understood at once and hurriedly scrambled into the cabin. He soon returned lugging a bulging cloth sack.
Treasure took it without even looking and hurled it hard at Tabito's feet. The mouth burst open and several egg-sized gemstones rolled out—perfectly cut, dazzlingly bright—casting mesmerizing halos in the sunlight. Any single one was worth a fortune.
"That's enough for you to live it up for a long time! Take them and disappear from in front of me—right now!" Treasure ground the words out, almost one by one. This was already a massive concession.
Tabito only glanced at the gems, then curled his mouth into open mockery.
"Idiot."
He lifted his eyes, gaze sweeping over the countless jewels embedded across the ship, then settling back on Treasure—like he was looking at a dead man.
"Once I kill you, won't everything on this ship be mine?"
"You…!" Treasure trembled with rage, his face black as the bottom of a pot. He hadn't expected this "bounty hunter" to be greedy to this extent—leaving not the slightest room to turn things around!
If the negotiation was dead, then it was kill or be killed. Treasure loved money, but he loved his life more—and he knew when it was time to go all in.
"In that case—DIE!" Treasure went completely berserk, driving his Devil Fruit power to the limit. "Chains—Hell Prison Cage!"
Countless chains, like black giant pythons, spawned from the deck, the rails—even forming out of thin air—whipping in from all directions to bind and pierce. In an instant, a dense, airtight chain cage formed, meant to trap and butcher Tabito and the tiger corpse puppet inside!
"Go on. Those small fry are yours." Tabito lightly patted the tiger corpse puppet's neck. Then his body moved—leaping down from the tiger's back like a hawk diving. He flicked the dark-iron spear and surged forward, meeting Treasure's dense chain onslaught head-on.
The tiger corpse puppet, the moment Tabito left it, had its blood-red eyes flare with savage light. With a low growl, it became a gray bolt of lightning, pouncing into the panicked ordinary Pirates on deck. Claws flashed, tail whipped—every strike came with cracking bones and Pirates' shrill screams.
Treasure's two officers—Psycho P and Naomi—turned pale. Psycho P hurriedly splashed paint, trying to disrupt the corpse puppet's vision, while Naomi quickly drew and fired, explosive arrows streaking toward it, trying to stop its slaughter of the crew. If they let this blade-and-bullet-proof, monstrously strong creature keep killing, the Treasure Pirates would be reduced to a name in name only!
On the ruined yet lavish Jeweled Shark, the battle fully erupted!
(End of Chapter)
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