The pirates crammed into the narrow alley turned pale.
Leech Rick, eyes vicious, traded a glance with the black-coat-wrapped slasher LeWill; without a second's pause they exploded left and right, both striking at Carlo!
"All together! Kill him!!"
Rick raised his hand and flung a mass of black things straight at Carlo.
He followed instantly, right palm thrusting for Carlo's heart.
The black writhing blobs were dozens of fat, ball-shaped leeches!
Rick's palm, aimed at Carlo's chest, split open to reveal a maw of razor fangs ready to tear the skin from Carlo's heart.
He was an Animal-Type Leech Devil Fruit user!
On the right, the slasher LeWill whipped off his long black coat.
As the coat blocked Carlo's sight, the dwarf's body spun violently.
Like a top at full speed.
While spinning, his form twisted and warped, turning into layer upon layer of spiral blades.
He became a living drill of steel, shrieking as it ripped the air, coordinating with Leech Rick to carve into Carlo's left!
It was the Paramecia Dice-Dice Fruit!
Two bounty-over-100-million criminals working in concert instantly forced Carlo into danger.
Seeing this, Pathesius clenched his teeth and drew his long sword.
"I'll help—"
His right foot had just lifted, the shout not yet fully out.
When the cigar-chomping Carlo stepped forward and swung a hand through the air.
The air before him warped and burst, a surging gale erupting.
The dozens of fat, revolting leeches hadn't even reached him.
They were blown apart mid-air.
Bursting into showers of blood.
That blood splashed back onto Leech Rick.
With one slap Carlo obliterated the leeches, then, without pause, curved his fingers into claws, caught Rick's thrusting right arm and locked it.
"Damn it! Let go!"
Rick yanked back in shock, reflexively trying to free his wrist.
But Carlo's fingers were like ten-thousand-ton steel pincers, clamping the wrist immobile.
He couldn't break free.
The captured wrist-bones visibly compressed, about to be crushed to powder!
What surprised Carlo, however.
Was that he didn't succeed.
Because at the instant Rick's wrist seemed certain to snap, it softened like rubber, turning into a slick green tentacle.
Slippery and impossible to hold.
At the same moment.
The madly-spinning, wind-cutting slasher LeWill arrived from the left.
His high-speed blades aimed straight at Carlo's body, ready to peel flesh like potatoes.
Their coordination was so tight that even an average Marine Vice Admiral would have had to back off.
Even Carlo couldn't help praising.
"Worthy of New World pirates—bounties barely over a hundred million and already this strong. Not bad."
Yet he didn't retreat.
Instead, under LeWill's startled stare, he thrust his left arm toward the whirling blade body.
"Is this guy… sacrificing an arm to save his life?"
The instant that thought flashed through LeWill's mind.
He saw Carlo whip that extended left arm in a savage slap at him!
Smack!
A crisp, loud crack.
LeWill felt his cheek smashed, and his spinning body, like a top lashed by a whip, rotated even faster.
And was forced to change direction, shaving past Carlo by a hair's breadth.
To Rick's terrified scream, LeWill crashed into him.
Shhhhk—!
The sickening sound of tearing froze Pathesius, sword half raised.
Under his horrified gaze the half-man, half-tentacle Leech Rick shrieked as the high-speed LeWill shredded him.
He was diced alive, chunks of flesh pattering to the ground.
"Damn it!!"
The teammate-killing assassin LeWill erupted in fury.
His spinning body sprang from the ground, slicing at Carlo again.
Carlo once more swung his arm like a whip, lashing out.
"Same trick—never works twice on me!!"
"Blade Storm!!"
With a roar LeWill crashed into Carlo's swinging arm.
But no ripping of flesh reached his ears.
Instead came a string of metallic clangs.
Clang-clang-clang—!
Sparks flew blindingly.
"What—?"
LeWill's eyes snapped open to see an arm black as ink colliding with his spinning blades, spraying sparks yet unharmed.
"Armament Haki!!"
The instant that thought surfaced, Carlo's hand clamped around his head.
He was the Paramecia Dice-Dice Fruit user.
Every part of his body could transform into a steel blade.
At the same time, it possessed the properties of steel.
In other words—unbreakable hardness!
Yet as Carlo's five fingers slowly closed.
His steel-forged head distorted without the slightest resistance.
With a grating screech it was crushed flat in his single hand.
Iron wrung into mud!
What terrifying grip strength!
The skull collapsed.
The man was dead.
But the spinning body of the man-slayer Levi still hadn't stopped.
The influence of the Dice-Dice Fruit lingered on his corpse a moment longer, not yet faded.
Taking advantage of that instant.
A wicked grin surfaced on Carlo's face.
With a violent swing he hurled Levi's corpse forward.
'Pierce the heavens, DRILL!'
The next moment.
Under the pirates' terrified stares in the alley.
The corpse-drill, propelled by Carlo's brute force, became a meat-grinder that reaped lives.
In a single heartbeat it whipped up a storm of gore along the straight alley.
Wherever the drill passed, pirates were shredded beyond escape, littering the ground with torn limbs.
White-haired Carlo, a blood-soaked demon king, bit down on the half-burned cigar and strode across the sticky floor toward the port the pirates had come from.
He had personally sent a horde of pirates to their graves.
Yet his expression never changed.
He remained calm and unruffled.
As though the lives he'd taken were not living men.
But mere swine or dogs.
To his surprise, Carlo discovered one pirate had miraculously survived.
Pathesius trembled like a sieve, collapsing to his knees amid the blood and minced flesh.
Eyes vacant, he stared up at the approaching Carlo.
Warm wetness spread through his trousers.
'What's your name?'
On the verge of collapse, Pathesius dimly heard the question.
Instinctively he answered, 'Pathesius.'
'Lucky you.'
'If you live, come find me on Hachinosu.'
'Hachinosu…?'
The voice brushed his ear, jolting Pathesius back to his senses.
He turned in a daze to watch the tall white-haired figure stride through the mountain of corpses, steady steps carrying him toward the fearsome horned demon king.
Then—
Pathesius saw a sight that would haunt him forever!
The white-haired man began to sprint.
He ran faster.
The narrow alley exploded underfoot into shell-crater depressions.
The whole street shook beneath his charge.
The cigar smoke between his teeth stretched into a white line.
He accelerated.
Though not huge in stature, he thundered like a colossal beast.
At last he became a blur.
With an earth-shaking boom he launched skyward like a missile!
His right arm bulged as he drove the clenched fist forward.
Yet not at Kaido.
But at Samuro's back, sent flying by Kaido's blow!
Still airborne, Samuro glared ahead at Kaido.
Bracing for the next strike.
But the sudden killing intent behind made his scalp explode.
'Who—?!'
He tried to turn.
Too late!
An explosive force slammed into his spine like lightning.
Almost at the same instant.
Kaido, racing forward, seemed to spot something amusing; his bloodthirsty eyes blazed brighter than ever.
The spiked club in his grip smashed straight toward Samuro's chest with even greater fury.
Carlo and Kaido.
Front and rear.
They struck together, fist and club crashing into Samuro's flying body.
BOOM!!
In an instant!
Samuro's tempered body was pulverized between the two brutal forces.
His broad chest burst, flesh spraying as a gaping hole was punched clean through.
A jet-black fist shattered his spine and burst from his chest to meet Kaido's jet-black club.
CLANG!
In the earsplitting ring.
Two equally bloodthirsty, battle-hungry eyes locked through the gory cavity.
Feeling the mountain-like force at the end of the club.
Kaido's grin widened.
'Oro-ro-ro-ro-ro!'
'Didn't expect a powerhouse like you on this island!'
'Who are you, brat?!'
'Sorus Karlo!' Excitement flared across Carlo's face.
His free left hand swatted Samuro's mangled upper body, flinging it at Kaido.
'Kaido-senpai, first meeting—let's spar!'