Queen's bulky body involuntarily retreated, each step feeling as heavy as if his legs were filled with lead.
Cold sweat continuously seeped from his forehead, quickly soaking his garish floral shirt, making his already greasy appearance even more disheveled.
His proud technological weapons suddenly seemed utterly laughable in the face of the terrifying power of the Logia, like a child holding a toy against a divine artifact wielded by a giant adult.
No matter how hard steel is, it'll melt in magma!
His mind raced for a solution, but the more he thought, the more despair he felt.
He was stunned to realize that against an opponent who possessed both the formidable regenerative abilities of a Mythical Zoan and the terrifying destructive power of a Logia, he had no strategy at all!
It seemed he could only rely on Haki attacks, but what chance did that stand against Marco's overwhelming abilities?
"What's wrong, Calamity-sama?"
Marco casually glanced at Queen, his tone steady yet tinged with mockery.
He stepped forward slowly, each footfall leaving deep, burning imprints of the scorching Azure Flames on the ground.
His gaze remained fixed on Queen with a hint of disdain in his eyes.
"Where has all that arrogance from earlier gone? Why are you left struggling so pathetically now?"
"Hmph! Don't get ahead of yourself, little blue chicken." Queen snorted coldly, his voice seeming to squeeze through gritted teeth, filled with resentment.
At that moment, his mechanical left arm suddenly emitted a spine-chilling screech of metal grinding, as if countless sharp saws were scraping against each other.
High-pressure steam burst from the joints like an angry white dragon, roaring out.
The entire mechanical arm seemed to come alive, coiling like a ferocious python as it extended with astonishing speed.
The mechanical claw opened to an exaggerated width, each sharp talon gleaming coldly as it tore through the air with a piercing shriek, viciously lunging at Marco as if intent on tearing him to shreds.
"Coiling Queen!"
Just as the mechanical claw was about to reach him, his figure vanished like a ghost from where he stood, the claw merely grasping empty air.
Marco had already flashed ten meters away, his wings lightly spreading as he moved with electric agility, effortlessly dodging Queen's follow-up sweeping attack.
"Running away pretty fast!"
Queen's eyes flashed with irritation as he saw this.
Refusing to accept defeat, he launched another assault, his mechanical arm flailing wildly through the air, leaving a dizzying array of afterimages.
Each strike carried immense force and blistering speed, yet Marco evaded them all with the grace of a dancing butterfly, leaving every one of Queen's attacks to hit nothing but air.
"Damn blue-feathered chicken!" Queen's entire body trembled uncontrollably with rage, his bloated figure quivering with fury.
Almost simultaneously,
His body underwent an inexplicable transformation, shaking as if some black technology had been reactivated.
In an instant, his already grotesquely swollen body began gradually turning transparent, as if merging with the surrounding air, slowly disappearing from everyone's sight.
"Taste this—Stealth Fighter Black!" Queen's voice, filled with arrogance and triumph, echoed through the air.
Marco's pupils abruptly contracted, his expression turning exceptionally grave.
Observation Haki instantly activated to its fullest extent as he attempted to track Queen's every movement.
Yet even with his formidable abilities, he could only detect faint, indistinct ripples in the air.
Queen's stealth technology proved so advanced that it could partially interfere with his Observation Haki perception.
Could it be that my Observation Haki isn't strong enough? Marco wondered inwardly.
"Bam!" A powerful, crushing punch suddenly materialized from the void, striking Marco's temple with the force of a cannonball.
The attack came too abruptly for Marco to mount any substantial defense.
"Damn! A cheap shot!" Marco cursed angrily, his body sent flying like a kite with its string cut.
Mid-air, he couldn't suppress spitting out a mouthful of blood that splattered vividly against the atmosphere.
The Azure Flames forming his wings momentarily flickered and dispersed, losing their sustaining power.
"Got you!" Queen's triumphant, sinister laughter echoed from the void, sending chills down the spine.
Marco forcibly twisted his body in mid-air, gritting his teeth as Azure Flames erupted beneath his feet, creating a cushion that slowed his descent.
Wiping the blood from his lips, his gaze sharpened further.
"Interesting..."
He murmured to himself as the Phoenix's regenerative abilities quietly began mending his injuries, though the blow had indeed dealt significant damage.
"Damn it!" Seeing Marco escape again, Queen flew into another rage and launched another punch!
Subtle air fluctuations rippled once more, but this time Marco was prepared.
At the precise moment the fist would've connected, his body underwent elemental transformation, creating a perfectly timed void that allowed Queen's attack to pass harmlessly through.
Simultaneously, he countered with an elbow strike wrapped in Armament Haki, smashing viciously into the invisible Queen's abdomen.
The blow carried immense force, meant to repay the humiliation he'd just suffered.
"Urk!" A pained grunt escaped Queen's throat as his body involuntarily curled into a shrimp-like position, his internal organs feeling as if repeatedly hammered by an invisible maul.
Staggering, he braced himself against the scorched earth, his nails digging deep into the soil as murky sweat seeped between his fingers.
The stealth ability shattered like broken glass under the violent backlash, revealing his wretched state.
Mechanical armor joints steamed with blue smoke while his once-glossy, corpulent body now glistened with fine cold sweat, resembling a blood-red octopus stripped of its shell.
Marco's pupils flickered with dark light as his Observation Haki silently enveloped the entire area like a spiderweb.
A low, mocking chuckle rumbled in his throat, and his neck turned with a faint clicking sound.
"Beasts do have sharp senses."
Before the words faded, blue flame wings erupted from his back, and crimson magma surged, dyeing the twilight sky into a bloody furnace.
"Magma: Great Torrent!"
With his furious roar, the ground abruptly fractured.
Viscous magma torrents shot skyward, weaving into a blazing net across the void.
A thirty-meter-high wave of magma, carrying shattered rocks, transformed the area within twenty meters of Queen into a boiling inferno.
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