Bullet's right fist slammed powerfully toward Raleigh's shoulder, while Raleigh punched straight toward Bullet's side.
In this brutal exchange, both men silently chose to take the hit head-on.
Thud!
Two loud, heavy impacts echoed as both attacks landed.
Raleigh's left shoulder immediately drooped, feeling as if it had been shattered by a giant hammer.
Meanwhile, Bullet felt as if his waist had been rammed by a high-speed train.
Both men sharply sucked in a breath of air.
In the next instant, they clashed again, their fists flying so fast they looked like dark shadows.
Head, throat, heart, and sides—all the most vulnerable points on the human body became the sole targets of their deadly attacks and desperate defenses.
Since both were absolute masters of hand-to-hand combat, this raw display of martial arts made them fight with increasing frenzy.
Bullet, relying on his full-body Armament Haki, chose to simply tank all of Raleigh's non-lethal strikes.
At the same time, Raleigh used his Observation Haki and his Logia elemental transformation to dodge or neutralize Bullet's fatal blows.
The longer they fought, the more intense the excitement in their eyes grew. The heat from their bodies caused their sweat to instantly evaporate into steam.
"Hah!"
They simultaneously punched each other directly in the chest.
Boom!
At the moment of impact, the massive force sent both figures flying backward.
"You are truly a terrifying opponent, Christian Raleigh." Bullet panted slightly as he spoke.
It had been a long time since he had enjoyed a fight this much.
"Let's end this hand-to-hand combat." Raleigh took a deep breath and smirked. "Exactly what I had in mind!"
A dark red glow flashed in Bullet's eyes as his Devil Fruit power began to affect the surrounding ruins.
Solid pieces of steel flew out from the collapsed houses—even ripping the swords right out of the fallen guards' hands—all converging toward Bullet's body.
"Combine!"
Driven by Bullet's Devil Fruit power, the incoming steel was forcefully compressed into thick armor plates that wrapped tightly around his body.
Bullet's original height of over five meters instantly grew to more than eight meters.
The surface of his new mechanical body gleamed with the cold sheen of solid metal.
Dark Armament Haki quickly spread over the surface of the mech, turning the armor pitch black.
Raleigh looked at the giant steel mech and could not help but feel a headache coming on.
He originally thought Bullet would create a massive giant several dozen meters tall.
If that had been the case, the slow giant would be nothing but a huge living target; Raleigh would not even be touched once.
But now, it was obvious that Bullet had built this form specifically to counter Raleigh's speed.
The mid-sized mech perfectly balanced absolute defense with high speed, leaving Raleigh momentarily unsure of where to strike first.
However, this only made the fight more difficult, not impossible.
Raleigh adjusted his fighting stance, the Armament Haki on his hands glowing darkly once again.
This time, he fully intended to smash Bullet's steel turtle shell to pieces with brute force, showing the pirate who truly ruled these seas.
Raleigh's speed remained as blindingly fast as ever.
Even though Bullet used his Observation Haki to track Raleigh's movements, the pirate still could not react fast enough to block.
Raleigh's heavy fist slammed directly into Bullet's chest plate.
Even though it was made of thick steel alloy, the metal armor caved inward, leaving a deep imprint of Raleigh's fist.
Bullet was forced back several heavy steps just to absorb the massive impact.
"Is this all you have got, Bullet?" Raleigh grinned, knowing he had not yet seen Bullet's true power.
Dark clouds churned wildly in the sky, perfectly matching Bullet's furious heart.
"Heh, you will find out soon enough, Marine!" Inside the mech, Bullet's expression turned deadly serious.
He knew running away was impossible in this situation.
The only option left was to fight with everything he had.
Bullet piloted the mech to rapidly charge at Raleigh.
A massive, Haki-coated metal hand swatted fiercely toward the Vice-Admiral's body.
A tremendous gale of wind followed Bullet's heavy attack as it swept forward.
Deciding to test the raw physical strength of Bullet's new form, Raleigh chose not to dodge.
Boom!
The exact moment they made contact, Raleigh felt an overwhelming wave of force.
The sheer power sent him flying backward the instant the metal hand crashed into his blocking arm.
The continuous roaring sounds of buildings being smashed to rubble proved the terrifying power behind Bullet's strike.
Watching the collapsing houses and rising dust, Bullet did not lower his guard for a second.
He knew an attack like that might injure Raleigh, but it definitely would not be enough to take the Marine out of the fight.
Just as expected, a strong gust of wind blew away the thick smoke. Raleigh hovered out from the wreckage of the destroyed houses.
His Marine uniform had become completely tattered during the brutal exchange, and a faint trail of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth.
Riiiip.
Raleigh casually tore off his shredded shirt, revealing his heavily muscled torso.
Judging by his steady breathing and flexed muscles, the crushing attack had not caused any deep internal damage.
Bullet was stunned.
Even though he had already set his expectations for Raleigh's physical toughness incredibly high, he still could not figure out the Marine's absolute limit.
From possessing a body close to the toughness of a Giant at the start of the fight, to now clearly surpassing them—Bullet was completely bewildered.
"With such powerful hand-to-hand combat skills, why do you always rely on swordsmanship in battles?" Bullet asked. "Based on our fights, your swordsmanship is far inferior to your bare-handed brawling."
Hearing Bullet's question, Raleigh scratched his head.
How was he supposed to explain this?
The honest truth was that he was inherently lazy and did not want to go all out if he did not have to.
In most of his fights, he held back a large portion of his true strength, relying only on standard swordsmanship and his Logia Devil Fruit powers so he wouldn't have to work too hard.
Furthermore, the sea was filled with bizarre, rule-breaking Devil Fruit abilities that made physical contact incredibly dangerous—like Sugar's Hobby-Hobby Fruit, for example, though he had no idea where Sugar was right now.
In combat against unknown enemies, using a sword kept a safe distance between him and whatever weird powers they might have.
"Because I feel like it," Raleigh answered bluntly.
He had absolutely no obligation or desire to explain his lazy logic to a pirate, even if this pirate might one day become a useful tool for him.
Having sailed the treacherous seas for so long, Raleigh had figured out how things really worked.
These unruly, arrogant pirates were incredibly hard to tame, so there was no point in treating them kindly.
When faced with the absolute threat of death, they would naturally make the right choice.
"Hmph. Bullet, let's see how you handle this move." Raleigh pulled his arm back. "Bone Meteor: Starfall!"
This was a devastating physical technique Raleigh had secretly learned by watching Vice-Admiral Garp years ago.
After continuous refinement, his version of the attack had become incredibly lethal.
The only difference was that Raleigh still lacked Garp's absolute peak level of raw muscular power.
Channeling every ounce of his strength into his right fist, Raleigh abandoned all defense.
He was staking everything on this single, explosive strike.
Cold sweat dripped down Bullet's forehead inside the mech.
Through his Observation Haki, he sensed the energy gathering in Raleigh's right hand.
It felt like a terrifying black hole.
An overwhelming, suffocating aura distorted the very air around them.
Bullet knew the truth with absolute certainty: if he failed to block this attack, he would die!
---------
Read 40 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator