"Not bad," Shura murmured, watching Zan Gao's bloodthirsty rampage with open approval.
Spidey cursed inwardly. Those are OUR people dying, and you're praising him?
If Shura weren't untouchable, Spidey would've gladly put a blade in his back.
This couldn't keep going. If their side kept getting crushed like this, the boss would lose face—and Spidey would be the one paying for it.
He turned and looked deeper into the crowd, locking onto a ten-meter-tall brute.
"Parker!"
A big man with a stupidly honest face stepped out. "Boss, you called?"
Spidey nodded and pointed forward. "Go. Tear them apart."
"Oooh." Parker lumbered toward the shoreline, obedient as a dog.
Splash—
When he reached the waterline, he glanced up the slope, then rolled his neck once like he was warming up.
"Then I won't hold back."
He dropped down onto all fours.
His body began to swell and distort—bones cracking, muscles bulging, skin thickening in ugly waves.
"Oh?" Shura's eyes flickered with interest. "That's rare."
The transformation completed.
An Ancient Zoan—
Emperor Crocodile.
Shura clicked his tongue, almost impressed. "Didn't expect you underground rats to have something like this."
"Of course we do," Spidey lifted his chin, proud. "People call us trash that lives in the dark… but without strength, you get eaten until there's nothing left. That's this world."
"True." Shura nodded slowly. "You so-called 'underworld emperors' might not match pirate emperors in raw strength… but your tentacles reach everywhere. You hear things first—sometimes you're even better than the World Government."
"That's right," Spidey said quickly. "Where there's light, there's shadow. And between them is the gap where people like us thrive."
"ROOOAR—!"
Parker—now a fifteen-meter Emperor Crocodile—charged on all fours.
He looked slow, but his strides were enormous; in truth he was terrifyingly fast.
"Move! Move!" Parker's long maw swung side to side, smacking aside anyone in his path.
"Parker, you bastard—!" someone who got flung away screamed a curse—
—but before the words finished, the crocodile's massive tail swept through.
BAM!
A whole cluster of men were crushed into the ground like rotten fruit.
As Parker barreled forward, he suddenly lifted his head.
A sword slash—tens of meters long—came screaming at him.
BOOM—!
It slammed into the front of his jaws.
"ROAAAH! That hurts!" Parker bellowed.
His skin wasn't even broken.
"Ancient Zoan durability… figures." Pedro stepped out, holding a new greatsword forged from memory alloy.
Parker stared at him. "Huh? A leopard… a Mink leopard?"
"Correct." Pedro's lips curled. "No prize for you."
He roared, his body expanding—
ROOOAR—!
Pedro's form swelled to nearly six meters, muscles thick with power, fur bristling as electro crackled faintly along his limbs.
Parker snorted. "Still small."
Pedro's blade darkened—Armament Haki coating the edge.
"Come on," Pedro said, stance dropping. "Let's see how strong you are when you're out of the water."
He exploded forward and brought the sword down.
"Don't you underestimate me just because I'm not swimming!" Parker snarled, jaw-tip hardening with Haki as he rammed upward.
CLANG—!
Blade and jaw collided.
The shockwave blasted nearby lackeys off their feet; rocks around them fractured and popped.
"Not bad," Pedro gritted out. "Even without water, you've still got bite."
Both pushed with full force—
Pedro twisted his wrist and redirected.
Parker's own momentum dragged his massive body off-line, charging toward a boulder.
"Shave!"
Pedro vanished—Six Powers: Shave—and reappeared on top of Parker.
Sword raised above the crocodile's skull—
"Leopard Slash!"
Parker didn't have time to reset. He could only coat his head in Haki and brace.
CLANG—!
BOOOOM—!
Pedro's strike slammed Parker's head into the dirt.
Pedro's eyes widened. "So hard… and that Haki's strong."
"Bastard!" Parker howled, shaking Pedro off. He rose, and his body shifted—
Hybrid form.
The crocodile's torso lifted, limbs thickened, posture twisted into something both human and monstrous.
And somehow, in that motion, he produced a greatsword—dragging it up like he'd been born holding one.
He swung it at Pedro.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Two power-types, blade-on-blade. The aftershocks shattered nearby stones again and again.
"You sneak-attacking punk!" Parker roared while hacking. "How dare you jump Parker the Great!"
Pedro parried, slid in, then cut across Parker's belly.
CLANG! CLANG!
Sparks flew—no penetration.
"Still can't break through… Ancient Zoan," Pedro muttered.
"Die!" Parker whipped his tail—
BAM—!
Pedro was blasted away.
"Hahahaha! Feel it now?!" Parker laughed wildly. "Know how strong Parker is?!"
"Tch." Pedro steadied himself midair, spitting blood. "You're… so-so."
"Keep talking!" Parker charged again, sword raised.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Pedro's eyes narrowed, hunting for weakness.
Parker lifted his sword and chopped downward—
Pedro dodged—
—but the tail came at the same time.
Pedro raised his sword to block the tail—
and that was the trap.
The tail was flexible. The tip bent around his guard and slammed into his side.
BAM—!
Pedro flew again, ribs screaming.
"Hahahaha!" Parker jeered. "Same trick twice? You fell for it twice, leopard! Now I won't hold back!"
They clashed again.
Pedro finally found an angle—he knocked Parker's sword aside and drove his own blade toward the crocodile's lower jaw.
"Leopard Strike!"
A straight-line sword aura drilled into the underside of the jaw.
"UGH—!"
Parker was knocked backward.
When he stood, he pressed a hand to his jaw, eyes vicious.
Drip. Drip.
Blood fell between his fingers.
"There." Pedro grinned, teeth showing. "So you do bleed."
Everything had a weak point—even beasts like this.
"Damn leopard!" Parker lunged back in.
They hacked again. Pedro tried repeatedly to target the jaw, but Parker guarded it like a treasure, giving him no opening.
"You think I'll make the same mistake twice?" Parker sneered, forcing Pedro back with a heavy chop.
"That's not for you to decide." Pedro's sword began to crackle—
electricity—Electro, a Mink's innate power, crawling along the memory-alloy blade like living nerves.
Whether he had an opening or not wasn't Parker's choice.
Pedro vanished forward—
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
"Fast!" Parker's pupils tightened. Pedro was faster than before, and heavier too—every hit had weight behind it.
Pedro pressured hard, then stabbed into Parker's belly—
RIIIP—!
This time it pierced.
Parker staggered, clutching the wound. His eyes went redder and redder, like something inside him was snapping.
Pedro's muscles tightened. "What is that…?"
A low, animal growl rolled out of Parker's throat.
Then Parker's body expanded again—bigger, longer, heavier.
In moments, a thirty-meter Emperor Crocodile towered over everything, shadow swallowing the slope.
Pedro's heart sank. "Zoan… awakening?"
Then he glanced again.
No black flame-clouds.
He remembered what White Ghost had said:
If a Zoan's awakening fails, the user loses their humanity—becoming a beast, or worse…
A body ruled by the Devil Fruit.
And Parker's eyes—
They weren't human anymore.
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