Similarly blasted away, Taro crashed into the stone wall at the Sixth Level exit. The wall instantly cracked and collapsed with a thunderous boom, stirring up clouds of thick smoke.
"Cough, cough..." Taro coughed violently for a moment. Waving his hand to disperse the dust, he then leaned against the wall and slowly stood up.
Although he looked severely injured, the most serious wounds were actually the damage to his Meridians from forcibly pushing his Internal Energy. The external injuries were nothing in comparison.
As the dust settled, Taro remained standing firm.
Leaning against the wall, he regulated his breathing. The Internal Energy gathered in his left arm swiftly returned to his body.
Simultaneously, the automatically circulating Minor Formless Skill rapidly replenished the consumed Internal Energy, nourishing the injured Meridians. His wounds also quickly stopped bleeding.
Blackbeard, enduring intense pain, struggled to get up from the ground. The wound on his chest and abdomen, scorched black by Taro's searing Internal Energy, continued to gush blood.
The wound was horrifying, but Blackbeard could still bear it. He stared at Taro and roared:
"Impossible! How can you still use your abilities after I grabbed you!"
Looking at Blackbeard's utterly shocked face, Taro curled the corner of his mouth and said disdainfully, "Did you think you were the only one in this world with an 'abnormal' body? Utterly arrogant!"
Hearing this, Blackbeard's mind raced. This guy named Taro had shown strong hostility towards him from the very beginning, and his strength was terrifying to boot.
What was even more unacceptable was that his own ability couldn't restrain Taro.
This was too terrifying! No, he must be killed. He's a threat!
"Ze hahahaha! Taro, we've become acquainted through this fight. How about it? Become my comrade! Let's turn this world upside down together!"
Blackbeard once again tried to recruit Taro, but a trace of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes.
"I thought you were going to kneel and beg for mercy, to call me your daddy! Turns out you only want to be companions!"
Taro, who had been on guard against Blackbeard all along, shook his head and feigned a sigh upon hearing this. "This disappoints me, Blackbeard!"
"Kill him!" Before Taro's words had fully faded, Blackbeard bellowed in fury.
Simultaneously, Taro slightly crouched his legs and whispered:
"Second Gear!"
All his Internal Energy converged towards his internal organs, rapidly compressed, and then surged back to fill his limbs and bones. Taro lightly tapped his feet and leaped into the air.
"Lion's Share"
In his Second Gear state, Taro's speed and strength multiplied. The slashes from his rapid kicks had an even more astonishing range and power.
"ROAR...!"
San Juan Wolf let out a tremendous roar. His body swelled once more, reaching dozens of meters in height, attempting to withstand Taro's attack with his body alone.
A cold glint flashed in Taro's eyes.
"Desert Spada!"
His right arm transformed into a four-bladed sand sword and slashed out.
"Gum-Gum Jet Gatling"
Immediately after, bluish-black Armament Haki enveloped his fists, and his Internal Energy solidified into substance. Countless fist shadows pummeled towards San Juan Wolf.
"Clang clang clang clang clang clang"
Countless slashes struck Wolf's massive body, instantly shredding his prisoner uniform and leaving numerous cuts. The sand blades and fist shadows followed closely, delivering heavy blows one after another.
Wolf's enormous body was forced back repeatedly. Just as he was about to be sent flying, another furious roar was heard.
"ROAR..."
His body actually swelled once again, this time exceeding a hundred meters. His gigantic form even smashed a huge hole directly into the ceiling.
Immediately after, Wolf swung his fists, smashing them into the ceiling above his head, and stomped his feet hard into the ground, embedding them deep into the brick and stone.
San Juan Wolf actually managed to stabilize his stance again, stubbornly blocking all of Taro's attacks.
Of course, he wasn't faring well either. The four-bladed sand sword stabbed into the flesh of his wounds. The sand blades, carrying scorching, dry Internal Energy, instantly withered the flesh around his injuries.
Taro's storm of heavy blows also continuously shook his internal organs, almost stopping his breath.
"Ugh... ROAR!"
Wolf grunted, exerted force with his feet once more, embedding himself several meters deeper into the ground. In the end, he did not fall.
Taro drifted down from the air, frowning. This guy's body was not only astonishingly large, but his defensive power was truly fearsome.
The series of attacks stunned the Blackbeard Pirates. They couldn't understand how Taro could become even stronger.
They had thought this was Taro's strongest form. Who would have guessed this young Marine still had an even more powerful state?
Blackbeard stared fixedly at Taro for a long while before suddenly bursting into loud laughter.
"Ze hahahaha! Taro, you're actually increasing the burden on your heart to accelerate blood flow, achieving a boost in power!"
Then he glanced around at his companions. "He can't sustain this for long. We just need to wear him down for a while, and he'll die from exhaustion first!"
The Blackbeard Pirates' morale instantly soared. Howling, they were about to charge at Taro. Blackbeard himself laughed wildly and unrestrainedly.
"Let's see how long you can hold on, ze hahaha... URP!"
Blackbeard's laughter was interrupted for the third time. This time, he nearly choked on it.
"Poison Dragon"
A furious shout. Three purple Poison Dragons surged forth, carrying boundless Aura as they pounced on the Blackbeard Pirates. The massive dragon mouths swallowed them all whole.
It was Magellan!
After resting for a while, he had finally recovered somewhat. "Taro, thank you!"
"I'm fine, I can keep fighting. It's your body that worries me..."
Taro was utterly unconcerned about his own body because his "Second Gear" state was activated by compressing his Internal Energy.
His Meridians, under the uninterrupted operation of the Minor Formless Skill, recovered at an extremely fast rate, bringing no side effects whatsoever.
It was the heavily injured Magellan from earlier that made Taro's eyes show worry.
Magellan shook his head and said slowly, "This is a battle of dignity concerning perseverance and justice. How can I be a mere spectator!"
At this moment, the Blackbeard Pirates, delayed by the Poison Dragons, broke free from the toxins' restraints and emerged once more.
Shiryu smashed the remaining antidote onto the ground. The antidote rapidly spread, diluting and neutralizing all the venom around the battlefield.
"Magellan, your poison is useless in this battle," Shiryu said contemptuously.
"Is that so, Shiryu!"
Magellan said in a deep voice. Then he took several steps forward. "You... have thoroughly enraged me!"
As soon as the words fell, scarlet, viscous venom covered his entire body, exuding an Aura of death.
A skeleton-giant form of virulent poison erupted from within Magellan. That poisonous skeleton was nearly a hundred meters tall, utterly terrifying.
Venom dripped thread by thread at his feet. With just a single drop, the ground was instantly infected. The toxin spread like a contagion, rapidly eroding the surroundings.
"Venom Demon: Hell's Judgment!"
Magellan roared.
[Failed to learn Venom Demon]
[Unable to decipher the operational characteristics of the Awakening Move. Learning failed.]
[Detected lethal poison approaching. Disperse?]
"Disperse."
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