Chapter 33: Victory Without Suspense
It was as if it had been assaulted by a meteor shower, with the beach covered in ring-shaped craters. Umit was lying quietly in one of the large pits at this moment.
Umit… lost?
This thought naturally popped up in his brain. He had been racking his brains here to figure out ways to stall for more time, but Umit had fallen down before him. His full fighting spirit suddenly plummeted. With Umit defeated, their combat had lost all meaning.
Moreover, everyone else besides him had already fallen.
【Deep Sea】, 【Gray Knight】, 【Flying Rabbit】, 【Red Hat】… These colleagues who, just like him, had once been active on the Sea were now sprawled messily on the ground. Some were still barely alive, while others had already lost their proper warmth.
They lost!
Noticing this scene, Marcus fully realized the current situation.
Crushing defeat,
An absolute crushing defeat,
A failure at the level of being completely battered! Both face and substance turned to smoke with Umit’s fall.
At this moment, he surprisingly found that he wasn’t too disappointed. His heart was so calm that it made him a bit suspicious of himself, but… well, this was fine too. It was about time for the curtain to fall. A wild boar like him, who preferred sticking to his own mud puddle, wasn’t suited for a place like the New World anyway.
However,
The way the curtain fell couldn’t be this unsightly no matter what.
“Explode for me!”
Observation Haki locked onto Elus flying behind him. He spread his hands, activating his ability. Heat rapidly gathered and accumulated in the air, which began to expand swiftly. In the next instant, an explosion formed. Amid the deafening roar, a storm of high-temperature, high-pressure gas waves engulfed Elus’s figure.
Marcus was also propelled by the explosion’s shockwave, accelerating his fall toward the ground.
The instant his body touched the ground, he activated his ability again, imbuing the earth with an extremely high coefficient of elasticity. His body, covered in Armament Haki, slammed into this bouncy ground without receiving any damage and was flung upward by the rebound force—
“Bang!!!”
A slender, pale hand grabbed Marcus’s head, brutally suppressing that rebound force and slamming Marcus hard onto the ground.
This time, the imbued elasticity had vanished. Marcus’s occiput made intimate contact with the ground’s rocks.
This series of changes,
was completed in just an instant,
So fast that blood was flowing from Marcus’s occiput, yet he still wore a dazed expression, completely failing to react.
“Seeing your dejected look, I thought you were going to surrender! But you pulled this trick on me, trying to scheme against me, huh?” Elus’s palm pressed on Marcus’s forehead, while a pair of pitch-black wings slowly folded behind him. “How about it? Want to consider surrendering? I’m very interested in your ability.”
Marcus’s head was dizzy, the intense pain from his occiput making his consciousness hazy. His brain felt like it was being pricked by needles, preventing him from mounting any effective resistance.
His heart turned ice-cold.
Too strong! The gap… was too big! Even Lord Umit’s fist couldn’t fell him this easily. He couldn’t even resist, only lying on the ground like a salted fish to be slaughtered. This chasm-like gap in strength made him deeply realize that Lord Umit’s defeat was inevitable.
“Lord Umit, he…”
“Dead.”
“Dead? It’s… like a dream! How did he die? Lord Umit?”
“I beat him to death.”
Elus said nonchalantly: “His fists are very hard. In terms of Armament Haki proficiency alone, among everyone I’ve seen, he could probably rank eighth or ninth? But that’s all—his fists are hard, but his speed is completely lacking!”
This was the truth.
The battle between Umit and Elus was actually quite simple and direct, far less spectacular and varied than the fight between Marcus and Eschbach.
Of course,
This was from the perspective of spectacle. After all, Umit wasn’t an ability user, so his fights naturally lacked the flashy tricks of ability users. Perhaps many people preferred the visceral punch-to-flesh impact… Hmm, put that way, it really couldn’t be concluded so hastily. To each their own tastes.
In any case, the battle between Umit and Elus was a flurry of fists and feet. Those with poor eyesight couldn’t even make out their movements, only seeing waves of shockwaves ravaging the beach, leaving behind man-made craters that replaced the original mushroom-shaped rocks, creating a new scenic line for Dressrosa.
At the start, Umit seemed to have the upper hand against Elus, even breaking a few of Elus’s bones.
However, this record didn’t expand further. Once he quickly grasped Umit’s moves and confirmed that the King of Maritime Transport had no more trump cards, Elus—unwilling to drag things out for Joker to watch—ended this battle with no suspense using speed far superior to Umit’s.
To be fair, Umit was no weakling.
As a magnate of the Dark World and a guest at BIG·MOM’s table, Umit’s strength made him one of the top strong persons in this New World.
It was just that Elus was stronger.
And not just a little stronger—it was overwhelming dominance. When Umit came before Elus, he naturally became a weakling.
“Eighth or ninth? Is Lord Umit really that weak?”
“It’s because the Whitebeard Pirates are too strong.”
Elus’s words left Marcus speechless for a moment.
How could he have forgotten? The Eckmond Kingdom flew the Whitebeard Pirates’ flag. It was perfectly normal for Elus to have clashed with the Whitebeard Pirates. Compared to them, it was no wonder he’d rank eighth or ninth.
“Hey, give me a straight answer? Surrender?”
Elus’s right hand was still pressing down on Marcus’s head.
“Surrender… Your Highness the Black Prince, sorry!” Marcus endured the pain, grimacing with an ugly smile. “Though I’m just a wild boar who likes rolling in the mud puddle, but…”
“Bang—!!”
Before Marcus could show his will and determination, his head slammed into the solid rocky soil again like a ball.
This time,
Elus deliberately used spiritual pressure to assault Marcus’s soul, predictably knocking him out completely.
“So much nonsense. If you’re not surrendering, then don’t! I’m not going to force you, so why yap like a duck…” Elus grabbed Marcus’s bald head and stood up, tossing the unconscious baldy aside. “Eschbach, watch this guy. Don’t let him die. I’m interested in his ability—take him with us when we go back.”
Having simply dealt with the only target since landing on the island that piqued his interest even slightly, Elus rolled his eyes and looked toward the distant cluster of undulating buildings. He curved his lips into a brilliant smile.
He even raised his right hand and waved.
He was just short of shoving it in Doflamingo’s face and shouting “hello!”
