Chapter 8: Black Beast And Strangling Ghost
“Am I too late?”
He let out a soft sigh.
A flash of regret and sorrow passed through Eschbach’s gray-brown eyes, then sparks ignited with that regret and sorrow as fuel, burning into blazing fury. He looked at the dark, blood-soaked guy standing in front of the watchtower, the fury in his eyes nearly burning the guy opposite him to ashes.
Though in terms of size, he was the largest among Elus’s four aides-de-camp.
His 350-centimeter height was enough to intimidate many timid guys from approaching just by standing still, and with his imposing expression and thick, powerful fists… he didn’t look like a good person no matter how you saw it.
However, in fact, Eschbach was the softest-hearted among the four aides-de-camp.
No matter how many times he saw it, he could never get used to scenes of people suffering. He hated torture the most, and the interrogation room was the place he least wanted to approach, but that didn’t mean he would go easy on enemies.
When dealing with bloodstained villains, he could unleash 200 percent power with 100 percent strength.
At this moment,
It was exactly like that.
“Black Beast, Tadra, bounty 110 million, West Sea native, former black mafia legion commander, once massacred an entire town of an enemy family to intimidate them…” Reciting the information word for word, the killing intent in Eschbach’s eyes kept rising to a peak.
“You know quite a bit… but no matter how much food knows, it’s still just food.”
After listening to Eschbach’s ‘waste’ talk, Tadra grinned, revealing two rows of bloodstained fangs.
Then,
Over ten meters of distance,
Just the blink of an eye.
Using hands and feet like a beast, the Black Beast rushed in front of Eschbach. He was still crawling on the ground without standing up, clenching his right hand into a fist and smashing viciously toward Eschbach’s right ankle.
“Bang!!!”
No crisp sound of bone cracking.
Tadra felt his fist had collided with a massive iron pillar. The unimaginable hardness sent back a shock that made him feel pain for the first time in a long while. Since learning Armament Haki in the New World, he hadn’t felt such bone-deep agony in ages.
“You punched me!”
Eschbach looked down at Tadra, who was sprawled on the ground like a beast.
He lifted his right foot.
“I’ll return the favor with a kick.”
As the words fell, so did his right foot.
With a “boom,” like a meteor crashing to earth, the sea-eroded cliff beneath his foot seemed to tremble in the massive roar. The kicked-up dust spread like clouds and mist, instantly scattered by the sea wind, revealing a deep crater in the ground.
“Cough cough!!”
Tadra knelt at the edge of the pit, hunched over, coughing up a puddle of blood and filth. It was unclear if it was his own blood or vomit from his stomach.
“You…”
This beast-more-than-human guy opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say something.
But,
“Shut up, waste.”
Eschbach had no desire for more talk. That thick, powerful fist wrapped in Armament Haki replaced all words. In ancient times, humans tamed the wildness and beastliness of beasts with fists, domesticating them into livestock.
Fists clashed, shoulders brushed past, legs collided like steel whips. It was like stepping into a blacksmith’s shop, the clanging noises so rapid and dense.
Tadra was undoubtedly a thorough villain, no mistake,
But his 110 million bounty also represented the Navy’s recognition of his strength.
He was no weakling.
Eschbach and Tadra both excelled in bare-handed melee.
So, their fight entered a white-hot phase from the start. No fancy moves, just the most primal, bloodiest, most direct violence. Fists were humanity’s most primal violent weapon, and at this moment, both pushed this primal weapon to its limit.
Even when the Den Den Mushi on Eschbach suddenly rang, it didn’t cause the slightest slack in their fight.
————
“Your companion is really something!”
The man wearing only blue swim trunks clicked his tongue in praise. “Tadra may be a beast in human skin, but his fists are genuinely hard. To block Tadra… you’re reinforcements from the Eckmond Kingdom?”
“But our intelligence didn’t have you guys in it? I remember the Eckmond Kingdom’s experts are [Beautiful Sword] and [Fighting Dog]?” The man stared at Dick standing opposite him, smiling on his face but cursing the intelligence gatherers in his heart.
He hadn’t mastered Observation Haki, but his instincts were naturally sharp. The ponytail guy in front of him and the big guy fighting Tadra were all experts who made him feel a threat to his life.
In other words,
By pirate standards, these two roadblockers were definitely at the hundred-million bounty level.
Yet, there was zero intelligence on such experts. The intelligence unit was full of waste. If he survived this, he would absolutely kill those useless scum.
“Dealing with you doesn’t require the two lords to act.”
Dick slightly raised his chin, his beautiful golden hair tied in a ponytail, swaying lightly behind his head with his movements. The look he gave the swim trunks guy was full of contempt. This one action, one glance, expressed his pride to the fullest.
“So, can you tell me your name?”
The swim trunks guy kept smiling, seemingly unaffected by Dick’s arrogant attitude.
“Strangling Ghost, Farrug, you… are you probing for intelligence?” The voice went from distant to near, suddenly arriving at his ear from afar. The swim trunks guy, Farrug, felt warm breath on the back of his neck, his hairs standing on end.
He instinctively lunged forward, rolling like a lazy donkey. Just as he rolled away, a fierce wind whistled past from behind.
The faint stinging pain on his back told him that if he hadn’t reacted fast, his spine would probably have been dug out and used as a whip.
“You… Ability User?”
Ignoring the wound on his back, Farrug half-squatted on the ground, twisting to look at where he had stood. A massive leopard stood there, casually flicking its long tail, gazing at Farrug with playful eyes.
“Zoan Devil Fruit User?”
Farrug felt his lips dry, licking them with his tongue.
His mood grew heavy.
He wasn’t an Ability User, but that didn’t stop him from knowing how tricky they were, especially Zoan Ability Users. They weren’t as destructively overwhelming as Logia, nor as bizarrely versatile as Paramecia. However, for any strong person specializing in physical techniques, if given a Devil Fruit to eat,
At least nine out of ten would choose Zoan.
The vitality and recovery from Zoan Devil Fruits granted Ability Users stronger power, speed, endurance, recovery, and damage resistance—comprehensive enhancements across the board.
This meant the enemy in front of him had long stamina and was very durable.
This was no good news for Farrug.
Strangling Ghost,
Hated these guys who were hard to strangle in one go the most.
