Flames and thick smoke completely engulfed World's pirate ship.
Hammer looked at the scene with great satisfaction.
But the very next second, his eyes went wide with shock.
"Moa Moa, Hundredfold Speed!"
Faced with the terrifying explosion, in order to protect his crew, World instantly showed what it meant to be a powerhouse.
Covered entirely in Armament Haki, World, under the effect of Moa Moa hundredfold speed boost, he soared into the sky at incredible speed.
Geppo was nothing more than a basic skill under his feet.
World ran at high speed in circles around the flames. His extreme speed generated strong updrafts, sucking the smoke and flames up into the sky.
"What the hell?! Is he even human?"
"Run!"
Hammer's jaw nearly hit the ground in disbelief.
He was also using Geppo, but now it felt utterly lackluster in comparison.
Same Marine Six Styles, so why did a pirate like World use it better than him? It made no sense!
At the moment the flames and smoke were cleared from the pirate ship, World's furious voice exploded:
"YOU'RE DEAD, BRAT!"
"Moa moa, Hundredfold Cannon!"
BOOM!
Still fleeing, Hammer suddenly felt a terrifying pressure behind him. When he turned his head, he nearly lost his soul in fright.
A cannonball, a hundred times larger than normal, was flying toward him. If it hit directly, he'd be vaporized instantly.
"Oh, come on!"
"Soru! Soru! Consecutive Soru!"
He zigzagged madly using soru, barely dodging the trajectory of the cannonball.
BOOM!
The cannonball, enhanced by a hundredfold, exploded on the sea, the blast no weaker than the Aromic Boom Hammer had manually triggered earlier.
"Crap! That bastard is really pissed off now!"
All of this was thanks to the severe injuries sustained by World's senior crew members.
The fishman giant Sebastian had been slashed by Shirley and was still bleeding from his chest.
The ship doctor, Nightin, had lost consciousness, and Sebastian had to fish her out of the sea.
The shipwright Gailam was also wounded.
And their entire pirate crew was nearly blown sky-high by a bomb. All of this drove the World Destroyer into a full-blown rage.
After securing his crew, Brynndi World rocketed toward Hammer at breakneck speed.
In his hand were three more cannonballs; the one he'd already fired was just the first.
"DIE!
"Moa Moa, Hundredfold Cannon!"
Another cannonball came flying.
Hammer felt like his legs were going to snap, but if he wanted to live, he had to keep going.
Also in shock and fear were Lance and the other Marine soldiers, frantically driving the warship forward.
Even though it was a small warship, it was still a clear target on the sea.
Thankfully, World's attention was solely on Hammer.
All his cannonballs were aimed at Hammer in the sky, otherwise, the ship would've been doomed.
But hope for victory was within reach. The ship was about to sail out of the Calm Belt and enter the Grand Line.
From Lance's viewpoint, he could already see a steel behemoth approaching from another direction.
That unmistakable dog-head figurehead and patched-up hull made Lance ecstatic.
"Hammer! Hang on! That's Vice Admiral Garp's ship!"
Lance shouted at the top of his lungs. Hammer turned and looked, and sure enough, it was Garp's warship.
World also heard it. His heart skipped, but in the next second, he was consumed by murderous rage.
"Even that bastard Garp can't save you now! Your life is mine! Even if God himself came down, I'd still kill you!"
"Moa Moa, Hundredfold Cannon!"
The last cannonball was thrown. This time, World fully unleashed his Observation Haki, aiming the cannonball exactly along Hammer's escape path.
"Big Hammer Eighty!"
Hammer showed a trace of defiance, but he wasn't one to bow to fate. His hammer strike boomed through the sky, and a visible shockwave blasted outward.
BOOM!
The cannonball exploded mid-air. The violent shockwave and flames engulfed Hammer.
He summoned his Frostbane, covering himself in freezing energy just in time to avoid being incinerated.
Still, the blast hit him hard, knocking him from the sky toward the sea.
"Cough, cough! Damn it!"
"Geppo!"
Seeing himself about to fall into the sea, Hammer bit his tongue hard to stay conscious and launched a desperate leap just before hitting the water.
"Ow, ow, ow…"
The movement wracked his whole body in pain.
His body felt like a cracked glass bottle; one more touch and he'd shatter.
But World had no intention of letting him go.
World plucked a button off his coat.
"Brat! You'll pay for pissing me off!"
"Moa Moa, Hundredfold Bullet!"
He coated the button in Armament Haki, and the next second, it shot toward the panting Hammer like a missile.
"No! Hammer, dodge!"
Lance's cry of despair echoed as he watched the scene unfold.
Hammer, gritting his teeth and hovering mid-air using Geppo, felt death closer than ever.
"Chest-Shattering strike"
"Come on, give me one more swing!"
He couldn't afford to lose, not yet. He hadn't hammered enough iron.
He hadn't let the legendary swords of Huaxia resound across this sea.
Just a button. A damn button! It won't take Hammer's life!
Fighting through intense pain, Hammer activated his Devil Fruit ability again, unleashing visible hammer shockwaves outward to intercept the deadly button.
But World's Haki-coated button, powered by the Moa Moa Fruit, cut through the shockwaves like paper.
Just as it was about to hit, Hammer's face showed a flicker of confusion, and he instinctively shifted slightly to the right.
Whizz
BOOM!
The button blasted into the sea with terrifying force.
"Impossible! You had no strength left! How?!"
World had been confidently prepared to enjoy the Marine's tragic death.
But Hammer dodged it.
"Observation Haki?! No way!"
Yes, the thing that saved Hammer's life was none other than Observation Haki, one of the three types of Haki.
Even Hammer himself didn't quite understand what had happened.
When he launched his hammer, shockwaves from his body, he felt something, a kind of feedback.
The moment the shockwaves were pierced, he somehow sensed the button's trajectory in his mind.
It was like a sonar radar from his past life, mysterious, but strangely natural.
"Good job, kid! You've held out this long!"
"World! Your opponent is ME!"
While Hammer was still dazed, a burly man with a cape of justice suddenly grabbed him and flung him backward, then charged at the World Destroyer.
It was none other than Vice Admiral Garp.
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 15 chapters ahead.
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