11 Davy Back Fight (Finale)

The next fight is rather easy, with most of the strong competitors facing against an injured, weak competitor who had barely won their fight.

The only vaguely interesting fight is Kid fighting the first mate of the Big Fish pirates, but that fight is still rather short as Kid reveals his devil fruit, sending a dagger flying into the fishman's chest.

"Wow! You-a saw it-a hear first! Three-a Devil Fruit Users, all in my a-humble a-Foxy's a Davy Back Fight! The stakes are-a high as we enter the-a quarter finals!"

The semifinals matches are all between top-tier competitors.

"Without further ado! Rex 'The King' versus Galdino 'Mr. WAX'! Foxy 'The Silver Fox' versus Harto 'The Surgeon'! Tina 'The Iron Cage' versus Kid 'The Human Magnet'! And Hamburg 'The Wrestler' versus Gazo 'The Seer'!"

Rex feels slightly bummed that he missed out on recruiting a doctor from Harto or a navigator from Gazo, but his opponents were ok. Hina had stolen eleven Pirate Captains for Rex to choose from and Galdino's crew had won a few decent female targets.

As for stealing Galdino himself, Rex couldn't do that. With Hina watching this fight, if he recruited another devil fruit user on top of Big Pan and Kid's reveal, Rex feared that every marine in the south blue would be hunting down his King pirates. Plus, Galdino seemed to have some grudge against him, making him a liability more than anything else.

Rex takes his position opposite Galdino and stares down his enemy. Without Heat's power, Galdino's fruit would be tricky to deal with.

While Rex could avoid all the wax, it would be difficult to make an attack against him.

Sucking on his thumb, Rex feels the fiery alcohol entering his stomach.

"Begin!"

Rex immediately charges at Galdino, knowing that he would have to get in close for him to be able to do anything.

"Finally, I'll have my revenge you bastard! Now you shall die!"

Galdino sends a tidal wave of wax at Rex, eager to defeat this upstart who had dared steal jobs from legal bounty hunters.

Galdino's anger at Rex stemmed from the fact that Rex's eight million bounty was a target he had been spying on for weeks. Just when he was about to strike, Rex had swooped in and stolen the bounty for himself. What's more, Rex had been arrogant enough to go to his island and his bounty office to trade it in, enraging Galdino beyond compare.

Rex doesn't even slow down for a moment, channeling his inner Madara as he brings his hands to his mouth.

"Katon: Goka Mekkyaku!"

A sea of flames rushes out of Rex's mouth, melting Galdino's wax with ease. Compared to the flour explosion, where the flour had been doing most of the work, now, Heat's fire breath was impressive just by itself.

Galdino's eyes widen. "How…" He manages to get out before the flames rush towards him. "I trained for two weeks to face you!"

"Power… is not will!" Rex says, recalling his favorite Madara quote. "It is the phenomenon of physically making things happen!"

Galdino leaps into the air, but Rex has already reached him, grabbing his foot and slamming him down onto the ground.

"I studied you…" Galdino says frailly. "Followed you for weeks. The only member of your crew with any fire ability was that man, Heat. I made sure not to fight him. How…"

Rex doesn't care to let Galdino do any more speculation, spinning him around in a circle before throwing him up into the air. He falls to the ground, groaning in pain.

Rex then picks Galdino up by the throat, such that the tip of Galdino's well-waxed hair was aligned with Rex's mouth.

"Guess what Mr. Birthday Candle. I want a jacket for my birthday." Rex says, blowing out a small flame that ignites Galdino's hair ablaze before walking out of the arena.

Rex doesn't even bother to look back, picking a random female on Joro's crew then ending the fight. The crowd is astonished that Rex didn't pick Galdino, but with his words from before, it was apparent that he had some sort of grudge with Rex.

Gem just shakes his head. As a fellow bounty hunter, Gem had once looked up to the 'Waxed Coffin' Galdino, but now he was just sad. His hair had been scorched, leaving him bald and his expression was as murderous as any pirate. All the mighty fall.

Foxy's fight ends in seconds, with Harto losing almost immediately, which leads to Kid's fight.

"You better not lose you punk. If she recruits me, my first action as her crew member is to give her the photo of your pummeled body."

Kid shivers but nods, a wide grin coming across his face. Like Rex, he knew exactly who 'Tina' was, and was exhilarated at the prospect of fight her.

Kid walks down to the arena, with a feeling of zeal coming across him. He hadn't had much of a chance to fight with Hina last time they had met, but he had the inkling that she would be strong.

Then, the fight begins.

The metal railings from the stands glow purple as Kid rips them away with his magnetism. They then go flying in Hina's direct, one at a time.

Hina rushes towards Kid, jumping to the left and right to avoid the bars. One of them passes through her hand and is bound to the ground, only for Hina to use it as a platform to jump at Kid.

"Iron leg!" Hina shouts, dropkicking Kid.

Having seen Hina's previous fights, Kid knew that if a part of his body contacted with that kick, he would be in trouble, so he twists out of the way, sending a dozen knives flying at her.

Hina creates an iron bar and uses it to parry the knives before swinging it at Kid. However, the iron nature of the weapon makes it particularly susceptible to magnetism and Kid is able to turn around the attack to hit Hina's own head.

Kid then starts entering the Boxing stance he had been learning. Using Hina's iron bar to drag her into position, Kid goes for a left hook to her jaw.

Hina barely twists out of the way, biting Kid's wrist and placing an iron bracelet around it.

The fight quickly devolves into similar savagery, with either opponent using any tools at their disposal such as head butts, teeth, nails, even spitting in each other's faces.

Kid grins savagely as he feels the blood in his veins pumping.

"More! More! MOAR!" Kid roars, integrating almost all the nearby metal including Hina's iron rods into his attacks.

Still, Hina is able to keep her calm, engaging with Kid equally at every step of the way. Their fight seems to twist from a savage mauling to a dance, both of them knowing how the other would act and acting accordingly.

Kid needed to win for his captain and his pride. Hina needed to stall long enough for Gion to arrive and capture the pirates.

Soon, the fight comes to gritty end with Hina being barely pushed out of the arena. She had only barely lost because her iron rods could be controlled by Kid's magnetism making it a bad fruit matchup.

Rex can see that Kid wants him to call Hina's name, but Rex shakes his head. Even with sea stone cuffs, having a marine onboard was not a good idea. Rex picks the most valuable pirate captain Hina had stolen, taking him for himself.

Rex purses his lips as he sees Hina going back up into the stands taking a position right next to his crew. Since all the other pirate groups had been eliminated, Rex's crew mates had already gathered his 'winnings' so all the elites of the King Pirates were there. Rex didn't like Hina being next to them and caught Killer's eye.

Then Rex turns to the last fight. Hamburg beats the seer with him suddenly slowing down at one point and Hamburg winning.

"NOW-A THE SEMI-FINALS!" Foxy cries out, the crowd freaking out in exhilaration. "I will-a start with the first mate, free-for-all! Hamburg Versus Kid!"

Kid then proudly struts up to the stage, facing Hamburg. He looked around cautiously, finding Foxy's position in the crowd and squinting.

Rex had already explained Foxy's devil fruit and had specifically bought a slab of reflective silver for Kid to use to block it. But Kid had a better idea.

The moment the fight begins, Kid levitates the silver between him and Foxy, angling it to face Hamburg. The unfortunate thing with Foxy lighting the stadium pink was that even he could not clearly see where his Noro Noro beam was going.

As it flies towards Kid, the beam is suddenly reflected to Hamburg, striking him straight in the chest. A dumb expression is stuck on Hamburg's face as Kid rushes over delivering a fierce barrage of punches.

30 seconds later, Hamburg has collapsed on the floor, gasping and twitching. Kid had won, and almost effortlessly at that.

Foxy curses his damned aim, but then turns to Rex, curious as to who he would steal. Would he steal Foxy, himself, or stick to his tradition of stealing girls choosing…

"Porche!" Rex says, smiling happily. He had now gotten everything he wanted and more. The next fight was almost entirely unnecessary. Still, Rex wanted to test his mettle. Walking up, Rex looks Foxy in the eyes, let the battle…

BOOM!

One wall of the coliseum explodes as a sea of marines flood in. Hina, who had been waiting for this moment, rushes through the King Pirates binding most of them in iron before running off to bind more.

Only the officers and Big Pan escape this fate, the former for their speed and the latter was simply too big for Hina to bind. Kid, who was still on his way back up, curses violently as he hurries to his crew.

"Kid! Get to the ship! Gem help him!" Rex cries out, running up to his crew in a panic. Gem blasts open a hole in a coliseum wall, with Kid levitating the bound crewmen out.

Gion seems to lock eyes on Rex and quickly defeats her three pirate captain opponents before turning to him. Rex clenches his fist, not having expected her to get here so soon.

"Bonney, age up Rouge." Kid says, retrieving the Tiger from his chest. It was time to reveal that move.

With a few pirates momentarily blocking Gion, Rouge suddenly goes from tiny cub to Tiger goliath. Moments later, Rex envelops Rouge seems to blend in with her fur.

This move was dubbed 'Tiger Print' and it was a move Rex had been working on since Bonney had integrated with the crew. By aging Rouge up to maturity, Rex would then wear a tiger print jacket he kept in a pocket, envelope Rouge and camouflage. The resulting form was essentially a full Zoan transformation.

Of course, there were downsides. For one, the form depended on how strong Rouge was, and with Bonney's artificial aging, Rouge was just an average member of her species, strong but not enough. Also, Rex couldn't switch to a hybrid form, locking him in full transformation.

Still, the benefits vastly outstripped the costs, with Rex having better senses, better strength, and the ability to hide his devil fruit power. With this form, everyone would think he was a cat Zoan user, and no one would suspect him having the Jake Jake no mi.

Rex then bounds towards Gion, planning on giving his crew time to escape.

The moment Hina had appeared, Rex had come up with a backup plan, ordering his crew to move the ship around to the other side of the island. With the marines in the south, as long as his crew made it to their ship in the north, they would be able to escape easily.

As for his own escape, Rex was still working out the kinks in that planning.

Ding!

Rex goes claw to sword against Gion.

Fortunately, most of the other pirate captains realized that she was the largest threat, so Rex was aided by four other captains, each with bounties in the high ten millions.

Under the combined assault of five, rather powerful pirates, even Gion is pushed back. Hina wants to jump in and help but she is quickly blocked by Foxy who was enraged at the marines destroying his debut.

"Give it up you pirate scum! Once my subordinates are done capturing your crews, you'll all be spending the rest of your lives in Impel Down!" Gion roars, starting to feel pressured under the combined assault.

Rex in particular was particularly wearing Gion down with his combined form being almost as strong as the other four pirates together. Of course, Rex doesn't think that this is an indication that he is stronger than Gion. Without the other four pirates, Rex would be beaten in a matter of a few moves.

"You may be right." Rex says in a deep, feral voice. "But by that point, Foxy will have escaped with your pretty subordinate and will be doing all kinds of unthinkable things to her."

Gion's eyes widen as she sees the Silver Fox running out of the arena, Hina's unconscious body over his shoulder. All the marines who try to stop him are frozen in place, unable to catch up.

In her anger, Gion is unable to block Rex's next strike, leaving a long wound on her left leg before Rex runs away, following his crew to the other exit.

"You have a choice to make. Save her or capture me!" Rex cries out, thanking Foxy for his extreme greed and stupidity. "Will you choose the robe of revenge or the cloak of camaraderie?"

Without thinking twice, Gion runs after Foxy, taking down the four pirate captains in one sword sweep before dashing after the Fox pirate. How ironic, the rabbit chasing the fox.

Meanwhile, Rex is long gone, using his superior, tiger-form speed to quickly make it to the shore. Rex then leaps onto the deck of his ship and the helmsman flees right away.

Rex smiles as he sees that all the crewmen he had won as well as a few more were on the boat. With Hina having bound them, Kid was able to easily drag them with his magnetic powers and they had no chance to flee in the chaos.

As for Big Pan. He'd had abundant chances to escape, but his sense of honor and respect for pirate traditions prevented him from fleeing. Moreover, Big Pan felt that Rex might truly be strong enough, or at least talented enough to be his captain.

For a sixteen year old to be able to beat pirates with bounties barely lower than his own. Not to mention, all this time he had been hiding a Zoan transformation implying that he hadn't used all his strength in the fights.

Rex doesn't know about Pan's misunderstanding, but he is still happy that his crew had expanded. The moment he could dock somewhere stable, he would need to modify the ship to expand it before starting his way to reverse mountain.

Now, Rex felt that he was about halfway ready for the Grand Line. Still, Rex wanted to visit a few more islands in the South Blue and at least one more Blue before attempting the legendary 'pirate's graveyard' that was the Grand Line.

But for now, he needed to lay low. Rex felt that his bounty would soar after this with him having taken many multimillion bounties under his command and the double devil fruit reveal.

Going to his chambers to secretly undo his transformation, Rex returns. His hands behind his back in a regal posture.

The new crewmates, barring Big Pan, were all bound by Hina's iron cages which would make this easy.

"Now, all of you may have worn the mantle of officer on your former crews, but in my King pirates, you have shed those mantles and are but crewmen! Other than Big Pan, you will start your way at the bottom, and work your way to a commissioned rank. If you are lucky, one day you might wear the mantle of junior cadre."

Rex states, much to the dismay of the people he had captured. No crewman he had captured was ordinary, with each being top ten elites from their pirate crew. For him to treat them like they were, the stolen crewmen were upset.

"I will never obey you, you disgusting pig!" Shelly cries out. Porche nods in agreement, staring at Rex defiantly. "I want off this ship, immediately!"

Rex smiles. "I was hoping someone would say that."

Moments later, Rex fastens fishing lines to the women's bars and ties them to the ship.

"What you want to tie us here out all night in a time out like we're…" Shelly sneers condescendingly, but before she can finish her thought, both her and Porche are thrown into the sea behind the ship. The lines run taut as they are dragged by them, panting and heaving.

"Don't want to be on my ship. I'll just drag you behind it." Rex says cruelly, before smiling brightly at the remaining crewmen. "Are there any other complaints you would like addressed?"

(Several Hours Later)

Gion slams her fist into a wall angrily, a groggy Hina in front of her. Foxy had thrown Hina off a cliff over the water and slowed her, forcing Gion to abandon him to save her comrade.

With neither Foxy, nor Rex, not even Big Pan in custody, this raid was a complete failure.

While the marines had busted more than a dozen top-tier pirates, most of them got away through Rex's back door and countless marines gave up their lives. Moreover, the pirates who had gotten away all either banded with Rex or with Foxy, which meant that, while the total number of pirate groups in the south blue had gone down, they were now replaced by two super pirate groups.

On top of that, Gion received news that the few high-ranking pirate groups that had not come to this fight had gone rampant in her absence. The Devon, Gyro, Drunkard and Shoujo pirates had all sacked dozens of towns, wreaking havoc in the South Blue. This was a complete failure.

Soon, Hina came to.

"Tell me everything!"

Hina then explained the story. Starting from the Davy Back fight, to Rex and Foxy's choices in crew members to the triple devil fruit reveal. Everything Hina knew was then known by Gion.

"So, there's another Devil Fruit pirate who escaped and Rex can breathe fire? That must mean his Zoan is no ordinary Zoan, an ancient one at least." Gion rubs her forehead in irritation.

This small-time assignment in the South Blue turned into a real pain in the neck.