47 Chapter 44

'The projectiles don't seem to work on Baten. He literally stopped my bullets in midair; I doubt that he acquired Kid's devil fruit in such a short time.' Rowan thought as he and Carina stood against Baten in a deadlock. 'Lesser. That's the word he said. I'm assuming that his power allows him to reduce the physical aspects. Just now, he reduced the speed and strength of my bullets-'

Rowan was interrupted by Baten's rapid dash towards them. Instantly appearing in front of Rowan, Baten swung his shortsword towards Rowan at fast speed.

Rowan's eyes widened and immediately opened his left palm toward the shortsword.

*BOOM* Rowan's palm and Baten's shortsword collided, before both were bounced backwards. Skidding and finally stopping on the ground, Rowan narrowed his eyes. 'Just now, he didn't use that 'lesser' technique on my bounce. He can't use his ability on the living beings?'

*Clang* *Clang* Baten raised his shortsword to block Carina's daggers thrown at him. To his surprise, the daggers didn't get reflected, but spun around the shortsword as the metal wires attached onto the daggers quickly wrapped around it.

"Rowan!" Carina shouted, and Rowan, who landed next to Carina, immediately grabbed the metal wires and pulled them towards him.

"Lesser." Holding his palm against the metal wires, Baten calmly called out. Right afterwards, the metal wires suddenly became thin and loose, before each of them were severed into two pieces.

Rowan rolled backwards due to the sudden breakage of the metal wires, before positioning himself. Carina gritted her teeth before dashing towards Baten.

Rowan instantly caught up to Carina through the propulsion with bounce. 'Currently, there are two ways to defeat Baten.' Rowan thought as his right punch approached Baten.

"*Yawn* Really, can't you come up with something better?" Baten lazily said while raising his palm again. Ignoring Baten's antic, Rowan continued to fly towards Baten with Carina dashing right behind him.

"Lesser."

'First, using the Seastone.' Rowan thought as he retracted his fist back at the last moment. Simulatneously, he rapidly swung his left hand, which is holding the Seastone jitte he had it sheathed on his back.

*Clang* *Clang* Baten was about to block the jitte with his shortsword, however, was blocked by Carina's daggers.

"Ho?" Baten lifted up his eyebrow in amusement as he stared at the Seastone jitte, which was about to strike him in less than a milisecond.

"Soru."

Baten suddenly disappeared from Rowan and Carina's views, before appearing on their back, with his shortsword ready to slam onto them.

"Damn it!" Rowan quickly turned himself around by bouncing himself off the air and held out his Seastone jitte horizontally to defend the shortsword. Carina threw her daggers toward Baten's feet, quickly took out new pair of daggers from her pouches, and launched herself towards Baten again.

"Lesser." Baten held out his hand towards the midriff of Rowan's jitte that connected the handle with Seastone tip. The Seastone jitte cracked before crumbling apart, and the Seastone tip flew out of the jitte and landed on the ground.

"Kami-e." Simultaneously, Baten's body bent unnaturally and dodged all of Carina's daggers.

Watching Baten's swift reaction, Rowan and Carina grimaced and jumped back in caution.

"Wow, how did you manage to take that Seastone in such a short amount of time?" Baten looked at the Seastone that lied in Carina's hand with amused eyes.

Staring at the broken handle of jitte on his hand, Rowan quickly spoke out, "Carina, this dude's ability to reduce the size, speed and strength seems to have limited range. Probably the reason as to why he wants to fight us in small setting. Also-" Rowan couldn't finish his words, as he saw Baten lifting his right leg up.

"Rankyaku." A compressed blades of air rushed toward Rowan and Carina. Rowan hopped himself in midair, while Carina jumped sideway to dodge the bullets. "Soru." Baten disappeared from his position with a dust and instantly appeared in front of Carina.

"Blade storm!!" Carina didn't panic in front of Baten's huge form and rapidly slashed towards Baten at an incredible speed.

"Lesser." Holding out his hand, Baten stated.

*Clang* *Clang* As the blades clashed, Carina's daggers immediately broke from the rapid slashes, and caused her to clench her teeth as she dashed sideway and pullet out a new pair of daggers.

*Clang* "You think that's all I got? Don't get cocky, you bastard." Carina growled as she clashed her daggers against Baten's shortsword once more. 'We have no idea about what this plan B may be. Where have those marine officers, whom we fought, gone to?'

'First method was Seastone. Second method... is to use the weakness of the devil fruit against itself.' Seeing Baten, who used Soru again to catch up to Carina, Rowan himself bounced against the wall and flew towards Baten and Carina at an insane speed. 'From what I've observed so far, Baten can only use his ability in one object at once. Also, there seems to be a cool-down time every single time he uses the ability. Coupled with its pretty small range, it is evident that this ability isn't invincible.'

"Lesser." Using his ability once again, Baten caused Carina's daggers to break by smashing his shortsword into them. Subsequently, Baten noticed Rowan flying towards him at an insane speed, and braced himself.

"Tekkai." *BOOM* Rowan's palm struck Baten's abdomen, whose hands were occupied from Carina just now. However, Baten seems to have sustained no damage, as his face still looked casual.

With his palm still in contact with Baten, Rowan grinned. 'His ability cannot affect the living being like me. Checkmate.'

"Bounce Crash, 10-Hit-" However, before Rowan could blast his attack,

"Less Less One-Hundredth Strength." Baten didn't lose his casualty even with Rowan's palm about to unleash its attack, and let out a grin as he watched the daggers thrown by Carina flying lethally toward him.

*Crack* Suddenly, the part of the ground Rowan was standing on shrunk and created a hole abruptly, causing him to lose his balance and fall. Simultaneously, Carina's daggers stopped in midair and fell powerlessly.

'What?!' Rowan's eyes widened as he witnessed Baten's display of power. and quickly brought himself away from the hole. 'I thought he could only use his power on one object at once!!'

"Shigan." Immediately after preventing Rowan and Carina's assaults, Baten poked his right index finger towards Rowan at a blinding speed that Rowan could barely see.

*BOOM* The finger collided with Rowan's shoulder, which barely managed to expel small amount of the bounce force to deflect the attack. The force generated from the collision caused Rowan to fly back, and he wobbly landed on the ground, with a large bruise on his left arm.

"Ugh..." Rowan groaned slightly as he felt the pain from his wound.

Carina held out her daggers and sighed, "Haa, I'm leaning towards an idea that that man may be too much for us to handle. And at this point, I don't really have an idea how I can help you; he just seems to be unbreakable with my skills alone."

Shifting his gaze to Carina's pouches, Rowan noticed that she is probably down to her last pair of daggers. 'That marine dude deliberately used his ability on one object only, just to lure us in. It was too close just now on; I would've suffered more grievous injury than this, if I were to react just a little later.'

"Hmm, an annoying ability to deal with indeed." Baten commented while rubbing his chin. "The ability to bounce off using one's own body and any solid object one is in contact with. From what I can see, in order for you to deflect the attack, you have to be 'aware.' Requires a very fast reflex and eye sight; it seems that you are quite gifted in those aspects, aren't you?"

Rowan didn't pay his mind to Baten, but began to devise a plan. 'Can target multiple objects at once. However, other weaknesses stand. Limited range and cool-down. Additionally, just like me, he has to be aware. If I can speed up very fast and not allow him to react, he shouldn't be able to 'reduce' the attack.'

"Which means, I just have to be fast enough that you won't be able to react." Having reached the same conclusion as Rowan, Baten grinned as he sheathed his shortsword back.

"Carina," Rowan whispered to Carina next to him, "I think we're out of options here. We have to separate, and I need you to look for the Log Pose while I hold off this dude. There's probably three officers we faced-"

"Soru." Baten once again dashed from his position, and appeared in front of Carina in an instant.

"S***!!" Realizing that Baten intends to get rid of Carina first, Rowan's eyes burned in anger as he bounced towards Baten at an incredible speed.

"Shigan." *BOOM* Rowan barely reached Baten's finger and stopped it with his punch. Carina flew backwards from the shock, before back-flipping and landing safely onto the ground.

"Go NOW, Carina!!" Rowan shouted as he and Baten began to move at a blurry speed.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* The shock waves from the collisions boomed within the secluded spot, causing Carina to shield her face with her arms. Staring at Rowan with slight worry in her eyes, Carina gritted her teeth and quickly dashed away from the site at her fastest speed.

"Oho? You think I will let you go?" While in midst of blindingly-fast combat between Rowan, Baten muttered to himself before using Soru to appear right in front of Carina. However,

*BOOM* *BOOM* Rowan simultaneously appeared next to Baten, and prevented Baten from causing any harm to Carina by blocking Baten's finger with his fist once more. "Hurry!!"

Sweating profusely, Carina continued her run and eventually disappeared from Baten's view, causing the latter to shrug.

"Well, back to plan A I suppose?" Baten said halfheartedly. "By the way, the movement you did just now... did you copy Soru? How impressive."

Watching Carina's successful escape, Rowan took a deep breath and calmed himself down. Instantly after, Rowan shrugged back, "I have good eyes."

'Who knew that kicking ten times off the ground is really a thing? I was quite retarded in the past, wasn't I?' Rowan couldn't help but think in exasperation. 'Good thing I managed to sight the exact moment he kicked off at least. Can't kick that fast, but I got my bounce to do the job for me.'

Baten nodded with his arms crossed together. "Getting stronger during the battle... seems that you are becoming more and more troublesome fellow to deal with." Slowly cracking his body, Baten sighed, "Guess I will have to disregard the building; it's going to leave a dent in my career. Curses upon you, Grimheart."

Right after his statement, Baten suddenly became smaller and thinner, with his height dropping from four meter to three and a half meter.

"Seimei Kikan: Kami-e Bushin." Baten took off the glasses from his eyes and put it in the inner pocket of his black suit. "This is the dead end for you, Grimheart. Let's wrap this up before the situation gets more messy."