Chapter 77: Snake?

Perk of the irregular update: I upload as soon as a chapter is done.

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SWOOSH!

Onigumo glared with the active use of Observation Haki as Smoker looked back at him with equally crimson-coloured eyes. Onigumo, then landing right in front of Smoker, said with a deep frown,

"...So you aren't a former Vice Admiral for nothing."

Onigumo was quite a huge man in terms of size. As his shadow loomed over Smoker who was wearing a brown cloak to cover his body, the three pairs of spider-like black arms grew out from his back. To an average man, such a scene would've been terrifying beyond imagination, but Smoker was by no means average.

"Stay back, and don't interrupt the fight." Tensei, while casually snatching seven swords from marine soldiers, ordered calmly, "All of you will simply get in our way."

The marine soldiers, who seemed petrified by the intensity of the atmosphere, didn't even have enough courage to speak a single word. Sweating profusely, they watched as Onigumo caught the seven swords that Tensei threw at him, before—

—Thud.

Bayard narrowed his eyes as one marine soldier fell to the ground with his mouth foaming. He, feeling that the hairs on his body were standing up, gazed at Smoker whose eyes were shadowed by his cloak.

Swoo...

The surrounding air slowly swirled toward where Smoker stood. The three Vice Admirals flinched, and they then sighted, the lightly bouncing and trembling pebbles on the ground. Such phenomenon wasn't from a devil fruit whatsoever, but,

"...Conqueror's Haki...!" Bayard scowled before dashing toward Smoker with his sword pointed at the latter. But before he could reach Smoker, the world seemed to turn gray for a brief moment, and there it came—

—the burst of Conqueror's Haki that swept across the entirety of the surrounding.

Thud Thud Thud! The marine soldiers and Marine Officers of lower ranks, whom Tensei previously ordered to fall back, all fainted without any resistance. The weapons that they've been holding fell out of their grasp, and within a second, in the barren land of Kuen, there only stood four men standing.

"...You are dangerous." Tensei whispered with the veins popping out of his forehead. And while saying so, he flipped out a pistol from his holster and pointed it at Smoker. Simultaneously, the liquid-like energy burst into existence and coated the swords that Bayard and Onigumo were holding; they began the operation of the Emission of the Armament Haki.

BANG! And then, an incredibly fast bullet, coated by Emission of the Armament Haki, was fired from Tensei's pistol. Smoker watched with sharpened sense as the bullet flew toward him and nine blades came in his way, attempting to stab him all at once.

'Three men at Martini Hook's level, huh,' Smoker thought as he breathed out the smoke, 'Seimei Kikan: Ghost Body,'

SWOOSH!

'Smoke-E.'

Prior to the bullet striking Smoker's body, the air pressure generated from the projectile 'pushed' Smoker's smoke-turned body away. Smoker, currently lighter than the paper, was 'flown away' from the pressure of one bullet alone, and ultimately dodged,

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

all the attacks simultaneously.

"Hm...!!" Onigumo, immediately kicking off of the ground, dashed at Smoker and wildly slashed his eight blades without any rest.

SWOOSH SWOOSH SWOOSH!

However, each slash generated a substantial degree of air pressure, which effectively pushed Smoker's body away from the blades. Onigumo frowned from the accumulating frustration, for the operation of Observation Haki was useless in front of Smoker's newly developed technique.

Tap. Then, Smoker's smoke-turned right hand momentarily shifted back to its original form, as its palm was now placed on top of Onigumo's chest. Onigumo's eyes widened as he swung his eight swords toward Smoker with desperation, however, it seemed to be too slow to prevent Smoker's attack, until,

BANG!

Another bullet shot from Tensei pushed away Smoker's hand and prevented the strike. Smoker, then swiftly turning around with eyes flashing red, blasted forth a snake of white smoke from his right hand. Revealing its fangs, the white snake coiled around the approaching sword of Bayard, and,

'Lock.'

instantly hardened from the Hardening of Armament Haki—ultimately covering up the entirety of Bayard's Emission-imbued sword.

BOOM!

The hardened white snake managed to render Bayard's sword heavy and slow, allowing Smoker to easily dodge and let Bayard's attack hit the flat plain.

And immediately after, Tensei appeared right in front of Smoker with the use of Soru.

BANG!

A Haki-imbued bullet from the pistol,

"Rankyaku,"

along with the sharp air wave generated by a kick. Smoker effortlessly dodged simultaneously released attacks from Tensei, just as the latter dropped his pistol and pointed both index fingers at Smoker,

"Tobu Shigan: Gatling Gun."

Without any pause in between, the incredibly fast series of Emission-imbued 'flying finger bullets' were fired at Smoker, who had his own index finger up,

"Tobu Shigan: White Gun."

POOF! One huge volume of smoke exploded forth upon colliding with the sharp Haki bullets of Tensei. However, the smoke, possessing an incredible density, effectively slowed down the bullets, and by the time the bullets exited from the dense smoke,

BOOMBOOMBOOM!!!

Smoker was already behind Tensei with his left fist clenched up,

"White Blow."

BOOOM!

Before Smoker's fist was struck into Tensei's exposed back, Onigumo blocked Smoker's attack with his eight swords crossed together. At the same time, Bayard was behind Smoker with the Haki-imbued white snake gone from his blade. However, this was within Smoker's calculations, and before Bayard could succeed in his attack, the smoke exploded from Smoker's punch and engulfed all four of them at once.

The three of them immediately jumped away from Smoker, but before they could react, twelve identical-looking Smokers followed them from the cloud of smoke. Each one of them held onto a swirling ball of white smoke, and each Vice Admiral was forced to face four of them at once.

BOOOOOOOM! Twelve 'White Balls' simultaneously exploded on them, and the recoil of the attacks sent them blasting back toward the small cloud of smoke. Furthermore, the smokes generated from those White Balls closed in toward them, attempting to entrap them once more.

"Ugh..." Onigumo, gritting his teeth as a trail of blood exited from his mouth, then swung his eight blades at his full strength, "Rankyaku: Spider Gale!"

WHOOSH!

A miniature storm was generated from Onigumo's attack, which blew the surrounding smoke away from him. However, just when he did so,

"Black Impact."

BOOOOM!

Onigumo's eyes found Tensei in a horrible condition, with his sunglasses broken, his clothes tattered and grey smoke exiting out of his mouth. On his abdomen was Smoker's palm.

"Tensei...!" Bayard, who managed to get the smoke away from him as well, cried in disbelief as his fellow Vice Admiral fell to his knees.

"Cough cough...!" Tensei then coughed out the blood that erupted from his ruptured inner organs. He, losing the strength in his body, looked up and stared at Smoker with disbelief.

"Why do you look so surprised?" Smoker, without a single scratch on his brown cloak, said with a cold gleam in his eyes, "Have you expected your pitiful self to be stronger than me?"

"SMOKER!!!!" Onigumo, enraged to the extent that his face turned red, flew at Smoker with eight swords pointed at the latter. However, Smoker simply grabbed Tensei by the neck and placed him in front of the approaching Onigumo, and Onigumo was forced to stop his momentum midway.

Tensei, not daring to give up, raised up his trembling right hand to Smoker and pointed its index finger at the white-haired man.

Bang. A Tobu Shigan was fired at point-blank range, but Smoker simply dodged by tilting his head,

"Too slow."

Smoker then threw the powerless form of Tensei to Bayard, who was secretly approaching from his back. Bayard, quickly retracting his sword, back, was forced to receive Tensei.

"Huff... huff—cough cough!!!" Tensei, not in a condition to fight any longer, fell down to the ground as Bayard gently placed him down. Now, Onigumo and Bayard each stood on Smoker's front and back, and Smoker, taking in a light breath, unsheathed Shusui from its sheath.

Then, a shocking sight was unveiled in three men's eyes.

"Is this how you do it?"

It was barely visible and of weak strength. However, it was definitely there—the Emission of Armament Haki.

"...No, not perfect, it seems." Smoker casually commented as the weak Emission of Armament Haki flickered in and out unstably, "Ha, so this is what Garp-sensei meant when Haki truly improves only in the midst of a fight."

Onigumo and Bayard let out a cold sweat from spectating Smoker's manifestation of the Armament Haki: Emission. The tips of their swords trembled, and driven by a thought that they can't allow Smoker to grow any further, they leaped at the cloaked man simultaneously.

However,

'White Spiral.'

Extending his Shusui-holding right arm into a long smoke-formed arm, Smoker goofily swung the sword circularly like a whip.

CLANG! The unstable Emission of Smoker clashed against Bayard's formidable Emission and was bounced off. Smoker nimbly jumped up to dodge four blades of Onigumo's that were stabbed onto the ground, and,

CLANG!

subsequently clashed against Onigumo's raised-up fifth blade. Again, Smoker, due to his inferior Emission, had Shusui bounced off. Then, Smoker's Shusui-holding smoke-arm suddenly hardened from the Hardening of Armament Haki, and,

BOOOM!

suddenly swung Shusui at Bayard with unexpected strength. Bayard managed to block Smoker's attack, however, was unable to react as Smoker suddenly landed in front of him.

However, before Smoker could do anything, eight blades suddenly penetrated his chest. Behind Smoker stood Onigumo who was huffing heavily.

POOF!

Bayard and Onigumo froze as the penetrated Smoker exploded into smoke.

"W-what?!" Onigumo whispered in disbelief, "I clearly sensed him with Observation Haki! So how—"

BOOOM!

Onigumo didn't get to finish his sentence as an iron-hard fist was smashed into his face at the next moment,

"Cough...!"

with Tensei right next to his feet.

BOOOM!

On his side was Bayard, who had a few teeth loose from the same fist thrown by Smoker. Onigumo tried to raise his swords to defend as much as he can, however,

BOOOM!

having his vision obstructed by the thick white smoke, Onigumo couldn't react as another punch was slammed onto his abdomen.

"Cough..." Onigumo coughed out blood, and also choked from the lack of air. He stabbed his blades into the ground and gritted his teeth. His eyes flashed red and located Smoker's spot; he willed not to let himself be caught off guard again—

BOOOM!

—but to no avail. Onigumo didn't know if—

BOOOM!

—his Observation Haki was malfunctioning or—

BOOOM! BOOOM! BOOOM!

BOOOMBOOOMBOOOMBOOOMBOOOM!

It was an incredibly quick series of punches. Within the thick smoke where only the smoke human could see through, three Vice Admirals were mercilessly being pummeled by hundreds of smoke clones.

"There are thousands of civilians suffering in the world, due to the presence of those despicable Celestial Dragons." Smoker, not bothering to hide his true self any longer, coldly exclaimed within the smoke, "Sacrifices for the greater good? Are the deaths of those countless civilians for the greater good of your masters? Slavery, infiltration of Marine ranks, anonymous plundering, ha...!"

Bayard, Tensei, and Onigumo shivered in fright as the smoke finally cleared. Hundreds of smoke clones were all deformed and absorbed onto the swirling ball of white smoke, which slowly turned into that a dark black,

"Keep that worthless 'Absolute Justice' to yourselves, hypocrites."

Three ownerless justice coats, destroyed beyond return, fluttered against the air before helplessly falling to the ground. And right above them,

"Black Serpent!!!"

'S-snake...?'

A gigantic snake of black smoke was blasted forth at the three Vice Admirals. It completely engulfed them through its open fangs.

'This... this is... a snake...?' Bayard thought while staring at the mighty black serpent with fear,

'N-no. This is more like… a dra—'

BOOOOOOM!

The black serpent exploded magnificently. The three of them, unconscious and critically injured, fell to the ground with wisps of smoke rising up from their roasted bodies, and Smoker stood in front of the fallen Vice Admirals with Shusui in his right hand.

"..."

Smoker silently raised Shusui up and pointed its tip at the exposed neck of Onigumo.

'My priority is to prevent the tragedy of the Flevance. If I were to kill them right now, the World Government and Marine's chase for me will become greater by many folds. In addition, there is no sure evidence to prove the wrong of these three; killing at this moment isn't a smart decision to make.'

Eventually, Smoker, frowning and clicking his tongue, sheathed the sword back and walked away from the scene.

Hundreds of marines, tens of Marine Officers, and three veteran Vice Admirals: all retired.