64. Hasshoken

The main mast suddenly breaks and falls to the sea. It surprises everyone, so they all stop their battle and look at the broken mast.

Buggy looks at the broken part and sees ash surrounding it. Buggy smile because he knows that Jude is the one who caused it. She broke the mast slowly while defending herself from the exploding projectiles.

The main mast break and fall to the sea. Lin the sniper can jump to the ship and save herself. She runs on the fallen mast and Jude wants to catch her with her ash. But Lin throws a smoke bomb to hide and then disappears.

"That is not a devil fruit ability. She is trained in stealth," says Buggy.

Buggy can sense that Lin doesn't disappear instantly. She regulates her breath while run away to hide. Then her presence fade slowly. But now when Buggy knows about it, he still can sense her.

"Jude, I know where she is. Do you want me to help you?" asks Buggy.

"No, I will take care of this myself. Captain just need to focus on him," says Jude.

Buggy nod and focus on Ley again. Ley put his hands on the floor and crouch a little. Then he covers his head with haki and jumps Buggy headfirst at Buggy.

"Buto (Military Head)!" Ley says his technique's name.

Ley sends a headbutt at Buggy and Buggy gets ready to take it. Buggy gets into a stance and covers his right hand with haki. Then Buggy punch Ley's head and their clash create a booming sound.

They get into a stalemate, but then Buggy got pushed and fling back. He crashes into the railing and almost breaks it. Buggy then jumps to the left to evade Ley's headbutt.

Ley breaks the railing and rushes to headbutt Buggy again. Buggy evades again because Ley's headbutt is stronger than he thought. Ley uses his legs & hands to add more power to his headbutt.

"What's wrong? Aren't you going to take my attacks head-on again?" asks Ley with a mocking tone.

"I should be the one who asks what's wrong with you? A tiger shouldn't be headbutting like a bull," says Buggy.

"What's wrong with that? Headbutt is one of the Hasshoken martial art techniques. My uncle got famous for his headbutt. Of course, before his head got pummeled by Garp," says Ley while still chasing Buggy.

"For someone who wants to take the Don position from your uncle, you sure are looking up to him."

"I always look up to him, but this is a new era. So Happo Navy needs to change too," says Ley.

"Heh, good thinking. Then, show me whether you can be a big figure in this era or not," says Buggy.

Buggy takes a distance and gets into a lower stance. He covers both his hands with haki until his shoulder and gets ready to fight Ley. Then Buggy cock both his hands back and open his palms.

Ley grins and rushes at Buggy with his headbutt again. Buggy slide his right foot back and thrust both his hands forward. He places the right hand on top, while the left hand below with the palm open.

"Counter Wave!" Buggy says his technique's name.

Buggy thrust his hands forward and detach them. The hands fly at fast speed toward Ley's headbutt. Then Buggy's hands clash with Ley's headbutt.

A booming sound created from their clash and vibration ripples also created. But these vibration ripples are strange because they're wavy, not just a perfect circle like how it should be.

After a moment of stalemate, Ley gets fling back and crashes to the floor. Ley widens his eyes and then looks at Buggy who grins widely.

"You- You can use Hasshoken already?" asks Ley with wide eyes.

"Am I?" asks Buggy while grinning.

"You won't be able to fool me. That's certainly a Hasshoken even though it's not perfect yet," says Ley while gritting his teeth.

That's right, Buggy just used an imperfect Hasshoken to counter Ley's Hasshoken headbutt. Buggy has read the manual since he left Kano Country.

He understand the principle and the fight with Ley gave him more understanding. So he try to use it just now to counter Ley's headbutt.

Buggy's attacks are strong. So when he adds vibration on them, they will be very strong and overpower Ley's headbutt. But it's also because Ley wasn't ready to receive that kind of attack.

Ley grit his teeth because it took him a few months to learn the vibration. But it only takes hours for Buggy to be able to use Hasshoken's vibration, albeit imperfect.

Ley doesn't accept this and rushes at Buggy angrily. Ley sends a barrage of Hasshoken punches at Buggy. Buggy who has put his hands back counter Ley's Hasshoken punches with his own imperfect Hasshoken punches.

Their clash creates a booming sound and strange wavy ripples. Buggy's imperfect vibration is disturbing Ley's perfect vibration and weakened it.

Ley keeps punching at Buggy angrily and exert more power. Buggy grins and also exerts more power while using Hasshoken to understand it more.

On the other side, Cricket is in very bad shape with many bruises after receiving Hanji's staff attacks. But he is grinning now because he had found something.

Hanji swings his staff from above to hit Cricket's head and Cricket raises his left hand to block it. Hanji grin because Cricket will just worsen his injuries by receiving this attack.

*CLANG* Hanji's grin disappears and he widens his eyes in surprise. He feels like hitting metal and the impact sound is also like metal clashing. Hanji looks at Cricket's hand and gets stunned.

"How is this possible?" asks Hanji with disbelieve tone.

Hanji sees Cricket's left hand is covered with a tint of metallic black color. It's still weak, but Cricket has been able to harden his armament haki.

"It's all thanks to you that I can finally harden my haki. That's why now you don't have any use again. Goodbye," Cricket grin.

Cricket grabs the staff and pulls it so Hanji also gets pulled. Cricket then punches Hanji with his right hand that is covered with weak armament hardening.

Cricket punch with full power and hits Hanji's face. Hanji has got many injuries too from Cricket's reckless attacks that he uses so he can learn haki.

Cricket's punch fling Hanji back at fast speed and makes him crash to the fallen mast. Hanji spits some blood and has only opened his eyes again when Cricket appears in front of him.

Cricket jumps to Hanji and punches Hanji from above at stomach. The punch's impact breaks the floor that has been damaged by the fallen mast and sends Hanji down to the ship's inner room.

Hanji faints and Cricket pants while grinning before he also falls to the floor because of exhaustion. Cricket has won and become the first one to finish his battle.

Similar to Cricket, Mantis also has been able to starts using observation haki. After seeing Cricket's victory, she decides to finish her fight too.

Mantis now fully concentrated on her opponent. She can start to feel Yoko's intent and predict his movement. It's still a faint feeling, but she knows it's her observation haki.

Mantis then moves according to what she senses and dodge Yoko's vertical swing. She kicks Yoko's wrist and makes him lose grasp of his sword.

Yoko gets surprised and Mantis uses this chance to swing her metal bat upwards. Her metal bat hit Yoko's jaw and fling his head up.

Then Mantis kicks Yoko right on his solar plexus, makes him bend down. Her bat is still high in the air, so she swings it down right on Yoko's head and makes his head sunk to the floor.

Then she stomps his head down and makes him sink further. Mantis doesn't stop and keeps stomping Yoko's head until she's satisfied even when he has fainted.

As for Jude, she is troubled by Lin's stealth skill. Lin keeps moving around undetected by Jude and shoots her from many angles. But now Jude has found a way to find Lin.

Jude spread her ash particles very thinly on the air. She keeps spreading it until she finally feels someone moving among her ash particles. She immediately controls her remaining ash particles to grab that person, and she succeeds to grab Lin.

Jude smiles and quickly moves to defeat Lin. Lin might have another trick to escape again, after all. Jude tightens her ash that grabs Lin and suffocates Lin until she faints.

Buggy sees his crewmates have finished their battle, so he decides to finish his battle too. Ley has become angrier after his crewmates get defeated. His moves become more reckless and Buggy finds many weaknesses.

"A fighter needs to be clearheaded in his battle. What you're doing right now is not helping at all. Let's finish this here, I don't need an opponent that can't fight with their full power. You are not ready to be a big figure in this era," says Buggy.

Buggy unsheath Pollux and charge it with haki energy. Pollux glows white, then he swings Pollux diagonally toward Ley.

"Press Release: Slash!"

A white slashing arc flies toward Ley at high speed. Ley crosses his hands and covers his whole body with haki. The white slashing arc hits Ley and he tries to stop it, but he can't. Pollux's pressure power has made the slashing attack become very fast & powerful.

Ley gets pushed back and his haki can't defend the slash attack. He flung back to the second mast, crash to it and break it. He gets a massive cut wound and faints immediately.

Buggy sheath his sword and says, "Done."

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