Buzzed

Sengoku sat at his desk, and once more began cradling his head in his hands. It was an action that was becoming all too familiar recently, his stress reaching levels not seen since the tyranny of Rocks.

A war was coming. A war that he was entirely responsible for, having announced the execution of Ace to the whole world. However, upon reflection, it was not a war that he was ready for. His men were shaken, his best troops were scarred and any advantage they had over the Whitebeard Pirates had all but vanished after Dante mutilated two of his Admirals.

Of all things ailing Sengoku, that was by far the worst. His best men, his most skilled troops, utterly decimated. Akainu, battered and snuffed out like he was nothing more than a nuisance. Kizaru, missing and presumed dead, nothing else being known except an eye witness account saying Dante had disposed of the Admiral with a single slash to the throat.

In the face of such horrendous circumstances, the Marines had been forced to sweep the islands of this world and search for any who had the raw power to become an Admiral, and the strength of will to enforce Justice. The search had not gone well. Not many people were too enthused to be approached by the 'Dogs of the World Government'.

Speaking of, though, the World Government was another source of Sengoku's slowly worsening headache. Every day it had been the same, disrespect and derision from the Gorosei for his apparent 'inability to catch a single pirate'.

The bastards had the nerve to put forward an Admiral candidate of their own, one who they were certain wouldn't suffer from 'the incompetence plaguing the Marines'. Either they were trying to take over from within and they thought they were being subtle about it, or they just wanted to show off their strength.

Sengoku let out a groan. The recruitment drive would have to continue, and hopefully he would find more trustworthy candidates for the position than Ryokugyu in time.

He reminded himself that this was all worth it. To erase any remnants of Roger from this world. To end the Great Pirate Era. To ensure Justice would prevail.

Only when these goals were achieved would Sengoku allow himself to rest.

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Dante, meanwhile, was currently engaging in one of his childhood fantasies. A battle against a dinosaur. A one on one clash against a creature that rules the lands. He wasn't quite sure how dinosaurs translated into the history of this world, but he also didn't much care for it because he was having fun.

Dante braced, raising his arms in a cross guard as Queen stomped down onto him with his robotic limb, several thousand pounds of weight pressing onto him. After a few moments, Dante shifted his stance, moving his right arm away yet still holding back Queen's pressure, summoning one half of the Cavaliere into his free hand.

From there Dante lifted the spinning blade of the Cavaliere and jammed it into Queen's leg, letting the buzzsaw rip apart the cyborg appendage. After a few seconds, Queen pulled back, screaming in shock as sparks and electricity flowed freely from the wound in his calf.

Queen, wanting to push Dante back and take a few moments to breathe, turned slightly and lashed out with his large tail, the speed behind such a move leaving contrails in the air.

Dante, reacting quickly, lifted his arms into the Royal Guard formation at just the right moment and absorbed the kinetic energy behind the strike.

Then, Dante threw his palm forward into the Demonic Sigil that made the foundation of his Royal Guard, and the force behind Queen's attack was sent back at him hundredfold.

The Bronchiosaurus was sent flying, hurtling through the air at astonishing speeds as he collided with the main administrative building at the centre of the Udon Prison. Immediately, the structure fell apart, several tons of concrete and wood falling down onto Queen's downed form, his screams drowned out by the sounds of demolition.

Moments later, the rubble surrounding Queen was blasted away after the All-Star coated his body in Haki and began lashing out at the debris around him. The pirate was breathing heavy now, not in exhaustion, but barely concealed fury. Not once had he even managed to scratch Dante's stylish red coat.

Changing his strategy somewhat, Queen used the robot claw on his tail to grab chunks of broken stone and rock, coating his claw in Armament Haki and crushing the rocks even further, before launching them in Dante's direction. Within an instant, hundreds of pellets flew at Dante, the speed and power behind them shattering the sound barrier as they did so, with Queen following shortly behind them, jaws open.

In response Dante summoned an array of spectral swords in a circle formation, spinning them at blistering speeds and forming a makeshift mix of a buzzsaw and a shield in the air, turning any chunk of stone that flew at it into fine powder and blocking the rest entirely.

With the pellets dealt with, Dante turned his attention to the still charging Queen, and took advantage of his position. He mentally changed the orientation of his Swords Formation and sent it forwards slightly, with the blades now facing Queen as they continued to spin rapidly. Unable to stop his momentum, Queen was helpless as he charged face first into Dante's buzzsaw.

"Oh! That's gonna leave a mark!"

Queen's screams were able to be heard for miles, the raw agony in his wailing led one to almost pity him. Almost. Dante did not press the saw any further in, instead allowing Queen to pull himself off of the Swords Formation, and when he did Dante was proud of the damage he had dealt.

Queen's face had been split in half down the middle, his jaws torn into 4 separate pieces as a result with his snout and forehead lacerated entirely. Covered in blood and glaring hatefully at Dante, Queen backed away and began to transform once more.

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His bones and joints shifted once more, the sickening sound of his skeleton folding in on itself accompanied only by Queen's heavy grunts and soft cries. A few seconds later, Queen had finished his transformation, now being a sordid hybrid of man and dinosaur.

His size had increased dramatically, his skin thicker and darker slightly, with a tail and much more animalistic face, alongside robotic claws on his hands and hair. Unfortunately, this form did not solve Queen's apparent weight problem, as he still held an extremely wide stature. Furthermore, his injuries had not fully healed, with his face still being disgustingly split in half.

"Still want more, huh? Alright, I can do a third round."

Dante began hopping on his feet, wiping his lip with his thumb, after which he curled his fist as he began punching at the air. There was an art form to demoralising an opponent without thought, as though it were second nature, and currently Dante was performing said art. It was one of his greatest points of pride, after all.

Queen snarled, spitting his words hatefully at Dante as he cradled his split jaw, realising it heavily impeded his speech.

"Huck his hison! I hus wanh you head!"

"Hah? Sorry, pal I didn't quite catch that. What'd you say?"

Queen shouted out unintelligible words shortly after, before releasing a guttural scream to the heavens, his fury manifesting in his Haki, both arms and legs coated entirely. He smashed both arms down on the ground several times, sending the area around them into further disrepair, with Dante merely watching in amusement.

After a few moments of incoherent screaming, Queen had started charging at Dante once more, grabbing chunks of rock with his claws and throwing them at Dante has he ran, yet still to no avail. Every stone, pebble and speck of dust was dodged by well times Tricks, with Queen's forward charge being stopped immediately after Dante's final Trick, teleporting directly above Queen and smashing down onto his skull with his fist.

Queen immediately lost any forward momentum, instead being violently slammed into the ground, breaking both his ribs and the ground around him as he dropped. His head was thrown down on the floor alongside his body, aggravating his sawn open face even further, blood still spilling from the wound.

In anger Queen began thrashing around, his limbs and claws moving in tandem to crash into anything nearby, with Dante having dodged back moments prior, avoiding Queen's temper tantrum. Using the opportunity, Queen stood up on shakey legs and once again approached Dante. The half-devil had to admire the tenacity on display here, as useless as it may be.

Slowly, Queen began to build speed once more, seemingly not having learned his lesson and once more rushing at Dante. Deciding to end the battle now, Dante closed his eyes and summoned the Yamato into his hands and held it low at his side in an Iaido stance.

Queen's malformed face slowly shifted from a pained grimace to a gleeful smile as he saw that Dante was stood still in front of him, eager to kick Dante away with his Haki coated foot. Seconds passed, and the distance between them lessened with each passing moment. Meters became centimeters, became inches.

Eventually, Dante opened his eyes once more, having used his Observation Haki to track the distance between himself and Queen. Within the blink of an eye, Dante drew the Yamato and dashed through Queen, swinging only once with the force of a thousand men.

When Dante sheathed the blade, he heard the sound of Queen crying out in pain and a loud crash, the All-Star having landed face first on the ground with both of his legs several meters away from him, thrown aside by the force of Dante's slash.

Walking towards the downed Beast, Dante held his tongue, watching as Queen slowly turned over onto his back, desperately throwing anything around himself at Dante, swinging wildly with his arms. Clearly the man was already dying, given how his Armament was significantly weakening with every second that passed.

Kicking away the All-Star's robotic arm, destroying the limb and rendering it unusable as he did so, Dante knelt down and caught the fist Queen sent at him with his last remaining appendage.

"Usually I'd have something witty to say, some cool one liner or a clever insult but..."

Holding the arm up, Dante summoned the Rebellion and severed it at the elbow, throwing away the forearm after he was done. Queen was left thrashing around, nothing more than a torso, granted he was still a dinosaur hybrid.

"You don't deserve any of that. Karma is one hell of a bitch, ya know. I'd say you got what was coming to you."

Realising that Queen's eyes had already gone still, same for his breathing, Dante skipped the monologue. The work for today was done, all he needed to do now was destroy the rest of the camps and get everyone out.

He had already resolved to fuck with the Beast Pirates as much as possible before today, but after seeing the literal labour camps they were using, Dante figured he'd do the world a favour and wipe them off the map.

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It took a few minutes for the rest of the prisons in Udon to be destroyed, but afterwards nothing was left of the place but magma, crust and slag for as far as the eye could see. Several of the prisoners had tried to thank him, sing his praises, and while he did enjoy the attention, he had business to attend to.

With Udon taken care of, it was time for Dante to enact his final plan here on Wano, for now at least. He would be coming back here after Marineford, that much was for sure.

As of now, Dante's priority was to find Yamato. If what Batman had said was true, Kaido kept Yamato under heavy wraps, which meant he'd have to enter the belly of the Beast, and infiltrate Onigashima.