397. A Fraction of Power

Maverick keeps eating until his stomach bulges. He just can't resist Mantis's food from the moment he took the 1st bite. Even great chefs all over the world will bow down to her cooking, not to mention a guy who only seasoned his food with salt.

After Maverick finished eating, the boys return to the ship. They look very miserable and seem to lose quite a lot of their weight in a short time. Well, they've just emptied their stomachs completely and their buttholes are still burning now.

"You're hungry?" asks Mantis.

They all nod weakly, but then Mantis says, "Too bad, the food has been emptied by our Lord and his guest. Besides, you shouldn't fill your stomach immediately after cleaning it, right, Manba?"

Manba, the doctor, who unexpectedly is among those who ate the poisonous animals nods. They need to let their stomachs rest first before filling them with food. Mantis gives them herb tea for now to relieve their pain a little.

The idiots who rarely drank tea immediately act like some nobles while drinking their herbal tea. They even speak in a sophisticated language that doesn't suit their scary appearance at all. It's quite unbelievable to see people who have just suffered joke around like this.

Maverick who was worried before is confused now. He knows how deadly the poisons of those animals are, after all. So he is very confused because the Clown Pirates are very fine and only get stomachaches as if they only ate expired food.

"No need to be confused. We have eaten a lot of bad things that could kill people when we were in bad places and didn't have any choice but to eat those things. So all of us have high resistance to things like poisons," says Buggy.

Maverick is even more shocked to hear that because he never thought that humans can achieve something like that. He will get even more shocked if he knows Buggy can destroy this island in just a few seconds.

While the crew acts like idiot nobles while drinking their tea, Buggy introduces Maverick again. The boys were busy with their stomaches, so they haven't heard about Maverick. They all welcome Maverick to their ship and immediately ask Buggy to throw a party.

But Mantis objects to it because they need to rest first. Besides, they are short on food too, so they can't hold a real party now. The boys are disappointed, but then they brighten up when Hatchan proposes to catch a Seaking.

They immediately want to do it, but then Maverick freaks out and tells them not to do it. He has seen Seakings a few times when they came out of the sea. They are massive and he has seen their power when they fought against each other a few times.

"Don't worry, Maverick. Just watch. We will show you something good," says Buggy while grinning.

"Who's gonna do it?" asks Palu.

"The one who can swim and dive to search the Seakings," says Cricket.

"Then it's a Fishman's job," says Siman, the Orca Fishman smugly.

"Huh? Are you saying that we humans can't do it?" asks an offended samurai.

"But it's a fact that we're better underwater," says Siman while smirking.

"You wanna try it then?" asks Palu while bumping his fists.

They look at each other and get ready to fight which makes Maverick nervous.

"Enough!" says Buggy, stopping the tension immediately.

"Let's just draw the sticks as usual. Only those who can swim and dive will participate," says Buggy.

The boys boo him because they just wanted to have fun by brawling. Buggy doesn't care and only takes a sip of his tea, making the boys even more disappointed because he doesn't get angry. They don't have any choice but to draw sticks now.

Strangely, there aren't many who participated in drawing the sticks. All 13 male Fishmen participated, but only 9 male humans participated including Cricket & Palu. The women don't participate and the other boys also don't participate.

Maverick then asks about it, "Why are they the only ones doing it?"

"Hmm? Well, because the rest of us can't swim and the women aren't interested," says Buggy.

Maverick is dumbfounded when he hears that the other boys can't swim, including Buggy.

"You can't swim?" asks Maverick.

"Yeah, to be exact, we are cursed with the inability to swim," says Buggy while smirking.

Maverick gets even more confused now because he doesn't know what a curse is. Buggy realizes it and tells him to not think too much about it. It's not that important anyway, so Maverick can just let it go.

Anyway, the one chosen to catch a Seaking is their best shipwright. Palu gets the marked stick, so he will go to catch their dinner. He gets very smug while looking at the others who don't get chosen and booing at him.

Everyone then goes to the main deck to watch Palu catching a Seaking. Palu strips his clothes and only leaves his boxer, but no one minds it, even the women. Then he jumps and dives into the sea that must be very cold at night like this.

Maverick who has just met Palu for a few minutes looks very worried while Palu's friends who have been with him for years are betting on how long it will take him to catch a Seaking instead. There's no sign of worry in the face of Clown Pirates.

Just a minute later, the very calm sea of Calm Belt is flaring up. The water becomes violent and then a gigantic Seaking comes out of the water. It raises its head very high in the sky and someone much smaller than it is clinging to its mouth.

"Oh, there he is," says Cricket calmly.

"Oh no! He will get eaten," says Maverick with a panicked tone before preparing his bow to help Palu.

Buggy stops Maverick and tells him, "It's okay, buddy. Just watch."

Maverick wants to say something, but he sees that Buggy is very serious about what he said, so Maverick stays silent. He just keeps looking at Palu while hoping that nothing bad will happen. The bad thing really happens though, but not to Palu, the bad thing happens to the Seaking.

Palu climbs to the top of the Seaking's head and forms a fist. He grins before sending a punch toward the Seaking's head. Strong ripples appear in the air as Palu uses his Hasshoken which makes the Seaking's whole body vibrates.

The world turns silent at that moment before everyone hears a splurt sound. A lot of blood comes out of the Seaking's mouth, nose, gils, and eyes. Then it suddenly falls into the sea, dead. Palu has destroyed its brain with that Hasshoken punch, killing the Seaking instantly.

The Clown Pirates have many reactions like happiness or frustration because of their bets. Some have stoic expressions because it's an obvious result. But Maverick is very shocked that his jaw drops and his eyes become round & white from shock.

This is the first time Maverick sees a Seaking this big. He always thought that nothing in this world is more powerful than the Seakings. His parents once told him that there are creatures stronger than Seakings, but he never believed it because he never saw it.

However, he finally sees it, a creature stronger than a Seaking. It's not a bigger and scarier-looking creature. It's just a man that has a pair of white wings on his back. The said man has killed a Seaking with a mere punch.

This is something Maverick would never believe if he doesn't see it himself. Even now, he still can't believe if it's real or not even though he saw it with his own eyes. This scene has made him speechless and his brain almost gets shut down.

Buggy smirks seeing his new friend's shocked expression and says, "Maverick, my boy. You have just witnessed a fraction of power from a world-level powerhouse."

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