chapter 109

"More pirate reinforcement, eh?" the man said, his grin still on his face as he dusted his white garment with severed sleeves, which covered all of his body while exposing tattoos patterned like flames on both of his biceps.

I was about to correct the man's misunderstanding, but I had to stop myself, dodging to the side as he charged at me with incredible speed that a man of his build had no right to move in, muscular or not.

"So be it," I remarked as I dodged a punch from the man. "I'm feeling a little bored anyway," I added with a grin, taking a step forward and burying my fist into his abdomen.

The man didn't show any response to my attack, but his grin became more pronounced as he tried to engulf me in a crushing hug.

"Geez, buy a man a drink first, will you?" I said in an unamused tone as I dodged backward again. "You're different from these grunts, aren't you?" the man asked in a deep, gruff voice, still grinning broadly.

"More or less, I'm not even with them," I replied with a shrug. "But you won't take my word for it, would you?" I asked, and the man answered by charging towards me again.

I dodged again and stuck him in the jaw, but he still didn't seem affected, and what's more, hitting him felt like hitting a mattress instead of flesh.

'A devil fruit of some sort,' I thought as I continuously dodged his attacks.

The man was definitely fast, too fast for his size, but I was still quicker, and so I took advantage of that, only dodging while attacking from time to time to analyze his power.

'This guy is getting bigger and faster as the fight continues?' I wondered as I dodged another attack that was a lot faster than his first.

'Punches don't seem to work, and he's getting stronger as the fight continues,' I reasoned as I struck him with another punch, noticing that he became just a little bigger after that.

"So you absorb something from my punches, making you stronger, rendering them useless, eh?" I asked in an amused tone, and even though the man raised an eyebrow, he still didn't reply, still grinning.

"Let's try this then," I remarked, jumping backward as I retrieved my gun, shooting three bullets in rapid succession.

"So, blunt force and piercing don't work?" I commented again as the bullets hit the man and merely fell to the ground with no momentum, not even bouncing off his body.

"You at least realized it a lot sooner than the others," the man commented with a grin, but it's no use," he added as he charged at me again.

"What a troublesome ability," I remarked as I drew Triton and charged at him, ducking beneath his arms as he tried to hit my midsection with a Lariat.

I then quickly swung my sword at his chest and frowned as the blade left a very shallow wound, despite connecting. "So it isn't a specific type of damage you absorb, huh?" I remarked with a grin, very much like his own, as I made some distance between us.

"That's right, I absorb energy from all attacks," he said with a shrug, not bothering to deny it as he single-mindedly kept charging at me.

'What troublesome ability,' I thought as I delivered another punch to his abdomen, watching in amazement as the shallow wound on his chest began healing.

'In conclusion, this guy can absorb kinetic energy and metabolize it to enhance his own physical strength, speed, and stamina.'

'The way I see it, I can only take him down if I incapacitate him with a chokehold or overload him with more energy than he can handle,'

'Energy overload it is,' I concluded as I sheathed Triton because he would have to spend some energy to heal from the shallow wounds I leave on him with Triton.

The fight resumed in a stalemate of me, dodging and counterattacking as the man kept getting stronger, bigger, and faster for what felt like ten minutes.

"Are you at your limit already?" I asked while looking at the man gasping for breath. His size shot all the way up to over eight meters from his original four.

"This was a great fight," the man said, still smiling despite the sweat rolling down his forehead. "But it's time to end it," he added, charging towards me with a grin.

"Inga Zarashi (Karmic Exposure)," he exclaimed, shooting his fist forward at a speed that was infinitely close to my own, making dodging him that much harder.

"Impact Fist," I met his fist with my own, and even though the clash caused some pain in my wrest, I still pushed him back, but he didn't have enough sending a second punch.

I met the second punch the same way with the same result, but he still grinned as his muscles tightened, enlarging one last time as he sent the third.

"Flaming impact fist," Sensing this is his last and possibly greatest attack, I responded in kind, meeting his gigantic fist with my flaming fist, creating an explosion that destroyed everything in our surroundings.

The shock wave quickly cleared, revealing the man laying on his back, still grinning, as I stood over him with a grin of my own.

"Inga Kaiho (Karmic release)," the man exclaimed as his body began to shrink, releasing all the bent energy he absorbed during our fight with a maniacal grin, creating a blinding explosion.

I reacted quickly, crossing my arms in front of my face and lowering my posture as I covered my body in Haki, and managed to defend myself, but I still felt some of my bones break from the impact.

"What a troublesome ability," I said with a smile, wiping a sliver of blood leaking from my lips. "That was really dirty, you bastard," I added, taking a vial of poison, gulping it, and healing my broken bones.

"You're the only dirty thing here, you monster," the man said, still grinning despite being barely able to talk from exhaustion. "Now hurry up and kill me. I have no regrets," he concluded, closing his eyes with a peaceful expression, but a smile still stretched his lips from ear to ear.

"Why don't you answer some questions for me, first?" I said as I sat cross-legged next to the man, taking out my whisky bottle and offering him a drink.

"How kind of you," the man replied as he took the bottle with some difficulty, promptly taking a sip. "Ask away," he added.

"Someone attacked my crew and me as soon as our ship crossed the empty reception booth," I said, lighting up a cigarette. "The attack was strange cloud lances that came out of the tunnel's walls," I explained.

"Who or what did this?" I asked, letting out a cloud of smoke from my mouth. "That would be Lokni, the captain of the pirate group occupying this island," he replied with a confused expression.

"So you're really not with them?" he asked as realization suddenly dawned on his face. "I tried to tell you, but you didn't listen," I replied with a shrug.

"At any rate, this Lokni character is able to control the cloud walls of the tunnel. How?" I asked, but I already had a guess as to who he was able to do it.

"The bastard has a troublesome devil fruit," the man said while shaking his head. "He ate the logia cloud-cloud fruit, making a cloud-human," he concluded with a sigh.

"I thought as much," I remarked with a sigh of my own. 'A cloud logia in the sky, this is going to be troublesome,' I thought to myself.

"Now, why don't you tell me what you're doing here, Mad Monk, Urouge?" I asked with a grin, causing his eyes to go wide in shock.