The belly of the beast

The Sea king closed his mouth.

/CHOMP!/

/SPLASH!/

Its head fell into the water, creating waves over 50 M tall.

…

At the same time, the devoured man, John, could be seen falling through the monster's throat...

/Bang!/

He crashed into the "ground". Feeling pain all around his body.

-Arg…

/Sniff/

-The smell…

/Tssss!/

Something fell from the meat walls right onto his left arm.

-Ouch. What is this?

He touched the yellow substance, it was viscous and slightly acidic, burning his skin.

As he thought about it, a massive wave of the same liquid came out of nowhere from the depths of this place.

John quickly jumped and used his right arm to pierce the flesh wall.

/Tsssss!/

But his arm started to burn.

-Damn!... I think I know where I am now…

He was inside the creature's stomach! Ready to be dissolved.

But he wasn't going to accept defeat like that.

-Although I am tired because of the earlier fight, I can still pack a punch! And buy enough time for Ace to rescue me…

-Arg… Am I so weak that I need to wait for Ace to rescue me?

/Splurge/

He removed his arms from the creature's flesh and kicked the air, making his way back from where he came.

But he was soon met with a blockage, a wall made out of an unknown hard substance.

-This wasn't here before… A mechanism to make sure devoured prey doesn't escape?

/Tssss/

His two arms continued to burn due to the mixture of the blood and acid.

/BANG!/

He punched the blockage with all of his strength, but not even a dent was made.

-Shit!

Stabilizing himself in the air, he once again kicked it, followed by a punch in the gray wall.

/BANG!/

But this time, a very small crack was made.

-You gotta be playing with me…

He took a small seed he prepared previously from his pocket and ate it, recovering a small amount of his stamina.

-Better than nothing.

He looked around but there seemed to be no way of going around it.

-I either swim in that yellow acid sea towards the unknown, or I break this barrier!

/BANG! BANG! BANG!.../

This process of punching, falling, kicking the air, punching… Continued for several more times until his fists started to bleed severely.

(Remember that all of this was within a minute.)

Even his regeneration couldn't keep up with it.

-Harf…

-Will I have to use it? This soon?

If he takes out his Mech, all of his plans will most likely break apart.

-One more punch. I will use everything I have against this fucker!

As for why not trying to punch the flesh walls? He tried, but he didn't know just how much flesh he would have to peel off before getting into the sea.

Also, the creature's blood was acidic, making his body burn in contact.

He landed on a small crevice, allowing him to start his final assault.

(The clones would be useless here, if you're asking yourself that.

They are at this point significantly weaker than the MC, because of their weaker lifeforce, hance, weaker Hamon.)

/Inhale/

His right hand clenched, but his index finger kept pointing forward.

His legs bent, its muscles creating creaking sounds…

His chest muscles ripped his already corroded shirt.

The veins in his face jumped out due to how tense his body was.

/BOOM!/

Finally releasing all of the stored energy, the flesh below his feet was blown away by the massive force.

In the blink of an eye, he made his way to the gray wall.

No more useless thoughts such as if he was going to cross it or not passed through his head.

Only one objective remained in his head.

Perform this move with his all!

/FWUSH!/

The finger made contact with the gray wall…

-What's happening? Asked Frindin

But everyone was concentrated on the fight.

-...

Apart from some, most couldn't see what was happening.

Popeye turned his eyes and his two hands into glass, putting them on top of each other, creating a strange telescope.

Fedrum could see from far away thanks to his fruit, the two targets were still shining in his eyes.

The rest couldn't see anything in detail, unfortunately.

/BOOOOM!/

-What happened!? Asked Susein

-That's!

-What is it, Old Dwarf?! Demanded Loodwick

-The Sea King has a massive hole in its head! Responded Popeye, ignoring the offensive remark

-Bright light flashed and the monster had a big cylindrical hole in its head… Look! The captain is going there… He… Is that the first mate?! Exclaimed Popeye

In his vision, after the light receded, Valet made his way to the hole, entered it, and pulled out the first mate from inside it.

(For those who forgot, Ace is Valet)

…

-You look like crap. Said Ace

-... John tried to say something but fell unconscious.

Before it could disperse, Ace managed to see a bit of red aura developing his first mate's fist.

/Tssss/

The smoke coming out from John's body quickly took his attention though.

He suddenly had the great idea of cleaning it!

With Seawater…

He jumped into the air and kicked towards the water. The air pressure from his kick created a massive water wave.

/SPLASH!/

But after the water crashed and receded… His first mate was nowhere to be seen.

-John?

Ace finally noticed a body floating in the seawater below him.

-Ah…

Of course, all of this was noticed firsthand by Popeye and Fedrum.

They looked at each other and shuddered.

Fedrum made his way to the Helm, maneuvering the ship closer to the Sea king corpse.

Popeye took a small bottle from his jacket and drank a sip from whatever liquid was inside it.

…

John woke up a few minutes later to the loud sounds of discussion. He quickly lifted his head to inspect his room, but felt immense pain around his whole body.

-... How could you even think of washing his body Seawater?! Said a feminine voice

-Maaa… I thought about cleaning his body so…

-So you crashed a wave into him?!

…

He ignored the loud sounds coming from upstairs.

Slowly, his body regenerated from the injuries.

But it was clear it was going to take a while. Burning and acid were among the hardest forms of injuries to heal naturally.

He noticed a large bowl filled with fruits.

/GROWL!/

His stomach protested.

Feeling the hunger, he ate them.

…

3 minutes later, Fridin entered the room and saw John with a satisfied face and an empty bowl of fruits.

-...Sigh. It's good that you are alright.

I tried to lift my head to look at the girl

-STOP!... Don't move, do you know just how injured your body is?!

-You got severe burns everywhere around it, your muscles tore, and some of your bones even broke!

-I know you can regenerate fast, but at least rest for now, okay?

-... Can I get some food? I am starving.

-Even after eating an entire bowl of fruits?

-Yes.

-Sigh. That's the reason why most of our expenses are only in food for you and the captain… I will have Susi cook something for you…

She went to the door and asked:

-Do you prefer Crab or Lizard?

-... Crab.

She nodded and closed the door.

…

Today was a wake-up call.

A Sea king wasn't a weak creature by any means. But I can't really put it anywhere close to the top.

(As I said a few chaps ago. A Sea king's average strength is rather strange. Some are very strong while others are rather weak.)

-I am still far away. This only proves just how insane Luffy's progress truly is. He went from a nobody to the peak of the world in... what? 3 years?

/Puff!/

I crashed my head against the white pillow.

-It wouldn't be that bad to just sleep for a little bit right?

/...zzZZZ.../

The Valet explorers survived yet another encounter in the Sea. After stripping the Sea king off all they could, they made their way towards Baterilla, their final destination in South Blue.