Chapter 35
Kryhiss’s grayed fist rockets toward my skull, ready to crush it like a melon. I vanish in a blur—Shave!—reappearing a dozen meters away in the blink of an eye. My hand snaps to Whisper, the short gun from the Hunter’s Shop, and I fire three shots in rapid succession. Bang! Bang! Bang!
The bullets scream toward Kryhiss, each one hitting its mark. One tears through his chest, another grazes his arm, and the third buries itself right where his heart should be. But when the smoke clears, his clothes are shredded, revealing gray, rhinoceros-like skin beneath—unscathed. Not a single scratch.
“Devil Fruit user, huh?” I mutter, narrowing my eyes.
Kryhiss sneers, his voice dripping with arrogance. “Not bad for a lowly bounty hunter. Since you’re about to die, I’ll let you in on it. I ate the Rhino-Rhino Fruit, an Animal-type. Face it, punk—there’s a chasm between us you can’t cross!”
His face twists into a savage grimace, eyes bloodshot with rage. He charges, his massive fists drawn back, veins bulging like ropes under his gray skin, muscles rippling with pent-up power. I stand my ground, Whisper still raised, aiming straight at him.
Kryhiss laughs, his voice a guttural roar. “Still don’t get it? Your pathetic bullets can’t even nick my hide!”
I pull the trigger. FOUR! The fourth shot from Whisper, loaded with a high-impact round, slams into his chest with the force of a cannon. The impact stops his charge cold, sending his hulking frame staggering back. He crashes to the ground, blood spraying from his mouth as he clutches his chest. A jagged wound gapes where the bullet hit, crimson soaking his gray skin, exposing a glimpse of cracked bone beneath. Not fatal, but it shattered his so-called invincible hide.
“How…?!” Kryhiss’s eyes bulge, his smug confidence replaced by shock. He’d just boasted about his toughness, and now he’s bleeding like a stuck pig.
I smirk, twirling Whisper. “Nice hide, Rhino Man. Tougher than a ship’s hull, I’ll give you that.”
My words drip with mockery, and Kryhiss’s rage explodes. “I’ll grind you into paste!” he roars, his body morphing. His hands and feet twist into clawed hooves, a long, sharp horn sprouts from his nose, and his clothes rip apart as his frame swells. A tail flicks out behind him. In seconds, a monstrous rhinoceros—six meters tall, nearly ten meters long—looms before me, its gray hide glinting like armor.
“Fully transformed, huh?” I say, my tone serious now, eyes locked on the beast.
Kryhiss’s hooves scrape the ground, his voice booming from the beast’s maw. “You should feel honored to die under my true form, you miserable bounty hunter!”
He lowers his horn, muscles coiling, and charges like a living battering ram. “Mad Rhino Rush!”
I don’t think—I move. Shave! I vanish as his horn smashes through the spot where I stood. BOOM! The hall’s wall collapses like paper, stone shards flying, the ground quaking under the impact. Dust chokes the air, and blood drips from a gash on Kryhiss’s flank where rubble grazed him.
He rises from the wreckage, eyes blazing, and locks onto me again. “Mad Rhino Rush!”
BOOM! Another half-meter-thick wall explodes into debris, the shockwave rattling my bones. I dodge again, my enhanced speed from the Primary Body Enhancement Potion keeping me one step ahead. Blood pounds in my ears as I weave through the chaos, the hall crumbling around us.
Kryhiss doesn’t stop. He charges again, each step cracking the floor, his horn tearing through columns like they’re straw. I leap, rolling midair to avoid another devastating rush that obliterates a chunk of the ceiling, sending jagged stone raining down. A piece grazes my shoulder, drawing blood, but I grit my teeth and fire Whisper again. The bullet rips into his side, carving a bloody furrow through his hide. He bellows, blood streaming down his flank, but keeps coming, his horn aimed at my chest.
I dive to the side, the horn missing me by inches, but the force of his charge sends me skidding across the floor, my back scraping raw against broken stone. I spring up, ignoring the pain, and charge back in. My fist, fueled by the potion’s power, slams into his snout with a sickening crunch. Blood sprays, and his head jerks back, but he retaliates with a wild swing of his hoof, catching my side. The impact sends me crashing through a table, wood splintering, my ribs screaming in agony as blood seeps through my torn coat.
I stagger to my feet, spitting blood, but my grin doesn’t falter. “Come on, big guy. Let’s see how much more of this you can take.”