Chapter 71 71 Meeting and Immediately Using the Ultimate Move!
'Too weak!'
Having easily crippled two priests, Manlong felt no joy; instead, he furrowed his brows in dissatisfaction.
The Boss was growing stronger by the day—he had even taken down one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea.
If Manlong couldn't keep up with the Boss's footsteps, how could he fight alongside him in the future?
From their brief exchange, Manlong had already determined that the enemies were far weaker than anticipated.
Since they weren't formidable foes, there was no need to waste time.
"Spear Wave!"
A water bullet condensed in his palm once more, and he fired it at the last priest, Ohm, with a wave of his hand.
Ohm desperately transformed the Iron Cloud Sword in his hand into a shield for defense.
But the powerful impact of the water bullet still sent him flying back.
In a flash...
Manlong leapt above Ohm and brought his fist down without mercy.
Boom!!!
The earth shook.
Amidst the churning soil, Ohm didn't even get a chance to make a sound before being pounded into a pulp by Manlong's monstrous strength.
Firing two more water bullets to finish off the heavily injured Satori and Gedatsu, Manlong immediately moved to support the rest of the Hunting Team.
"Do all Skypieans have wings? But I haven't seen them fly once."
"How can wings that small fly? They're probably just like decorations."
"Shells? Were those slashes produced by these things?"
"Hurry up and gather all these shells; we can't let such good weapons go to waste."
"I just heard them calling themselves 'God's Army' or something. They had a big name, but this is all they amounted to."
"Stop bragging. If it weren't for Brother Manlong and Big Sister Baby 5, we would have suffered significant casualties trying to handle these people."
"..."
In just a few moments, the battle had reached its conclusion.
The victor was undoubtedly the Hunting Team.
While cleaning up the battlefield, the members of the Hunting Team discussed the recent fight.
"Boss, those Skypieans I dealt with at the start seemed to possess Observation Haki."
Manlong, his hands stained with the blood of his enemies, returned to Zane's side.
He pointed at the corpses of Satori and the others not far away.
Manlong's powers of observation were sharp.
From the way Satori and others had dodged at the beginning, he had noticed something unusual.
"Yeah, those few did indeed know Observation Haki." Zane, who had not intervened from start to finish, choosing instead to leave the fighting to his subordinates, gave a slight nod.
"Knowing Haki isn't really that big of a deal. I saw that their Observation Haki was extremely rudimentary. If they were in the New World, at most they could only act like big shots in some backwater village."
Deactivating the machine guns her arms had transformed into, Baby 5 jogged back.
When hearing the conversation between Zane and Manlong, she immediately curled her lips.
Baby 5 didn't know Haki yet, but that didn't mean she lacked experience fighting Haki users.
Her Weapon-Weapon Fruit was exceptionally suited for combat.
It was truly difficult for someone with rudimentary Haki to defeat her.
"You said it yourself, that's the New World. Skypiea is part of the Paradise, so being able to master Haki is already quite impressive."
Zane smiled, then cautioned her, "You need to hurry up and learn Haki. Otherwise, relying solely on the Weapon-Weapon Fruit, you'll easily find yourself at a disadvantage once you encounter an ability user who counters you."
"But I want to spend more time with you, Captain." Baby 5 widened her eyes, blinking her right eye as she looked at Zane with a pitiable expression.
Hmm...
Zane understood her meaning instantly.
Clearly, she had become quite addicted to the pleasures of the past few days.
"I have to lecture you on this. When it's time to play, of course, you should let loose, but you can't slack off when it's time to train," Zane said righteously.
"Ugh... alright!" Baby 5 pouted with a hint of disappointment.
In truth, she knew she had been a bit indulgent lately, but she couldn't help it. The Captain was just too powerful, and he made her feel so comfortable and happy.
Seeing that Baby 5 was willing to turn over a new leaf, Zane prepared to offer some words of encouragement.
Just as he was about to speak, a flash of crimson flickered in his eyes, causing him to suddenly look up at the sky.
Crackle!
Above Ancient Jaya Island, lightning suddenly surged through the previously clear sky.
In the next second, this lightning condensed into a massive, terrifying pillar of thunder that descended from the heavens toward the Hunting Team below.
Door-Door: Absolute Defense!
A flattened space door manifested.
The terrifying pillar of thunder falling from the sky was intercepted by the space door just in time.
Rumble!!!
A thunderous collision echoed in all directions. Layers of airwaves swept out, passing the space door to reach the surrounding forest, causing a massive amount of broken branches and leaves to dance wildly.
"On guard!!"
Manlong, who was a step slower to react, also snapped his head up to look at the sky while shouting a warning to the group.
Beside him, Baby 5 immediately transformed her arms into machine guns again.
The rest of the Hunting Team also quickly re-entered a combat state, some looking at the sky in shock and anger, others warily scanning their surroundings.
The terrifying thunder pillar lasted for several seconds before finally failing to break through the defense of the space door.
"Not bad at all, actually being able to block this God's judgment!"
Lightning leaped. With no visible movement trail, a figure abruptly appeared sitting cross-legged on a branch of a nearby tree, sizing up the Hunting Team with interest.
The newcomer was none other than Enel.
With Observation Haki assisted by the Rumble-Rumble Fruit, he could clearly perceive the battle between the Hunting Team and God's Army.
Now that God's Army had been wiped out, even as a self-proclaimed god, Enel had no choice but to come in person.
[LET'S DUEL!]
Enel's entrance fully demonstrated the speed of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
His disappearance likewise fully demonstrated the mechanics of Zane's Nen ability.
"Where is he?"
"I clearly heard someone speaking there just now."
"Wait, where's the Captain?"
When the rest of the Hunting Team looked toward the sound, Enel was no longer on the branch.
At the same time, they soon discovered that their Captain had also vanished.
Conqueror's Haki!
Way of the Soldier: Killing Fist: Swift as the Wind!
Aggressive as Fire: Ripper Incineration Cannon!
Meeting and immediately using the ultimate move.
The moment they entered the Equality Space, before Enel could even react, he was met by Zane, whose expression was shrouded in shadow as he threw a punch that unleashed a crimson shockwave.
Die!
The impact of the Conqueror's Haki that came first caused the momentarily dazed Enel to experience the illusion of a life-flashing-before-his-eyes moment.
In front of his vision, the character for 'Death' seemed to appear in a giant red font.
His body instinctively wanted to activate his elemental form, but the surging lightning was immediately suppressed back by the fist carrying the crimson impact using Armament Haki.
Boom!!!
A direct hit.
Billowing airwaves howled.
The erupting crimson shockwave instantly swallowed Enel's figure, then continued to shatter the ground ahead, carving out a long, horrifying fissure.
Heat filled the air.
When the crimson impact vanished, Zane, positioned at the start of the fissure, slowly lowered his blackened right arm.
In front of him, besides the fissure, were four gathered attribute light orbs.
"No matter how strong a fruit's power is, if the person is no good, it's still useless." Zane looked at the gathered attribute light orbs and gave his evaluation expressionlessly.