"Just one battleship, huh... Well, better than nothing."
Douglas Bullet's eyes gleamed with violent pride, a twisted grin spreading across his face.
"Before I kill that Roger guy—guess I'll use you lot for a warm-up."
But before he could finish the sentence, his expression shifted.
A silver blur tore through the air, moving at a speed that defied belief—and slammed into the earth.
Dust exploded across the ruined town, blanketing the wreckage in a violent storm of debris.
Bullet was knocked backward, his black Marine boots carving deep trenches in the dirt as he skidded back dozens of meters.
Through the thick cloud of dust, his armored right hand—coated in Armament Haki—gripped a streamlined piece of twisted silver metal.
"A Devil Fruit user...?"
Bullet licked his lips, excitement sparking in his eyes as he clenched the metal board in his hand until it warped.
But just as he prepared to charge forward again, a rain of cannonfire descended from above.
Explosions engulfed the ruins. Fire roared. The ground split apart under the relentless bombardment.
The entire town was reduced to a smoldering crater as shells rained down in precise, unending salvos. The cannon blasts bloomed into towering mushroom clouds, painting the sky in fire.
Onboard the Marine battleship, stunned soldiers watched in awe as the coordinated barrage lit up the target zone like a military testing ground.
They could hardly believe what they were seeing.
Their eyes—without meaning to—drifted to the tall, shadowed figure standing at the ship's prow, his arm outstretched beside Rear Admiral Sakazuki.
Only now did they understand...
Why the proud Sakazuki had personally requested this new recruit from the training camp.
There was no need for heavy artillery. This man alone—Commodore Darren—was an army by himself.
And what was even more terrifying...
Thanks to Darren's Devil Fruit ability, the ship's shells didn't need to follow parabolic trajectories.
Instead, they were launched at speeds several times greater than conventional artillery, bombarding targets with pinpoint devastation.
"That's... a monster."
"No wonder Rear Admiral Sakazuki personally came to fetch him..."
As the Marines stood frozen in awe, Sakazuki's sharp gaze remained locked on the explosion's center. He frowned.
"His presence hasn't diminished."
Darren grinned viciously.
"Of course not. That guy's not so easy to kill."
He shrugged off his Marine coat, stretching his neck with loud, cracking pops.
"Guess I'll go play with him a bit."
Sakazuki gave a quiet nod.
Blue electric arcs danced between Darren's fingertips.
Invisible magnetic fields pulsed outward and then flared with violent force.
Before the soldiers could even process what was happening, Darren launched himself from the deck like a cannonball—his body flying parallel to the sea's surface, slicing through the air at blistering speed. A white streak carved across the waves in his wake.
Before this mission, Darren had made modifications to his boots and belt via Marine HQ's armory division, embedding metal components inside.
Now, he didn't even need his signature metal board—he could fly freely under his own power.
"Quit staring! Full speed ahead!"
Sakazuki's cold bark snapped the crew back to their senses.
The ship's engine roared to life like a beast awakening—full throttle engaged.
"How boring... Is that all the Marines can do?"
From the black smoke and roaring flames, a black-booted foot stepped out.
Bullet's towering frame followed, breaking through the smoke cloud.
The blackened Armament Haki covering his body slowly faded like ink being drained.
He tore away his scorched upper uniform, revealing a body packed with dense, brutal muscle.
A low voice echoed above him.
Bullet's pupils flashed red for a moment.
A dark-haired Marine appeared overhead like a ghost, his boot—shrouded in pitch-black Haki—slamming downward like a war axe.
Bullet grinned with delight.
"Looks like we've got a real tough one this time."
He didn't dodge. He threw a punch straight up.
Boot met fist midair. The impact was deafening—like a meteor slamming into the earth.
The ground beneath Bullet's feet collapsed, a massive crater exploding outward in every direction.
His pupils shrank. Then he burst into laughter.
"Kahahaha!! Not bad! Not bad at all!!"
"For the first time... for the first time on this sea—someone can match me in raw, physical power!"
His eyes turned crimson, locked onto Darren with a gaze full of demonic fervor and obsession.
And at last, Darren got a clear look at Bullet's face.
It was almost exactly as he remembered—cold, unfeeling, a face that knew neither pity nor mercy. Only madness and obsession boiled in those eyes.
But compared to that memory... this Bullet was still young. Barely twenty.
"You have no idea how vast this sea truly is," Darren said coldly.
He twisted midair and, using the momentum of his spin, drove a devastating punch straight at Bullet's skull.
With strength surpassing even that of giants, bolstered by Armament Haki, his strike tore the air apart—white shockwaves rippling out with explosive sonic booms.
Bullet howled with laughter, swinging his own punch to meet it.
"Then show me what you've got, Marine!!"
Their black fists collided again, violently.
Then Bullet's eyes narrowed—and with a roar, a monstrous surge of Conqueror's Haki erupted from his body.
The sky twisted. The wind howled.
Darren responded instantly—unleashing his own, unrestrained.
Red and violet Haki clashed in the heavens, their waves crashing like titanic storms.
Lightning burst in all directions.
A devastating pressure wave rippled outward from them, consuming everything in its path.
The earth. The ruins. Dirt, stone, shattered corpses—everything was flung skyward in the raging blast.
Wave after wave of impact rippled out in a storm of pure willpower.