Just as he withdrew his fist, Aeridar suddenly frowned. His Observation Haki picked up a disturbing sign—Otto's presence was still potent, and rapidly recovering.
"What an insane regeneration..."
Moments later, the dust blanketing the street began to settle. To everyone's shock, a massive figure emerged, trudging forward with a guttural snarl. It was Otto, bloodied from head to toe, eyes blazing with ferocity. Killing intent radiated from him like a storm. If not for the blood soaking his body, one could've mistaken him for someone who hadn't taken a single hit.
"He's regenerating?!" Aeridar's eyes narrowed at the sight of Otto's wounds knitting themselves back together at high speed. "He's got regenerative abilities?"
"Damn it... I need to end this quickly," Otto muttered, anxiety flickering across his face. He could feel his stamina draining fast.
Otto knew the truth better than anyone—yes, he could regenerate, but the ability was entirely passive and came at a steep cost. Every second it was active, it devoured his stamina. If he didn't take down his opponent in time and kept suffering damage, his own genes would collapse, his body would rot from the inside out, leaving nothing but a pile of flesh.
"No way that guy's human..."
"He's the real monster here."
"Feels like he's been injected with some kind of drug..."
"Is this what the captain was after?"
The members of the Dorot Pirates were stunned by Otto's freakish healing. Among them, Arlan and Oliver exchanged a glance. Their memories flashed back to Alabasta, when Iman had injected himself with a serum labeled EDU5. The regenerative effect back then was exactly like Otto's now.
"Heh... color me impressed," Aeridar grinned.
But he didn't wait for Otto to fully recover. His upper body twisted, core engaged, and right leg snapped forward. With a sharp contraction of muscle, he generated a massive burst of kinetic energy, and with a piercing whoosh, a pale-blue crescent wave surged out.
Rokushiki: Rankyaku!!
Otto's instincts screamed danger. His inner beast reflexively kicked in, forcing him to duck.
The vacuum blade passed just inches above Otto's head, slicing through strands of his hair. Behind him, a three-story building was bisected at the waist like it was made of paper.
The top half of the building crashed down, swallowing the area in dust and debris.
Otto's pupils shrank. He gasped sharply. "If that thing had hit me dead-on... even my body that can shrug off cannon fire would've been cleaved in half..."
"What the hell is with this guy? How does he have so many insane techniques?!"
Meanwhile, the rest of the Dorot Pirates, who had been corralled by Arlan and the others, were watching their captain get soundly beaten, and started whispering among themselves.
"Damn it... the captain can't beat that guy."
"We have to retreat!"
"If we charge all at once, maybe we can buy enough time for the captain to get out!"
"Then let's do it. It's all or nothing!"
"Let's go! Take them down!!"
With their plan set, the pirates sprang into action. One of the largest among them, a bald, hulking brute wielding a massive axe, let out a bellow and charged forward. The rest of the crew fanned out, each picking a target and rushing in.
"Finally, some action! My sword hand's been itching all day," Oliver grinned.
He drew his blade in a smooth motion. With a soft shing and a flash of steel, one pirate charging him was cleaved cleanly in two before they even realized what happened.
"Trying to run? Did you ask me first?" Arlan's voice rang coldly.
He noticed four pirates splitting off toward Otto. Another, thick-bodied man tried to block Arlan's path, raising a heavy warhammer over his head and slamming it down with a furious roar.
"Soru." Arlan muttered quietly, eyes sharp.
In an instant, he vanished.
The hammer smashed into the earth, carving out a crater in the grass.
"Huh? Where'd he go?" the pirate mumbled, scratching his head in confusion.
"Where the hell are those explosions coming from?!"
Explosions erupted one after another behind him. The shockwaves nearly knocked the hammer-wielding pirate off his feet. When he turned to look, what he saw made his blood run cold, his four crewmates lay sprawled on the ground, their bodies charred and smoking. Two of them weren't moving at all. The other two screamed in agony, clearly in no shape to fight.
Standing over them, calm as ever, was Arlan.
"G-Gulp... So that's the power of a former 100 million bounty pirate?! I didn't even see him move..." the hammer pirate stammered, sweat beading down his brow.
"One-Sword Style: Skybreaker Slash!!"
Oliver dashed forward, sword gleaming. The air screamed as the blade cut through it.
The bald pirate dropped like a stone. His massive battle axe fell in two pieces. A deep gash opened across his chest, spilling blood as he collapsed, lifeless.
"YOU BASTARDS!!" Otto roared.
Seeing his crew being picked off one by one drove him into a frenzy. Eyes bloodshot, he charged blindly toward Arlan, the closest target.
"Your opponent... is me."
Aeridar's tone dropped. His body vanished into motion, leaving behind a trail of afterimages. In a blink, he appeared in front of Otto, and lashed out with a kick.
Caught off guard, Otto took the kick full to the chest. The force sent him flying across the battlefield, tumbling more than ten meters before skidding to a halt.
But Otto sprang back up in an instant, as if unfazed. He lunged at Aeridar again, both fists flying in a relentless barrage like a torrential downpour.
"Too slow... too predictable."
Aeridar swayed and weaved, dodging every blow with ease, as if he could see the future.
After a few moments of toying with Otto, Aeridar gave a small sigh of boredom, then suddenly dipped low and exploded upward with a single, pinpoint punch to Otto's gut.
Otto's world exploded into pain. His gut felt like it had been shredded, his organs tangled into knots. His body curled up like a boiled shrimp, saliva and blood spilling from his mouth in one heaving breath.
With that calm murmur, Aeridar followed up with a clean hand chop to Otto's neck.
Otto collapsed face-first to the ground, hitting it like a sack of bricks.
The hoarse protest came from below. Aeridar looked down, a touch of surprise in his voice.
"Huh. Still conscious? That's one sturdy body."
A swift kick to the side of Otto's head silenced him for good. This time, he went out cold.
At the same moment, the battle on the other end of the street had wrapped up as well. Corpses lay scattered across the pavement, blood pooling beneath them. The Dorot Pirates had been utterly crushed. Of the fourteen crew members, including their captain, Dorot Otto, eight were dead, six captured.
"You bastard. Could you try not to make such a mess?" Arlan complained, gesturing at a bisected corpse on the ground, blood still seeping from the neatly cleaved halves.
"Sorry. Their bodies were... unusually tough. So I went a bit harder than I meant to," Oliver replied lazily, wiping down Nagamitsu, his blade gleaming with fresh blood.
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