One Piece: Scourge of the Seas

A bisected corpse fell to the ground, accompanied by a torrent of blood.

Yet Capone Bege remained unscathed, stepping back with fear in his eyes.

At the critical moment, one of his subordinates had rushed out of the castle to shield him, taking the fatal blow in his stead. If not for that, Bege would have been the one bleeding out on the spot.

Since when did the West Blue produce such a fearsome individual? Bege's heart trembled at the thought.

But the sacrifice of his underling did not halt Maude's blade. Without missing a beat, Maude followed up with another slash aimed at Bege.

Just as the second strike descended, another mafioso emerged from the castle. However, before his body could fully return to its original size, Maude's blade met him, cutting him cleanly in two.

In an instant, yet another body hit the ground.

"Interesting."

A faint smile crossed Maude's face. Bege's lizard-tail survival tactic had amused him.

Ultimately, Bege had only been a Castle-Castle Fruit user for just over two months. His proficiency with the fruit was clearly low; he couldn't fully utilize its potential, let alone perform the creative feats shown in the original story.

If Bege had a better grasp of his powers, he'd have at least three ways to deal with this situation.

Instead, all he could do was passively take the hits.

Seismic Slash!

Maude pressed the attack, unleashing five rapid slashes toward Bege.

Desperation took over as Bege frantically tossed out more subordinates to intercept the incoming strikes.

Shkrrk!

And so, five more corpses piled up on the ground.

Maude chuckled, delivering yet another swing.

Bege had no choice but to sacrifice another underling to delay Maude's relentless assault.

And with that, another body joined the grisly trail of carnage stretching down the street.

For every step Maude advanced, Bege was forced to throw at least one of his men into harm's way.

For every step forward, another corpse lay in Maude's wake.

In just a short span, the cobblestones were littered with over fifty mangled bodies of gang members.

What infuriated Bege the most was that no matter how hard he tried to stall Maude's advance, he couldn't escape his pursuit.

In other words, the dozens of men he sacrificed had died for nothing.

In truth, Bege's pace of throwing out his men wasn't slow.

But Maude's blade was faster. It matched, if not outpaced, Bege's frantic attempts to defend himself.

The reason those subordinates were so easily sliced in two lay in one of the Castle-Castle Fruit's limitations.

When objects—or people—left the castle, they had to undergo a brief phase of size transition before fully returning to their original form.

During this transitional phase, they were nothing more than sitting ducks.

Ultimately, it all came down to Bege's lack of mastery over his abilities.

Maude, on the other hand, could time his strikes with precision, exploiting this vulnerability to cut down Bege's men during their moment of helplessness.

It wasn't particularly difficult for someone like Maude.

And so, the slaughter continued, the ease of it all allowing Maude to fall into a deadly rhythm.

On several occasions, a masterful twist of his wrist let him cleanly cut through three gang members in a single stroke.

And just like that, Maude was hooked.

Nearby, the rest of pirates, including Lafitte, silently observed the peculiar spectacle unfolding in the long street.

Those with a keen eye could sense an odd incongruity in the battle.

It seemed as though Maude could end it within thirty moves if he simply sped up his attacks.

Yet his pace remained just a fraction slower than necessary to break through Bege's desperate defense.

Meanwhile, Bege—despite possessing a Devil Fruit power that should have granted him numerous trump cards—looked clumsy under Maude's onslaught. It was as if he would've fared better without using his fruit at all.

As they continued watching, Lafitte and the others couldn't help but wonder: Is Maude just that strong, or is Bege simply that weak?

Several kilometers away, Sol sat atop a rooftop, intently "watching" the battle unfold on the long street below.

As he observed Maude's skilled and rapid strikes, question marks seemed to float above Sol's head.

What the hell is going on here?

He hadn't let Maude touch a blade in the past two months.

And yet, not only had Maude not grown rusty, but his swordsmanship had somehow grown even more fearsome.

This has to be a joke, right?

"Could it be that his talent for swordsmanship surpasses even… Pfft."

Sol quickly shook his head.

"No, guns suit him better. Can't let him waste that Observation Haki potential."

"Yes, definitely," Sol muttered to himself.

Back on the street, the fight continued.

Under Maude's relentless assault, Bege, unable to effectively utilize his Castle-Castle Fruit, found himself suffering more from his own ability than benefitting from it. He was forced into a continuous retreat.

In just a few short minutes, over a hundred mafiosos had been sacrificed to fend off Maude's attacks—but to little avail.

Yet, despite the carnage, Maude showed no signs of exhaustion.

Bege, stealing a glance at Maude's expression, was shocked to see not even a hint of fatigue. Instead, he caught sight of an insatiable hunger in Maude's eyes.

It was as if Maude was silently urging him: Throw more at me. Faster!

"Is this guy for real?"

Bege felt an ominous chill.

But Maude was indeed serious.

Before deciding to go after Bege, Maude had written fifteen names in his hunter's notebook.

Aside from Bege, the list included three gang lieutenants and eleven captains.

Among the bodies strewn across the ground, three captains had already been taken care of.

Initially, Maude hadn't even thought about this. But as the fight dragged on, the experience points he desired seemed to fall right into his lap.

It felt like hitting the jackpot.

More than chasing the thrill of perfect triple slashes, Maude was now fixated on hitting his "jackpot" again.

With every subordinate Bege sacrificed, Maude's excitement grew.

Meanwhile, Lafitte's eyes gleamed as he watched Maude's expressions during his one-sided massacre.

He chuckled softly, captivated by the scene.

The trail of corpses lengthened as the fight dragged on. Maude, unyielding, grew more exhilarated with each strike, while Bege became increasingly desperate.

Off in the distance, Sol remained focused, his rifle aimed unwaveringly at the battlefield.

No matter how the fight played out, so long as Sol's scope stayed locked, Bege would remain a caged beast, doomed to perish within his confines.

Even the bystanders, who had begun gathering due to the commotion, understood this truth after a few warning shots rang out, taking the lives of a few foolish onlookers.

And so, the grotesque spectacle of blood and bodies continued, with Maude's excitement only intensifying as he scored yet another captain among the fallen.

Lafitte, observing from the sidelines, couldn't help but be drawn further into the growing legend of Maude.

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