"Damn it!"
Watching his Power Pole snap in half, Hammer's eyes burned with rage.
"You bastard! You broke my staff! I'm gonna sell you for cash!"
Batu: '????? Excuse me? You poked me with the stick first, and now you're blaming me?'
"You asked for this!"
"Come out, Blue-Flame Gatling!"
With a furious roar, a massive minigun materialized in Hammer's hands, its belt of ammunition gleaming menacingly.
These weren't Zephyr-sensei's rubber bullets, these were the real deal.
"Die!"
*Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!!!*
Hammer unlocked a new achievement: Blue Flame Mode.
This Gatling gun, forged by his own hands, came with the special attribute: blue flame effects.
It was a legit blue-flaming Gatling gun.
As bullets rained down wildly, all the pirates immediately raised their shields in defense.
Batu was no exception. He braced a huge shield, taller than himself, in front of him to block the onslaught.
*Brttttt"*
*ra-tattatatatatat*
*Whoosh! Whoosh!*
*Thud-thud-thud-thud!*
Under the relentless storm of bullets, the shields Batu had previously crafted for his crew began to crumble.
No matter how sturdy, no shield could withstand hundreds of real bullets per second.
Blood mist sprayed across the deck.
The grunts whose shields were shattered didn't even have time to scream before their bodies were shredded to pieces.
Hammer stared, momentarily dazed, just seconds ago, these people were alive. Now they were just bloody chunks.
Even though he had mentally prepared himself for a year, seeing it with his own eyes still stirred a pang of guilt.
His stomach churned, and he released the trigger.
The sound of gunfire ceased.
The air reeked of blood. Severed limbs and pirate remains littered the deck.
"Urgh!"
The next second, Hammer bent over and vomited.
"You bastard! You wiped out all my men!!"
"I'll kill you!"
"Shield Shield: Destruction Shield!"
Furious, Batu summoned a strange-looking shield covered in rune markings.
This time, he wasn't holding back. He charged forward with the shield raised.
Hammer, seeing this, quickly wiped his mouth and tried to retreat, but the nausea made him sluggish.
"Die!!"
"Tekkai!"
The massive shield came crashing down from above. With no other choice, Hammer activated his Tekkai technique again.
But the next second, he realized the painful lesson of the Tekkai.
"Boom!"
The shield slammed into Hammer's head with a massive explosion.
Flames burst out, engulfing Hammer completely.
"Pff!"
The blast launched Hammer into the air, black smoke pouring from his mouth. His clothes were shredded and tattered.
A massive bump had formed on his head, but thanks to Tekkai, his body itself was unscathed.
"Hmph! Marine brat, my Destruction Shield explodes on impact!"
"Prepare to die!"
Emboldened by his success, Batu charged again with the shield raised.
Hammer, still coughing black smoke, couldn't afford to let Batu get close.
He used Soru multiple times to rapidly create distance.
But Batu was relentless now. No matter where Hammer dodged, Batu would appear right after.
"What are you, a dog?! Why are you chasing me so hard?!"
"Geppo"
Frustrated, Hammer cursed loudly and leapt into the air using Geppo.
Seeing Hammer rise into the sky, Batu looked up, full of frustration.
"COME DOWN AND FIGHT!"
"COME UP AND GET ME!"
"DOWN!"
"UP!"
The two of them instantly devolved into street-level squabbling, neither able to do anything to the other.
Hammer knew: he had to defeat Batu. After all, Batu was worth a full hundred million, a perfect fit for his exam requirements.
Yet that Shield-Devil Fruit of his was insanely annoying.
Up close he had spikes, at range he had sawblades, and now he even had explosions.
'How the hell did this guy develop his fruit so well?!'
Then, a thought hit Hammer, he was a Devil Fruit user too!
A plan formed instantly in his mind.
"Soru!"
While still in the air, Hammer suddenly vanished, and reappeared above Batu.
Batu's eyes lit up, he immediately swung the Destruction Shield upward to counter.
Hammer didn't flinch. He clenched his right fist and swung it downward, though there was still some distance between them.
Then he roared:
"Air Hammer Strike! Shockwave Impact!"
His right fist smashed into thin air, sending an invisible shockwave crashing down toward Batu.
Batu was totally caught off guard.
'Since when could he do that'
The violent shockwave blasted Batu away.
He crashed heavily into the deck.
"Crack!!"
The wooden planks couldn't handle the force and shattered on impact.
Batu's body smashed straight through
*Crash*
Batu crashed through the deck into the ship's belly with a thunderous impact.
"Cough! Damn... you...!"
Blood sprayed from his mouth as he struggled to rise. The shockwave strike had dealt devastating internal damage.
Meanwhile, Hammer admired his handiwork with satisfaction.
This air hammer technique was something he had been working on over the past year. To think its first real combat application would work so beautifully!
'Not bad. Not bad at all.'
"Give up, Batu! You're finished!"
But Batu wouldn't have it. Letting out a furious roar, he stormed back up to the deck, ready to keep fighting.
"Sawtooth Chain Shield!"
A spinning saw-bladed shield tore through the air toward Hammer.
"I'll hammer it again!"
Another air hammer strike landed. The sawtooth shield, while highly lethal, was not as durable as the others. It shattered instantly under the blow, reduced to fragments.
"RRRAAAAAGH!"
Mad with rage, Batu summoned his ultimate technique.
"Shield Shield: Ten-Thousand Shield Formation!"
"Die, brat!"
A countless number of shields rose into the air and flew directly toward Hammer.
Hammer snorted. "I don't care how many shields you throw at me, I'll break them all with brute force!"
"Great Hammer! Eighty! Destructive Strike!!"
His right arm bulged with veins as he slammed out a punch. A ripple of invisible shockwaves burst outward in every direction.
Every shield it touched disintegrated. The deck itself splintered and collapsed.
Hammer, caught up in the heat of battle, didn't even notice that the [Devil Fruit Development] stat on his system panel had just risen from 40% to 50%.
Under that devastating attack, Batu stood no chance. The shockwave lifted him off his feet, bones audibly cracking as he ragdolled through the air before slamming unconscious onto the ruined deck.
Huff... huff...
Wiping sweat from his brow, Hammer smirked at the defeated pirate.
"Hmph, trash-you lost!"
Despite his exhaustion his tone was full of joy, not because he'd won, but because his evaluation was complete.
He pulled out a special chain from his ring, securely bound Batu, and tossed him onto the speedboat.
This chain was another of Hammer's inventions, infused with Seastone to effectively suppress Devil Fruit users.
Under the shocked gaze of the Snow Leopard tribe girl, Hammer fired up the speedboat and raced toward Marine Headquarters.
Little did he know, everything that had just happened was witnessed from above...By an Albatross with a camera slung around its neck.