Tree World Descent

After that punch, Yota was slightly disappointed.

Zephyr might not have been the oldest of the previous generation, but his decline in strength was already extremely obvious. He had even fallen to the brink of dropping out of the Admiral-Emperor tier.

After the shockwave passed, Zephyr looked slightly disheveled, while quite a few of the remaining Marines had been blasted hard enough to cough up blood. Only a handful of senior officers appeared unharmed.

It had to be said that Yota had used only Armament Haki and his pure physical strength in that punch. Although his strength had grown rapidly recently, its power was merely equivalent to a full-force strike from an ordinary Four Emperor, nowhere near their trump cards.

Even Zephyr had taken that attack with difficulty, and he had not even been able to protect the Marines behind him. Clearly, his strength had declined severely.

Realizing that Zephyr could not temper him at all, Yota stopped holding back. Dragon scales instantly spread across his body, and moments later, he transformed into a half-dragon. Then he threw another punch.

Having just taken a blow, Zephyr had already felt that something was wrong. Seeing Yota’s half-beast transformation left him even more stunned.

"That’s… the Azure Dragon Fruit! How is that possible?"

Kaido was not dead yet, so how could this fruit have appeared on Yota? And what Devil Fruit ability had that black mist been just now?

A wielder of multiple Devil Fruit abilities—an existence that had always been little more than a legend on the seas—had actually appeared before him. Zephyr could not help but suffer a tremendous psychological shock.

However, Yota did not care what Zephyr was thinking. Seeing him lose focus for an instant, he put even more force into his attack, mixing Chakra into it as well.

He had not used ninjutsu such as the Eight Gates or the Strength of a Hundred technique. He had merely used the most basic method of reinforcing his body with Chakra. Combined with the physical enhancement from his half-beast transformation, the power was nearly one or two times greater than that previous strike.

With a thunderous boom, Zephyr was nearly punched into vomiting blood. His indestructible Sea Stone mechanical arm also exploded into a pile of parts—Sea Stone was nearly impossible to crush without special processing methods, but once it was made into a machine, the gaps between its internal components greatly reduced its strength, especially at the joints where its various mechanisms connected.

"Admiral Zephyr, it looks like you won’t be able to send me to Impel Down this time." After the blow, Yota instead crossed his arms over his chest and spoke with a smile.

Swallowing the blood rising in his throat, Zephyr shouted, "Everyone, leave this place immediately! Hurry!"

"Teacher!" Ain, Shuzo, and the others cried out in alarm. They truly had not expected Zephyr to be defeated so easily.

A fellow dressed in a gaudy, colorful outfit, looking somewhat like a ninja and even more like a clown, gritted his teeth. "Teacher, we won’t run away this time."

As he spoke, he began dancing on the spot. Dozens of vines burst from the ground and lashed toward Yota.

"What is this? A cheap imitation of Wood Release?" Yota found the branches and vines rather amusing. Meanwhile, Ain formed peach-pink flames in her hands and immediately flung them at Yota.

The two worked together with considerable coordination. Clearly, this was not the first time they had used this move.

Yota was quite wary of that flame. Though he could no longer remember exactly what ability Ain possessed, he knew that Paramecia Devil Fruits were the most unreasonable kind. Naturally, he had no intention of letting that flame touch him.

Bringing his hands together, Yota gave the dancing fellow a strange smile. "Wood Release, Tree World Descent!"

A massive number of trees erupted wildly from the earth. Compared to them, the vines summoned by that fellow’s dance looked like thin hemp ropes.

At that moment, Ain’s flame struck one of the trees and instantly erased it completely. Even Yota’s pupils contracted as he became even more wary of her ability.

Ain was actually the wielder of the Rewind Fruit, capable of turning back the time of any object. At present, she could probably rewind a person or object by around eleven years.

The trees generated by Tree World Descent had only lived for a few seconds, so they were naturally erased in an instant. If it had been a giant tree from nature, at most it would have merely become younger.

Yota was only slightly wary, but Binz, who was dancing like a shaman, and the members of the Pirate Guerrilla Squad had already been completely dumbfounded.

"Th-th-th-this… what is this? Binz, when did you become so powerful?"

"Why are these trees attacking us too? Good heavens, isn’t the area these trees are growing over a little too large?"

Listening to his companions’ cries, Binz sweated profusely, panic appearing on his face. "Strange, strange, strange! Could it be that my Verdant Dance wasn’t performed properly, so the plants went berserk?"

"What is going on? So the Shove-Shove Fruit is this powerful!"

Yota’s eye twitched. He was already speechless at the intelligence of the people in the Pirate World. At least the Marines had seemed marginally more sensible, yet this was how they reacted.

They had clearly seen Yota bring his hands together and shout Tree World Descent, yet they still thought there was something wrong with their own Devil Fruit. They really were remarkably carefree.

Still, Tree World Descent was indeed not as terrifying in the Pirate World as it was in the Naruto World. First, it might have been because the Pirate World did not possess Natural Energy, causing this life-force-based ninjutsu to lose some of its power. Second, people in the Pirate World did not have Chakra, so Tree World Descent’s ability to absorb Chakra could barely show itself. Although it could reluctantly absorb some physical stamina, that was far too slow compared with absorbing Chakra.

For an ordinary Vice Admiral, even if they stood still and let Tree World Descent absorb them, it would probably take several hours. That was why they had not sensed any loss of stamina yet.

That was also why these people could still jump around here.

With a thunderous boom, a path was smashed through the forest formed by Tree World Descent. Zephyr frowned and shouted, "Binz, you idiot! This isn’t your Shove-Shove Fruit at all. It’s an ability used by the enemy! Didn’t you see that he’s the only one the trees aren’t attacking?"

"What?" Binz was greatly shocked. "What kind of Devil Fruit user is he? No, how many Devil Fruits has he eaten?"

Yota was in no mood to explain that this was not some Devil Fruit ability. His figure flashed, and he punched Binz directly in the head. The entire forest shook, and Binz was smashed unconscious into the ground.

"Bastard, don’t touch my student." Zephyr’s eyes turned red, as though he had recalled some unpleasant memories. His aura erupted in an instant as an iron fist wrapped in jet-black Armament Haki swung out.