One Piece: Starting with God Valley, intercepting the Dark-Dark Fruit

"Cut, cut, rice cake!"

Barrett scoffed, easily blocking the attack with one hand while pulling the other out of Katakuri's body. He then unleashed a barrage of punches.

Katakuri had no choice but to constantly change his body shape, but Barrett's attack speed had exceeded the limit of his Observation Haki. Soon, he was hit by Barrett's punches several times and spat out a mouthful of blood.

Perospero, who was fighting the rest of Roger's crew, immediately created a thick wall of candy to block his way, and then turned around without hesitation to support Katakuri.

At this moment, Katakuri was struggling to withstand Barrett's attack. When Perospero arrived, he quickly released a large amount of purple syrup onto Barrett, enveloping him in it.

However, this move could not trap Barrett at all; he simply shook his body, causing all the syrup on his body to scatter.

Perospero seized the opportunity to reunite with Katakuri. Perospero released syrup in an attempt to trap Barret again, while Katakuri charged out wielding his trident.

Barrett handled the two of them together with ease, until Charlotte Daifuku joined the fight, at which point he could barely put up a fight.

On the other side, Shanks and Buggy were fighting a burly man wearing biscuit armor. The man's biscuit armor was exceptionally hard, and even Shanks, who had mastered Armament Haki, could not break through its defenses.

Chapter 202 Shanks' Battle

The burly man was Lingling's tenth son, Charlotte Cracker.

Buggy's two short swords were almost worn down, but they still couldn't do even the slightest damage to Cracker's Biscuit Armor. However, Cracker couldn't hurt him either, because he had become a Chop-Chop Fruit user, which was specifically designed to counter swordsmen.

However, Cracker wasn't brainless. After fighting for a while, he realized that his Haki-infused slashes were ineffective against Buggy, so he immediately switched to using his shield. With one strike, he slammed the shield directly into Buggy's face.

Two streams of blood shot from Bucky's round, red nose. Seeing Cracker raise his shield again, he was so frightened that he used "Emergency Escape," splitting his body into several pieces.

Cracker's attack missed, and Shanks appeared from behind him, slashing Cracker's neck with his sword.

Shanks intensified his Armament Haki attack this time, but the effect was still unsatisfactory; the slash only left a shallow mark on Cracker's nape.

But this also made Shanks realize something was wrong. The place he cut was Cracker's exposed skin, and it wasn't covered by Armament Haki. Logically speaking, if such a cut was made on the skin, there should have been some blood.

But all he saw were some yellow crumbs, which looked like flour or something similar.

Cracker reached up and touched the back of his neck, then turned to Shanks and said,

"Red-haired brat, are you tickling me?"

Cracker is actually only six years older than Shanks, but Shanks developed more slowly and still looks like a child compared to the bearded and tall Cracker.

Shanks hated the nickname "red-haired brat" and slashed at Cracker with his sword. Cracker simply stopped resisting and let Shanks hack at him.

After hacking away for a while, Cracker was unharmed except for some cookie crumbs, while Shanks was exhausted.

Bucky's upper body floated in mid-air as he shouted at Shanks.

"Stop attacking Shanks, we can't break this guy's defenses. Let Uncle Rayleigh deal with him! Huh? Where's Uncle Rayleigh?!"

Bucky looked down and around, but Rayleigh was nowhere to be found.

Shanks ignored Bucky. A sinister energy surged within him, and the veins on his hand gripping the knife bulged. The Armament Haki on the blade intensified, giving it a metallic sheen.

Compared to before, the intensity of this Armament Haki is clearly a level higher.

Cracker raised an eyebrow and said,

"Interesting, red-haired brat, you've got some talent!"

Shanks, his expression cold and stern, said...

"You're just a coward, don't judge me like that!"

Shanks has extremely high battle intelligence. He has already figured out that Cracker must have hidden his real body in the biscuit, and even his appearance is fake!

Believe it or not, Cracker was actually taken aback by the "coward" comment, and an angry look appeared on his face.

He raised the longsword he called "Pretzel" high and charged at Shanks, roaring,

"You bastard! I'll chop you to pieces!"

Shanks remained completely calm. In fact, this calmness was the best way to utilize his Observation Haki. He anticipated Cracker's attack trajectory, dodged it, and then stabbed Cracker in the side of his waist.

Then, centered on the tip of the knife, countless cracks appeared on the surrounding cookies. The next second, accompanied by a crisp cracking sound, the cookie armor shattered completely, revealing Cracker's true form: a young man with a full head of purple hair and a sinister and cold face.

Seeing this, Bucky shouted with delight.

"Well done, Shanks!!!"

With that, Bucky bent down and swung his twin swords at Cracker, who had revealed his true form.

Shanks flipped his wrist, changing his thrust into a sweep. Cracker tightened his waist, instantly covering it with Armament Haki. He simply slashed at Buggy's attack with his sword, sending the latter flying.

However, Shanks' Armament Haki has reached a new level. Cracker has temporarily lost the protection of his Biscuit Armor, and his Armament Haki alone is not enough to block Shanks's slash without injury. A gash was directly cut open on his waist.

Cracker was already afraid of pain, and this hurt him so much that he grimaced in pain.

After forcing Shanks back with a single slash, Cracker stepped aside and touched the wound on his waist. When he saw the blood in his palm, his expression suddenly turned ferocious.

He looked up at Shanks, his anger turning into a mocking laugh.

"Fine, fine! I was thinking of playing with you two little devils a bit more, but it seems there's no need for that now. I'm going to make you experience true despair!"

After saying that, Cracker shoved the pretzel into the ground next to him. Bucky, who had flown back, saw this and went up to Shanks, teasingly saying,

"Hey Shanks, why did that guy drop his weapon? Is he trying to surrender?"

Shanks wasn't gloating over injuring Cracker. His brow furrowed, his gaze never leaving Cracker opposite him, he said in a deep voice,

"Bucky, that guy's not that simple. The battle isn't over yet. Don't get distracted! This is..."

Bucky curled his lip and interrupted him directly.

"Alright! Are you going to say again that this is Uncle Rayleigh's teaching?"

"Do not."

Shanks slowly shook his head, the image of that young figure draped in a cloak of justice appearing in his mind.

"The Black Dragon taught me this!"

Bucky's expression froze, and he muttered,

"Okay, so you two really are having an affair..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Bucky suddenly shuddered, and the hairs on his body stood on end. He felt as if he were being watched by some terrifying being.

At the top of the distant tower, Giger slowly lowered his finger, a faint arc of electricity still lingering at its tip, and shook his head, saying...

"Forget it, if we kill him, this kid will probably cry."

Back to Shanks, Cracker, who had put down his weapon, suddenly started clapping, leaving Shanks and Buggy completely bewildered.

However, their expressions quickly froze, because along with Cracker's applause, a large number of burly men wearing biscuit armor appeared out of thin air from behind him, each one wearing exactly the same armor as Cracker had just worn.

Cracker grinned maliciously and manipulated all the biscuit men to charge forward together.

Shanks and Bucky had no choice but to face the challenge head-on. However, what was most unacceptable to them was that these biscuit men were almost as strong defensively as the previous ones.

Bucky's body was hacked to pieces by the Cookie Man, and he cursed angrily.

"Damn it! What kind of fruit is this? This ability is ridiculous!!!"

Chapter 203 Giger Makes His Move

Shanks remained silent. Unlike Bucky, he couldn't ignore the biscuit men's attacks. He could only grit his teeth and struggle to hold on amidst the horde of biscuit men.

However, having just made a breakthrough in Armament Haki, he had already exerted all his strength to break through Cracker's biscuit armor. Now, facing so many biscuit men, he quickly felt overwhelmed.

Just as Shanks was struggling to fend off the attacks from the biscuit men coming from all directions, a painful cry rang out. Shanks was startled; it was Buggy's voice.

Surrounded by biscuit men and unable to see what was happening outside, Shanks realized that Buggy was likely in danger. He unleashed all his power, spun around, and used his long sword to knock back the biscuit men around him.

Then he saw Bucky's body parts being held and twisted by a group of cookie men, while Bucky's head was being stepped on by a cookie man, causing him to cry and snot from the pain.

Seeing this, Shanks' eyes widened in fury, and he roared,

"Let Bucky go! Everyone, come and fight me!"

Not far away, Cracker's lips curled into a cruel smile as he said,

"Don't rush, you're next. Before that, I'll make you watch that red-nosed guy die right before your eyes!"

As he spoke, Cracker controlled all the biscuit men to increase the pressure on their hands. Bucky's body was almost twisted into a pretzel, and the biscuit man stepping on his head was grinding it hard. Under this torture, Bucky's voice became weaker and weaker.

Shanks' eyes turned bloodshot as he tried to rush over to save Bucky, but he was blocked by the Cookie Men who surrounded him again.

With his mind in turmoil, Shanks was no longer able to remain calm as before, and his Observation Haki weakened. Soon, several knife wounds appeared on his body, and a strand of his red hair was cut off.

Even though Shanks' situation had reached an extremely dangerous point, Gigg, atop the tower in the distance, still hesitated to make a move. His eyes flashed with a scarlet light, and his pupils reflected Shanks's thin figure fighting a bloody battle.

Shanks completely disregarded his injuries, his only thought being to rush over and save Buggy.

When Bucky's voice was almost inaudible, Shanks' pupils suddenly contracted, and his long-suppressed anger erupted from his body like a tidal wave.

"Get your dirty feet off me!!!"

hum!

At this moment, in his extreme anger, Shanks finally awakened Conqueror's Haki.

Unfortunately, there were almost no weaklings present; only a few of the Big Mom Pirates' grunts were knocked unconscious by Conqueror's Haki.

However, this also temporarily halted the fighting in the arena, with everyone focusing their attention on Shanks.