Pirate: I, Buggy, am the Emperor, the Emperor of the Clown King!

"My justice will beat you to a pulp!" Smoker pointed his ten hands forward.

"It's not good to talk big~" Buggy just tilted his head slightly, and the corners of his mouth under the mask turned up slightly.

Smoker didn't wait any longer. He lunged forward, his arms suddenly exploding open, and his first move was to become elemental.

His two arms transformed into two long spears that resembled white smoke, which, after being covered by Armament Haki, turned into black spear tips that spiraled and intertwined.

"Black Serpent - Double Fang Thrust!"

Two plumes of smoke, like spears, tore through the air with a sharp whistling sound as they spun and pierced towards Bucky.

Bucky didn't back down or dodge; instead, he went to meet him.

With his left hand, he slashed horizontally with the heart sword, and with his right hand, he cleaved vertically with the spade sword, the two swords flashing through the air.

clang!!

The sound of metal clashing exploded in the rain.

The heart sword struck the left arm of the opium pipe, while the spade sword cleaved the right arm of the opium pipe.

Smoker's pupils contracted slightly; Bucky's performance today was far stronger than he had assessed a few days ago.

Clang clang clang...!

A series of impact sounds continued to be heard.

At this point, Buggy had not yet shown that he possessed Armament Haki, but Smoker had already used it.

"Even smoke... how can it be this strong?" Bucky's voice came from behind the mask.

The Heart Sword and the Spade Sword exerted their power simultaneously, deflecting the two smoke-filled spears to the sides.

After slashing Smoker's smoke spear, Bucky felt something was off.

It doesn't feel like the sharp, jerky sensation of cutting metal, nor does it have the stiff, cutting feeling of wood.

The first sensation upon striking it was its hardness, but as you continued downwards, you felt it instantly become elastic and resilient.

It lacks sufficient recoil feedback... In short, it feels terrible to chop with.

As the spear was deflected, Smoker's body was pulled slightly forward by the force of the lever principle, creating a brief opening in his chest.

In that instant, the square sword and the plum blossom sword on Bucky's back were drawn.

With two swords, one on the left and one on the right, they attacked Smoker.

The air was torn apart, producing a sharp, piercing sound.

Although the attack was sudden and swift, Smoker was prepared.

Bucky had demonstrated the Ace Knife Throwing move before, so Smoker couldn't possibly have missed it.

This world's Smoker is much stronger than Buggy appeared in the anime; he not only possesses Armament Haki but also Observation Haki.

It can even combine two types of Haki with Devil Fruit abilities.

Therefore, Smoker noticed the moment the ace throwing knife was launched, thanks to the thin smoke that had enveloped the battlefield.

The smoke was extremely thin and should have disappeared quickly under the washout of the rain, but Smoker kept releasing smoke to maintain the smoke concentration on the battlefield.

Smoker's Observation Haki allows him to see his opponent's actions more clearly by utilizing the slight pressure difference created by the airflow within the smoke.

—Seeing and hearing color, fog perception.

To enhance Observation Haki through the Smoke-Smoke Fruit, or to unleash the power of Observation Haki through the Smoke-Smoke Fruit.

This is something only a Logia-type Devil Fruit user like Smoker can do.

Anyway, you can't play like that with lava, ice, or flashbangs.

Aokiji and Akainu are not allowed by the elements themselves.

Kizaru's brainpower simply couldn't keep up with the light signal.

However, due to the washing away of rain, the concentration of smoke was still not satisfactory to Smoker, and he was unable to maximize the performance.

Smoker twisted his body sharply in the rain, barely avoiding the piercing blow from the square sword.

But the plum blossom sword followed closely behind, leaving him no time to dodge.

But he doesn't need to flash.

Smoke billowed from Smoker's back, condensing into two enormous smoke columns in mid-air, each as thick as an adult's arm, its surface wreathed in a jet-black Armament Haki sheen.

"Black Serpent - Strangulation!"

The two plumes of smoke, like two giant, living pythons, opened their mouths and lunged at the two swords.

The square sword was entangled by a black snake.

The smoke column hardened instantly upon contact with the sword, locking the blade like an iron clamp and fixing it in mid-air.

The plum blossom sword tried to change direction and escape, but another black snake had already caught up with it.

The snake coiled its body around the other, its head snapping shut, trapping it in place.

The two swords creaked and groaned as the black snake constricted them, their blades trembling, yet they could not break free.

Smoker won the first round of the battle, but now that he has split his already weak Armament Haki into four plumes of black smoke, his overall strength has begun to decline.

Smoker knows Armament Haki, but his mastery of it isn't very high.

So this is also an opportunity for Pakistan.

Bucky, with a heart in his left hand and a spade in his right, thrusts it straight at Smoker's chest.

In terms of movement speed, Bucky is clearly faster than Smoker.

Smoker had other tricks up his sleeve.

His body jerked backward, and at the same time, his arms rose, causing the white smoke swirling around him to erupt like a volcanic eruption, bursting into a large black cloud of smoke.

This move isn't a defensive technique, but that doesn't prevent him from doing a certain degree of defense while attacking.

Faced with the sudden explosion of black smoke, Bucky had no choice but to retreat temporarily.

Compared to the obviously normal white smoke, this black smoke is clearly abnormal.

Before understanding the situation, Bucky could not rashly enter the black smoke.

Under Smoker's control, the smoke continuously splits and refines as it rises, transforming from thick columns of smoke into fine tobacco strands, from tobacco strands into needle-sized particles, and finally into thousands of fine black needles.

Each smoke needle was covered in a jet-black sheen of Armament Haki, with a trail of smoke at its end, connecting to Smoker's body.

It is because it is connected to Smoker's main body that it can transmit Armament Haki.

"Black Serpent: A Thousand Raindrops!"

Smoker pressed his hands down sharply.

Thousands of smoke needles rained down from the sky, like a black downpour, covering the entire sky above Bucky's head.

The needles are extremely fine, extremely fast, and extremely dense.

They tear through the air with a sharp whistling sound, piercing through the rain and splitting every raindrop in two.

Although a single cigarette needle is not very strong, if you get hit by so many cigarette needles, the situation will be very bad.

Bucky looked up and watched as thousands of black needles fell toward him.

Pay special attention to the trailing smoke trails behind these black cigarette needles.

Judging from the current battle, this black smoke must have a thread connecting it to Smoker's body.

Buggy had already figured out the limitation Smoker had with black smoke—he could only apply Armament Haki to the smoke connected to his body.

"Clown Magic: Flame Wheel"

Bucky released the blade, opened his arms and then brought them together to form a circle.

This is a gesture necessary for performing clown magic.

Then a ring of burning flames flew out from the circle formed by the palm, growing larger and larger, deforming and extending in the air, and finally forming something like a shield of flames.

A thousand books of misty rain collided with a wheel of fire.

Needle and fire, black and red, collide in mid-air.

From the moment the first needle made contact, a crackling sound began to emanate.

As the number of smoke needles that come into contact with the flames increases, they gradually approach the same frequency, and the flame wheel becomes increasingly unstable under the attack, eventually being detonated.

boom!

Thousands of smoke needles were scattered, bounced off, and burned in the explosion of the ring of fire.

Only a few bullets penetrated the fire ring's defenses, but they had already lost their power.

When Smoker discovered that the smoke needle attack was ineffective, he had already disconnected the smoke threads from the needles.

Bucky saw this too—once the smoke trails lost their connection to Smoker himself, the black smoke would lose its color.

At that moment, Smoker had already taken the opportunity to rush in front of Bucky.

"Black Serpent - Ten-Hand Combo!"

Smoker's body turned into a large cloud of smoke, with only his head and legs remaining in their original position, while his torso was completely vaporized.

Smoker's fighting style combines the elemental transformation of the Smoke-Smoke Fruit with physical techniques.

White smoke billowed from his shoulder blades, lumbar vertebrae, and ribs, condensing into six enormous arms in mid-air.

Each arm is as thick as an adult's waist, with its ends covered in a glossy, military-style black sheen.

Each arm held a jitte formed from condensed smoke, its tips also wrapped in Armament Haki.

Six arms, six hands, and ten fingers, simultaneously struck Bucky from six different angles.

Up, down, left, right, front, back.

Every blind spot was sealed off, and every escape route was cut off.

Pakistan has no way out.

He doesn't need a way out.

He held a heart sword in his left hand and a spade sword in his right, spinning in the rain with both swords in his hands.

The Heart Sword blocked the 10 Hands that came crashing down from above.

The spade sword blocked the jitte that was thrusting from the left.

Bucky kicked away the jūshō that swept in from below with his left foot, and kicked away the jūshō that chopped in from the right with his right foot.

He tilted his head slightly to dodge the 10-hand attack from behind.

Finally, with a powerful knee strike, he deflected the ten-handed attack coming from the front.

Six arms, six hands, all were blocked.

"How is this possible!" Smoker's pupils contracted sharply.

It wasn't because Bucky blocked his attack, but because of the way Bucky blocked it.

In this round of combat, Bucky demonstrated extremely pure and solid fundamental skills, rather than any fancy moves.

Theoretically speaking, only those who have undergone professional training or experienced many battles can achieve this level of skill.

This shouldn't be something a pirate who has just made a name for himself in the East Blue could do.

So, thinking about it the other way around... this Clown King Buggy is definitely ambitious. He trained hard in the East Blue until he was strong enough before setting sail for the Grand Line.

This isn't some naive fool; it's the result of professional planning.

"What exactly are you planning to do?" Smoker felt that Buggy's goal was definitely not to become the Pirate King.

After all, the so-called Pirate King Roger was just so-so. He wasn't the strongest, the highest-ranking, or the richest person in the world.

Bucky kicked away a smoke hand that was attacking from below, spun around in the air, and then used both swords to cut the last two smoke hands in two.

After one round of combat, the two sides separated by a distance once again.

"I will become the ruler of this world. I will be the dark king who controls everything." Bucky landed with his arms crossed, four yellow throwing knives floating around him.

This statement clearly implies an intention to overthrow the world government and then rule the world himself.

"They're really ambitious..." Smoker's gaze fell on Bucky's back.

In the previous exchange, Bucky seized the opportunity to sever the Smoke Hand, freeing the trapped Square Sword and Blossom Sword.

Buggy confirmed that Smoker's Armament Haki, Smoke Steel, requires connection to his body and can only be applied to smoke that is connected to his body.

So after Bucky cut off part of the white smoke, the black smoke at the end of the white smoke naturally lost its source of power and turned into ordinary smoke that dissipated in the rain.

Yes, due to insufficient mastery of Armament Haki, Smoker usually only applies Armament Haki to a portion of the smoke.

The white smoke is actually quite fragile. It's enough to fight ordinary small pirates, like in the plaza before, but it's obviously not enough against Buggy.

Smoker's face darkened. He had spoken too soon, and now he realized that taking down Bucky was indeed very difficult.

"How did they manage to use such a strange Devil Fruit ability?" Buggy thought for a moment, still puzzled. The nature of the smoke could somehow transform into that strange feel.

"A pirate is a pirate." Smoker had just finished a burst of energy and needed some time to recover, so he didn't recommend engaging in any more verbal sparring.

"Besides Devil Fruit abilities, this world also has things called Armament Haki and Observation Haki... You ambitious pirate should have heard of them, right?"

"Combining Armament Haki with the Smoke-Smoke Fruit, I call it—Armament Haki: Smoke Steel." Four-Mother Brother clenched his fist at Buggy, and the smoke-like fist turned black, then slammed it open with a loud bang.

This is also part of bringing out the characteristics of the fruit.

After being infused with Armament Haki, the smoke particles are strengthened and interconnected, forming what is known as smoke steel, which is highly hard and tough while consuming very little energy.

Although Smoker has a cold personality, he is not illiterate; he has received a high-level naval education.

Smoker would certainly refer to these when developing his Devil Fruit.

When the Smoke-Smoke Fruit is too weak to support various mystical or imaginative ideas, science can be tried instead.

laugh.

"I see, I think I understand what you mean." Bucky understood after a moment's thought.

He thought of aerogel.

The compressed smoke is solidified using Armament Haki, and its internal composition is 95% air.

Because their physical form is extremely small, the consumption of Armament Haki is also relatively low.

Simply put, it's after adding Armament Haki.

Light as smoke, hard as ceramic, elastic as rubber, resistant to temperatures over 1,000 degrees Celsius, and resistant to temperatures below -100 degrees Celsius... it seems to have no drawbacks.

However, even so, Buggy still felt that this was less about developing Devil Fruit abilities and more about using Devil Fruits as weapons to enhance Armament Haki.

...The development of Devil Fruits is truly unrestricted; there's nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.

"Tch, boring..." Buggy scoffed. "Armament Haki hardening, smoke gun, smoke needle... you've used your Devil Fruit ability in the most boring way possible."

That's what they say, but actually this is already the most cost-effective development method.

After all, the Smoke-Smoke Fruit is truly the most useless Logia-type Devil Fruit, and Giannis Antetokounmpo has already made the most of his only strength.

Smoker's lips twitched.

He also wanted his Devil Fruit ability to be cool, like Kizaru's Glint-Glint Fruit, Aokiji's Ice-Ice Fruit, and Akainu's Magma-Magma Fruit.

The problem is that once you eat a Devil Fruit, you can't change it.

"Pirates have no right to judge the Navy's fighting style." Smoker clenched his jitte again.

Even if you lose the argument, you can't lose face; at this point, all you can do is keep a straight face.

"Really?" Bucky smiled. "Then let's continue."

Bucky grabbed the Heart and Spade swords and threw them forward, then grabbed the Square and Club keys and threw them forward as well.

While the Ace Throwing Knife can make a sword fly on its own, throwing it by hand will result in a faster speed and greater force.

Four swords flew out at an extremely fast speed, and then they seemed to disappear.

It doesn't truly disappear, but rather becomes faintly visible, like viewing the moon in water or flowers in the mist.

I know they are there, but I just can't see their location or figure out their trajectory.

——Clown Magic: Mind Transfer.

Bucky combines the Joker's magic abilities with the Ace Knife.

Each throwing knife was wrapped in a thin, distorted film of light, which altered the path of light as it passed through, making the knife appear to be jumping between different locations in space.

One moment it's on the left, the next it's on the right.

One second it was above your head, the next it was below your feet.

Don't be fooled by the fact that the Joker's magic only has special effects and no numerical values ​​in actual combat. This core ability of the Joker King allows Bucky to use it to perform a variety of tricks in actual combat.

...Unfortunately, its weakness is that the numerical value is too low, and its strength is insufficient.

...Once Bucky's stats are higher, he'll really be able to throw knives that can travel through space.

Smoker's Observation Haki, specifically his Mist Sense, was frantically sending him messages.

—To the left front, there's a weapon, seven steps away, speed... wait, it's disappeared again.

—To the right rear, there are two guns, the distance... has changed again.

—Above my head! There's a weapon above my head! No, it's not a weapon, it's an afterimage!

There's too much information.

too fast.

Faced with this situation, Smoker's Observation Haki level was somewhat insufficient.

His senses were completely disrupted by the four faintly visible throwing knives.

"Tch." Smoker forced out a syllable through clenched teeth.

He did not hesitate or waver.

White smoke billowed from beneath his feet, condensing, compressing, and hardening around his body.

The smoke changed from gas to solid, from white to grayish-white, from grayish-white to pitch black, and finally formed a hemispherical bunker around his body.

The bunker's outer shell was covered in Armament Haki, making it harder than steel.

"Black Serpent - Iron Wall Fortress"

Four ace throwing knives struck the bunker with a clanging sound and bounced off.

The ace throwing knife is sharp enough, but lacks power.

After multiple attacks, although the Spade Sword pierced into the white smoke fortress, the blade was not long enough.

Good news: It's gone in, and only the surface layer is black; the inside is still white.

Bad news: It couldn't be punctured; the white layer was too thick.

Fortunately, the black smoke was hardened by Armament Haki, making it difficult for Smoker to control. So, before the smoke barrier could contract and jam the sword, Ace Throwing Knife - Spade Sword flew out on its own.

—Bucky: Now we need to figure out how to pry open this black turtle shell.

……

……

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