"Captain!"
Watching Bellamy calmly stride back towards them through the air, Drake felt a level of shock that words simply couldn't express. He had never heard of anyone being swallowed by a Sea King and returning alive. And this was a Sea King over a hundred meters long—a true Ocean Sovereign! Their previous Sea King kill might have seemed easy, but that was because the battle wasn't fought in the sea, and that creature hadn't been nearly as large.
His subordinate Ross gazed at Bellamy with eyes already blazing with fanaticism, like a zealot witnessing his god incarnate.
Even with a Devil Fruit, blowing up a Sea King with a single punch is a bit too exaggerated, isn't it?
Staring up at the sky, Mia and Muret stood with mouths agape, unable to close them for a long moment. The shower of shredded flesh and debris raining down confirmed it: the Sea King's core had been, in the truest sense, utterly obliterated. The central part of its body connecting the head and tail had been blasted into countless fragments by that one punch. The giant serpent Sea King, previously unconscious, was jolted awake by the agony.
The vitality of serpents is terrifyingly potent; even bisected, it still had the strength to thrash wildly. But Bellamy had already landed back on deck using Moon Walk. No matter how much it struggled now, it couldn't harm a single hair on his head.
The serpent's head and tail sections plunged separately into the sea below, staining vast swathes of water even redder.
Back on board, Bellamy casually stripped off his outer clothes, which had been badly corroded. "Launch the small boat! And bring me a rope! I'm retrieving that tail."
He issued commands the moment he returned. Bellamy's purpose in coming near the Calm Belt was precisely to hunt Sea Kings. Now that he'd killed one, naturally, he intended to claim his prize. His warship certainly couldn't venture into those waters now; the area was far too dangerous. But a small boat was another matter. As long as he kept his Observation Haki active, he wouldn't be ambushed so easily. If not for that momentary lapse earlier, how could he have been swallowed so readily by a Sea King?
By now, the Sea Shark was almost clear of the immediate danger zone. With the death of the hundred-meter Sea King, its massive quantities of flesh falling into the sea had drawn numerous marine predators into a feeding frenzy. Ironically, this made the area around the ship temporarily safer.
The small boat was quickly lowered. Bellamy grabbed a thick rope and swiftly rowed towards the vicinity of the severed serpent tail. The sea surface here was incredibly turbulent, with unseen dangers lurking beneath. Every so often, a massive sea creature would leap from the water nearby. Anyone with less nerve would likely be scared witless in such an environment.
But Bellamy wasn't just anyone; perhaps he was naturally bolder than most. Surrounded by such peril, he felt no fear. Instead, a thrill of excitement coursed through him.
The small boat, constantly threatening to capsize, navigated rapidly through the treacherous waters, approaching an area that seemed to be actively boiling. A large swarm of sharks circled the severed tail. The overwhelming stench of blood continued to attract hordes of vicious, carnivorous marine life. Bellamy wouldn't be taking his spoils anywhere until he drove off these greedy interlopers.
"Hey, hey, hey! You bastards! This is my trophy!"
He expertly threw the rope, then stomped the grappling hook deep into the serpent's tail flesh. Turning towards the sea surface, Bellamy unleashed a sudden, powerful punch.
With his current strength, even without using a named technique or charging power, a single raw punch could crater solid ground. When this explosive force struck the water, it instantly blasted a concave depression into the surface. All creatures within the immediate vicinity of the impact were pulverized into paste.
Even more shredded flesh and an even stronger scent of blood rapidly spread around the tail. The sea here grew even more frenzied. Trying to tow the prize back with the small boat now seemed entirely unrealistic.
Bellamy abandoned the boat without hesitation. Gripping the rope tightly, he launched himself into the air with Moon Walk and began violently towing the massive tail behind him. He wanted to test if he could drag the spoils back before exhausting his stamina.
The entire sea surface resembled boiling tomato soup, thick with crimson blood, countless bubbles continuously rising from below. From the unknown depths, enormous Sea Kings would occasionally breach the surface in spectacular leaps. Soon, innumerable sharks, drawn by the bloodlust, arrived to madly contest the floating gore.
This serpent tail section was roughly thirty-plus meters long and over twenty meters wide. Bellamy wasn't sure of the exact weight, only that it was incredibly heavy. Dragging it through the air with Moon Walk felt exceptionally strenuous. The effort was likely compounded by the swarm of sharks constantly gathering below, tearing at the flesh.
Bellamy spun and delivered another punch towards the water, the explosive force clearing the sharks below once more. But he knew killing them all was impossible. As soon as he eliminated one batch, another would quickly take its place. All he could do was keep clearing them intermittently like this.
Just then, Bellamy's Observation Haki screamed danger. He stomped hard against the air, propelling his body sharply backward. An octopus Sea King suddenly erupted from the water beneath him, tentacles flailing as it lunged.
"Hmm, not really fond of snake meat," Bellamy mused, narrowing his eyes, "but some octopus tentacles for dinner wouldn't be bad."
He spun back around and lashed out with a kick. A transparent Vacuum Orb shot through the air, silently burying itself at the base of the large octopus's tentacles.
BOOM!
With a deafening explosion, several massive tentacles were blown clean off. The octopus Sea King itself was blasted violently back into the sea by the concussive force.
Before the severed tentacles could hit the water, Bellamy darted forward, delivering two swift kicks that sent them flying towards the distant Sea Shark.
This path to retrieving his spoils, he reflected, was proving considerably more arduous than he had anticipated.
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