61. Clowns vs Happo Unit

A clash between Clown Pirates & Ley's Happo Navy unit has broken. Jude fight with Ley's 13 normal troops, Mantis fight with Yoko, Cricket fight with Hanji, while Buggy fight with Ley.

Buggy uses his swords like usual, while Ley just uses his fists. They've covered their swords & fists with haki and rush to each other. Buggy swings his Pollux on his right hand, and Ley sends a right-hand punch.

*CLANG* Their attack clash and create a sound like metal hitting metal because of their armament haki. Ley uses his Hasshoken and Buggy just uses his right sword. But Buggy exerts equal power to cancel the effect of Hasshoken's vibration.

Buggy has more raw power than Ley, but Ley's Hasshoken gives his attack more power too, make it equal with Buggy's attack. It's thanks to the mountain climbing that Buggy has more power now. So he doesn't lose his ground against Ley.

They clash again, and Buggy realizes something. 'His haki is harder than mine.'

Buggy can feel that Ley's haki is harder than his. It must be because Ley has more experience to fight people who can use haki too. Fighting with someone who has a stronger haki can make their haki stronger too.

That's why now Buggy is very excited. If Ley has a stronger haki, then this battle can help Buggy strengthen his haki. Now Buggy also needs to know if Ley has strong observation haki or not.

Buggy & Ley then start to clash with small attacks. They don't dodge or evade any attack, but they keep countering each other's attack with their attack.

Buggy & Ley just use their basic techniques to fight. They attack with high speed & strong power. Both of them haven't moved at all from their initial spot when they start to clash.

Buggy just keeps swinging his swords and Ley just keeps punching with his Hasshoken punches. Buggy knows Ley wants to prove that he is stronger than Buggy. So Buggy gladly takes his challenge head-on to improve his haki.

On the other spot, Cricket also clashes with Hanji. He often dodges because Hanji uses a metal staff. Cricket can't block the staff with his body or his flintlock.

He hasn't been able to use armament hardening although he can use basic colorless armament now. His flintlocks were also not designed to be used as close combat tools.

Cricket dodges a horizontal attack from Hanji then he punches back. Hanji blocks his punch with the middle section of his staff then swings the upper side down to Cricket's head.

Cricket ducked to evade the staff, but then Hanji swing his staff back to hit Cricket. Cricket doesn't have time to dodge again, so he got hit and roll on the floor.

"Dammit, if only I can use armament, then I will be able to defend that attack," says Cricket while rubbing his right cheek that got hit.

Cricket suddenly rolls to the side to evade Hanji's vertical strike. Cricket stands up and fights again with Hanji. He is in the defensive position and mostly evades while attacking back sometimes.

Just like Cricket who has a hard time with his opponent, Mantis is having a hard time too. Yoko is physically stronger than her and she keeps getting pushed. His skill is not that good, but his power makes up for that lack of skill.

Mantis uses her agility to dodge and strike back. But her weapon isn't suitable for fast attacks, so she can't attack fast enough. Luckily she uses a metal bat, so she can block the sword attack and avoid getting cut.

"I can't move fast enough with this metal bat, it's too heavy. I need a lighter metal bat, or maybe I need to change my weapon. Damn, I really need to choose my weapon carefully," says Mantis while blocking Yoko's attack.

Mantis was not a weapon user, but she choose to use a metal bat so suddenly after the crew arrived on West Blue. The enemies that they've fought often have weapons and mostly sharp weapons like swords.

So she thought she need to have a weapon too if she want to fight those sharp weapon users. She can't block a sword with her hands except she can use armament haki like Buggy.

But she knows it's not easy to learn haki, so she chooses to use a weapon and her choice falls on this metal bat. She didn't choose it carefully and just like it. So now she feels the effect of her reckless choosing. But she can't discard this metal bat now or she will get cut.

While Cricket & Mantis have a hard time, Jude has an easy time. She uses her ash devil fruit power to attack her opponents. She spread her ash and make it blunt or sharp to attack. She'll also strangle them using her ash.

Her opponents can't attack her at all because their attacks will just pass through her ash body. These small fries can't use haki after all. Even Hanji & Yoko can't use it yet, not to mention these guys.

Jude can defeat the 13 men easily and she looks at her friends. She sees Cricket & Mantis having a hard time, so she moves to helo Mantis. But suddenly, a bullet pierces her body and explode.

*BOOM* Jude's ash body gets scattered because of the explosion.

"JUDE!?" shouts Mantis panicky.

"SHE'S FINE, JUST FOCUS ON YOUR FIGHT, MANTIS!" Buggy warns Mantis.

Just like what Buggy says, Jude is fine. The ash that scattered on the floor gather again. Then the ash turns into Jude who seems fine even after such an explosion. She looks up at the crow nest and sees a woman is looking at her while holding her riffle.

"A sniper. Why did Captain not mention her? Did Captain not sense her before?" ponders Jude.

Jude is right, Buggy didn't sense the sniper before. He just sensed her when she's about to shoot at Jude. It's not that Buggy's observation haki is weak, the sniper has a power that allows her to hide her presence.

"Jude, that woman can hide her presence. Most likely a devil fruit ability, so be careful with that!" says Buggy while still fighting head-on with Ley.

"Heh, nice observation. Lin, she is a logia. You can't defeat her without haki, so just keep her busy. I will defeat her after defeating this red nose," Ley instructs the sniper while smirking at Buggy.

Ley send a punch with full power at Buggy after he said that. Buggy thrust Pollux that glow a little at Ley's punch. They clash and get into a stalemate for a moment. But then Ley gets pushed back and roll on the floor. Ley balanced himself and looks at Buggy with wide eyes.

"Don't talk too big. You will look weak when you lose later," says Buggy while smirking back.

"Bastard!" Ley gets angry at Buggy.

______________________________________________________________

Support me on Pa_treon if you like my story and want to read up to 25 chapters ahead of this novel and the other one. It will help me to buy internet data too.

I've uploaded Chapters 86 of this novel there today.

You can also become a character in the fanfic. Check out my page in the public announcement!

https://www.pa_treon.com/CaptMermain

(the web didn't use _underscore_, it's to avoid censorship)