Chapter 39

"Hahaha!!" Hearing Kid's remark, Rowan couldn't help but laugh. Don't die too quick? It just sounded so absurd to Rowan.

Initially, Rowan intentionally held himself back and feigned carelessness, to make it seem as if he was struggling against Kid's attack. Although Kid's Punk Gibson technique surprised him off and forced him to use all his strength momentarily, Kid will never gain an upper ground ever again. All of this was for the purpose of letting Kid reveal the full extent of his strength so that Rowan can judge whether he will be able to defeat Kid or not. What was his conclusion?

Kid is weak in relative to Rowan. From the fight, Rowan assessed Kid's strength to be in similar level to Smoker, although the latter will probably win against the former due to the fruit advantage.

Watching Rowan's sudden shift in attitude, Kid frowned.

"What's so funny?!" Kid growled in annoyance, but Rowan responded with a goofy grin, invoking further anger from the former.

"I'd just like to say... that if that's all you got, forget about me being your stepping stone. Pirate King? Seems a dream more achievable for me than you." Rowan said while cracking his neck and stretching his arms.

Veins popped on his forehead, as the metals on Kid's right arm continuously became larger in terms of size. "What did you say, you bastard?! Say that again!!"

Not even bothering to speak any longer, Rowan crouched down, getting ready for another propulsion.

*BOOM* With a sound of bounce, Rowan disappeared from Kid's field of view, causing the latter to be shocked.

'What?! Where is he??" Kid began to look around cautiously and quickly maneuvered the metals on his right arm to form a dome-like shape around him.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* The sound of bounce has begun to be heard all around Kid. The interval between each sound became shorter and shorter, and soon, the sound was so quick that it resembled the noise from a drill.

'He's... accelerating!!' Kid sneered as he continued to thicken the dome-like shield. 'However, no matter how fast you are, you cannot break my shield with bare hands!!'

"Sonic..." While the booming sounds were being heard all over the place chaotically, a faint voice was heard.

"Boom."

All of a sudden, Kid's dome was instantly broken, and the metal objects were damaged beyond belief, to an extent where they were disintegrated into dusts! Kid's eyes widened and his mouth vomited blood as he saw Rowan's fist deep in his abdomen!

Before he could even realize, Kid began to fly backwards in an incredible speed, crashing through four buildings in succession, before the fifth building collapsed onto him.

*BOOOOOOM* Rowan's attack far surpassed the speed of sound, and the incredibly loud noise only managed to catch up as Kid flew!

"W-what... is he a human?!!" The pirates, who were watching the fight from a far distance, couldn't help but tremble in fear. They could feel the ripple all the way from where the collision occurred!

"*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* So.... h-he... *Huff* never used his full... *Cough* strength..." Kid weakly muttered to himself as his surroundings were covered by the dust and the heavy objects that crushed him.

Rowan didn't believe that his strike would have ended Kid's life; he could feel how durable Kid's body was as he punched. Lowering himself, Rowan picked up his gun that fell out of his holster due to Kid's ability, before aiming towards Kid.

Kid, using his magnetic force, managed to lift up the objects from his body. As the dust cleared, what lied at far distance away from him was Rowan, holding a gun towards him!

"Outrageous!! *Cough* You dare to use metal against me?!!" Although severely injured all over, Kid roared towards Rowan for what he believed to be a stupidity.

Rowan didn't seem to mind Kid's outburst; the hole of his gun continued to stare at the fallen Kid. "Let's see which is stronger, my bounce or your magnetism."

Without further elaboration, Rowan shot the bullet towards fallen Kid, and the said bullet travelled towards Kid at a blinding speed with booming sound.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

"REPEL!!!!" While severely bleeding, Kid held out his right arm and mustered all his strength. As he clenched his right arm, clad in purple electricity, the bullet notably slowed down as it approached Kid.

"BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM* With the bounce continuously propelling the bullet forward, the struggle of power began as Kid's magnetic force collided against Rowan's bounce force.

"Seems like one isn't enough, eh?" Rowan said casually. "Let's see if you can handle two at the same time."

*Bang* Another bullet was shot from the gun, and with booming sound, the second bullet too travelled towards Kid.

'F***!!!' Kid cursed inwardly as he saw the second one incoming.

*CLANG* The bullet completely rammed into the first bullet that was in the midair, reinforcing the bounce force behind the first bullet.

"WRAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!" Kid screamed as he squeezed out strength from his entirety. The mashed bullets, shook as they slowly approached Kid.

"Pretty capable. How about a third one then?" Rowan said with a cold gleam in his eyes, before shooting the third bullet. 'Eye for an eye. Tooth for a tooth. If you dare to attempt to kill me, prepare to die yourself.'

*Bang*

Kid watched with a despair on his face as the third bullet approached him at a very rapid pace.

"N-no!! I, Eustass Kid, am meant to become the Pirate King of the world!! I cannot fall here!!" His eyes blazing up full of will, he lifted up his deformed left arm and focused all his strength as the third bullet mashed into the first two bullets.

*CLANG* As soon as the third bullet reached the first two, the deadlock was broken immediately and the bullets shot towards Kid's forehead as a very rapid pace.

"No, no, NO!! I WON'T DIE HERE, NEVER!!!!!!!" Kid screamed with all his might as the bullet rapidly approached him, about to pierce through his brain.

*Bang* a faint sound of the fourth bullet being shot was heard from Rowan.

*BOOM* *BOOM* *BOOM*

"Ah…" That was all Kid could say before the fourth bullet crushed into the cluster of the first three bullets.

*CLANG* The loud noise of the bullets colliding resounded and the bullet cluster shot towards Kid at a blinding speed, before smashing into Kid's skull without any resistance.

Kid slouched as the blood was oozing out of his forehead; lying dead.

Rowan impassively stood a far distance away from Kid, and blew on the smoke that was emitted from the hole of his revolver.

Tucking in the revolver back into his holster, Rowan turned away from Kid and propelled himself away from the scene.

___________

*Clang* *Clang* *Clang* With Kid gone from their sight, Rowan's crew no longer had to worry about the magnetic forces disarming them. Having regained her daggers, Carina was moving at an incredible flexibility as she rapidly slashed her daggers toward Killer, who blocked all the strikes with his scythe-like blade on his right hand and a dagger on his left hand.

Suddenly, Killer ducked, revealing Heat, who was about to blast fire off from his mouth. Carina quickly bent over and narrowly dodged the stream of fire that passed right over her. Meanwhile, Carmen rushed towards Heat in her fire form, but was blocked by Wire who crashed a huge rock in front of her; if Carmen were to be crashed under the rock, even in fire form, the lack of oxygen will extinguish the fire and cause her to return to her normal form. Carmen had no choice but to halt.

At the same time, Dan was behind Heat with a trident, that originally belonged to Wire, in his hands, ready to stab. Right before it reached Heat, however, Killer quickly took notice of Dan, propelled himself backward and parried Dan's attack. Taking such opportunity as a chance, Carina dashed from her position towards Killer. Heat attempted to block her with the metal pole in his hand, but Carina nimbly moved and bypassed Heat while slashing him numerous times.

Dodging Carmen's stream of fire, Wire charged to Carina with a metal sword. Heat, although bleeding, regained his composure and attempted to slam the metal pole to Carina at the same time. Carina swiftly back-stepped and dashed behind Killer, who was about to slash through Dan.

*BOOOOOOOM* Suddenly, a loud, earthshaking noise was heard from afar, causing everyone's eyes to widen.

"Heh," Carina grinned knowingly as she blocked Killer's blow. "Seems like your captain is in a trouble."

Killer, Heat and Wire became uneasy as they didn't recognize the noise as an attack of his captain; the noise from Kid's attacks never sounded that concentrated, due to many metal pieces clattering against one another.

"Killer, Kid might be in a trouble." Heat said with wariness. Killer too agreed however, it didn't seem that escaping from Rowan's crew was possible at the current moment; they were at clear disadvantage.

"...Wire." While engaging Carina's rapid slashes, Killer silently muttered to Wire, who nodded in response. "We can't hesitate any longer."

"Carmen!" Carina shouted as she grabbed Dan and jumped backwards. Watching that Carina and Dan gained some distances from the Kids pirates, Carina held her palms forward.

"Brilliant Phoenix!!" A large phoenix made out of fire was emitted from Carmen's palms and flew towards the Kid Pirates. The Kid pirates grimaced as the phoenix approached them rapidly.

*BOOM* The phoenix exploded on where the Kid pirates stood by, before the smoke covered the vision of the Rowan pirates from locating the Kid pirates.

*Bang* Suddenly, a sound of gun was heard unexpectedly. Carmen's eyes were open in shock as she looked at her left arm, where a white bullet was stuck within. Before she could register, she lost all strength and fell on the ground.

"A Seastone?? How?!" Carina and Dan were surprised beyond belief; to think the Kid pirates were hiding such hidden card!

As the smoke cleared, Killer, Heat and Wire were seen, with Heat standing in front, quite badly burnt. Behind Heat, Killer was standing with his mask burnt away, and Wire was holding a smoking pistol in his hand.

"*Phew* Finally, the most dangerous one is down." Killer sighed as he spun the scythe-like blade in his hand. "It took so long to have that woman lower her guard, and the fact that we only had one Seastone bullet... forget it."

"Heat, are you okay?!" Wire said worriedly as Heat fell down on the ground, unconscious.

Killer looked at Heat and nodded in an acknowledgement, "Stay there and rest Heat, we will finish the rest."

With Carmen and Heat down, the rest of the members stared against one another, ready to finish the fight once and for all.