Chapter 70

Rising from the ground once more, Bill began to exhale deeply.

— Hm? You've mastered the Return of Life? That's impressive, but it's not enough to defeat me. I have the strongest defense in the world.

Looking at the large man, Bill replied:

— Sentomaru, just remember, I'll win if you are thrown out of the ring.

This victory condition was set during the first physical assessment. After being tossed around a few times, Bill provoked the sumo wrestler into using these rules after the large man declared Bill wasn't worth using his axe.

In this way, Bill achieved two goals. Firstly, he didn't actually need to defeat Sentomaru, and secondly, the Captain wouldn't use his weapon.

Of course, Bill had no qualms about winning under these conditions. After all, Sentomaru agreed to it, and Bill was ten years younger than the Captain.

Nevertheless, it wasn't an easy task. The ring was about twice the size of a regular sumo ring, and if anything, the Captain was very steady on his feet.

With his hair down, Bill approached quickly, but this time from the left, not attempting a powerful strike but instead trying to get closer.

With the Captain standing firm, Bill suddenly turned to the right just before making his move.

At that moment, he pivoted to deliver a spinning kick, which was immediately blocked by a palm.

Still spinning from the kick, Bill managed to dodge the counterattack by barely an arm's length. Landing, his hands touched the ground simultaneously with his feet, and he tensed his entire body to jump and deliver a left uppercut. At that moment, his hair was growing as fast as he was moving. Sentomaru blocked the uppercut but failed to notice Bill's hair tangling around his legs.

This time, avoiding the counterattack was impossible. Anticipating this, Bill grabbed his hair with his right hand and quickly cut it off at the base. Even though he hit his chest hard, Bill didn't let go. Despite having the wind knocked out of him, he twisted, landed on his feet, and pulled the hair with all his strength. But at that moment, he realized the Captain was holding the other end of the hair rope.

"Oh no..."

Then, smiling, Sentomaru yanked the hair, sending Bill flying straight towards him. Unable to regain balance in the air, Bill watched in horror as the Captain used him like a yo-yo, flinging him back dozens of meters.

WHAM! Crashing hard onto the ground, Bill lay on his back for almost a minute before rolling over and getting back on his feet. Severely bruised, but with no broken bones, he realized the Captain was significantly stronger.

"Very impressive, Lieutenant! That strike trick took me by surprise! But I am the Man with the most reliable defense, you'll need more to defeat me."

Hearing this, something inside Bill told him that it wasn't time to stop. Sentomaru was strong, but wasn't he just as strong himself?

This thought gave him strength, and Bill attacked the Captain once more. The struggle went on for over an hour. By the end, he was exhausted, his body looking more like a single massive bruise than skin.

Lying on the ground, the last words he heard from Sentomaru were, "Look at yourself! Go get some food, Lieutenant Ox! I can't spend any more time on this."

Out of the corner of his eye, Bill watched as Sentomaru picked up his enormous axe and left.

Then, after what seemed like a long time lying there, he rolled onto his stomach and for the last time that day, got back on his feet.

After this fight, which he was ashamed to admit had only managed to move the Captain once, Bill was hungry and headed straight to the mess hall.

If there was one thing he had to admit, it was that the Sea Kings in this world were incredibly tasty.

When he was training in the forests of Vallipo, he once told his father that he felt guilty eating so much meat in one meal. It wasn't an exaggeration—he could really eat a whole cow at once.

But to his surprise, when Aramaki heard this, he laughed and said that as far as he knew, the sea was never going to run out of fish. He gave the example that the largest city of real giants, with around ten thousand inhabitants, mostly fed on Sea Kings, and that Elbaf hadn't even depleted the fish around the island!

Bill just shrugged and considered it another peculiarity of this world.

Entering the mess hall, he saw that the tables were almost empty, but despite his battered appearance and numerous bruises, a few people present stared at him in surprise.

Barely noticing the looks and skipping the line, Bill was able to grab utensils and a tray right away.

Approaching the cook, he said, "Steak, well-done eggs, and a bunch of biscuits.»

Since he could determine the nutritional value of his food with a single bite, Bill usually didn't eat much bread or other "filling" products. However, in his current state, he needed carbohydrates to replenish his body's fat reserves.

While waiting for his food, Bill thought he should be grateful that the Scientific Division had round-the-clock cooks.

On the second day, he met the head chefs, a husband and wife who, apparently, had served full terms in the Navy before requesting a transfer and reenlisting.

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