Chapter 67: Mad Dog

"Run! The Mad Dog is coming!"

No one knew who shouted it first, but Bellamy the Hyena's notorious moniker had suddenly morphed into "Mad Dog."

Given his recent destructive rampage, the new nickname was certainly fitting.

In the span of just half an hour, Bellamy had utterly demolished every single building lining the black market street. Every living thing that had dared to enter his line of sight during that time had been swiftly eliminated.

This indiscriminate slaughter, chillingly reminiscent of a Buster Call, struck terror deep into the hearts of everyone remaining on the island.

When Bellamy finally emerged from the ruins of the black market, drenched head to toe in blood, all the residents of Neon Town were plunged into a state of ceaseless, paralyzing panic.

"Just for killing some pirates and thugs, they're calling me a madman?" Bellamy mused internally. Interesting.

He scoffed. When the Marines launched a Buster Call, they didn't even hesitate to wipe out the civilian population of an island. Yet despite such atrocities, they still had the audacity to proclaim themselves the champions of "Absolute Justice." What a joke.

"Next up," Bellamy muttered, his eyes narrowing, "those fallen Marines."

Such a massive disturbance had rocked the island, yet the local Marine garrison hadn't made a single appearance. It seemed something unexpected was going on with them, something he didn't know about.

Upon arriving at the Marine garrison, Bellamy immediately confirmed his suspicion – something was definitely wrong. The sprawling base was completely deserted; even the sentries usually posted vigilantly at the gates were nowhere to be found.

The Marines were, ostensibly, a structured military force. Sentries wouldn't just abandon their posts without a compelling reason.

Puzzled by this anomaly, Bellamy stepped through the gates and into the strangely silent base.

If there was one place in all of Neon Town he was utterly unfamiliar with, it was undoubtedly the Marine base. He'd never had reason nor inclination to visit before.

"Where did everyone go?"

Bellamy completed a circuit of half the empty base without spotting a single soul. However, the ground was littered with a multitude of footprints, still remarkably clear and fresh. This undeniable evidence indicated that a large group had departed very recently.

He attempted to follow the tracks, but the sheer number of overlapping prints made them hopelessly jumbled. Lacking any real tracking skills, he couldn't decipher their direction or destination.

Still, Neon Town was only a small settlement of tens of thousands; it wasn't that large. An entire contingent of Marines couldn't simply vanish into thin air or find a truly effective hiding spot easily.

Based on this reasoning, Bellamy crouched low, his spring-powered legs coiling, and launched himself high into the sky. Using Moon Walk, he began to systematically scan the entirety of Neon Town from above.

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Deep within a dim, cramped underground space.

A large crowd of men, squeezed together uncomfortably, watched a scene unfold on a screen before them, their faces masks of abject terror.

Directly ahead, a projection screen displayed grainy footage captured by a Den Den Mushi surveillance camera, showing Bellamy soaring rapidly through the sky above the town. Clearly, this huddled group was the missing Marine contingent.

It was a known fact that within the Four Blues, most promising Marine recruits were inevitably transferred to Marine HQ on the Grand Line. Those who remained behind were typically either the fortunate few who had stumbled upon a Devil Fruit or the rare individuals who had managed to slowly toughen up through constant, brutal combat. The vast majority of Marines left stationed in the Blues, however, were of notoriously poor quality.

Units like the one stationed here in Neon Town, who had succumbed to corruption and formed illicit partnerships with pirates, were sadly not uncommon. Throughout the recorded history of the Marines, garrisons posted in remote, backwater locations were particularly susceptible to falling into degeneracy. Fundamentally, it almost always boiled down to a simple, pervasive fear of death. Weakness inevitably leads to death—a harsh but simple truth of the seas.

And so it was now. Upon realizing the truly terrifying extent of Bellamy's power and ferocity, the local garrison hadn't hesitated. They had immediately scrambled to find the deepest, darkest hole they could hide in. Not a single one among them felt a shred of shame for their cowardice; the Lieutenant leading them, huddled in the center, was even silently congratulating himself on his swift decision to flee.

"If I'd only known Bellamy was this monstrously strong, why did we ever provoke him?" the Lieutenant lamented inwardly, his sole regret being the foolish decision to cross paths with the violent pirate. Money was important, yes, but life was clearly far more precious.

Meanwhile, Bellamy's aerial patrol continued, inadvertently throwing the entire island into a fresh wave of panic. Terrified civilians burrowed deeper into their homes, heads down, praying not to be spotted by the figure circling ominously overhead. For a time, Neon Town became like a ghost town, utterly devoid of any sign of life on its streets.

After completing an extensive aerial search and finding absolutely nothing, Bellamy grew increasingly frustrated. This was annoying. He couldn't just demolish the entire town, could he? The thought was tempting, but impractical. Yet, the idea of leaving completely empty-handed felt deeply unsatisfying, grating against his pride.

"Wait a minute... the Marines have Kairōseki," he suddenly remembered. He needed Sea Prism Stone – Kairōseki – to train his resistance against its debilitating effects. Since he was already here, he certainly couldn't leave without taking something of value. An idea formed, accompanied by a vicious grin. Demolishing the Marine base itself seemed like an excellent, productive plan.

With that decided, he changed direction mid-air and shot back towards the now-deserted Marine base.

"Iron Body: Steel Balloon!" Bellamy activated the defensive technique, his abdomen hardening and swelling slightly. Kicking hard against the air with his powerful spring-loaded legs, he transformed into a human cannonball, launching himself downwards directly towards the base's main administration building.

WHOOSH...

The thick concrete wall of the multi-story building offered almost no resistance, crumbling like stale bread as Bellamy blasted straight through it.

Once inside the structure's interior, Bellamy immediately initiated his self-styled "Super Ricochet Mode." It was remarkably similar to the intense, high-speed bouncing training he had subjected himself to back in the cave system on a previous island.

His figure became a blur, bouncing violently off walls, floors, and ceilings within the confines of the building, accelerating with terrifying rapidity. Before long, his ricochet speed began to approach the sound barrier. The building's structural materials – concrete, steel, wood – started failing catastrophically under the repeated, devastating impacts.

Kraka-KRAAACK!

An entire load-bearing wall buckled under the strain and collapsed inwards with a deafening roar. Following that initial structural failure, the entire main building began to groan and shudder, starting its inevitable, slow-motion collapse.

Dust and debris billowed everywhere, filling the air with a choking cloud as Bellamy's figure zipped through the chaos like an untethered phantom, his impacts becoming ever more destructive. As his speed climbed higher and higher, the concussive force generated with each collision grew exponentially. The multi-story main administration building, the heart of the base, quickly vanished from the landscape, reduced in moments to nothing more than a ragged pile of shattered rubble.

No longer contained by interior walls, Bellamy shot out of the collapsing structure like a projectile fired from a cannon, slamming hard into another nearby building. The even greater rebound force generated by this impact instantly sent him careening off in another direction, continuing his destructive ballet.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH...

A truly terrifying spectacle unfolded within the confines of the Marine base. Blurring afterimages, barely visible streaks of motion, zipped randomly through the air. Wherever these blurs passed, nearby buildings instantaneously disintegrated into piles of wreckage. The slightest touch from these high-speed projectiles gouged massive craters in the ground. Every single structure standing above ground level within the base complex was vanishing at a speed that was horrifyingly visible to the naked eye.

Amidst a continuous cacophony of thunderous booms and swirling, impenetrable dust clouds, the Marine base was rapidly, systematically being erased from existence.

Huddled deep within their precarious underground bunker, the corrupt Marines watched the horrifying display unfold on their flickering monitor screen, scared nearly witless, their faces pale with primal fear.

The immense vibrations from the destruction raging above steadily intensified, shaking the very foundations of their hiding place. Dust rained constantly from the rough-hewn ceiling, now interspersed with disturbingly large chunks of rock and concrete.

Suddenly, without warning, a wide crack split open directly overhead with a sickening KRRRRAAAACK, and torrents of loose earth and debris began pouring down into the confined space.

"Get out! Quick!" "The bunker's collapsing!"

Only at this final moment did the panicked Marines fully grasp the immediate danger, but it was far, far too late. In their haste to cram everyone inside the limited space, they were packed almost face-to-face, a tangled mass of terrified bodies. Trying to disentangle themselves and push towards the single narrow exit in the sudden, frantic chaos proved utterly impossible.

The ominous cracking sound from the failing ceiling grew louder, more insistent, a death knell for those trapped below. Men shoved and clawed at each other, desperate to reach the exit, their minds consumed by terror. The Lieutenant, unfortunately for him, was trapped helplessly in the very center of the scrum, surrounded on all sides by his equally panicked subordinates. He couldn't even struggle to break free.

"Make way! Let the commander through first!" someone yelled futilely, clinging to protocol even at death's door.

"Fuck your commander!" came the savage, snarled reply from near the doorway. "Get the hell out of my way, you idiots! Don't block the exit!"

But before their desperate struggle could resolve itself, before anyone could escape, the entire ceiling of the bunker gave way with a final, deafening CRUNCH. The underground chamber imploded. All the corrupt Marines, in a final, dark stroke of irony, were buried forever beneath the ruins of the very base they had sworn to protect.

Meanwhile, Bellamy continued his tireless, gleeful destruction above ground, methodically demolishing every visible structure. He remained completely oblivious to the grim fate that had just unfolded beneath his bouncing feet.

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