Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Mighty Tucci (Third Update, Seeking Monthly Votes)

“Twin-Blade Style: Cloud-Cleaving Strike.”

Fortunately, Rolan had not pinned all his hopes on the Wave-Cleaver. Right after unleashing it, he immediately followed with another sword technique.

Like a crescent moon, the Cloud-Cleaving Strike finally revealed its true power when it struck the weakened net left behind by the Wave-Cleaver.

The crescent slashes overlapped almost perfectly, slicing through the net as easily as cutting tofu.

“You really don’t seem to amount to much.”

A faint smile touched Tuchi’s lips. The already vast gap between them had grown even larger after he activated the power of the Devil Fruit.

Before, Rolan could at least barely stand against him; now it took two moves just to withstand a single attack.

“Am I really that helpless?”

Rolan’s expression darkened. He truly had not expected the difference in strength to remain so immense even after using his first transformation.

But he had not given up, because he had not yet exhausted all of his trump cards.

“Then prepare to witness my second form!”

Rolan stored his twin blades in the system space and directly activated the power of his second form.

Under Tuchi’s gaze, Rolan’s previously ferocious appearance began to shift and fade, gradually becoming a pitch-black specter, far taller than before.

His overall shape did not change much. Only his joints were wreathed in violet light, while the rest of him was swallowed in darkness.

Yes, Rolan’s second Devil form was the ultimate power of Illidan.

When he first unlocked the second stage, Rolan had even shouted in anger.

Splitting one form into two stages was obviously just the system making a fool of him.

Still, the enhancement of the second stage was far greater than that of the first.

His attributes, which had only been at level six before, now pressed close to level seven.

More importantly, in this form all of Rolan’s attacks were ranged. In the game’s description, they were chaotic-type attacks that dealt full damage to all armor.

In the real world, that meant every strike could ignore defense and still wound the target.

You’re an armadillo-man, aren’t you? Covered in armor, aren’t you? Fine. I’ll simply ignore your armor.

“Your second form?”

Tuchi frowned. He had heard that Devil Fruit users could have second-stage transformations, but this was his first time seeing one.

“Still, even if you transform ten times, you still won’t be my match.”

His foundation was too weak. No matter how many transformations he had, there was a limit.

That said, faced with this entirely different form, Tuchi still intended to probe first, lest that bizarre loss of stamina from before happen again.

“Six Powers: Thorn Spear.”

Leaping into the air with Moon-Step, he rained down a storm of air bullets, dense as rain and relentless as a downpour, hurling themselves toward Rolan.

“This time, I’m faster.”

With his attributes nearing level seven, Rolan now had quicker reactions and greater speed.

As he evaded Tuchi’s attacks, one after another, balls of murky green chaotic energy were flung from his hands, each one aimed directly at Tuchi.

“You think something this feeble can hurt me?”

Relying on his Armament Haki and the armor of his armadillo form, Tuchi did not take Rolan’s attacks seriously at all, continuing to use Thorn Spear on Rolan with single-minded focus.

But the moment the first energy sphere made contact, Tuchi let out a shrill, piercing howl.

That strange thing’s damage was not high, yet it could actually pierce his Armament Haki and armor and directly injure him.

That alone was enough for Tuchi to understand how terrifying this bizarre power was.

This time it struck his torso. A bit of pain was nothing, but what if the next one hit his head? He did not dare imagine the consequences.

“Damn brat, so you can only fight from a distance now!”

There was no such thing as an absolutely invincible Devil Fruit power. Tuchi had always firmly believed that.

After a brief observation, he understood Rolan’s method of attack.

This form granted stronger enhancements in every respect than before, but it had an obvious weakness: it could only fight at long range.

Once he understood that, Tuchi launched another assault.

Using Shave in his armadillo form, he moved so fast that Rolan’s naked eye could not catch him at all. Even with Observation Haki spreading across the battlefield, Rolan could only make out Tuchi’s afterimage.

“Six Powers...”

Suddenly appearing behind Rolan, Tuchi bared his teeth in a savage grin and aimed his claws at him, moving slowly, as though drawing a circle in the air.

Yet it was that very circle that sent a chill down Rolan’s spine.

He realized that if he truly took this strike head-on, even if he did not die, he would not be far from it.

In that instant, Rolan felt his body’s functions surge to their limit under the explosive force of his will to survive.

Quickly switching back to Illidan’s first form, the boost from Evasion pushed the performance of his reflex nerves to its absolute peak.

“Spiral Iron Knight!”

With Tuchi’s roar, a dark spiral drill of force manifested, like a genuine steel auger appearing before Rolan at a terrifying speed.

This was a technique created by combining Spiral Six King Gun with the powers of the armadillo-man. The attack formed by the armadillo-man’s sharp claws was far more piercing than a human hand.

Its power, compared with Spiral Six King Gun, was hard to say, but in terms of breaching defenses it far surpassed it.

With a touch of Armament Haki layered on top, whether the opponent was a power user or not, anyone struck by this move would either die or be crippled.

Staring at that dark drill, Rolan truly poured everything into evading it. Unfortunately, against this ferocious Spiral Iron Knight, he was always just a fraction too slow.

Although he managed to avoid the most devastating portion of the drill, the follow-up attack still ravaged his demonic body, carving out hideous, fearsome wounds.

Murky green blood poured from the cuts, and together with the wound on his back that he had almost forgotten about, the agony was so overwhelming that Rolan’s expression broke apart completely.

Even back when he had been weak, fighting those terrifying beasts on the Floating Island, Rolan had never suffered injuries this severe.

At that moment, he hated the system to the core for splitting Illidan’s ultimate move and his body into two separate stages.

If he had been under the enhancement of his second form, combined with Evasion, he could have avoided this attack entirely.

But that thought only flashed through his mind before vanishing without a trace.

Without the system, perhaps he would not even have the qualification to stand here.

“What a pitiful, weak little insect. Not only do you overestimate yourself, but now, faced with injuries this minor, you can’t even bear the pain.”

Tuchi looked down on Rolan with contempt, laughing in delight.

He did not know how his useless little brother had died, but if he tormented Rolan like this, that useless brother would surely be pleased as well.