"Damn it! What is going on?" Queen, with half of his body pulled underground, was alarmed and began struggling fiercely. He kicked apart the earthen clone beneath him and pressed down on the ground with his hands, trying to pull himself out.
At the same time, Youta had begun forming hand seals, a smile on his face. "It's too late, you have no chance now—Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique!"
Ever since dealing with Black Maria once, Youta realized that in the One Piece world, Water Release is incredibly useful. Aside from hand-to-hand combat masters who haven't consumed Devil Fruits or the top few in the Grand Line who, even when weakened by seawater, can maintain some level of combat power, everyone else who gets hit by water is done for on the spot!
Seeing the immense surge of water heading towards him, Queen's eyes widened in shock, but he was still stuck underground and couldn't dodge it. He was immediately doused thoroughly.
Youta clapped his hands, smiling, "Looks like that went quite smoothly?"
As he said this, he created a water clone and used the Water Prison Technique to confine the Queen.
"This guy might have done a lot of modifications to himself; he might still be capable of some movement in the water," Youta muttered. Queen's body is mostly mechanical, unlike his flesh, so it wouldn't be affected by seawater.
With this in mind, Youta was about to use the Tun-Tun Fruit to disable the mechanical modifications in Queen's body.
However, before he could approach, he heard a loud rumble as a massive figure charged toward him, sliding to a stop right in front of him. It was a mammoth frozen in ice.
"Is this... Jack the Mammoth?" Youta exclaimed, scrutinizing the figure for a while before realizing it wasn't a mammoth but a half-beast, half-human Jack.
With a crash, Jack broke free from the ice and roared, "I'm Drought Jack! Not some damn Mammoth Jack!"
Boom! A wolf-tooth club fell from the sky, striking Jack on the head and burying him underground.
Youta shook his head, "Alright if you keep being this headstrong, you'll soon turn into Headless Jack!"
A delicate white hand slowly retracted the wolf-tooth club. Yamato, standing atop Jack's head, wielding the club, looked at Youta and Queen in the water prison in surprise.
"Youta, you're so powerful! Even I never dared to say I could definitely defeat Queen!"
"That was because you were wearing Sea Prism Stone handcuffs back then, right?" Youta teased. "Now, except for your father, even King the Wildfire probably isn't your match."
"True, I did wear the Sea Prism Stone handcuffs back then," Yamato laughed. "Now they certainly can't beat me."
Just then, a loud roar erupted as Jack pulled his head out of the ground. But Youta created another water clone and used the Water Prison Technique to trap him.
Yamato had seen Youta use the Clone Technique before, but never his Water Release. When training with him and Ace, Youta focused on honing his skills, so he never used the water-based techniques to cheat.
She had heard from the Black Spades Pirates about Youta's ability to control water, but now she saw it in action.
"That's amazing! You can control water so precisely," Yamato said with a hint of envy. "Does that mean Devil Fruit users aren't a match for you?"
Youta shook his head. "It's not that simple. It just makes dealing with regular Devil Fruit users a bit easier."
Devil Fruit users can vary greatly, and not all of them fear water. For instance, Yamato herself isn't afraid of water.
Given her Okuchi-no-Makami Fruit's freezing abilities, she could potentially counter Water Release.
"Anyway, let's go find Ace quickly," Yamato said, tapping her head as if remembering something. "King isn't easy to deal with! He's way stronger than Jack."
With a loud boom, before Youta could respond, the water ball holding Queen exploded. Queen broke free from the water ball and destroyed Youta's water clone with a single attack.
Then, a mechanical claw reached out, grabbed Jack from the other water prison, and rescued him.
"What! Where are you going!" Yamato shouted, but her body moved faster than her voice. She immediately transformed into her hybrid form and was struck with an Ice Fang Slash.
Queen quickly used Jack as a shield, taking the hit instead. The two were sent flying, and Queen wasted no time, fleeing rapidly with Jack on his back.
"Huh?!" Yamato, still on guard, watched the two disappear into the distance, completely astonished. She never expected Queen, a lead performer, to act like this.
Youta was also surprised by Queen's move. He noticed that Jack seemed to struggle a bit, but Queen held him tight with his mechanical arm. After using Jack as a shield to take Yamato's attack on the head, Jack loses all his strength to resist.
Fleeing is not shameful, but if Youta wasn't mistaken, the pteranodon battling Ace in the sky should be King.
In a team fight, retreating without informing your teammate? Isn't that selling out your comrade?
Youta pondered this while watching Queen and Jack get further away. Then, Queen suddenly activated fire thrusters under his feet, flying away with Jack on his back.
"Are you a beast rider? You even modified yourself for flight," Youta quipped, finding Queen's modifications more than impressive, bordering on terrifying.
Being able to replace your head and neck with mechanical parts and launch them? Even Youta, with his Tun-Tun Fruit, couldn't understand how Queen survived.
"Did those two really just run away?" Yamato, still somewhat confused, asked in disbelief.
Youta, still observing the aerial battle, replied offhandedly, "If they got away, it's fine. Saves us some trouble. Since Kaido isn't here, winning this fight doesn't really mean much."
"Is that so? But if my dad did come, we wouldn't stand a chance, right?"
"That's why," Youta sighed, "we have to keep training hard."
After a moment's thought, Youta set the matter aside. His attention shifted to the sky, where Ace was engaged in combat with the pteranodon.
