A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

The members of the Big Mom Pirates visibly panicked: "N-no... something's wrong! Mom's angry..."

Katakuri had already fainted and was unable to answer. A moment of silence fell, and the old woman's expression grew increasingly grave: "Get up! Is this how you treat my son?!"

Amidst his furious roar, a thick aura of killing intent enveloped him.

The eldest son, Perospero, was covered in cold sweat. His tongue, which stretched down to his chin, trembled as he pleaded with his aunt, "Mom...Mom...you saw what happened in the fight. Katakuri really did his best!"

"Let him rest for now! We'll settle this score for him together!!"

The woman was silent for a moment before letting out a heavy, cold snort: "If you lose again, I won't let you off the hook!!"

Perospero, feeling as if he had been granted a pardon, nodded and bowed respectfully, saying, "Thank you for your understanding!!"

The other members of the Big Mom Pirates finally breathed a sigh of relief and then began to pay attention to Katakuri on the field. Several of them turned their gazes toward Laxus, their eyes filled with malice.

"Your children have such a good relationship!"

Kaido, watching this scene from the side, remained silent for a while before raising the gourd at his waist and starting to drink. "More importantly, they're so filial to you! Seriously, I'm so envious!!"

"mama～mama～"

The woman immediately beamed: "It's all because I raised her well, Kaido! I remember you have a daughter too! What, is she not good to you?"

Kaido, realizing that Big Mom had brought up a sore spot, immediately frowned and said, "Don't pry into my family affairs, you old woman!!"

The middle-aged woman laughed even more arrogantly and smugly: "When I'm in a good mood, I call you 'Lingling,' and when I'm in a bad mood, I call you 'old lady.' Didn't I just hit the nail on the head?"

Kaido, sullen and drinking his bitter wine, muttered to himself: "How can that old woman's child be so filial? Compared to her, my daughter is far too rebellious! Brainwashed by a dead man, she's neither human nor ghost, it's infuriating!"

The conversation between the two silenced the assembled mages: It was one thing to say the Big Mom Pirates were brotherly and friendly, but their attitude towards Big Mom… filial piety?! That's filial piety?! Isn't that fear?!

A brief halftime break.

Killer moved Katakuri to the middle of the Big Mom Pirates, then waved his hand, causing the arena ground to churn and instantly become brand new.

"Hey, ma'am!!"

"You lost the first round, so now 'Wanguo' has 7 islands that belong to us!"

The old woman glared at Kira through gritted teeth: "Enough talk! Let's get to the second round, you brat!!"

People who are deeply involved in gambling are like this: at first they can stay clear-headed, but when they lose, they become unwilling to accept it and want to gamble again to turn the tables. Even the "Four Emperors" cannot escape this rule.

The duel between Killer and the Big Mom Pirates consisted of five matches. Before the battles began, both sides had already decided on their opponents, with the opposing side sending out Big Mom herself, the strongest fighter, and the famous 'Four Sweet Commanders'.

Both sides agreed to the formation of 'King against King, General against General', so Big Mom's opponent was Irene. It seems that because she had defeated 'Roger' before, she was now arrogant and couldn't wait to find Irene to avenge her defeat.

Following Katakuri, the second to appear was Smoothie, one of the 'Four Sweet Commanders', whose opponent was Natsu.

"The enemy is a pirate with a bounty of 932 million Berries. Whether you can take him down depends on you, Natsu!"

Lucy and Happy cheered Natsu on as usual: "After we win, I'm going to eat a whole fish feast until I'm stuffed!!"

They already knew about the woman named Smoothie's abilities from Kira's intelligence, so they trusted Natsu.

Juicing? Isn't that just a matter of evaporating with a flame?

"Oh, leave it to me!!" Natsu jumped into the arena excitedly, his white dragon scale scarf waving wildly in the burning flames.

Smoothie is Big Mom's 14th daughter, a long-legged mixed-race girl, and the only female among the 'Four Sweet Commanders'. She is 33 years old this year and possesses extraordinary combat talent. She is also a user of the Squeeze-Squeeze Fruit, which allows her to squeeze juice from anything she touches—whether it is a living or inanimate object.

With her brown skin and clothing in white, yellow, and pink, she actually looks more like a piece of cheese than the title "Minister of Juice."

She is 464cm tall, which is about 2.7 times the height of Natsu. Her long legs account for two-thirds of her total height. Natsu is only a head taller than her knees, just reaching the position of the rose tattoo on her thigh.

Smoothie carried a longsword that didn't look like a good sword, but it greatly increased her attack range, allowing the Squeeze-Squeeze Fruit's power to be used to its maximum efficiency in battle.

Using weapons to unleash the power of Devil Fruits, or as some say, extending the power of Devil Fruits to weapons, is very difficult and something many Devil Fruit users cannot do.

In Killer's memory, very few strong individuals could do this, and Whitebeard was one of them. He could use the large naginata "Murakumogiri" in his hand to perform the Tremor-Tremor Fruit technique. During the Marineford War, he saved a lot of energy by using this move.

Smoothie certainly can't reach the level of Whitebeard, who could unleash devastating attacks from a distance, but she's still very impressive.

Anything she strikes with her sword turns into juice. She can drink the juice to enhance her power, or she can use the juice as an attack to unleash a 'juice slash'. These are both convenient and powerful ways to use the juice.

"Smoothie, Katakuri has already lost, so you absolutely have to win this one! Otherwise, the morale of the Big Mom Pirates will be completely crushed, and even Mom won't let us off the hook..."

"I see!"

Faced with her brothers and sisters' earnest advice, Smoothie solemnly agreed. Then, turning around, under the expectant gazes of the Big Mom Pirates, she picked up her longsword and strode into the arena with her long legs.

Beneath the white hood, long, wavy silver hair swayed gently with each step. Her large blue eyes were fixed on Natsu opposite her. After a slight hesitation, her lips, painted with silver-white lipstick, slowly parted, and she murmured, "This guy's a little guy too..."

Although she said that, she didn't look down on Natsu at all.

'If these people could defeat Katakuri, then the others must be formidable as well. I absolutely cannot underestimate them!'

Chapter 938 Three Generals

"The fire dragon's..."

"Iron Fist!!"

A powerful fist, wreathed in flames, slammed into the black longsword covered in Armament Haki.

The extreme heat ignored the domineering aura surrounding it, easily melting the point where the fist and the longsword made contact into molten iron, which dripped down the sword and onto the ground.

pat!

The molten iron fell to the ground.

Clang!

The broken sword also fell, making a crisp metallic clanging sound. The tip of the sword was red-hot, and the broken edge was in a state between solid and liquid, constantly evaporating white smoke into the air.

The members of the Big Mom Pirates all gasped in shock.

No one expected that in just one glance, this cherry-haired boy would turn Smoothie's sword into molten iron!

That was one of the fifty finest swords! How could it be melted by a single punch?

"This kid's fire is something else!" Kaido glanced at Natsu's fist and made a calm assessment.

As the owner of the Fish-Fish Fruit, Azure Dragon form, he can be said to be one of the best at playing with fire on the sea, but he has never seen flames with such heat.

A visible greed gleamed in the woman's eyes: "Indeed, it's far superior to Prometheus's! If it were used to create a Homie..."

"Mom!! You can't abandon me!!"

Upon hearing this, Prometheus panicked instantly, thinking to himself: Am I going to be replaced? Absolutely not! I am the smartest, strongest, most loyal, and most reliable Homie, how can I be replaced? If anyone should be replaced, it should be that fool Zeus!

"Mama, don't worry, you're practically my child too, I would never abandon my family!"

The woman smiled broadly, like a gentle mother comforting a child, softly reassuring Prometheus. However, the tongue that kept licking her lips betrayed her true thoughts.

Prometheus was a 'family member' created by Big Mom when she was very young. As the Homie who has been with Big Mom the longest, it knows her personality inside and out. How could it not see through her?

'It's over...' Prometheus's face turned ashen.

On the ring, Smoothie, now unarmed, could only fight with her fists and kicks. Fortunately, her close-combat skills were excellent, which prevented her from being defeated outright.

The style of this battle is very different from the first one. The two who fought in the last battle were closer to mid-range combat, using powerful moves from a standstill, while the battle between Natsu and Smoothie was closer to close-range hand-to-hand combat.

However, this hand-to-hand combat became somewhat strange due to the abilities of the two fighters.

Because Smoothie can juice anything she touches, Natsu is very careful during battles, always relying on his agility to dodge her two large hands and then seizing the opportunity to counterattack with flames.

At this moment, Natsu was covered in a red flame coat, and the temperature was extremely high. Smoothie could clearly feel that the temperature of this flame coat was no less than the highest temperature created by her brother Oven using the 'Heat-Heat Fruit'.

She had no doubt that the moment she touched the cherry-haired boy, her gloves would be burned to ashes, and her hands would be severely burned or even charred. Even with Armament Haki, she probably wouldn't be able to counteract the terrifying heat.

So Smoothie could only rely on Armament Haki and her gloves to repeatedly wring the oncoming flames into juice, and then use that juice to attack.

She didn't absorb the juice to grow larger, because in that situation, becoming gigantic would only make her a better target.

Unfortunately, when Smoothie attacks with the juice squeezed from Natsu's flames, the juice is always instantly vaporized by Natsu's flames, disappearing without even touching his clothes. Therefore, the damage Smoothie inflicts on Natsu is essentially zero.

On the other hand, although Natsu's flames were squeezed into juice, it caused Smoothie to consume a lot of her stamina and Haki, so he seemed to have the upper hand.

If the two continue fighting like this, it will be a contest of endurance and stamina, to see if Natsu runs out of magic power first, or if Smoothie's stamina and Haki will be exhausted first.

The mages stared blankly at Natsu's battle, finding the scene utterly beyond their comprehension: "Squeezing flames into juice? What kind of principle is that? Even magic can't do something like that!"

"If I remember correctly, alchemy is something like that..."

"I've never seen anything so outrageous in this world! I've really broadened my horizons today!"

Unlike the mages' enthusiastic discussion and curiosity, the Big Mom Pirates members on the other side of the audience were extremely anxious: "This won't do! That pink-haired kid's ability completely counters Smoothie's ability!"

"Did those mages plan this all along? Did they know our intelligence?!"

"If we lose this round, I don't know what my mom will do..."

"Now I can only pray that the other person falls before me!"

Smoothie pursed her lips, her gaze serious and focused, constantly throwing and pulling her fists, raising and kicking her legs, using all her skills, determined to teach Natsu a lesson.

Unfortunately, Natsu is a fire-obsessed guy who is always single-minded when fighting. Even if Lucy stood naked in front of him, he wouldn't even blink.

"The Roar of the Fire Dragon!!"

Suddenly, a loud shout came from the arena.

Immediately afterwards, a massive pillar of fire spewed from Natsu's mouth, like a giant fire dragon spreading its wings and roaring.

In the blink of an eye, flames completely engulfed most of the ring and the four-meter-tall Smoothie, the bright flames illuminating the audience in a red glow.

"Smoothie, big sister!!"

"Oh no! The heat of this flame..."

"Can we defend against it...?"

"it's over!"

Finally, the fire began to subside due to the loss of Natsu's magical energy supply.

The time it took for the flames to subside was only a few dozen seconds, but to the pirates it felt like dozens of hours. It wasn't until the pirates' eyes were practically bulging out of their sockets that Smoothie's face was finally revealed.

First, her clothes were burned to shreds. The yellow scarf around her neck had been burned to ashes, and her hood, gloves, and boots were also destroyed in the explosive flames. Except for a few vital parts that were still covered, she was basically naked.

In short, it has a very Fairy Tail art style.

Kira thought this must be because Natsu had gained enough experience with Lucy, which made him very skilled at burning other people's clothes and to what extent; otherwise, it wouldn't be such a coincidence.