Reborn as Marco phoenix after loss to Blackbeard Pirates

Island.

In the mountains and forests.

"Actually... it's hurt!"

Despite the gaping, shocking holes in his chest, Drought Jack was far from defeated. He stood up suddenly, muscles bulging as his powerful regenerative abilities kicked in. Within moments, the bleeding had all but stopped.

For Jack, this mission wasn't just about avenging his fallen subordinates—it was much bigger. He had come under direct orders from Kaido of the Beasts.

Kaido had issued a command: to annex all the territory once ruled by the Whitebeard Pirates and eliminate every last one of their remnants.

That command had been given even before the Summit War, but Kaido's initial plans were derailed. He had intended to intercept Whitebeard's crew in the first half of the Grand Line but was stopped midway by an unexpected detour—he chose to "give face" to Red-Haired Shanks, and the plan stalled.

After Whitebeard's death during the war, the Blackbeard Pirates took over the hunt for Whitebeard's remnants, and Kaido resumed his conquest.

Marco, Whitebeard's former first division commander, was now a primary target.

And Marco... had vowed not to let anyone who came for his life escape, no matter how powerful or insignificant they were.

Drought Jack and the Phoenix Marco were destined mortal enemies!

A voice echoed from above.

"Is that all, Jack? Too injured to move?" Marco's cold, murderous tone resounded across the island as he swooped in from the sky.

"This little injury won't kill me!" roared Jack, his voice full of fury.

With a mighty bellow, his enormous body expanded, transforming into the fearsome mammoth of his Zoan Devil Fruit form. In an instant, Drought Jack was no longer a man, but a colossal beast—the Mammoth. His two long, cruel tusks gleamed with lethal menace, fangs that had impaled countless foes across the New World, each a name of renown.

As he shifted into his full mammoth form, Jack's body became coated in an impenetrable layer of Armament Haki. His tusks, now shining even more viciously, were ready for destruction.

Defense. Devastation. Both magnified in this overwhelming transformation.

With each step Drought Jack took, the earth shook as if in the grip of an earthquake. Cracks spread out from beneath his massive feet, the ground splitting as though parched and breaking apart.

BOOM!

Jack charged towards Marco like a storm unleashed. The force of his stampede obliterated everything in his path. Trees, rocks, and any obstacles in his way were reduced to dust, utterly annihilated as the ground trembled violently under his weight.

"Marco... I will crush you! I'll wipe you from existence!" Jack roared.

Marco's response was as cold as ever. "No, Jack. The one who's going to be obliterated is you."

Marco hurtled toward Jack like a bolt of blue lightning, closing the distance in seconds.

THUD!

Both forces surged forward with terrifying speed.

Drought Jack leapt into the air, the gigantic mammoth rising from the ground as he lunged at Marco with immense power.

WHOOOSH!

But Marco was ready. In his hands, a giant hammer appeared—the Hammer of the God of War. Flames roared around it as the weapon radiated with blinding light, its surface now imbued with Marco's most potent Armament Haki.

With both hands gripping the hammer, Marco swung it in a mighty arc, aiming straight for the mammoth charging toward him.

In a heartbeat, the hammer descended.

CRACK!

The air itself seemed to tear apart as the hammer came crashing down, splitting the sky like a bolt of lightning.

"AAANGH!!"

Drought Jack let out a pained roar, his massive mammoth form reeling from the blow. He was knocked to the ground in an instant, his gargantuan body smashing into the trees as they were pulverized into dust.

BOOM!

The ground quaked as Jack's mammoth form hit with a deafening crash, creating a massive crater upon impact. Rocks and earth exploded into the air, a cloud of dust rising to the sky.

Even so, the mammoth stirred.

Despite the tremendous force of Marco's strike, Jack's legendary durability held firm. Blood poured from his wounds, but his immense strength allowed him to rise from the pit he had created.

CRASH!

Marco's flaming wings flared wide, whipping up a fierce wind. Two blazing blue flames morphed into long knives, sweeping through the air. As they slashed forward, everything in their path—trees, foliage—was razed to the ground, leaving the forest as flat earth.

The fiery blades hurtled straight towards Drought Jack.

"This level of strength can't hurt me!" Jack bellowed. His enormous trunk, now coated in Armament Haki, lashed out and shattered the flaming blades with brute force.

"Can't hurt you?" Marco's voice rang out, unimpressed.

He hoisted the massive Flame God Hammer above his head, resembling the mythical Mjölnir in all its might. The hammer swelled, growing to a monstrous size, its flames roaring as it expanded. Before long, it was so immense that it dwarfed even Drought Jack below.

"Then take this!"

BOOM!

Marco, gripping the colossal hammer with both hands, descended from the sky. With devastating force, the flame-cloaked hammer—now larger than Drought Jack himself—came crashing down, its surface shimmering with the full potency of Marco's Armament Haki.

THOOM!

The blow struck Drought Jack dead-on, driving the mammoth into the ground with incredible precision. The sheer impact sent rocks and dirt flying skyward. For a moment, the battlefield was chaos—a massive crater formed in the earth, its size matched only by the shaking tremors that cracked the ground like lightning.

BOOM!

Suddenly, the earth bulged nearby, and with a thunderous roar, the mammoth burst from the dirt. Drought Jack had forced his way back out.

"Huh?" Marco hovered mid-air, the huge hammer still in his grip, slightly surprised. "A mammoth that can... tunnel?"

But this wasn't tunneling. Jack, with his enormous strength, had shattered the earth beside him to break free.

CRASH!

Unfazed, Marco swung his hammer again, showing no intention of letting Jack recover. With a deafening bang, the sledgehammer came down once more, slamming into Drought Jack's mammoth form just as it emerged from the ground.

BOOM!

The hammer connected, and Jack let out a pained roar as he was smashed into the earth once again.

THUD!

Jack struggled to rise, breaking through the ground once more. But Marco gave him no quarter.

BOOM!

Another hammer strike.

Drought Jack's vision blurred, his head spinning from the relentless onslaught. At this point, he found himself cursing the very thing he had relied on—his seemingly unbreakable defense.

He had transformed into his mammoth form, believing it would grant him overwhelming defense and destructive power to crush Marco. But the reality...

His immense size had only made him an easy target. Marco's unrelenting hammer blows had pinned him to the ground, turning him into nothing more than a training dummy for the Phoenix.

Despite the mammoth form's vast strength, Jack hadn't been able to unleash any of his devastating power. Instead, he was repeatedly pounded into the dirt by Marco's flaming war hammer.

Each strike sent waves of pain crashing through Jack's body. His pride as one of Kaido's Calamities burned with anger.

The mammoth form, which he had thought would make him unstoppable, had only turned him into a punching bag.

Once again, Marco brought the hammer down, smashing Jack deeper into the earth. His body throbbed with pain, and Jack's mind was filled with fury. He desperately wanted to escape this unending assault, but to his dismay, he found that under the weight of Marco's relentless Haki-infused attacks, he couldn't dodge—couldn't even move.

All he could do was take the hits.

What good is this mammoth form?! he raged inwardly, fury and frustration swirling in his chest.

For the first time in his life, Drought Jack hated the very form he had always relied on for strength.

Endless anger welled up inside him…!