A Pirate's Spring Awakening

At a height of one and a half meters, Bellamy found he actually had to look up at the two women, a sensation he was not accustomed to.

"Come at me."

Bellamy, holding a Doriki-scope, pointed to his own chest, gesturing for them to attack. He wanted to test the specific stats of this new form.

Mia and Muret exchanged a glance, instantly completing a silent communication. Only a fool would attack the captain's chest; the last time Muret had tested his "Iron Body: Steel Balloon," she'd nearly broken her finger.

"Take this!" Muret unleashed a Finger Pistol, jabbing sharply towards Bellamy's abdomen.

"Tempest Kick!" Mia followed with a light shout, her toes tapping the ground as she flashed behind Bellamy, whirling to deliver a fierce kick to the back of his knee.

Their attacks landed on Bellamy almost simultaneously. The next second, two cries of pain escaped their lips.

"Ouch, that hurts!"

Muret frantically shook her hand; her fingertip was visibly swollen. Jabbing Bellamy's stomach felt even more painful than hitting solid steel. The other wasn't faring much better; Mia clutched her foot, tears nearly welling up from the pain.

Muret's Finger Pistol just now had roughly six hundred Doriki. Bellamy touched his stomach; he hadn't felt a thing. Mia's kick had a slightly higher Doriki value, around eight hundred. But the harder she kicked, the more it naturally hurt her.

"You even used Tempest Kick, why did you still insist on kicking me directly?" Just how badly did she want to kick him?

Mia was so angered by him that her teeth itched, but there was nothing she could do.

"I'm never falling for your tricks again!"

Bellamy stretched his leg; a kick of eight hundred Doriki still felt like nothing. He hadn't activated Iron Body or Haki just now, merely standing there relaxed. An attack of eight hundred Doriki was roughly equivalent to a cannonball exploding at point-blank range. It seemed the greatest feature of this form was its astonishing defensive power. Unconsciously, he had already reached a point where he could ignore attacks of this level.

He just didn't know how terrifying the power would be when his body, compressed to its limit, fully erupted. Since he was testing, he might as well test it all at once.

Bellamy began to try and release the transformation. Unexpectedly, merely slightly loosening the "springs" caused all the elasticity, compressed to its limit, to immediately burst forth. In an instant, Bellamy shot up from one and a half meters to two and a half.

After returning to his original height, the expansion astonishingly didn't stop. The elasticity erupting from within his body couldn't be properly vented and forcibly stretched his muscles and bones. This surging tide was even more violent than the effects of 'the Potion'; Bellamy instantly sensed trouble.

"Not good! The force is too strong, my body can't take it!"

Armament Haki instantly shielded his heart and brain. After protecting his vital spots, Bellamy fiercely threw a punch into the air, releasing more than half of the unventable force. The elasticity surging from within him was immediately weakened considerably. Seizing this chance, he quickly began to "rewind the springs," reining in all the elasticity and storing it back into the thirteen points.

His rapidly expanding body immediately contracted again, returning to the one-and-a-half-meter form. This back-and-forth had taken only a few breaths, but Bellamy's body had suffered greatly. His right arm, which hadn't fully recovered in the first place, saw dozens of fractures directly burst open, and blood instantly stained half of his upper garment red. Other parts of his body also sustained minor damage. Thankfully, Bellamy had protected his vitals in time, so it was only a light injury overall.

"Captain, are you alright?!"

Seeing him bleed so much so suddenly, the ship's doctor was greatly alarmed.

"It's nothing serious." Bellamy had dealt with it promptly, preventing a minor issue from escalating into a major one. However, it seemed he wouldn't be able to release this form for a short while. Bellamy hadn't expected something like this to happen. Ultimately, it was because his body wasn't strong enough. This was somewhat similar to Whitebeard's situation: the Devil Fruit ability was too powerful, and if the body wasn't strong enough, it would immediately suffer a backlash.

This could be considered a happy problem, he supposed. Once Bellamy fully understood this transformation, he would quickly be able to return to normal. It was just that his usual appearance would be a bit awkward; a height of one and a half meters would seem somewhat weak in this world where the average height was two meters.

However, such a minor backlash was nothing to Bellamy; he didn't pay it much mind at all.

Mia looked at him, a hint of schadenfreude in her expression. "Captain, you're not going to be stuck like that, are you?" She rubbed her foot, her smile as wide as could be.

"Stop with the sarcastic remarks and come help apply medicine," Muret interjected, bringing over the first-aid kit and hurriedly dabbing ointment on Bellamy.

"The springs were wound too tightly. When they were suddenly released, the explosive force was too strong." It was still a lack of experience. If he had known beforehand, he could have simply wound them a few fewer turns, keeping the force within the limits his body could withstand.

"Or perhaps I can try to forcibly hold down the springs and then slowly release them?" Although doing so would waste a large amount of elasticity, the control would be more precise, and it would be less likely to cause injury.

As Bellamy thought about it, he once again felt the urge to test his abilities. It was just that the injury to his arm was genuinely troublesome.

Once the ship's doctor had bandaged his arm, Bellamy immediately inquired, "How long will these injuries take to heal?"

"Five days." "Don't exert yourself for five days, and it should be mostly healed." This five-day period already factored in Bellamy using Life Return to actively recover. Otherwise, even with his current physique, it wouldn't be possible to heal so quickly. The skin on his entire right arm had split open, and there were numerous tears in the muscles and bones. If this were his previous life, that arm would have long been crippled.

"Five days, huh? That's not long." Since it wasn't a long time, Bellamy could afford to wait. He could use this time to study this technique more seriously.