Chapter 375: Attacks in Rotation
Uchiha Dali's clone once again made his promise.
Having already received Sengoku's orders, the three admirals clearly understood their mission—to do everything in their power to kill this terrifying and mysterious man, or at the very least, to stall him and keep him from targeting anyone else.
That way, they could buy enough time for the remaining Marines to focus all their strength on fighting the Whitebeard Pirates.
So at this moment, when Uchiha Dali's clone repeated his promise, Kuzan, Borsalino, and Sakazuki didn't hold back any longer.
"You asked for this. Get ready to take our full-force attacks."
Having suffered twice already, Sakazuki didn't waste time. He went all in from the start.
First came Great Eruption.
Immediately after, he followed up with Hellhound.
And then—his ultimate move, Meteor Volcano.
Seeing Sakazuki attacking with such intensity, Kuzan was itching to jump in as well.
Borsalino, however, remained calm and observed quietly.
About ten minutes later, Sakazuki's first wave of attacks came to an end. His body was smoking, still in a molten state.
Yet the Uchiha Dali clone, who had taken the full brunt of it, appeared completely unscathed.
He clearly enjoyed this feeling of continuous growth, smiling faintly as he turned to Kuzan.
"You've been waiting for your turn, haven't you?"
"After being roasted by that kind of heat, my body's become fragile. If you use your fruit powers now, the sudden shift from hot to cold might be too much for me—who knows, maybe you'll finish me off right then and there!"
He said it in an almost playful tone.
Kuzan's eyes narrowed sharply at those words.
"I'll grant your wish."
Though inwardly shaken, he didn't hesitate.
He unleashed his full strength from the very start.
First came Pheasant Beak as his opening strike—two massive ice birds radiating temperatures dozens of degrees below zero, charging straight toward Uchiha Dali's clone.
Wherever they passed, even the air itself froze solid.
A layer of frost spread over the ground.
Then Kuzan struck again.
Ice Time Capsule!
In an instant, he flickered behind Uchiha Dali's clone, his body radiating an overwhelming chill.
The cold started at dozens of degrees below freezing, instantly crystallizing the moisture in the air.
His freezing power, truth be told, was no less dangerous than Sakazuki's magma.
That invasive, all-encompassing assault was enough to kill most foes outright.
Had Uchiha Dali's clone not already mastered the mutated fire-element control technique, he would have been as helpless as anyone else before Aokiji's attack.
The icy energy would have easily penetrated his skin, freezing every drop of moisture inside him.
At that point, Kuzan wouldn't even need to follow up—the clone would be as good as dead.
Now, as the freezing energy spread through his body, Uchiha Dali's clone felt the sting of pain—damage the shield could not block, a magical-type injury.
Without hesitation, he instinctively activated his Perfect Fire Mutation Control.
Effortlessly, he adjusted his internal temperature, raising it just enough to counterbalance the invading cold.
He didn't overreact; instead, he simply kept his body at a constant, comfortable temperature, perfectly neutralizing the chill.
Kuzan watched in disbelief. His attack had clearly frozen the enemy into a solid block of ice—so cold that even he could feel the chill from afar.
And yet, the man before him still radiated strong, unmistakable life energy, completely unharmed.
Doubt flickered in Kuzan's eyes, but his hands didn't falter.
He gathered freezing energy into an exceptionally sharp ice blade and thrust it straight toward Uchiha Dali's clone's side.
Crack!
The ice blade shattered instantly.
What seemed indestructible had merely struck an immovable wall.
Unwilling to accept it, Kuzan launched another flurry of attacks.
But after several attempts, he realized that aside from the freezing effect, none of his physical attacks made any difference at all.
They didn't even tickle him.
"Oh my, how terrifying."
Borsalino, who had been watching from the side, finally spoke. He could tell now that Uchiha Dali's clone's defense was absurdly strong.
But breaking through defenses was his specialty.
At that, Borsalino stopped watching and slowly raised his hand, pointing one glowing finger at the Uchiha Dali clone.
Shoom!
A beam of light fired from his fingertip, cutting through the air to strike its target dead-on.
A second later, it hit.
But to Borsalino's surprise, the laser only shattered the outer layer of ice on Uchiha Dali's body—his real form underneath was perfectly intact.
His eyes narrowed slightly.
Unwilling to accept it, Borsalino fired again.
In an instant, countless lasers rained down on Uchiha Dali's clone, each one faster than the eye could follow.
Within a second, the target was engulfed in blinding light and explosions.
The resulting blasts from Borsalino's lasers were far more visually overwhelming than Kuzan's cold attacks—and even surpassed Sakazuki's magma in destructive force.
As the scene unfolded, everyone watching—from Marineford to audiences across the world—held their breath, hoping that this combined assault would finally yield results.
Yasakani no Magatama!
Borsalino wasn't about to take chances.
He unleashed another round of relentless bombardment.
Only after another ten minutes of intense explosions did he finally stop.
By now, Sakazuki, Kuzan, and Borsalino had each attacked Uchiha Dali's clone for ten minutes straight—thirty minutes in total.
The ground around them was blasted into a crater over a hundred meters wide.
Everyone was convinced the clone couldn't possibly have survived.
Even if he hadn't been obliterated, he must have been gravely wounded.
There was no way he could still be standing unscathed.
"He shouldn't be able to get back up after that…"
On the execution platform, Sengoku stared fixedly at the blast zone, muttering under his breath.
"Let's hope so," Vice Admiral Tsuru said grimly.