One of the Four Emperors!!!
Red-Haired Shanks!!
The moment he saw that figure, Teach somehow let out a breath of relief.
Even so, his face was still drenched in cold sweat as he forced out a grin.
"Zehahaha... so you came, huh?"
"How interesting. Two old friends from Roger's ship have actually reached the point of crossing blades. I really wonder which of you will come out on top."
"Will it be Red-Haired Shanks, the man hailed as having the strongest Conqueror's Haki in the world, with power rivaling Pops in his youth?"
"Or Black Spear Ozz, who has vanished from the seas again and again over the past decades, a man once praised as having absolute dominion over the strong and who has never lost?"
"Zehahahaha... now that is something to be curious about!!"
Even Kizaru could not help sighing in the distance.
"So scary... even Red-Haired has shown up too."
A beam of light began to gather at his fingertip, only for the sound of a gun being cocked to interrupt him.
"Don't move, Kizaru."
Beckman appeared atop the sail, cigarette in his mouth, his gun leveled at Kizaru.
"So scary, Benn Beckman."
But despite what he said, not a single drop of sweat appeared on his face. After all, not just anyone was qualified to threaten the life of a Marine Admiral with a gun.
On the other side, Mihawk, who had also been watching the battlefield, withdrew from his clash with Kuzan.
His sharp eyes locked onto Blackbeard.
"If you dare stir things up again, I'll cut you down."
To be honest, he got along quite well with both men.
In all those years when Ozz had been absent from the seas, Shanks had often been the one Mihawk used as his sparring partner for sword practice.
If possible, he did not want to see the two of them fight.
Of course, if they absolutely had to, he would definitely stand on Ozz's side.
At that moment, on the battlefield itself, Ozz still held the pose of his raised kick, blocked by Shanks' sword.
A momentary lapse, so he had not sensed him?
The power of Observation Killing, perhaps.
Not that it mattered.
His gaze dark, Ozz calmly looked at Shanks' serious and solemn face, then could not help curling his lips.
When a person becomes speechless enough, they often end up laughing instead.
"Face?"
"That's kind of interesting..."
Then Ozz drew his leg back slightly, as if gathering strength, before suddenly kicking forward again.
It was a swift and powerful kick, so fierce it produced a sonic boom.
And the usually calm and cool Shanks, who always liked to act composed, instantly changed expression and answered with even greater force.
Crack crack crack crack crack crack...
A few black-red bolts of Conqueror's Haki erupted where they clashed, spreading out like a spiderweb.
Countless pirates and Marines rolled their eyes back and collapsed to their knees.
"Fufufufufu..."
Sensing that both of them had gotten serious, Doflamingo's face lit up with excitement, and he burst into wild laughter.
"Both of them are acknowledged as monsters standing at the very peak of Conqueror's Haki in this era, and now they're actually taking each other seriously..."
"It really makes me wonder, who exactly is the answer for this age?!"
Even Roger, feeling the seriousness coming from both sides, showed a trace of astonishment.
"Shanks... Ozz..."
No matter what, he could tell clearly.
In terms of Conqueror's Haki alone, those two brats who had once followed behind him had probably already surpassed him.
"Shanks!!! You bastard!!!"
"Showing up out of nowhere just to go against Ozz, what the hell are you doing?!"
Among all those watching, perhaps the only one whose face was not grave was Buggy.
His body had split apart as he floated in the air, yelling at Shanks furiously.
What the hell was this idiot doing?!
Helping the Marines against Ozz!!!
Under the tense gazes of everyone present, the boundless Haki grew stronger and stronger, spreading outward from the center of their clash.
First the ordinary soldiers dropped.
Then the officers and division commanders.
In the end, even some of the Whitebeard commanders and Marine Vice Admirals could no longer endure it, falling to one knee with ugly expressions.
The collision of Conqueror's Haki, which had started as black-red web-like lightning, gradually turned into full thunderbolts, then into a raging storm.
It made countless people suffer.
Even fighters at Admiral and Emperor level had sweat appear on their faces.
"Stop, Ozz. This war can't keep expanding!!!"
At the center of that Haki storm, Shanks still tried to persuade him earnestly.
His face had even begun to look increasingly worse.
As the Conqueror's Haki kept intensifying, he could already feel the pressure.
Yet Ozz, who still had one leg raised and whose face remained calm, seemed as though he still had not used his full power.
His terrifying Conqueror's Haki, like that of a demon god, continued pouring out and growing stronger!!!
"As long as I'm here, things won't spiral out of control."
"But you, Shanks..."
Scarlet light burst from Ozz's pupils as he narrowed his eyes.
"It seems you've forgotten what fighting me was like when we were kids."
"..."
At those words, cold sweat finally formed on Shanks' face.
He had originally thought that after all these years apart, with his current strength no weaker than Captain Roger's, he would never look this bad against Ozz.
But the gap now...
As Ozz kept increasing the pressure, his Conqueror's Haki coating his leg, he had already started to overwhelm Shanks.
That sight caused everyone watching to go pale.
At some point, the cigarette in Beckman's mouth had dropped to the ground, but he simply stared at Ozz in total shock.
"How can this even be possible..."
Garp, his face covered in blood, stood there with his mouth hanging open, his pupils trembling.
"This level of Conqueror's Haki... only that man ever reached it!!!"
Even Kaido, a complete war maniac, could not stop a chill from rising in his heart when faced with the crushing pressure of that Conqueror's Haki.
"That's right. Exactly like this..."
"In every era, there can only be one monster whose Haki surpasses even the overlords of the sea."
As time passed, Ozz's gaze became more and more dangerous, while Shanks' blade actually began to tremble.
The endless black-red storm was now overwhelming one side over the other.
Though it had not yet spread across the whole world, it still extended across the sea like a natural disaster, reaching into the heavens.
It even covered the skies above the Red Line.
The ruler in the Room of Flowers was awakened by it, the layered circles of those eyes widening instantly, and even the Five Elders' faces were slick with cold sweat.
Across the entire world, it was as if only one figure remained.
That black-clad figure with scarlet light burning in his eyes.
"So tell me."
"What face do you even have?"
Ozz's kick, wrapped in Conqueror's Haki, instantly shattered the very space around it as it slammed violently into Shanks.
Shanks spat blood and was sent flying.
Even his pupils began to lose focus.
"I, for one..."
Ozz slowly walked forward, his gaze indifferent.
Space warped and twisted under the black spatial power surrounding his body, while his black-red Conqueror's storm stretched for tens of thousands of miles, like a king suppressing the whole world.
He slowly raised his foot.
The tear-and-snot-covered King of Deserters, already unconscious, still could not escape the fate of being blown apart by a single kick.
"...hate having my fun interrupted more than anything."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The tides are shifting, and secrets linger in the dark... Step into the shadows early on P@treon, where the next chapter awaits before the world sees it.
[email protected]/_theon
Change @ to "a"