At the peak of Onigashima, steel rang against steel.
Every clash of blades produced a shockwave you could see with the naked eye, ripping roof tiles up in sheets and flinging splinters, rubble, and dust like a storm of shrapnel.
King's speed was pushed to its absolute limit.
His black wings snapped open with a violent beat, and his body blurred into a smear of shadow, carving jagged angles through the air. He attacked from directions no normal person could even imagine, striking like a phantom that refused to be tracked.
Each time the sword at his waist left its sheath, it carried searing flames with it. Wherever the edge passed, the air itself ignited, popping and crackling.
And yet Mihawk's sword was faster, and quieter.
He did not even move his feet. He simply stood there, and the massive black blade Yoru in his hand seemed alive.
A flaming slash came from behind.
Mihawk did not even turn his head. He swung one-handed and used the flat of his blade to knock King's edge aside with perfect precision.
A sharp thrust fell from above.
Mihawk only raised his eyes slightly, lifted his tip, and unraveled the strike with a casual, effortless deflection, using the smallest force to redirect the greatest.
In Mihawk's hands, Yoru never wasted a motion. Every block and counter was reduced to the purest possible form, simple to the point of coldness, yet filled with principles of swordsmanship that could not be broken.
"Your race is interesting."
After turning aside another flurry, Mihawk finally spoke. His tone was as flat as a comment about the weather.
"That flame on your back. A switch between defense and speed."
Not a question.
A statement.
King's heart sank.
This man had seen through the Lunarian's greatest secret in just a handful of exchanges, in the middle of a battle this intense.
The Lunarians, once revered as a "god" race, possessed bodies tough enough to survive in any environment.
Their most defining trait was the flame that never went out on their backs.
When the flame burned, their defense reached an absurd, almost divine level, but their speed suffered.
When the flame extinguished, their speed surged to the extreme, but that godlike defense vanished with it.
It was the ace his people depended on.
It was the foundation of his status as one of Kaido's All-Stars.
"So what if you know!" King roared.
The shock and fury of being exposed drove him into a more savage frenzy. He tried to crush Mihawk with faster, denser slashes, to bury him under pressure and deny him even a moment to think.
"It's useless." Mihawk shook his head once. "Your struggle is meaningless."
Then Mihawk's gaze sharpened.
In that instant, the flame on King's back went out.
He poured everything into speed. His figure vanished completely.
The next moment, he was already in front of Mihawk, his burning blade thrusting straight for Mihawk's heart.
His fastest sword.
A killing strike made by abandoning all defense, staking everything on one decisive hit.
But Mihawk did not retreat.
He did not even raise his blade to block.
He simply stepped forward, one small step, and shifted his body by a hair's breadth.
That was all.
A simple sidestep made King's extreme-speed blade skim past Mihawk's coat by the thinnest margin.
At the same time, Yoru rose from below, drawing a dark, elegant arc through the air.
Pffft.
The sound was so soft it was almost inaudible.
A line of blood burst from King's chest without warning.
King's forward charge slammed to a halt. His pupils contracted violently as he stiffly lowered his head, staring at the horrific gash across his torso, deep enough to show bone.
He had been cut.
In front of this man, the speed King prided himself on, the racial talent he used to flip between offense and defense, looked like a child's trick.
Seen through.
Punished in the blink of an eye.
"You…" King clutched the wound as blood poured between his fingers. He staggered back, and for the first time, something like real fear surfaced in his eyes.
Mihawk lowered his blade and stood still. At the tip of Yoru, a single red drop slid down and fell onto the shattered roof tiles.
He did not pursue.
He only looked at King, and the disappointment in his gaze was not hidden at all.
"Show me what you can really do. Otherwise, this fight will be boring."
The humiliation of being looked down on snapped something inside King.
"You bastard… don't get cocky!!"
He roared. The flame on his back ignited again, roaring higher, and under that heat the wound began to close at a visible pace.
"A remarkable race," Mihawk remarked, almost approvingly, yet his eyes remained calm.
While Mihawk and King's duel briefly paused, the other battlefields below were just as spectacular.
Moria was enjoying the most satisfying fight of his life.
"Muhahaha! You bastard! Die for me!"
Queen had shifted into a massive Brachiosaurus. His gigantic body became the crudest, most brutal weapon imaginable, each charge shaking the ground like an earthquake.
"Shishishishi! It's useless, Queen! Your attacks are too clumsy!"
Moria danced under that enormous body, controlling his shadow as it slipped and weaved like a living thing.
His shadow overlapped with Queen's shadow.
In the next instant, Queen realized with horror that his body would not obey him.
"Y you… what did you do to me?!" Queen bellowed, furious and alarmed.
"Shishishishi! I'm just… borrowing your body for a moment!"
Moria cackled and forced Queen to smash his own head into the cliff wall beside him.
Boom!
Rock collapsed. Dust swallowed the air. Queen reeled, seeing stars.
"See that, Kaido! I, Gecko Moria, crawled back from hell for revenge!"
He stood atop the rubble, arms spread wide, laughing toward the dragon in the sky.
"See it, Kaido! I, Gecko Moria, crawled out of hell… to take my revenge!"
Years of hatred and humiliation poured out in a single, ecstatic scream.
Elsewhere, Doflamingo's battle with Jack looked less like a fight and more like a cruel puppet show.
"Parasite!"
Doflamingo twitched a finger. Countless invisible strings wrapped around Jack, turning his huge body into a marionette, movements stiff and unwilling.
"Fufufufu! A stupid brute who only knows raw power. Let me show you what real art looks like!"
Laughing, Doflamingo forced Jack to drive his own tusks into the Beasts Pirates around him.
Chaos erupted instantly.
"Bastard!" Jack roared, powerless, forced to watch his body move against his will.
Those massive tusks, capable of smashing city walls, swung hard and stabbed into the allies who had rushed in to support him.
Watching his prized All-Stars fall into disadvantage, Kaido's eyes in the sky went bloodshot.
"Kael!!!" he howled, trying to break away and rush to his men.
"Your opponent is me," Kael's voice sounded by his ear.
The black-and-gold naginata cut through the wind once more, slashing in again.
Mihawk looked at King, whose will had reignited with the flame on his back. Slowly, he raised Yoru.
"It seems you're ready."
For the first time, a trace of seriousness flickered in his hawk-like eyes.
"Then as a reward for your courage, I'll let you see it."
"The world's number one slash."
The instant the words fell, a deep emerald glow spread across Yoru's ink-black blade.
A peerless sharpness surged into the heavens.
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We've officially caught up to the latest raw chapters for this story! ❤️ Thank you so much for your incredible patience and support, every comment, every power stone, and every bit of encouragement keeps me going at full speed.
I'll continue the moment new raws are released. If I can't get the next batch immediately, here's the current raw title so you can keep an eye out yourself:
TITLE: 海贼:从罗杰团元老开始
AUTHOR: 松树下的鹅
While you're waiting for new updates, feel free to check out my other ongoing stories, there's plenty of action, survival, and cross-world drama waiting for you there too!
Stay tuned, the journey isn't over yet! Your support means the world to me, and as soon as I have raw, updates will resume without delay.