Transformed into his giant golden Buddha, Admiral Sengoku thrust a palm toward Shirakawa and loosed a shockwave. Shirakawa answered with a slash of flying sword energy, but it barely made a difference.
Sengoku's shockwave scattered Shirakawa's sword energy outright, its radius expanding relentlessly until it swallowed Shirakawa whole in an instant.
At once, Shirakawa felt an overpowering, violent tremor race through his organs — so intense it was as if every part of him wanted to burst out of his body. Blood sprayed from his mouth, and he immediately flickered out of Sengoku's attack range with a shave-step.
In this form, Sengoku could attack and defend equally well, excel at close quarters or at range.
"As expected of an Admiral... you really are different." Shirakawa wiped the blood from his lips, his tone deliberately light — but his current state was anything but.
He knew Sengoku's Buddha form granted an all-around boost, but he hadn't imagined it would be this troublesome.
"You're not bad yourself. That legendary recovery ability certainly lives up to its name."
Sengoku's eyes settled on Shirakawa. The wound Shirakawa had just taken had already healed completely within a second. There was no trace he had even been injured.
It was then that Sengoku suddenly noticed the members of the Mighty Pirates, who had been imprisoned aboard the warship, had all escaped.
"When did—? Could there be one more?"
Shirakawa also spotted the group. Each and every one of them had the build of a sumo wrestler — impossible to miss.
"Looks like Wend pulled it off."
A gentle breeze slipped past Shirakawa and Sengoku. Sengoku, as if sensing something, abruptly swung his right arm to the side. Wend's figure materialized right beside him, a trickle of blood already running from the corner of his mouth — injured, by the look of it.
"As expected of an Admiral."
Wend wiped the blood away, his expression heavy as he stared at Sengoku. He hadn't even launched his attack yet, and already he had been detected and wounded first.
"I should have wiped those vermin out beforehand."
Sakazuki glared furiously at the disgustingly built Mighty Pirates. He had wanted to annihilate them outright from the start, but Sengoku had stopped him.
"How terrifying. To think you still had someone else hidden away."
Borsalino said it in that insufferably punchable tone of his, yet there wasn't a shred of real fear in it.
The other rear admirals and captains were all staring at the newly appeared Wend with grim expressions. Not one of them had detected his presence. If Wend had chosen to strike at them instead, the consequences didn't bear thinking about.
"A Logia too, huh? Even so, you still won't be a match for us. Surrender quietly."
Sengoku's voice was sharp as he addressed Shirakawa.
"That's not set in stone, Admiral Sengoku. If you don't try, how can you know the outcome? Even if there's only a one percent chance, we'll still go for it — because that's what pirates do."
"Hmph. It seems I'll have to make you taste some real suffering before you'll submit."
Sengoku seemed genuinely angered by what Shirakawa had just said.
"Wend, go help Uristine. Leave him to me. You'll only get in the way here."
"Tch..."
Harsh as Shirakawa's words were, they were the truth. After one last look at Sengoku, Wend's form melted away into the air once more.
Sengoku naturally understood that this meant Borsalino would now be fighting one against two. But he wasn't the least bit concerned — he knew exactly how strong Borsalino was. Even if Borsalino couldn't defeat both opponents, there was no way the two of them could defeat him. He could tangle with them indefinitely.
At this point, the overall strength on both sides was fairly even. The only truly lopsided matchup was between Sengoku and Shirakawa.
"Guess I have no choice but to end this fast."
Sengoku swept his eyes across the battlefield and thought to himself: the moment Shirakawa fell, the Shirakawa Pirates would collapse entirely. And given the gap in their strength, he was highly confident he could put Shirakawa down in a short time.
The instant Shirakawa saw Sengoku's eyes sharpen, he knew the Admiral was about to get serious. A bitter laugh echoed in his heart. His original plan had been to rescue their people and bolt, but now it was obvious the Marines had no intention of letting them flee. They meant to break them here.
In the next breath, Sengoku launched another shockwave-laden palm strike straight at Shirakawa. Shirakawa put everything into a serious slash of sword energy, but the blade wave still couldn't match Sengoku's shockwave. Though it did dissipate over half the blast's force, blood still seeped from the corner of Shirakawa's mouth — his internal organs had taken damage yet again.
"Dammit... this isn't working."
After a few more exchanges, Sengoku bore only a few superficial sword marks, while Shirakawa's injuries and subsequent recoveries were piling up more and more. He simply could not think of any way to counter Sengoku. As expected, before absolute power, all schemes and tricks were nothing but fleeting clouds.
The other crew members could all see Shirakawa's dire predicament and desperately wanted to break past their own opponents to go help him. But that was utterly impossible — there was no way the Marines would let them have their way.
Wound after wound, recovery after recovery, draining his stamina again and again — Shirakawa's regeneration was slowing down more and more.
"It seems you've reached your limit."
Staring at Shirakawa, whose breathing had become ragged and uneven, Sengoku spoke coldly.
"Dammit, get out of my way!"
Kurokam had long since entered his berserk state, but Sakazuki was fighting more ferociously by the second. The two were still deadlocked.
"As if I'd ever let you have your wish. Meigou."
Sakazuki's arm morphed into a charging hound's head of magma that hurtled straight at Kurokam. Kurokam simply brought both his hammers crashing down, dispersing the dog-shaped magma in an instant.
"Yasakani no Magatama."
Over on Borsalino's side, he unleashed his own ultimate technique. Instantly, countless orbs of light rained down on Uristine and Wend. Wend was fine — he could simply turn into his element to evade. Uristine, on the other hand, had pushed his Kenbunshoku Haki to its absolute limit just to dodge the barrage.
Riddle and Mut weren't faring well either. Haki was a finite resource, and Riddle's Haki had never been strong to begin with — it was depleting at an alarming rate. His reserves were running low, and the easy expression he'd worn at the start was growing grimmer by the moment.
Salar and Abro were in slightly better shape, each locked in a stalemate with their respective opponents. Salar, however, was in terrible condition. His pristine white chef's coat was now mostly dyed red with blood. Onigumo was much the same, having sustained significant injuries himself.
As for the members of the Mighty Pirates whom Wend had rescued, they could do nothing but watch from the ship. On this battlefield, they could offer no help — only get in the way. They were desperately hoping Shirakawa would win. Otherwise, they'd probably be enjoying another long stay in prison.
/-\
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