"Augur!"

Lafitte exhaled in relief.

Being pursued by the ferocious Redfield had instilled a deep, instinctive dread in him.

"This Redfield… he's just too strong! A swordsman of my level stands no chance against him. You'd need someone like Shiryu to match him!"

Beads of cold sweat dotted Lafitte's forehead.

It was impossible not to be shocked.

This old man was not only wielded the Conqueror's Haki but also possessed unparalleled swordsmanship.

There was no doubt—he stood among the very pinnacle of power in these seas!

"His only weakness is probably…" Lafitte's sharp eyes caught the slight rise and fall of Redfield's chest.

During the battle, while airborne, Lafitte had noticed a subtle detail—the wrinkles on Redfield's face.

When they first arrived, they see him feasting on the blood of a Sea King.

Back then, his face had been full of vitality, resembling a man in his forties.

But after unleashing several high-powered slashes, faint wrinkles had appeared on his face, making him look closer to sixty!

"His Life Force is draining rapidly! No wonder Pizarro mentioned that this man has been slaughtering and feeding on civilians across islands—he must need vast amounts of Life Force to maintain his peak condition!"

BANG!

Another sharp gunshot rang out, halting Redfield mid-flight once more.

This time, Van Augur's bullet struck Redfield's wing, throwing him slightly off-balance and tilting him sideways.

"Slaughter Four Hundred Styles—Underworld!!"

Shiryu gritted his teeth and roared, veins bulging violently across his arms as his sleeves instantly burst apart from the swelling muscles.

His steel-forged physique gleamed with a bronze hue, while pitch-black Armament Haki coiled around his sword, intertwined with a crimson-red energy flow—almost like Conqueror's Haki Coating!

BOOM!!

A slash capable of splitting the ocean shot towards the sky in an instant, spanning over ten meters wide, painting the skies in a bloody red hue.

"Starlight Ascension!"

A torrent of Conqueror's lightning surged forth as Redfield neither dodged nor evaded, choosing instead to meet Shiryu's slash head-on!

On a distant ship, Van Augur's expression darkened.

With lightning speed, he loaded bullets and fired three shots in an instant!

BANG!

The first bullet struck Redfield's raised right wrist, causing his movement to falter slightly.

BANG!

The second bullet hit the sword in Redfield's hand, making the blade tremble and altering its trajectory by a fraction!

BANG!

The third bullet pierced the back of Redfield's ear, sending a deafening roar through his skull!

Though Redfield's body was enveloped in an immensely thick layer of Armament Haki, the bullets inflicted no real damage.

Yet, they delayed his strike by a hundredth of a second!

And that hundredth of a second made Leyde's expression twist in alarm!

BOOM!!

Shiryu's full-powered crimson slash instantly overwhelmed Redfield's barely unleashed sword energy, crushing it as it slammed into Redfield's body!

KABOOM!!

Redfield was completely engulfed by Shiryu's technique, a geyser of blood erupting from his body as if a torrential rain of blood had suddenly poured from the sky!

It was hard to imagine a single person could contain so much blood!

WHOOSH!

Struck by Shiryu's slash, Redfield's body was momentarily battered by the terrifying sword energy, sending him plummeting from the sky!

"Dark Vortex!"

Blackbeard's furious roar echoed as Redfield's body suddenly arched backward.

WHOOSH!!

Mid-air with no footing, Redfield was yanked toward Blackbeard like a cannonball, seized firmly in his grasp.

"Tch, you never learn! Take this—" Redfield raised his sword once more, preparing to strike Blackbeard again!

This time, Blackbeard didn't speak.

His left hand clamped tightly onto Redfield while his right arm rose high, elbow bending as his fist clenched.

Redfield's crimson pupils trembled violently—this stance felt eerily familiar!

"This... what is this?"

The next moment—

"Air Tremor!!!"

With Blackbeard's roar, his right fist seemed to grip not just air, but the very fabric of the world itself!

Countless visible fissures spread from his clenched fist, spider-webbing through the surrounding atmosphere!

Blackbeard's bulging right arm carried an overwhelming force—as if the sky itself were collapsing, the air cracking and shattering under the pressure!

BOOM!!

His fist didn't directly strike Redfield's body but hovered inches away.

Yet—

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Horrifying fissures spread across Redfield's entire form, as though he had turned into a mirror on the verge of shattering.

From these cracks, terrifying shockwaves erupted with thunderous force!

"NEWGATE!!"

Redfield let out an incredulous roar, blood gushing from his mouth as he felt his organs churn violently.

Endless shockwaves ravaged his body, forcing blood to spray uncontrollably from every pore!

KABOOM!!

Redfield's body was like a meteor, instantly blasted deep into the ground by Blackbeard.

The ground exploded layer by layer, countless rocks shattered as if thousands of explosive rocks had been ignited deep underground.

Massive boulders were blasted into the sky!

Countless thunderclaps erupted out of nowhere across the sea.

The entire Banana Island trembled violently, and before their eyes, the ocean began to tilt.

Hundreds of millions of tons of seawater surged and roared with earth-shaking fury!

"Zehahaha, zehahahaha! This is my power—the Tremor-Tremor Fruit from the world's strongest man, Whitebeard, combined with the Dark-Dark Fruit that nullifies all abilities! I, Marshall D. Teach, am the true ruler of these seas!"

Blackbeard wielded darkness in one hand and tremors in the other, exuding the aura of an unrivaled tyrant, brimming with overwhelming ferocity.

The Conqueror's nature he had suppressed for decades while hiding within the Whitebeard Pirates now erupted in an instant!

Boom!!

A pitch-black shockwave of Conqueror's Haki swept across a radius of over ten miles, howling violently through the air and stirring up a storm!

"Beast God Caesar? Red Count? They'll all be crushed beneath my feet! I will become—"

Blackbeard grinned malevolently, clenching his right fist before delivering a devastating punch straight into the deep crater below.

"The Pirate King!"

Crack—crack—crack—crack!

A straight tunnel of tremors bored deep into the earth, as if tearing open a rift in space-time, instantly reaching Redfield's position.

The heavily wounded Redfield gasped for breath, his appearance aging at an impossible rate.

Deep wrinkles carved into his cheeks, and his once robust body withered into frailty!

"Damn it! My Lifeblood—my Life Force!"

Redfield roared in fury, his body erupting with countless violet-red lightning bolts.

BOOM!!

Nearly half of Banana Island was blasted into the sky.

Millions of tons of soil, rocks, and debris, freed from gravity's pull, shot upward like meteors!

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