Heat...
Doflamingo's scalp went numb as a peculiar warmth suddenly began radiating around the God Slayer's position. The air itself seemed to shimmer with rising temperature, creating visible distortions that spoke to supernatural energy manipulation on a scale he'd never encountered.
Danger!
The moment that primal warning flashed through his consciousness, Oboro had already materialized directly in front of him. There had been no explosive burst of power, no visible propulsion mechanism, he had simply approached through the air as casually as walking across solid ground.
The impossibility of what he was witnessing sent ice through Doflamingo's veins. His current position suspended high above the ocean should have provided absolute tactical advantage. Air combat favored those who understood three-dimensional movement, and the Heavenly Demon had spent decades mastering every aspect of aerial warfare.
Any normal opponent attempting to reach his position would need to follow predictable patterns, explosive leg strength to launch skyward, or techniques like the Marine's Geppo to build altitude through repeated impacts against compressed air. Both approaches created obvious tells that his enhanced reflexes could easily counter.
But this was neither.
"His Devil Fruit ability allows him to move through air as naturally as solid ground," Doflamingo realized with growing unease, his analytical mind racing through the tactical implications.
His own aerial mobility depended entirely on string attachments to cloud formations, creating inherent limitations that left him vulnerable during transitions between anchor points. The arms controlling his suspension threads couldn't be used for offensive techniques without sacrificing positional stability.
Such restrictions had never mattered before, no opponent had ever possessed the capability to exploit them.
"Foot Shaving Thread!"
Doflamingo swept his leg in a devastating arc, silver light gleaming from the razor-sharp wires that emerged from his appendage. The technique combined his String-String Fruit's cutting power with the enhanced speed of Rokushiki, creating attacks that could slice through battleship armor.
But Oboro caught his ankle with casual precision, his free hand clenching into a fist that began gathering atmospheric pressure with visible intensity. The surrounding airflow compressed and concentrated around his knuckles, creating distortions that made the very atmosphere seem solid.
Doflamingo stared at that approaching fist and felt genuine fear for the first time in years. This wasn't just enhanced physical strength, this was power that operated according to principles his extensive combat experience couldn't categorize or counter.
"Drop String!"
Desperation drove him to deploy one of his most devastating techniques. Five perfectly straight threads shot upward like piano wires, their silvery gleam cutting through the afternoon light as they sought to intercept Oboro's gathering assault.
The invisible barrier that surrounded his opponent stopped every thread cold, as if they'd struck reinforced steel rather than empty air.
"You, !" Doflamingo began.
Oboro's concentrated punch struck his abdomen with the force of a cannon shell.
Whoosh!
The Heavenly Demon's body shot backward through the air like a broken arrow, blood erupting from his mouth in a crimson spray while the cloud-anchored strings that had supported his position snapped under the tremendous recoil. His enhanced constitution, conditioned through decades of combat against the Grand Line's most dangerous opponents, was the only thing that prevented the devastating blow from killing him outright.
Even as his body hurtled through the sky at impossible speed, Doflamingo's survival instincts kicked into overdrive. His String-String Fruit powers reached out desperately, hooking onto another distant cloud formation with his "Sky Path" technique. The sudden deceleration as his threads went taut nearly dislocated his shoulders, but succeeded in halting his backward momentum before carrying him to even greater altitude.
But Oboro's pursuit proved equally terrifying in its relentless efficiency.
The God Slayer rushed toward his new position with supernatural speed, his form cutting through the air like a guided missile that acknowledged no obstacles or limitations.
Doflamingo stretched out his palm in response, releasing a torrent of silver threads that wove themselves into an enormous whip capable of crushing buildings. The massive construct lashed toward his approaching enemy with enough force to pulverize stone.
His "Super Strike Whip" met only empty air.
Oboro had vanished again, his impossible movement technique carrying him beyond the reach of even Doflamingo's enhanced perception. When the Warlord spun around to locate his opponent, he found the scarred figure standing behind him like a specter that had materialized from nightmares.
In that moment of crystalline clarity, Doflamingo finally identified the source of his growing unease.
Marine Six Styles, Soru!
But this wasn't the traditional high-speed movement technique that Marine officers trained for years to master. Oboro's body displacement seemed to incorporate additional elements that made his approach virtually undetectable, creating lag even in Doflamingo's Observation Haki that shouldn't have been possible.
The fundamental issue was simple and terrifying: he was just too fast.
"String Shot!"
Doflamingo raised both hands in shooting positions, his fingertips erupting with sharp silver threads that fired toward his target like machine gun bullets. The rapid barrage created a cone of cutting death that should have shredded any opponent foolish enough to remain at close range.
"Tempest Kick!"
Oboro's leg swept through the air with casual grace, generating a slashing projectile that carved through Doflamingo's thread barrage as if it were tissue paper. The compressed air blade continued its arc, dissipating only after traveling hundreds of meters toward the horizon.
But that single technique was merely the opening movement of a far more devastating assault.
Oboro's legs began moving with inhuman speed, each kick generating another compressed air slash that added to the growing storm of cutting force. Within seconds, dozens of razor-sharp projectiles filled the sky around Doflamingo's position, their rainbow trails painting deadly artistry against the grey clouds.
In the heavens above the deserted island, amazing light fell like celestial judgment. Some slashes struck cloud formations and caused them to dissipate entirely, while others continued their descent to crash into the ocean below, raising towering waves that spoke to the tremendous power behind each technique.
Doflamingo could no longer maintain his aerial position under such overwhelming assault. His string-based mobility, while impressive, couldn't match Oboro's impossible freedom of movement through three-dimensional space. No matter how he repositioned himself or changed his anchor points, he remained trapped within his opponent's attack range.
What proved even more alarming was the gradual realization that the God Slayer's physical conditioning, while still inferior to his own accumulated decades of enhancement, was being supplemented by combat techniques of extraordinary sophistication. Combined with tactical experience and Observation Haki that operated on his level, Oboro's close-quarters capabilities had become virtually impossible to defend against.
Some of the techniques he deployed defied rational explanation, movements that generated devastating power through principles that Doflamingo's extensive martial knowledge couldn't categorize. When blessed with such supernatural combat methods, the gap in raw physical capability became irrelevant.
If any of those strikes connected cleanly, the consequences would prove catastrophic. And he was finding it increasingly difficult to prevent such connections.
Being beaten wildly!
In the sky above the deserted island, two figures engaged in fierce combat as they descended toward the earth below. Red and black Haki energies intertwined, creating lightning-like flashes that illuminated their deadly dance against the darkening afternoon sky.
But the engagement had become horrifically one-sided.
Doflamingo's body shook continuously under the relentless barrage, blood spraying from fresh wounds as Oboro's enhanced techniques found their marks with surgical precision. The Heavenly Demon, one of the Seven Warlords of the Sea, terror of the North Blue, master of awakened Devil Fruit powers, was being systematically dismantled like a training dummy.
In the end, Joker plummeted toward the island below like a pink meteor, his impact with the sandy shore raising clouds of dust that obscured the crater his body had carved into the earth.
But even in defeat, Doflamingo's tactical instincts hadn't abandoned him entirely.
During his descent, a massive web of white threads had erupted from his position, enveloping the space around Oboro's pursuing form before contracting with crushing force. The technique was designed to immobilize rather than kill, creating the opening necessary for his next attack.
Immediately after "sealing" his opponent within the thread cocoon, a specialized silver wire, thicker than his normal constructs and gleaming with concentrated Haki, shot toward Oboro's face with lethal precision.
"Super Strike Whip, Concentrated!"
Though smaller than his previous massive construct, this focused version carried far more destructive potential and moved with supernatural speed that made evasion virtually impossible.
"Fufufufufu..." Doflamingo's sinister laughter drifted up from the crater where his broken body had come to rest.
BOOM!
But his amusement died abruptly as golden light erupted around Oboro's suspended form, coalescing into the unmistakable shape of a protective bell that deflected every attacking thread with thunderous impacts.
"Golden Bell Cover!"
The technique represented pure martial arts elevated to supernatural heights through Oboro's Qi Refining methods. What had originated as earthly combat forms had been transformed into something approaching metaphysical manipulation of reality itself.
This was the terrifying potential that had convinced him to pursue the evolution of breathing techniques beyond their original limitations, the fusion of external martial knowledge with internal energy systems that operated according to principles this world had never encountered.
His Qi Refining Method had originated from ancient traditions that viewed the human body as a microcosm of universal forces. Currently, with the Tonkotsu vortexes around his acupuncture points only half-condensed, he remained far from the stage where his dantian could transform accumulated energy into an ocean of power. What he displayed now represented merely the foundational level of such development.
If he could eventually reach the terrestrial immortal realm that his techniques promised, the power he would be capable of wielding would transcend conventional understanding entirely.
The integration of Qi Refining with martial arts was just the beginning of that journey.
"But..." Oboro's eyes narrowed as he studied the dust cloud settling around the crater where Doflamingo had landed.
He had to acknowledge the Warlord's extraordinary resilience with grudging respect.
If he had relied solely on breathing techniques and conventional martial arts, even enhanced with Haki mastery, suppressing Doflamingo would have proven impossible. The Heavenly Demon's physical conditioning transcended normal human limitations by orders of magnitude.
From the perspective of someone familiar with multiple realities, this disparity didn't reflect inherent superiority of Haki over other power systems, but rather the baseline differences in human potential between worlds. Even Netero, despite his incredible martial achievements and spiritual development, remained fundamentally human in terms of physical vulnerability. Sharp weapons wielded with sufficient force could still wound him, and his enhanced durability came through conscious application of Nen rather than innate biological advantages.
But the flesh-and-blood monsters that populated the pirate world operated according to entirely different principles. Big Mom's "iron balloon" constitution made her virtually immune to conventional weapons without any conscious enhancement. While Doflamingo hadn't reached that level of supernatural durability, his decades of accumulated conditioning had created a foundation that few attacks could meaningfully damage.
Moreover, his combat experience and tactical instincts represented the pinnacle of what human intelligence could achieve through constant exposure to life-and-death situations. Oboro had expected his series of devastating techniques to inflict far more cumulative damage.
In reality, the injuries Doflamingo had sustained, while painful and debilitating, were significantly less severe than they appeared. Most importantly, his endurance and willpower remained largely intact, he was far from the "critical condition" that his battered appearance suggested.
Comparing their respective capabilities, Oboro estimated that his physical attributes during the later stages of his Hunter x Hunter experience had been roughly equivalent to Doflamingo's current condition. The Warlord's comprehensive enhancement was comparable to what he himself had achieved after his nen abilities had provided passive attribute improvements over an extended period.
This represented total enhancement rather than selective bonuses, defense, endurance, strength, speed, mental acuity, and spiritual power all elevated simultaneously.
"Although we're both human beings, we're products of different evolutionary pressures in separate worlds," Oboro mused with philosophical detachment, slowly descending through the air to land gracefully on the sandy shore. "It's not about inherent superiority, but access to different resources and development opportunities. If the Lake Mobius expedition had access to the pirate world's enhancement methods, the nen users might have evolved into even more terrifying life forms. Perhaps... they all would have successfully conquered the Dark Continent instead of being consumed by it."
He still possessed enough mental bandwidth to contemplate such abstract questions despite the ongoing confrontation.
"Fufufufufu..."
From the depths of his impact crater, Doflamingo's bloodied and disheveled form struggled to maintain his characteristic grin. Blood streamed from multiple wounds while his pink feathered cloak lay in tatters around his broken body, yet his eyes still burned with undiminished malice.
His decision not to immediately launch another attack spoke to tactical wisdom rather than inability to continue fighting. He clearly retained sufficient strength for additional exchanges, but was reassessing his approach based on new intelligence about his opponent's capabilities.
"What kind of monster are you...?" Doflamingo's voice carried genuine curiosity beneath its menacing tones. "Where did you come from?"
"Don't you know who I am better than anyone? It's something the whole world knows," Oboro replied with casual amusement, approaching the crater's edge to stare down at his defeated opponent.
"Are you going to admit defeat?"
"Fufufufufu..."
"You went to great lengths to come here just to use your awakened Devil Fruit powers... Well, now you can." Oboro shrugged his shoulders with theatrical indifference.
The battle had become an intricate game of psychological warfare, exactly the kind of mental chess match that reminded him of his full-time hunter days, when victory required outthinking opponents whose capabilities matched or exceeded his own.
Joker made him feel nostalgic for those complex confrontations where raw power alone never guaranteed success.
"Your arrogant attitude is really annoying," Doflamingo snarled, his famous temper finally beginning to crack under the weight of systematic humiliation.
"Fufufu... Knowing that Devil Fruit awakening exists means you've either fought someone who achieved it, or you're an awakened user yourself."
"Guess," Oboro smiled with predatory satisfaction.
The real battle was about to begin, and both combatants understood that everything which had transpired thus far had been merely preliminary evaluation. Now came the moment when Doflamingo would unleash the full scope of his legendary abilities, and Oboro would discover whether his unconventional power sources could match the pinnacle of what this world's enhancement methods could achieve.