Redfield knew he could not keep dragging this out.
The longer it went, the worse it would get.
He had to hit Ares hard while the guy was still thinking about how to counter future-sight, and then slip away.
He drew in a deep breath. His aura changed at once, turning cold and razor sharp. Power in his body poured madly into the umbrella-sword in his hand, Armament Haki boiling over it.
"One-Sword Style. Twilight of the Gods!"
Shiiiing!
With a single sweep of that umbrella, a slash so terrifying it seemed to drain the color from heaven and earth tore the dust-cloud apart. It ripped the air itself and, in the blink of an eye, was right in front of Tengetsu Ares.
Ares snapped back to himself and crossed both arms to block.
Boom!
The strike blew him away like a shot shell, his body smashing through hill after hill.
Now. Run.
Redfield did not even look back. He spun on his heel and bolted.
That blow was strong, but it could not kill Ares. He had to use this window to get off the island.
He knew exactly what he wanted: break away from this battle-freak.
With his full speed unleashed, the scenery blurred backward. In a heartbeat he had already fled several kilometers.
Then the sky darkened.
A huge, oppressive shadow covered him, swallowing the moonlight and making his expression sink.
"Damn it. Ares caught up that fast?"
"Did that attack barely hurt him at all?"
He stopped running and looked up. A majestic azure dragon was circling in the black clouds, swimming through the night.
In only a few breaths, Ares had caught him.
"Hey. Hey!" Redfield almost wanted to cry. "Can you not? Can you stop chasing me already?"
Why today of all days did he run into this lunatic? His luck was rotten.
"As long as you fight me properly, we can talk about anything!" the dragon head thrust out of the cloudbank, golden eyes burning as it fixed on Redfield. The bloody maw opened.
"Destruction. Wind Blades!"
Crescent blades of wind fired from Ares's mouth one after another, sharp enough to match real sword auras. They howled straight at Redfield.
He had no choice but to juke left and right.
Trees were sliced through without resistance. The ground was plowed open with long scars.
Redfield gritted his teeth and stared up. He also noticed the wound he had just left on Ares's arm was already knitting itself together at an astonishing speed.
"What a ridiculous regeneration."
"And he even changed the way he is fighting. He's using the sky to pressure me so he can calmly study how to counter Observation Haki."
Redfield's heart sank.
Like this, wounding Ares with a surprise strike was no longer realistic.
The situation was bad.
Very bad.
"Do I really have to go all out and beat him down, then leave?" he thought, torn. "But if I do, I'll definitely be badly hurt and burn through a lot of stamina. Then what if I run into another Rocks cadre… or the Marines?"
His will wavered.
Meanwhile Ares, up in the clouds, was both suppressing him and running mental drills.
He kept going over Whitebeard's teaching.
"Qi comes from life.
"The energy that leaks out when you breathe, move, live, that is qi.
"Everyone has their own unique qi. You can judge a person's strength from it."
That was why Ares could spot a strong one at a glance.
"So qi can be controlled, but it can't disappear," he realized. "As long as I'm alive, as long as I move, there will be qi. So just controlling my breath won't fully block Observation."
In a short time he rejected a third plan.
He had already thought up three ways to counter future-sight.
All three were wrong.
Or more precisely, all three only helped a little. None of them truly neutralized Observation Haki.
But instead of getting frustrated, Ares got more excited.
The more wrong answers you eliminate, the closer you get to the right one.
Watching Ares's thoughts, Redfield sucked in a cold breath.
"This guy is terrifying. His ability to grasp things is too strong."
"If I just sit here and let him tinker, I'm dead. I've got to move first."
His aura snapped cold. A chill spread through the air. Sword intent like bare steel bristled around him.
He dodged another string of wind blades, then suddenly unleashed all the power he had stored.
"One-Sword Style. Twin-Moon Sky Wolf!"
He slashed upward. Two ferocious wolves of sword aura howled into the heavens.
Sword-wolves of pure energy, streaking up like fireworks, lunging straight for the dragon in the sky.
The world's strongest swordsman was done holding back.
He was going to beat this monster and leave.
The twin wolves came in. Their murderous aura snapped Ares fully awake. Golden dragon eyes flashed cold. Ares spat out a pillar of fire like a cannon.
"Dragon. Flame!"
Boom.
The collision blew the sky apart.
Redfield shouted, face dark. "You just wouldn't let me go, so don't blame me for using my full strength!"
He swung again. Dazzling sword light dozens of meters long slashed upward like lightning.
Ares just bit down. Dragon fangs crunched through the slash.
"Come down and fight me properly!" Redfield shouted. "Isn't this what you wanted?"
As long as Ares stayed in the air, he would be at a disadvantage.
"Not yet."
Ares bared his teeth in a wild grin. "You can't run anyway. If I don't find a way to suppress future-sight, I can't beat you cleanly. So I must find it."
Right now he was scarily calm.
He loved to fight.
But he also wanted absolute victory.
That line made Redfield almost vomit blood.
"You were the one who wanted me to go all out. Now that I'm going all out, you're backing off?"
Ares answered with more wind blades. They tore the air and appeared in front of Redfield in an instant.
"You're scared?"
"You're scared I'll really crack your Observation and you won't have an advantage anymore?"
Ting. Ting. Ting.
Redfield knocked each wind blade aside, face black.
He asked himself the question straight. "Am I scared?"
The answer was… yes.
If Ares really figured out a way to jam Observation Haki's future-sight, then his biggest advantage over this monster would be gone.
"Then I just have to beat you before that," Redfield said quietly.
His aura climbed, sharp enough to pierce the clouds.
He blurred across the ground, so fast he became a smear.
Ares could tell.
"He's finally going to fight seriously."
He did not panic. While he shifted his stance, he kept thinking.
"I can't erase my qi. I can't erase Redfield's qi."
"He is reading my actions with qi. So the root is qi."
"If I start from qi…"
Ares's mind spun. A new idea took shape.
And this one felt right.
Redfield kicked off a tree and shot into the sky, umbrella wreathed in Armament.
"One-Sword Style. Moonlit Rhapsody!"
"Blade-Less Style. Divine Dragon Tail Slash!"
Ares's tail turned into the biggest sword on the sea and swung.
The clash blew the cloud layer apart. The full moon spilled down.
Redfield was blasted out of the sky. Ares's dragon tail split open with a huge gash, blood raining down like a storm.
The pain made Ares shiver with a strange thrill.
(Not masochism, dear readers, don't overthink it.)
"Hahaha!"
"This is real fighting!"
"This is the fight I want!"
Redfield crashed into the ground, kicking up another cloud of dust.
Up in the air, Ares kept piecing through the last bit.
"If I can't erase my qi, then I'll flood the world with it."
"If everywhere is my qi, he can't lock onto just me."
"Armament Haki is qi in its energy form. Conqueror's Haki is… spiritual qi."
"Conqueror's Haki."
"Overbearing presence."
Ares's golden pupils flared. Excitement burned through them.
"I think… I got it."
"Then I just spread my Conqueror's Haki over everything."
"Make the whole world filled with my qi."
He did not know that this Haki method already had a name among true monsters.
Observation-Slayer.
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