The battlefield was a sea of churning blood mist, and the furious roar of Charlotte Linlin shook the heavens.
Ritter rubbed his ear with exaggerated disdain. "Damn, that voice is loud. If you're upset, go cry to your ex-husband instead of screaming in my ear."
Strictly speaking, Charlotte Linlin wasn't actually a giant. At 8.8 meters tall, she was enormous, but still fell short of true giants, whose adults stood no less than twelve meters. She belonged to humanity, though she was at its towering extreme.
Linlin swung Napoleon, her massive broadsword, with terrifying force. A storm of Conqueror's Haki erupted from her, attempting to blow apart the fog that smothered the battlefield.
But the blood mist refused to disperse. Even when torn aside, it flowed back together like a living thing, wrapping around her once more.
"Ma ma ma ma! Hiding like a little rat!" Linlin snarled. Her great sword swept out, severing a blood dragon lunging at her throat.
Yet the sundered beast didn't vanish. Its form unraveled into dozens of smaller crimson threads, weaving themselves back into the mist. Linlin's newly arrived fury kept her defenses sharp. Her Armament Haki coated her body in a dense armor, stronger than steel.
"Little brat, give it up! My body's unbreakable!" she boasted.
"Unbreakable?" Ritter's voice came from everywhere at once, mocking. "Don't flatter yourself. We'll take our time. A hunter needs patience."
Linlin's pupils shrank. She whipped around, sword cleaving where the voice had sounded but she struck nothing. The blade only parted fog, which instantly healed. Ritter was gone.
"Damn you!" She stomped, the ground exploding beneath her feet. The shockwave tore open a circle of mist but only for a moment.
Ritter snorted inwardly. Even Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit couldn't clear this mist. And you think you can?
For an instant, a flicker of movement betrayed Ritter's presence. Linlin's eyes lit up. "Found you!" She lunged, massive hand closing around the blur.
Her fingers closed on nothing but fog. Ritter's whisper brushed her ear like a devil's sigh. "Your Observation Haki? You really think it can catch me?"
A blade of shadow pierced from behind. Black Tides cut shallow but true, leaving sparks and a wound that bled.
"Argh!" Linlin roared, swinging Napoleon in retaliation, but Ritter had already melted back into the mist. His laughter echoed.
"Too slow, Charlotte Linlin. Not nearly enough. I'll carve a few more lines before we're done."
"Don't get cocky, brat!" Veins stood out in her bloodshot eyes. Raising Napoleon high, she channeled lightning and flame along the blade, the power crackling like the wrath of a storm god.
"Heavenly Fire: Thunderstorm!" she bellowed.
The massive sword strike ripped through the air, laced with fire and thunder.
It didn't matter. The attack shredded mist, but new fog poured in to fill the void.
"Prometheus!" Linlin screeched. "Burn it all!"
The sun homie bobbed nervously. "Uh… burn endless mist? Boss, that's not how fire works! First battle jitters here should I really be taking point against this stuff?"
The flames licked at the mist, but more red fog poured in relentlessly, swallowing the gaps.
"Futile," Ritter's voice whispered from the shifting haze. "This mist is my domain. I alone rule here."
Linlin's breathing grew heavy. She was no fool she realized she was being dragged into a war of attrition. The mist drained her stamina endlessly. Her Haki could repel it, but it cost her strength with every breath. Meanwhile, her attacks barely touched Ritter. The blood threads that wormed into her skin gnawed at her will, blurring her senses, twisting her perception.
Logia fruits normally bullied the weak. But Ritter's fog was merciless even against those who wielded Armament Haki. The stronger you were, the more the mist devoured. Dragon himself had admitted Ritter's powers restrained him and Dragon couldn't even win.
Kuzan? Ritter could beat him with one hand. The Fog-Fog Fruit had become something terrifying, something beyond the natural order.
Then came the voices.
"Mother… why did you abandon us?" The cry of children, weak and broken, whispered from the mist.
Linlin froze. Her vision shook. "Shut up! That's not real!"
"Not real?" Ritter's tone slid like oil into her ears. "Then why don't you dare look them in the eyes?"
She hacked wildly, cleaving down phantom figures. Her fragile sanity cracked under the assault. Of all the Yonko, Linlin's grip on reason was the weakest. Madness bubbled close to the surface.
Ritter watched her struggle, pity in his eyes. "You won't last long. How many more times can you break free?"
At last he revealed himself, standing firm, Black Tides angled toward the ground. "Charlotte Linlin… what happened? A few days without me and you've already fallen this far?"
"Silence!" she bellowed, charging with apocalyptic fury.
Ritter calmly lifted a hand. "Fog God Style: Blood Shackles."
From beneath her feet, countless crimson threads burst forth, binding her limbs. She staggered mid-swing, Napoleon hanging frozen in the air. The threads tightened, cutting into her flesh, drinking her strength.
"Damn you!" Panic flared in her eyes. Once, her "iron balloon" had seemed untouchable. But that had been years ago.
Ritter's voice was cold. "That was nearly ten years ago, Linlin. You really think you can match my growth? I've got cheats on my side. Compared to the River God, your talent doesn't even measure up."
Her lips curled into a monstrous grin. "Ma ma ma ma… brat, you think this is the end?"
Her skin flushed crimson, soul power surging outward. "I am BIG MOM!"
The explosion of spiritual force shattered the bindings. Ritter leapt back, genuinely surprised. "So you can still erupt like that…"
"Prometheus, fireball barrage!"
The homie hurled blazing meteors downward. Some fog evaporated under the searing blasts but Ritter only laughed. "You think turning water into steam makes it not mist? Cute."
Linlin's aura boiled over. Her eyes burned red, Napoleon now blazing with eerie blue flame, its blade swollen with soul energy.
"Die, brat! Heavenly Fire: Soul Reaper Slash!"
The strike tore through the world itself. Ritter dissolved into mist before it hit. The ground split into a canyon, mountains sheared in half.
"Dodging already?" Linlin sneered, hurling slash after slash, her sword strokes weaving a lattice of destruction across the battlefield.
Within the fog, Ritter slipped through gaps, untouchable.
From afar, the Dragon King smirked. "She's lost her mind completely. Perfect. Just what we wanted."
His plan had been to grind her down slowly, breaking her will. Instead, her frenzy accelerated the collapse. She abandoned defense entirely, pouring everything into suicidal strikes.
Ritter's grin widened. "That's more like it." He inhaled deeply, and the blood mist swirled around Black Tides, condensing into an armor of obsidian Haki.
The real fight was about to begin.
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