Szzzt…
Facing Charlotte Linlin's overwhelming presence, Link stood his ground and unleashed Conqueror's Haki once more.
The two kingly auras collided, turning invisible pressure into a howling gale that upended everything indoors.
Dark-red lightning flickered ceaselessly around Link and Charlotte Linlin.
Those who hadn't been flattened by Link's opening intimidation were the Charlotte family's elites—formidable even in the New World—yet many would have been blown away by the storm and knocked out midair.
Even those who remained conscious had to raise their arms against the roaring wind, and when they looked at the smiling Link and Charlotte Linlin, it was like staring up at two immovable mountains.
Step outside the palace and you would see that the skies over Whole Cake Island had somehow shifted from clear to overcast. Thunderheads churned, lightning writhed within, and distant thunder rumbled.
At length, the clash of wills ebbed.
Looking at the high-spirited Link, Charlotte Linlin felt a moment's daze.
For an instant behind him she saw the silhouettes of a young Whitebeard, Golden Lion, Roger, even Rocks.
It was as if a voice told her she was growing old.
The new generation shone as brightly as the legends once had.
She turned that fear of time into anger.
All the more reason to prove she wasn't old.
She would defeat Link and show the world whose era this was.
"Where do we fight?" she asked in a low voice.
Link didn't know why her mood had plunged, and smiled. "If you don't mind, let's use one of your islands as the game board."
"Fine."
Without hesitation she issued orders to Charlotte Katakuri. "Katakuri, clear everyone off Wheat Island."
Katakuri nodded once and vanished.
Link gestured, handing the long case of Devil Fruits to Karina as she stepped from pocket space. "In a moment, you and Shirahoshi use Flame Clouds to lift Wheat Island into the air."
"I understand."
Karina nodded obediently and slipped back into the pocket space.
Soon, after Katakuri's command had emptied Wheat Island, two vast Air Doors opened high above.
A pink dragon over two hundred meters long and a nine-tailed fox over twenty meters tall burst out left and right from pocket space.
At the sight of dragon and fox, the faces of the Charlotte family—Katakuri at their head—grew solemn and wary. The weaker ones were openly afraid.
Only Charlotte Linlin's eyes held envy, and a trace of nostalgia.
Had she not already eaten a Devil Fruit back then, she would never have given the Mythical Zoan Azure Dragon to Kaido.
Now the pink dragon only sharpened her regret. The color suited her so well. If that fruit had fallen to her, she would truly have been the world's strongest creature.
But there are no ifs.
Dragon and fox trod the air and circled above Wheat Island.
Orange Flame Clouds bloomed out of nothing, thickening and multiplying.
The wheat-shaped island rose as if buoyed by the Float-Float power, lifting into the sky.
Borne by Flame Clouds, Wheat Island climbed to more than two hundred meters and held there.
On Cake Island, Link raised a hand. "After you, Senior Linlin."
"Zeus!"
"Yes, Mama."
The thundercloud Zeus swooped down. Charlotte Linlin leapt aboard and soared toward the airborne island.
Link vaulted up onto Karina's head, and she carried him to Wheat Island.
Katakuri prepared to ascend and watch the peak duel between his mother and Link.
Just then Pudding hurried over, smiling sweetly. "Brother Katakuri, are you going up to watch? Could you take me along?"
Katakuri pondered a few seconds, then nodded. "All right."
On any other day he'd have refused. But Link's purpose today concerned Pudding, and he did not turn her away.
He wasn't Link or Mama's match, but watching from afar and protecting a sister posed no problem.
He awakened his Mochi-Mochi power, turned the ground into endlessly extending mochi, and conveyed himself and Pudding onto Wheat Island.
Charlotte Brûlée, who had been hurrying over, froze where she stood, near tears.
By the time Katakuri and Pudding stepped onto the island, Link and Charlotte Linlin had already begun.
"Sage Mode."
Link opened the bout in Sage Mode.
He was, at heart, a mage. Even with Haki he was still a glass cannon. Only by turning chakra into sage chakra and fusing Haki with natural energy would he keep his head on his shoulders.
Red eye-shadow spread at the corners of his eyes, his pupils turned gold, and he clapped his hands, unleashing his signature ninjutsu: "Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence."
The earth heaved. Trunks so thick that a dozen men could not encircle them burst from the ground like great serpents.
No sooner had those trunks broken the surface than they forked wildly, sprouting dense leaves and racing into towering trees.
Hundreds of trees became a sea of green, rolling toward Charlotte Linlin like waves.
A brawler in the mold of Wang Zhi would have had to answer with sheer force, and might not have matched it.
Charlotte Linlin simply rode Zeus into the sky and slipped the net with ease.
Link had never expected this move to fell her. He meant only to turn the field into his home turf.
Once it was his domain, unless Charlotte Linlin stayed aloft forever, the moment she touched down she would be at an absolute disadvantage—just like an Uchiha facing Hashirama inside the Flower-Tree World.
You thought it was one-on-one. It's actually one versus many.
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