With Shiki's forces charging, Sengoku held his ground. Diarmuid, seeing this, didn't hesitate. He put all his strength into his wrist, covering his blade with both Armament Haki and his gravity power. He then swung his sword at the roaring lions.
"Gravity Blade: Extreme Tiger!" Diarmuid roared.
The moment the slash left his blade, it condensed into several roaring, tiger-shaped energy blasts. They charged at the lions with reckless abandon. The immense pressure of the tigers shattered the lions, but they reformed just as quickly, still coming on strong.
Diarmuid changed his approach. He pointed his sword downward, and an invisible gravity force erupted, covering the lions with precision. With a loud snap, it felt as if a mountain had fallen on them. The arrogant lions were flattened into sheets on the ground.
"Lion's Resolve: Scattering Valley!" Shiki bellowed. He swung his swords, Kogarashi and Oto, sending several slashes down from the sky toward Diarmuid.
"Tiger Style: Roaring Forest!" Diarmuid's Nagasone Kotetsu gleamed. He didn't dodge or block; instead, he met the incoming slashes with a single swing.
Nagasone Kotetsu seemed to become a tiger itself, and as it unleashed the strike, it let out a roar like a king ruling the forest. The roar left the blade, taking the form of several slashes that shattered Shiki's Scattering Valley.
"Slicing Waves!" Shiki's voice suddenly entered Diarmuid's ears.
Diarmuid's eyes flashed. He instinctively brought Nagasone Kotetsu up to block. Sure enough, in the next instant, Shiki's Kogarashi slammed into Diarmuid's blade. The powerful force pushed Diarmuid back, his feet carving two deep marks in the thick stone tiles of the Marineford plaza.
"So fast…" Diarmuid thought in surprise. He had always known Shiki was agile, but he hadn't expected him to be so quick that he nearly couldn't react. It was a good thing he constantly kept his Observation Haki active. Otherwise, he might not have been able to keep up with that strike.
"You've gotten a lot stronger than the last time I saw you, kid…" Shiki said. He immediately swung his other sword, Oto, in a horizontal slash aimed at Diarmuid's waist. He was trying to cut him in half!
Shiki used a two-sword style, but Diarmuid only had one sword, and Nagasone Kotetsu was currently locked with Kogarashi. It was impossible to block Oto.
Diarmuid's spirit was unyielding; there was no time to dodge. He coated his free left arm with Armament Haki and formed his hand into a claw, a light purple aura of gravity condensing in his palm. He then reached out toward Shiki's Oto.
"Tiger's Pressure Claw!" Diarmuid roared. The claw was a perfect block, stopping Shiki's Oto dead in its tracks. Looking closely, Diarmuid's palm wasn't actually touching the blade. A repulsive gravity field pushed back the blade, keeping it about a centimeter away from his hand.
Just then, Diarmuid's legs froze. He didn't even need to look down to know that his feet were encased in rocks.
"I have a similar technique to yours. Let's see how you like it!" Shiki sneered. As he spoke, the rocks on Diarmuid's legs began to creep up his body.
"Gravity Pressure…" Diarmuid tried to fight back, but he wasn't fast enough.
"Lion's Threat: Earth Bind!" Shiki bellowed. The rocks wrapped around Diarmuid's legs transformed into a tongue. In the next moment, as Shiki retreated, a lion made of earth emerged from the ground, its tongue wrapping around Diarmuid's legs and swallowing him whole. The lion then collapsed again, forming a towering pillar with Diarmuid trapped inside.
"Buddha's Palm of the Nation!" Sengoku finally intervened. He moved with incredible speed and punched the pillar. He was so powerful that he carved the shape of a Buddha into the thick stone. In the next instant, the pillar crumbled, and Diarmuid was freed.
"Cough…" Diarmuid spat out a mouthful of blood. He felt a lot better now that the pressure on his chest was gone. His injury wasn't serious; he just looked a bit disheveled.
Shiki's Lion's Threat: Earth Bind wasn't as powerful as his own Planetary Devastation. The crushing power of Shiki's attack came from him shaping the earth, not from gravity compression. The force was naturally much weaker.
"How do you feel?" Sengoku asked Diarmuid, his eyes still on Shiki.
Diarmuid knew he wasn't asking about his injuries. He wiped the blood from his mouth and smiled. "He's incredibly strong, but I could have gotten out on my own. I wasn't at my limit yet. I can keep fighting!"
"Hehehe…" Sengoku chuckled without turning around. "I just wanted you to experience what it's like to face a top-tier pirate. It seems you understand now. It's my turn to take the lead. We don't have time to waste with this bastard, Shiki…"
Diarmuid pulled his Nagasone Kotetsu from the rubble, wiped the dirt from the blade, and nodded. "Understood."
Sengoku clearly hadn't intervened earlier because he wanted to give Diarmuid some practice. But now, it was time to get serious.
Without saying another word, Sengoku clenched his fists, and his Armament Haki erupted.
Diarmuid's eyes gleamed. This was the second stage of Armament Haki!
He could use the first stage, which coated the body like armor, making it incredibly tough and enhancing his striking power. But he had only just started to learn the second stage and rarely used it in a real fight. Sengoku, however, was clearly an expert.
If the first stage was a rigid suit of armor, the second stage, or Ryuo as it was called in Wano, was like flowing water, capable of striking an opponent without making direct contact.
"Here we go!" Sengoku said softly.
As Sengoku moved, the ground shattered, and he disappeared with a Soru step.
Diarmuid immediately dropped to one knee and placed his palm on the ground. He roared, "Universal Pull!"
A purple energy flowed from his hand into the earth, moving like a snake and disappearing from sight.
Diarmuid's eyes were locked on the sky. Sengoku was already aiming a palm strike at Shiki. Shiki wasn't fazed. He met Sengoku's attack with his two swords, both coated in powerful Armament Haki.
'It seems the ship's wheel on his head hasn't suppressed his strength yet. His Haki usage is still incredibly fluid,' Diarmuid thought. The wheel on Shiki's head had clearly affected his strength later in life, so much so that the former pirate overlord couldn't even use Haki well. That was why he was beaten by Luffy twenty years later and almost died on the spot.
Diarmuid couldn't even be mad about it. Luffy was the "chosen one." He could master the second stage of Armament Haki in a few days and instinctively combine Conqueror's Haki with his attacks while fighting Kaido. How could anyone compete with that?
As for Shiki… well, in his movie, even the Pirate King could be beaten.
He swept the chaotic thoughts from his mind. Diarmuid's eyes and Observation Haki were completely focused on Shiki. This intense concentration led to a new breakthrough in his Haki. He seemed to be able to see a network of lines, some straight and some crooked.
'What is this?' Diarmuid thought in shock. He had learned all the theory behind Observation Haki from Zephyr. Even if he couldn't see the future, he knew the basic principles. But he had never heard of being able to "see" lines.
As he watched more closely, he noticed the lines were either concentrated or spread out. On people like Sengoku and Shiki, the lines were dense and intertwined, almost like an energy field… a force field.
He paused. A gravity field? Or maybe an attractive force field? He couldn't tell for sure. He had forgotten all his physics from his past life. But he knew that everything in the world was affected by various forces, like gravity, magnetism, and electromagnetism.
He was clearly using Observation Haki to see these "fields." He could even follow the lines to extend his Observation Haki over a much wider area.
Suddenly, Diarmuid understood. He looked down at his hand on the ground, which was still releasing a constant stream of gravity energy.
"I see. I always wondered how Fujitora could casually detect meteorites in space. It was because of this. This is probably a special type of Observation Haki that comes from combining it with a Devil Fruit power, like how Enel could hear people's thoughts by combining his Observation Haki with the Rumble-Rumble Fruit. This ability to see 'lines' and 'force fields' must be an unintentional combination of my Haki and my power." Diarmuid muttered softly to himself. He then let out a small laugh. "I should have figured this out sooner."
Though he had made a major breakthrough, this was not the time to stop and study. Using the "lines" and "force fields" he could see, Diarmuid could lock on to Shiki much better.
This feeling was more real than just seeing an image with his eyes. It was no wonder Fujitora, despite being blind, was still at the level of an Admiral. He could use Haki to see the more real force fields and lines!
This was perfect. As Shiki and Sengoku crossed paths, Diarmuid said grimly, "Locked Sound!"
The energy he had placed in the ground immediately erupted, creating a powerful gravity field that precisely targeted Shiki, who was now within its three-meter range.
In the next moment, the invisible gravity pressed down on Shiki, who was floating in the air. Shiki's eyes were filled with shock and fury, but he used his Float-Float Fruit to resist the gravitational pressure. But his agile movements were severely hindered.
Sengoku's massive golden hand came down from above, landing a powerful palm strike on Shiki, who couldn't dodge.
'Have you ever heard of a palm strike that falls from the sky?' Diarmuid thought to himself.
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