Yami was fast, but not so fast that Aokiji couldn't react. After all, Marine Admirals are top-tier powerhouses.
What surprised and frustrated Aokiji was that the high-speed movement Yami used was the Rokushiki technique, Soru. Another person who had managed to learn the superhuman techniques of the Marines had appeared on these seas.
But Aokiji had no time for such thoughts. He could sense another wave of gravity emerging from Yami's darkened hand. However, this gravitational pull wasn't as terrifying as the Black Hole from before; Aokiji didn't feel a fatal threat.
Seeing that Yami's fist wasn't coated in Haki, Aokiji guessed that this gravity was the key to the Dark-Dark Fruit's ability to nullify other powers.
Aware that if he were caught by this gravity, he would temporarily lose his Devil Fruit powers, Aokiji did not choose to dodge. Instead, just before the black vortex could touch him, he elementalized his right hand, coating it with Armament Haki and the "Iron Fist" technique taught to him by Garp, and threw a powerful punch at Yami.
A second before their fists met, the black vortex successfully made contact with Aokiji. Then, Yami's fist successfully collided with Aokiji's.
A terrifying shockwave instantly erupted from their fists, shattering the ground beneath them as cracks spread out in all directions.
In the next second, Yami's expression changed slightly as his body was sent flying.
"Monster!"
Watching Yami fly backward, Aokiji cursed inwardly.
His punch, a combination of his Ice-Ice Fruit, Haki, and Iron Fist, had failed to overpower his opponent's ordinary fist. He had to use an emission of Armament Haki just to send the man flying.
Seeing that Yami was completely unharmed, it seemed even the Haki emission hadn't injured him. How could a monster with such strength and physical constitution have remained unknown until now?
Fortunately, Aokiji had also discovered something.
Yami, despite his astonishing physical abilities, had apparently not awakened his Haki. He had mastered neither Observation Haki nor Armament Haki.
As long as he wasn't hit by Yami's Black Hole or touched by the black vortex that could nullify his powers, his opponent had no way to counter his elementalization.
As he was sent flying, Yami, in turn, discovered another flaw with his Black Hole.
Or rather, it wasn't a flaw of the Black Hole, but a limitation of the More-More Fruit.
Just now, Yami had intended to launch a sneak attack on Aokiji with Black Hole, not just the power-nullifying Dark Water.
However, he found that he couldn't form the Black Hole at all.
This was because at that moment, he was in a state of multiplied speed.
Other than gigantification, the More-More Fruit could only multiply one of his states at a time; it couldn't apply multiple multiplications simultaneously.
Because of this, Yami could only use Dark Water instead of Black Hole.
"Kurouzu!"
After landing, Yami glanced in a certain direction and suddenly released a large amount of darkness, which spread out in all directions like a tidal wave.
At the same time, Yami silently used his multiplication power to increase the speed at which the black fog spread.
In just a dozen breaths, the entire ground of Thriller Bark was covered in the black fog.
Seeing the black fog appear beneath their feet, Karina and the other two felt a sense of relief.
Nami turned to the terrified Perona and Hogback, who was carrying Moria, and said with a smile, "Don't worry. This is the Master's domain. It won't hurt us."
Hearing this, Perona and Hogback breathed a sigh of relief and quickened their pace to escape from Thriller Bark.
Unlike Karina and the others who felt at ease, Aokiji felt a rare sense of alarm. He quickly used Geppo to fly into the sky and looked down at Yami in shock. "To be able to spread the darkness to this extent and still maintain such a strong, controllable gravitational pull?"
The Thriller Bark, now covered by Kurouzu, was not being indiscriminately devoured. In fact, nothing on the ground was being pulled into the black hole space.
Thanks to the More-More Fruit's multiplication, the gravity was focused solely on Aokiji.
The fact that the pull was strong enough to force even Aokiji to flee the ground showed just how astonishing it was.
But that wasn't what truly alarmed Aokiji.
What truly alarmed him was that after Yami deployed this field of darkness, anyone who couldn't fly was not even worthy of being his opponent.
This move was no less than Ice Age, and it even countered Ice Age.
Aokiji, with his wide-ranging Observation Haki, naturally understood that Yami had cast this domain not to force him into the air, but to allow his companions to leave safely.
Yami didn't answer Aokiji. He raised a hand towards him, and the familiar black vortex appeared once again.
Seeing this, Aokiji's expression changed slightly again. His floating figure suddenly turned into ice.
Swoosh swoosh swoosh...
A series of piercing sounds echoed as Aokiji froze the moisture in the air, using Soru and elementalization to rain down ice shards on Yami from above.
Without Observation Haki, Yami couldn't catch Aokiji with his clairvoyance or Dark Water.
"Ice Ball!"
Aokiji seemed to have realized this as well. He suddenly launched a sneak attack from the air, firing five ice pillars from his palm that shot towards Yami with astonishing cold energy.
"Black Hole!"
The black vortex in Yami's hand transformed into a bowling ball-sized black hole, devouring all the ice pillars that shot down.
Then, Yami gave up on trying to catch Aokiji with gravity. He also used Geppo to shoot into the sky, beginning a cat-and-mouse game with Aokiji in the air.
If Yami used Black Hole, Aokiji would avoid battle.
If Yami only used Dark Water, Aokiji would engage in close combat depending on the situation.
If Yami didn't use the Dark-Dark Fruit, Aokiji would proactively close in and use his Ice-Ice Fruit to freeze him.
But as soon as the cold air froze Yami, it was either shattered by Yami's terrifying strength or devoured by his darkness.
Aokiji felt incredibly helpless and frustrated by this.
This "most evil ability in history," while unable to elementalize like other Logia, was the bane of other Logia users.
As soon as he was touched by that black vortex, he would temporarily lose his Devil Fruit powers.
No matter what kind of attack he launched, his opponent could just use Black Hole to devour it completely.
And that damn Black Hole posed a fatal threat even to him, forcing him to dodge it on sight.
Fortunately, that Black Hole also had significant flaws.
First, if something got close, its gravity would disperse and weaken.
Second, he had to use it from a stationary position, and it took longer to form than the black vortex.
If the Black Hole could be formed as quickly as the black vortex and combined with that incredible speed that only Observation Haki could perceive, it would be simply unbeatable.
Even as it was now, Aokiji felt it was incredibly difficult to deal with.
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