Boom—
The two colossal slashes crossed in the sky and did not cancel each other out.
After a brief stalemate, they exploded violently.
The terrifying shockwave flung both the airborne Yami and the Golden Lion away.
Then the shattered slashes became a storm of ten thousand air blades, each with frightening cutting power, trying to tear the two of them to pieces as they flew backward.
"Black Hole."
A squall of this level could not break Yami's defense.
To keep his clothes from being ruined, Yami unleashed his Black Hole and swallowed the incoming storm of blades.
The Golden Lion fared more raggedly.
The explosion hurled him back, his splendid kimono was slashed full of rents, and even his mortal flesh was marked with several cuts.
Those very cuts helped the man with the helm stuck in his skull—whose head was seldom clear and who lost his Haki long ago—gradually regain his calm.
Roar—
The lion, just awakened, instantly displayed the bearing unique to a legendary pirate.
With a sweep of his hand, the storm of air blades about to engulf him seemed to gain a will of its own, condensing into a roaring wind-dragon of blades that lunged at Yami.
A Float-Float Fruit user fears storms only if they are strong enough—like the once-in-a-century gales of the Edd War seas.
Anything short of a calamity, be it tsunami, blizzard, or tempest, not only fails to threaten the Golden Lion, it becomes his weapon.
The Float-Float Fruit can control all nonliving matter he touches.
So long as it isn't alive and has been touched, it falls under his control.
He can even reshape and combine what he controls, a strategic telekinesis-type Fruit.
If Yami seizes this Fruit, he will gain true flight and max out his ability to control matter.
Facing the charging wind-dragon, Yami neither dodged nor flinched. The Black Hole in his hand released titanic gravity, an invisible giant palm that seized the dragon, shrank it, and tossed it into the void.
"That disgusting gravity… the Dark-Dark Fruit."
Staring at the Black Hole, the newly clear-headed Golden Lion recognized Yami's power at a glance.
He did not strike again. Floating in the air, he asked, "Brat, who are you?"
"I'm Yami, the one who's here to take your life."
Still not using the Black Hole to sneak attack, Yami smiled with infuriating politeness. "Please advise me, Senior Shiki."
"Geh hahahaha… take my life?"
As if hearing a joke, Shiki let out his signature laugh. "Brats of this era are awfully cocky."
His smile twisted into a feral grin, the wickedness of a true pirate laid bare. "If you can do it, then try."
Even without Conqueror's Haki, Shiki's aura was staggering. Anyone without iron nerves would tremble before him.
The timid might faint under his gaze alone.
He did not ask about the lightning pillar just now.
He did not ask why a Dark-Dark user could wield lightning, nor whether a companion was hiding nearby, another Fruit user.
The cautious would split their mind over such things.
But Shiki neither asked nor cared.
For a true powerhouse, sufficient strength makes all schemes into cheap tricks.
Shiki was such a powerhouse.
Unlike the fallen and dispirited, his loss of Haki stemmed from the helm lodged in his head that kept him from staying clear-minded; over time his Haki slipped from his grasp.
But his mindset and pride were still those of the lion whose roar shook the seas, the man closest to the throne in the previous era.
As Whitebeard did with all challenges, Shiki now saw Yami as a newcomer to be tested, ready to let him feel the terror of a true pirate.
Yami's face split in a battle-hungry grin. "Then I won't hold back."
With a blur, he blasted toward Shiki.
A single Moonwalk step carried him tens of meters in an instant, and he was upon the Golden Lion.
His right hand clenched, the gale shrieking around his fist as it slammed forward.
Even without Observation Haki, Shiki could sense the power condensed in that punch.
One blow could likely shatter a rocky hill or blow apart a common large ship.
Shiki reacted just as quickly, lifting a leg to meet it and guard.
The airflow-twisting fist met the air-shearing famous blade. The former wasn't cut, the latter wasn't broken or bent.
The two forces—martial skill and swordsmanship—again turned into a terrifying shockwave like the earlier crossing slashes, flinging both fighters through the sky.
Neither used the Dark-Dark or Float-Float powers to absorb or command the airflow.
Driving straight through the gale, they flew at each other again, fist and blade colliding once more.
This time there was no burst of wind, only the pure clash of strength and technique.
"Geh hahahaha… such monstrous strength, such defense. You remind me of a woman."
Seeing even his famed blades could not pierce Yami's guard, Shiki glimpsed the reflection of a peerless beauty from his youth.
"Big Mom, Charlotte Linlin."
Yami hammered another punch that Shiki casually blocked. While unleashing a storm of fists and kicks, he grinned. "When I enter the strongest sea, I'll pay those monsters a visit one by one. I'll step on them all and use them as stones on my path to the top."
"Geh hahahaha… bold talk, brat."
Shiki laughed, full of old memories. "I've seen plenty of arrogant whelps in decades on these seas, but…"
His tone dipped. A lethal glint flashed in his eyes as a greatsword master's aura erupted. He stopped guarding, raised his leg, and kicked out a slash that filled Yami's vision with green light.
"They were all buried by me."
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