The long distance between them was erased in an instant. The heavily injured Admiral took a single, desperate step, Shrink the Land Into an Inch, arriving right before Rojen.
Wong!
A pitch-black sheen of Busoshoku Haki, Armament Haki, coated his right arm as his left foot crushed the ground. In the blink of an eye, Zephyr was on him.
He threw a punch so powerful that the air itself howled and exploded from the raw, concentrated force. Like a wounded beast gone mad, Zephyr unleashed the terrifying, cornered power buried deep within his body.
In this moment, the injured Zephyr was more terrifying than ever before.
Rojen narrowed his eyes, his sword fingers forming once again before thrusting forward sharply. Above his head, the void trembled, and the massive Sword God formation began to spin, preparing to strike again.
But Zephyr's fist was already upon him. The Admiral's speed was even greater now, his strike even heavier. With Rojen's Sword God ability active, the suppressive sword intent that saturated the area had slightly weakened, allowing Zephyr to recover much of his combat efficiency.
"Bang!"
In the instant they clashed, the Seven Stars blade spun down from above, colliding head-on with Zephyr's attack. The immense force held them in a brief, brutal stalemate.
Then Rojen's eyes flickered, and light burst forth like twin cyan blades.
"Xiu Xiu Xiu!"
The Sword Energy above his head surged violently, as if enraged. With a piercing shriek, a portion of the formation dove straight down toward Zephyr.
Zephyr's face twisted in fury. His right foot stomped the air, a frantic Geppo (Moonwalk), generating a spiraling gust as his body darted aside at maximum speed.
"Boom!"
In an instant, a sword projectile sliced through the spot he had just vacated, plunging into the earth and detonating.
Zephyr began sprinting rapidly across the battlefield, the Sword Energy formation trailing him like a hunting dragon. Every dive from above brought a thunderous explosion at his back, each sword strike capable of obliterating everything within ten meters.
His speed was so immense that his body left a chain of flickering afterimages. Within moments, those phantoms faded just as quickly as they appeared, while his footsteps sent clouds of dust surging skyward, the ground itself trembling with thunderous hōng lóng lóng roars.
More than ten seconds flashed by. The Sword God formation hadn't managed to land a solid hit, and with Zephyr's frantic evasions, much of its concentrated energy had already been consumed.
Rojen's gaze darkened, and he suddenly pointed a single finger forward, the essence of the Possession System power taking root in the world itself.
"Heed my words, before you lies a path of thorns, full of hardship and peril!"
"Wong!"
An invisible ripple of power spread through the void, and Zephyr's expression shifted violently.
The ground directly ahead of him suddenly sprouted sharp spikes, appearing out of nowhere, jutting upward right beneath his charging feet. There was no time to dodge.
"Busoshoku!" he roared internally. He knew this was another one of Rojen's bizarre, foreign tricks, but he had no choice but to face it head-on.
In the blink of an eye, black Armament Haki covered his entire body. The next moment, his feet stomped down hard, crushing the spikes beneath him to powder before he resumed his frantic charge forward.
But the path ahead only grew more infuriating. Strange phenomena kept appearing, thorns, massive nails, and even sudden rock walls rising from the ground to block his advance.
"What kind of bizarre ability is this?!" he roared, a mixture of anger and raw frustration in his voice.
Under the obstruction of this strange, reality-bending power, Zephyr was struck from behind by the pursuing Sword Energy three times, his wounds deepening further with each hit.
He swore that in his entire life, he had never been so utterly humiliated. The fury burned hotter than ever. His previous defeat had been a disgrace, but now this kid was adding insult to that very injury!
"An Admiral truly is an Admiral," Rojen murmured from afar, watching the scene calmly.
The power of the Sword Saint's possession was incredibly sharp, enough to suppress demons and dominate the Immortal Sword World itself. Naturally, it was not inherently weaker than that of a Marine Admiral. In fact, if the true, unhindered Sword Saint were here, he could have crushed Zephyr in three moves, ending the battle instantly.
However, after possessing a new host, the Sword Saint's power was diminished, and thus Rojen couldn't achieve that level of instantaneous dominance.
"Three moves aren't enough then… let's make it five."
Rojen spoke calmly, extending his right hand once more. The Seven Stars sword spun down from the air, landing firmly in his massive grasp again.
A breath later he stepped forward, Shrink The Land Into An Inch, and in an instant, he was before Zephyr. He swung his longsword, and Sword Energy tore across the air.
"Heavenly Sword!"
Zephyr was dodging the raining swords behind him and fighting Rojen's inexplicable ground-based obstacles; with Rojen himself added into the mix, the pressure became unbearable.
In the blink of an instant, in a dizzying moment of exhaustion, Rojen's blade struck him cleanly.
"Boom!"
His body was sent flying again. Before he could rise, the raining swords from the sky submerged him once more in a cyan storm.
This time, even more blood flowed. Whether it was the durability of Tekkai or the defense of Busoshoku, neither could stop those fierce, Wuxia-style blades.
Whoosh!
Rojen stepped forward, and his form shrank back to its normal, leaner size. From his vantage, he could see that the Zephyr who had taken the full blow was pale, fluttering, and nearly broken in combat.
It wasn't until five or six breaths later that Zephyr stumbled out of the settling dust and opened his eyes, only to see the point of the Seven Stars pressed firmly against his throat.
"You going to kill me?" Zephyr's face was twisted in defeat. To be beaten to this state by a junior whose exact age he didn't even know, this was the greatest, most bitter humiliation of his life.
"Right now, leaving you alive is more useful than killing you," Rojen said with a ghost of a smile. He brought his two fingers together and pointed; seven strands of the unique Mount Shu Sword Energy shot into Zephyr's body, making his face contort in searing pain.
This was a specialized Sword Energy designed to bind a person's movement. Although the Admiral looked mortally wounded, Rojen couldn't take the chance that some special reserve power wouldn't erupt again.
"What do you want?" Zephyr's face grew even darker as he found he couldn't move a muscle.
Rojen bent down and pulled a Den Den Mushi from Zephyr's coat pocket.
"Let me borrow this a moment."
Zephyr was furious but completely powerless. For the first time in his long life, he felt this helpless, and for the first time, he hated this brand of pirate so much he wanted to kill them all on sight.
Rojen ignored the Admiral's glare, dialed the Den Den Mushi, and three seconds later the call connected.
"Hello?" A deep voice answered.
"Zephyr, speak up!" It was Sengoku's voice, urgent with authority.
"I am not Zephyr!" Rojen said, his voice carrying a calm, chilling smile.
At Marine Headquarters, Sengoku, who had been checking on recent movements by the Golden Lion crew, felt his heart seize in his chest.
…
Meanwhile, at the Sabaody Archipelago, District 20...
"Ha ha ha, brothers, kill them!"
"Turns out the Marines are so fragile, we pirates are the strongest!"
"Now we've taken over Sabaody blocks 1–20, what are they going to do?"
A group of pirates, waving weapons and grinning with wild excitement, shouted loudly.
"Brothers, we won't stop there. Is this little patch of land enough for you?" Trens stood at the front and asked loudly, waving his arm.
"No, not enough!"
"Big brother Trens, what should we do? We'll follow you!"
"Yes, we'll do whatever you say!"
The pirates cheered with bloodthirsty fervor.
"Next, let's take this whole island!" Trens climbed to a high vantage point and proclaimed confidently.
(End Of This Chapter)
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