Chapter 266: Taking the First Victory
A bolt of lightning streaked across the dark sky, momentarily illuminating the dense, dark clouds.
Izo moved like a swimming dragon, weaving through the jagged rocks and the sea of plants with extremely fast, explosive speed.
His two flintlock pistols continuously spat fire, blasting apart the successive waves of plants with incredible power.
"Hissatsu: Agehachōsei!!" (Sure-kill: Swallowtail Star!!)
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Usopp, of course, would not just watch him get closer. He leaped effortlessly between the grass and trees, his two revolvers taking turns pulling the trigger.
Explosive bullets trailed colorful tail flames, streaking through the air in bizarre, tricky arcs.
Every time Izo broke through an obstacle and wanted to speed up, a few fierce explosions would interrupt him, followed by a succession of thorny vines, leaf blades, and man-eating flowers with sharp teeth.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Fierce explosions, accompanied by firelight and black smoke, erupted. Izo broke free from the smoke and gunpowder, his gaze firm, gritting his teeth as he inched closer to Usopp's position.
Unconsciously, his entire body had been covered in wounds of various sizes. Stained with blood, his pink kimono was soaked in a dark scarlet.
Faced with the continuously approaching figure, Usopp did not show the slightest bit of ease.
On the Boin Archipelago, this set of tactics had been practiced countless times. Compared to his master Heracles, who understood the characteristics of various seeds, Izo's close-range methods were much cruder.
"A few more steps and you'll enter the trap zone. It's not that easy to get close to me in this sea of green," Usopp thought to himself with pride.
Many of his seeds were trap-types. He had been setting them up while spreading out the field, just waiting for his opponent to break through.
From the very beginning of the battle, he had already prepared countermeasures for every possible development. Now that the field was fully laid out, all that awaited his opponent was endless torment.
This was his brand new Usopp-style tactic!
As expected, when Izo had struggled to break through two-thirds of the distance, his heart suddenly jumped. The warning from his Observation Haki continuously stimulated his mind.
"It's below!"
Fortunately, he reacted in time. Izo quickly tapped the ground with his toes and leaped up.
The next moment.
A large number of radishes with blooming heads and what looked like hands and feet suddenly flew up and pounced at him.
Bang! Bang!
Izo flipped in the air, casually shooting down a few and kicking away two more with a direct leg swing. However, the warning from his Observation Haki did not disappear.
"No, it's something else!"
Izo instantly reacted. This level of attack was nothing to him. The real threat he sensed was another move!
Just as he was about to land, he saw a large number of sharp green bamboo shoots suddenly pierce up from under his feet.
With no leverage in the air, he directly gave up the idea of dodging and concentrated on tracking the attack below.
His arms were raised parallel, and a torrent of bullets pierced through the sharp bamboo shoots, blasting them to smithereens.
"Heh heh, the real killing move is actually here!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Just then, a corner of Usopp's mouth lifted. Taking advantage of Izo's divided attention, his right-hand revolver, 'Raging Hunter', fired several more shots.
Just traps were obviously not enough to deal with an enemy who possessed Observation Haki.
Coordinating with his own superb marksmanship from the center of the field was the true meaning of most of the traps.
"Hissatsu: Tenryūsei!!" (Sure-kill: Heavenly Dragon Star!!)
Several ferocious blue dragons streaked across the sky, pouncing down on Izo, who had just finished dealing with the bamboo forest.
Boom!!!
A huge mushroom cloud rolled up. A violent explosion echoed through the heavens, attracting the attention of many people nearby.
"Captain!"
"How is it!"
"I'm coming to help you, Captain!"
"Get back here, you idiot!"
Several members of the sixteenth division were about to rush forward in their anxiety but were stopped by another stubbled, brown-haired man who raised his hand and sternly shouted:
"This is a duel the captain主动 sought! What do you mean by interfering now? Do you have any face left!"
"Damn it!"
"Go for it, Captain!"
Hearing this, the several crew members clenched their fists with unwillingness but still did not rush up. Instead, they loudly cheered for Izo.
"Get him!"
"Knock that bastard's nose crooked!"
"Don't you talk about my nose, you bastards!" Usopp turned his head back and yelled at them fiercely.
A gust of wind rolled up the smoke and gunpowder, blowing it away and revealing a figure with tattered clothes, looking slightly pathetic.
"So noisy, you idiots..."
Izo staggered out a couple of steps. Although he looked a bit tired, the fighting spirit in his eyes had not diminished. He looked up at Usopp.
He opened his kimono, revealing his upper body and the firm muscles underneath covered in numerous scars.
"You have a lot of tricks. You're completely different from the sniper I imagined, you damn Long Nose."
"Who said snipers can only use normal bullets?"
Usopp patted his pouch proudly, and at the same time, took out a few more special pellets. He flicked the revolver's cylinder with his index finger and began to load, grinning.
"There are more and more plants on the field now, and your stamina and Haki will gradually be exhausted. You won't have a chance of winning if you keep fighting."
"Stop being so full of yourself, Long Nose."
A cold smile appeared in the depths of Izo's eyes. "I have to admit I underestimated you a bit at the beginning. But if you think you've already won, you're still a long way off."
"There are no cowards on our ship who would admit defeat halfway through a fight."
Izo's aura began to climb. The last of his physical strength all erupted, and one Haki pattern after another began to imbue his body, starting from his chest.
"Using Haki to cover his body... is he preparing to force a breakthrough in one go?"
Seeing Izo's stance, Usopp swallowed, his heart inevitably becoming a bit more nervous.
Although he had full confidence in the various tricks he had left, there was no doubt that Izo was definitely the strongest opponent he had encountered since setting out to sea.
Even though he had consumed a lot of the opponent's stamina with his unexpected opening move, facing Izo, who was about to go all out, he felt a little unsure in his heart.
"In that case, don't blame me if you get hurt later."
Usopp swallowed, a resolute look flashing in his eyes. Today, I must defeat him and make a name for myself!
"If you can do it, then bring it on!"
"Let me show you the style of a samurai from Wano Country!!"
One pitch-black pattern after another covered his blood-stained muscles. Combined with the thick makeup on Izo's face, it gave him a somewhat tragic sense of beauty.
The surrounding atmosphere gradually became heavy. Everyone held their breath, watching the two in the middle.
Izo spread his legs and pushed off violently, his entire person shooting out like an arrow from a bow!
Usopp's figure paused. He immediately raised his hand and fired two bullets, which exploded as soon as they left the muzzle.
One of the seeds grew at an incredible speed, turning into a vibrant Rafflesia, which sprayed a large amount of yellow gas towards the sky.
The other exploded into a large cloud of blue mist that mixed in, in the blink of an eye, a hazy mist permeated the entire space.
"Hissatsu Midori Boshi: Rafflesia!"
The disgusting stench made Izo's brow furrow. At the same time, a large number of triggered traps also came at him.
"You really have all sorts of tricks, you disgusting Long Nose."
Bang! Bang!
Izo couldn't help but curse. He continuously raised his hand and fired, doing his best to break through the fatal moves that attacked him.
He barely dodged the plants that weren't shot down, letting them cut through the skin covered by his Armament Haki.
He no longer had that much stamina to consume. His feet didn't stop for a moment as he charged straight for Usopp.
"Not dodging? Then try this move of mine!"
Usopp fired his right-hand revolver. The Jet Dial inside the 'Raging Hunter' operated at full power, and a special pellet burst out at extreme speed!
Sensing the threat within it, Izo's heart jumped. He hurriedly raised his gun and poured all his Haki into it.
His Observation Haki was also focused on tracking its trajectory, striving to shoot it down before the opponent's pellet got close!
Bang!
"Dan-gan Gan!!"
"Hissatsu Midori Boshi: Dokuro Bakuhatsu So!" (Sure-kill Green Star: Skull Exploding Grass!)
Boom!!!
The two bullets collided and instantly exploded. The powerful impact shattered all the stone pillars in the surrounding terrain.
In an instant, rubble flew everywhere, and a giant, pink skull-shaped cloud of smoke and gunpowder rolled up into the sky over Raijin Island!
"...Th-this kind of power."
"Captain Izo!!"
The nearby pirates raised their hands to shield their faces from the flying rocks, all of them shouting in panic towards the center of the explosion.
With an explosion of this power, even with the protection of Armament Haki, Izo, who was at the center of the blast wave, could definitely not withstand it easily.
Even the other commanders who were fighting undead not far away looked over with concern.
The firelight from the explosion slowly dimmed, and the cloud of pink smoke and gunpowder also gradually dissipated.
Just when many people thought the victor had been decided, a figure, charred black and with his skin torn open, instantly broke free from the thick smoke and flew out!
"It's not over yet, Long Nose!!"
Izo's eyes were filled with bloodshot veins, his long hair flying wildly. He raised his muzzle and unleashed the last of his strength.
"Bakuha-gan!!" (Exploding Bullet)
Bang!
A bullet transformed into a pitch-black streak of light and flew straight over. Usopp's eyes showed panic, and he hurriedly raised the butt of his twin guns!
Boom!!!
The pellet exploded at point-blank range in front of his face. A ball of dazzling firelight instantly engulfed him!
"Well done, Captain!!"
"Did he win?!"
Before the pirates could start cheering, Izo, who had just landed, suddenly felt his legs give out, and he pitched forward to the ground. A wave of sleepiness washed over his already exhausted brain.
"Captain Izo!"
"What's wrong?!"
"It's the Soft Body Grass. The poison mist I mixed with the Rafflesia gas and fired just now... it makes anyone who inhales it slowly lose their stamina."
Usopp's figure emerged from the dissipating smoke and gunpowder. He was covered in dust and dirt but had not suffered any impact damage from the explosion.
On the gun butt he had used to block, there was a shell with dense air holes.
A corner of Usopp's mouth lifted.
"The victor has been decided. I win."
(End of chapter)
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