Pak, pak, pak, pak...
Seeing the attack, Katrina had no time to dodge. She quickly whipped her silver lash, batting away the incoming paper shurikens.
Pssh! Pssh! Pssh! Pssh!
But there were too many shurikens. Even with Katrina's whip dancing flawlessly, she couldn't block them all. Several paper shurikens slipped through her defense and cut her.
After the rain of paper shurikens was over, Katrina's clothes were tattered and torn, and her body was covered in several small, bleeding cuts.
"You bastard! I'm going to kill you!"
Katrina's beautiful green eyes turned red with rage. A wild, murderous aura surged out like a bone-chilling wind, sweeping across the area.
Then, Katrina threw her silver whip away. Her green eyes became a deep crimson, and her normally pale skin turned an abnormal shade of pink.
"Heh heh heh heh... Blood, Ward, I want your blood!" Katrina's crimson eyes and an eerie, sinister smile made her entire demeanor change. Faint wisps of blood-red mist even started to drift from her body.
"What is this?!"
Upon seeing this, both Ward and Gladius noticed that something was wrong with Katrina.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, Katrina moved, disappearing from Ward's sight before a shrill whistling sound cut through the air.
Thud!
In the next moment, with a muffled sound, Ward was hit by a powerful blow in mid-air and sent flying backward, leaving a trail of blood in the air.
Thud!
After flying over a hundred meters in the blink of an eye, Ward slammed into a massive rock. His body was embedded in it, and the rock was covered in a web of cracks from the impact.
"Nani?! So fast!"
Gladius reacted only after Ward was sent flying. If his mask hadn't covered his face, anyone could have seen his look of utter shock and disbelief.
Whoosh!
Thud!
Another sharp whistle tore through the air.
Before Ward could recover, he was hit again as if by a train.
The air trembled, and a visible shockwave radiated out.
Under the immense, inexplicable force, the giant rock behind him shattered, and countless fragments shot out.
At the same time, Ward was sent flying another hundred meters before he finally crashed to the ground, plowing a deep trench before coming to a stop.
"Pffft!"
Ward lay on the ground, spitting a mouthful of blood that immediately stained the dirt.
"Damn it, this state again! This speed again!" Ward used his hand to push himself up. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth as a look of fear crossed his face. He remembered the scene from four years ago.
"Remembering something, are we? Heh heh heh... Poor Ward. A whole bunch of your brothers died, and you became someone else's subordinate. Oh, you pathetic guy! Heh heh heh..."
A sinister laugh echoed, as if it were coming from the very air around them. The wisps of blood-red mist made it seem even more chilling, especially at night.
"Damn you, stop with your tricks! Catapult Punc!" Gladius glanced around, then shot several black spheres at a spot where the blood-red mist was thick.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of explosions engulfed an area of more than a dozen meters, creating a powerful air current.
Whoosh!
Katrina suddenly appeared in front of Gladius, her hand held out. "You're so annoying!"
"Shit! Bracchium!" Gladius was shocked. He quickly threw both fists out, his arms rapidly expanding.
Boom!
A fierce explosion erupted, a blaze of fire enveloping both Katrina and Gladius. But in the next second, a black figure was sent flying backward, crashing hard on the ground a dozen meters away.
It was Gladius. The clothes on his chest were completely torn, and there was a deep, blood-red handprint on his chest.
"Pffft!"
Gladius lay on the ground, spitting blood and nearly fainting.
"Gladius!" Ward shouted. Cold sweat instantly drenched the back of his shirt. Seeing this, the fear in his eyes grew even more intense.
He remembered it was four years ago when he had just entered the Grand Line. This woman, Elsa Katrina, was being chased by a group of men in black suits. Ward saved her, and later, he found out those men were agents of the World Government's CP organization.
Katrina told Ward that she had a power coveted by a high-ranking official in the World Government, who wanted to capture her for an experiment.
At the time, Ward believed Katrina and took her in. Because Katrina had a near-perfect singing voice, incredible cooking skills, and powerful combat ability, no one in the Paperman Pirates ever disliked her, even when the crew was relentlessly hunted by both the Marines and the World Government.
Then, in the New World, they were caught in a sudden storm and ended up in front of a Marine expeditionary fleet commanded by Admiral Sakazuki, whose Magma-Magma Fruit's terrifying heat was a perfect counter to his Paper-Paper Fruit.
If it weren't for his ability to fly and his quick thinking to create a giant paper airplane that could use the wind for a short time, the Paperman Pirates would have been annihilated, and he would either be dead or locked up in Impel Down.
After a near-death escape, Ward and the remaining crew, including Katrina, were left with only forty-one people, most of them wounded. Katrina was one of them.
Using his Devil Fruit power, Ward created a hardened, waterproof paper boat. After two days adrift at sea, they finally landed in a country near the entrance to the New World.
To avoid being discovered by the Marines or World Government agents, they hid in a coastal cave at the edge of the country, secretly buying food and medicine in the city and robbing gangs and thugs when they needed money.
However, on the fourth night after they landed, when everyone was asleep, the still-injured Katrina suddenly went berserk. She transformed into her current state, acting as if she were a different person. Her strength and speed were terrifying, like that of a monster.
Out of the forty-one remaining members of the Paperman Pirates, Katrina killed thirteen and injured nine with her own hands. Ward, who was also wounded, was severely injured.
Katrina then fled. In fact, if Katrina hadn't already been injured and her intense movements had aggravated her wounds, she would have probably wiped out the entire Paperman Pirates crew.
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