Foxy, caught in the throes of his blind rage and inflated ego, leaped high into the air, aiming a kick imbued with his Slow-Slow power straight at the back of Shiki's head!
Time seemed to slow to a crawl at this moment, Foxy's heart pounding in his throat.
'Yes! My chance! Even a legend can't escape my Noro Noro powers!'
Just as his foot was about to precisely strike the back of Shiki's neck, a bone-chilling atmosphere suddenly permeated the air, colder than any ice, heavier than any mountain
. It felt like being trapped naked in the deepest level of Impel Down.
Foxy's heartbeat seemed to stop.
His ears clearly caught the most terrifying laughter he had ever heard in his life.
It wasn't the boisterous roar from before.
This was a low, guttural chuckle that sounded like demonic whispers bubbling up from the depths of hell itself, sending involuntary, soul-deep chills running down his spine.
"Jihahahaha… Interesting little trick."
Shiki's perfectly intact genius-level brain had instantly calculated the flaws, the minute temporal distortions, in Foxy's Slow-Time domain.
His newly restored, phoenix-enhanced legs erupted with a power far more terrifying than anything he possessed even in his youth.
In a flash, faster than the eye could follow even outside the slow-time field, he spun around.
The afterimage from his turn hadn't even fully dissipated like smoke when his real form had already appeared behind Foxy, his large, calloused hand gripping Foxy's distinctive, ridiculous split-afro hairstyle.
Foxy was completely stunned, his mind blank.
He was convinced he was done for this time.
"I'm in a hurry," Shiki's voice was low, hoarse, and utterly devoid of amusement now.
"So let's end this game."
Simultaneously, high above them, one of the smaller floating islands that had been peacefully hovering suddenly underwent a shocking transformation.
It seemed to be tightly grasped by an invisible giant hand, beginning to slowly collapse inward, the rock groaning and cracking.
The fragments of Long Ring Long Land that had just been harvested, as if given life, rapidly assembled above Shiki and Foxy's heads.
Fueled by Shiki's Haki and the Float-Float power, they formed a massive, majestic, roaring lion's head made of pure stone in the blink of an eye.
"Lion's Might: Imperial Palace Roll!"
With a roar, the colossal stone lion head shot downward toward the Sexy Foxy and the remaining Foxy Pirates still scrambling on the dangling ropes, moving at incredible speed!
It was about to swallow them all in an instant!
Every member of the Silver Fox Pirates froze in place, their eyes wide with abject terror as they stared up at the enormous, descending maw. In their eyes, this lion head appeared like an insurmountable mountain, an unstoppable force of nature.
Before it, they felt as insignificant as ants, not even worthy of being stuck between its stony teeth.
The gap in power between them and this monster was like heaven and earth.
They were now filled with utter, soul-crushing regret.
They had actually attacked such a terrifying pirate.
'Though,' a small, absurd part of their minds noted.
'if we somehow survive this, this story will be enough to boast about in taverns for years to come.'
"W-WAIT!" Foxy shrieked, forcing an ingratiating, terrified smile onto his face under the absolute suppression of overwhelming power.
"We can a match! The Davy Back Fight! That's the rule!"
"The game's over, brat," Shiki coldly cut him off.
Then, with casual, contemptuous force, he violently slammed Foxy face-first onto the deck of his own ship.
With a thunderous CRASH, cracks instantly spread across the wood.
But from these fissures erupted not splinters, but raw, untamed Conqueror's Haki.
It surged forth like a raging tidal wave, washing over the remaining crew members clinging to the ropes and those still on the Sexy Foxy.
Instantly, half the crew's eyes rolled back in their heads as they lost consciousness, plummeting into the churning sea below.
Shiki watched the scene unfold with a ferocious, satisfied grin spreading across his face.
He looked down at the groaning, broken Foxy.
"Your ability… it's quite valuable," he mused aloud.
"Selling you to Ron should fetch a pretty price. Jihahahaha!" His maniacal laughter echoed across the sea once more.
On the deck, Foxy was drenched in blood that seemed to seep from every pore, staining his entire head crimson.
His clothes were soaked, clinging tightly to his body.
He felt like he had truly reached a dead end, death's shadow enveloping him completely.
Just then, Shiki's tall and imposing figure suddenly materialized like a ghost atop the main mast of the Sexy Foxy.
He viciously stomped on the ship's cute, fox-head figurehead.
With a resounding CRACK, wood splinters flew everywhere as the figurehead instantly turned into debris.
Shiki's booming, domineering voice reverberated through the air.
"Come with me! We're going to meet someone! Maybe we can trade you for one of Whitebeard's drinking rings to play with!"
No sooner had he spoken than an astonishing scene unfolded.
The severely damaged Sexy Foxy, as if manipulated by some invisible colossal force, suddenly lifted out of the water and into the air.
Mid-flight, Foxy, still conscious but barely, performed a series of comical, involuntary movements on the deck, like slow-motion playback.
His limbs flailed helplessly as the ship tilted and rose.
Just as Shiki's veiny hand shot toward Foxy with lightning speed, intending to grab him, a cunning, desperate smile suddenly appeared on Foxy's bloody face.
"NOW!!!" he shrieked.
At this critical moment, Porche's pom-pom, which she had thrown earlier with all her might, finally completed its graceful, slow-motion arc through the Noro Noro field.
Like a fluffy pink shooting star, it flew at what felt like unimaginable speed straight toward Shiki's head.
With a soft, anticlimactic thud, the pom-pom struck Shiki's fully recovered forehead with perfect accuracy.
"Old bastard! I'm not dead yet!" Foxy roared, emboldened by this minuscule victory.
He let out a cold laugh tinged with madness.
Swiftly, he fired three more Slow-Slow beams from his hands.
These glowing pink projectiles shot rapidly toward Shiki.
However, to everyone's astonishment, the moment these beams were about to touch Shiki's fluttering cape, they encountered what seemed like an invisible steel barrier—a wall of pure, solidified Haki.
They instantly shattered into sparkling pink fragments that dissipated harmlessly into the air.
The entire airspace suddenly fell into dead silence.
"Jihahahaha!" Shiki's wild laughter shattered the stillness.
The deck beneath his feet cracked further, threatening to collapse.
A powerful surge of Conqueror's Haki erupted abruptly, causing the surrounding clouds to tremble violently and form a distinct circular gap around his fleet.
The overwhelming aura spread out like raging tidal waves, pressing all the remaining, conscious members of the Foxy Pirates flat against the deck, unable to move, unable to breathe.
Shiki controlled his Haki precisely, deliberately preventing them from losing consciousness this time.
He wanted them to feel his displeasure.
"Kid," he said, his voice dangerously low as he looked down at Foxy.
"Using your own power against you? That's just a trick I mastered long ago."
He had simply coated himself in Armament Haki, nullifying the strange Devil Fruit effect.
Foxy was already terrified out of his wits, his body trembling uncontrollably.
His legs gave way completely, and he fell to his knees with a heavy "thud."
He started kowtowing frantically toward Shiki, repeatedly shouting:
"I SURRENDER! I SURRENDER! HAVE MERCY! PLEASE DON'T SELL ME!"
"Hmph!" Shiki didn't even glance at the pathetic figure. With a final, dismissive wave of his hands, all the remaining islands of Long Ring Long Land were violently uprooted from their foundations!
The massive islands floated into the sky, joining his fleet as lightly as feathers.
The swirling seawater surged violently, filling the massive gaps left behind, creating monstrous waves that radiated outwards across the ocean surface.
Long Ring Long Land was no more.