Chapter 173: The Most Difficult Battle! Part 1
Under the cover of night, the Golden Lion let out a sinister laugh.
In the next moment, he kicked repeatedly through the air, and golden sword energy, sharp enough to split mountains, screamed toward them!
"Lion, Thousand Cut Valley!"
This was an upgraded version of a flying slash, far more terrifying in power.
Shanks rushed forward with Gryphon and planted himself in front of Roy. He swung down hard!
A massive golden slash slammed into Shanks's blade. Shanks's eyes widened. He clenched the hilt with both hands and was forced backward.
Aerial combat was its own beast. Even though Roy, Shanks, and Gion could all use Moonwalk and Shiki could fly, the lack of a proper foothold meant their strength and stability were inevitably affected.
When Shiki launched that slash, half his body swayed violently in the air.
Let alone the others.
"What a monster… is this Shiki at his peak?" Shanks stared at the Golden Lion in disbelief.
In the next instant, Shiki shot forward at lightning speed. Oto clashed violently with Gryphon. The impact sent both men flying back, but Shiki twisted in midair and changed direction halfway through, charging straight for the other redhead.
Clang!
As the blade fixed to Shiki's severed leg chopped down, Roy threw a punch. The friction between fist and steel burst into sparks like starlight.
Shiki's gaze turned colder as he noticed the sword at Roy's waist. He roared and kicked out with the other leg, Kogarashi slashing in from a viciously tricky angle.
"You brat, draw your sword!"
Shiki's voice was full of fury. He hated Linlin to the bone.
People like Linlin and Roger…
He could not beat those two, sure, but he could not beat these brats either?
And this brat had just blocked his blade with one punch?
What was that supposed to be, Armament Haki? Swordsmanship?
Or was he trying to insult the Golden Lion?
"Damn it, you two redheads, you're dead!" Shiki roared in his heart.
Crackling!
Roy raised a leg and pressed down on Shiki's other sword. In the next moment, Shiki exploded with force and violently flung him away.
Roy had thought Shiki might want a proper swordsman's duel.
But Roy still had not awakened Armament Haki.
Right now, his fists were clearly harder than his sword, so sorry, he could only fight this one with his hands.
Shiki's clarity was likely temporary. That ship's wheel in his head was the reason the Golden Lion's true strength kept dropping, all the way until the beginning of the story.
Roy, Shanks, and Gion needed to make full use of this short window and experience just how terrifying top tier combatants really were.
As for danger?
If they survived, they would gain priceless experience.
Shiki was drenched in sweat, his body trembling. It was hard to tell if it was another serious health problem or if Roy and the others had simply pushed him into a fury.
A swordsman fighting without his sword was like Luffy swinging punches while holding a famous blade.
It was infuriating.
Anyone watching would think it was pure disrespect.
Gion arrived in a flash, Konpira cutting across the air in a clean sweep. Shiki swept his right leg, and the longsword fixed there struck like lightning, blasting Gion away with a single hit!
"So strong!" Gion gasped.
In the next instant, another slash from Shiki sent her flying backward again.
She slammed straight into Roy.
Roy caught her with one hand around her waist, recovered instantly with Moonwalk, and shifted her out of the line.
Shiki's offense was fierce and continuous. Not only had his strength returned to its peak, his attacks came without pause, ruthless and relentless. If they slipped for even a moment, they could be killed on the spot.
Shiki was too fast. Roy and Gion had no time to fully dodge.
In a blink, Shiki kicked both blades down at once.
He came in hard.
Roy twisted aside and drove a punch into Sakura.
At the same time, Gion grabbed Roy's waist and moved with him, sliding around his body like a snake, as if she had coiled around him to change their angle in the air.
From the other side, she struck, slashing at the blade fixed to Shiki's withered stump.
Clang clang!
Two ear splitting metallic crashes rang out. Sparks flew as Roy and Gion stopped both of Shiki's swords.
Hmph!
In the next moment, Shiki's strength erupted again and sent both Roy and Gion flying backward.
Below them, on the floating island, a wide stretch of land rapidly hardened. Earth and stone churned like boiling water. Under the Float Float Fruit's power, the ground shook violently, and one huge lion of earth and stone after another rose up, each as large as a small mountain!
Their bodies moved with the earth itself.
One after another, the lions charged into the sky. They formed a circle, mouths wide, roaring up at the heavens.
In an instant, a ring of enormous lions surged upward and surrounded Roy and Gion.
Shiki grinned as he climbed higher. With one sword strike, he knocked Shanks back again, then turned his cold gaze down on Roy and Gion.
Gion stabilized herself with Moonwalk, pointed Kinpira at the massive lion pouncing toward her, and swung.
A dazzling, enormous slashing wave tore free from her blade and shot toward the beast!
Shiki's move, Lion's Might, Earth Roll, was clearly not something easy to deal with.
Gion's slash split the lion apart.
But in the next instant, the lion that had been cut in two suddenly pulled itself together again under Shiki's control, roaring as it lunged once more!
Roy and Gion fought back to back in the air. They unleashed slashing waves in two directions, striking down the giant lions again and again.
But it was obvious Shiki was pouring effort into controlling Lion's Might, Earth Roll.
A slash would pierce through a lion, and then Shiki would manipulate what he had touched, forcing it to rejoin and return to the shape of a giant beast.
That level of focus was terrifying.
He was even more dedicated than Kakashi's dog headed Earth Style wall from next door.
But only in this state could Shiki use the Float Float Fruit so precisely, while also bringing his swordsmanship and Haki to bear at the same time.
Roy understood Shiki's intention in an instant.
This bastard wanted to use Lion's Might, Earth Roll to capture Roy and Gion alive, and then deal with Shanks.
Even if Shanks was still some distance from his future Yonko peak, he already posed a real threat to Shiki.
The current Golden Lion was the most clear headed Golden Lion, with an extremely sharp mind.
Unlike later, when he could even lose to a fully grown Luffy…
Roy became more and more certain that the Shiki Luffy would fight in the future would be a hollow Shiki, confused and without proper Haki.
Above them, Shanks swung Gryphon downward several times.
At the same time, under Shiki's control, a surge of seawater rose up and swept toward Shanks.
Shanks's preemptive strikes cut the seawater in two, but in the next moment, the water gathered again under Shiki's control and rushed at him once more.
"Jihahahaha… you foolish brats," Shiki sneered. "The future ocean belongs to me, the Golden Lion!"
<><><><><>
[Check Out My Patreon For +50 Advance Chapters On All My Fanfics!]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]
[Every 100 Power Stones = +1 Bonus Chapter]
[Join Our Discord Community For Updates & Events]
[https://discord.gg/MntqcdpRZ9]