Under Garen's grateful gaze, Teach, who was accustomed to hiding his abilities, still held back somewhat, but for the first time ever, he displayed strength that exceeded his usual performance.
Like Garen, Teach did not want to enter the World Government's sights:
If anyone discovered him standing together with a Shichibukai, a Revolutionary Army executive, and Whitebeard's Second Division commander, then no matter what, this obscure "nobody" would become famous.
Teach did not want fame, so he could only deal with the troublesome leopard in front of him.
"Die!"
Teach moved with astonishing speed, his burly, dark body like an iron tower trailing an afterimage beneath the flickering firelight.
As though a black whirlwind had risen from flat ground, Teach's thick arm, filled with terrifying power, crashed toward Lucci's leopard head like a siege hammer.
Lucci instinctively used his remaining arm to block Teach's fist. His agile, muscular leopard arm collided with that thick, knotted iron fist.
But the moment they met, Teach's iron fist seemed to turn into a block of high-yield explosives, instantly detonating a terrifying blast wave that shook the earth.
Under that immense force, Lucci's body trembled violently.
His muscles tore, his blood churned, and his bones cracked. It felt as though his entire body was about to explode beneath that fist.
Lucci's legs rooted themselves in the earth like pines, and even amid the tsunami-like tremors, he did not lose his footing.
Yet the ground beneath him suddenly collapsed, then in an instant was plowed into a towering wave of dirt.
Before the sand and stones filling the sky could fall, another streak of sword light and fire tore through the darkness, slashing down like a meteor across the heavens.
Lucci knew it was Garen's sword.
Not only was it impossibly sharp, but the golden-red