Conqueror's Haki Awakens, [Fire Dragon's Little Torch]

Although it wasn't the first time he had seen it,

Austin always found this power incredibly exhilarating.

Feeling as though he were being watched by a higher life-form, every hair on Austin's body stood on end.

In that brief moment of distraction, Katakuri seized the opening and sent him flying with a punch.

"Do you understand now?"

"The gap between us..."

Katakuri's gaze turned terrifying. Just as when his Conqueror's Haki had awakened years ago, when he had frightened away the pirates bullying his younger siblings,

waves of black-and-red lightning crackled around him.

He stared into the cloud of dust rising in the distance where Austin had been sent flying.

Austin lay within it.

At that moment, a pair of crimson vertical pupils gazed up at the sky.

"Conqueror's Haki..."

"It probably awakens after encountering something intensely stimulating, or through realization in an extreme battle..."

There were precedents for this—Katakuri for the sake of his family, Doflamingo after his entire family had been burned alive, Ace protecting his younger brother, King Luffy when his brother was about to be executed...

This kind of power leaned toward spirit and bearing. It could only be triggered upon reaching some mental threshold.

"But why do I feel like..."

"Awakening it isn't that hard?"

"Crackle, crackle, crackle—!!!!"

After knocking Austin down, Katakuri had originally intended to recover some strength and adjust his condition. He knew that Mythical Zoan Type users were all absurdly durable and wouldn't go down that easily.

But...

Under Katakuri's watchful gaze, a relatively small black silhouette slowly rose from the dust.

"What..."

With his sharp Observation Haki, he instinctively sensed that something was wrong.

The black silhouette within the dust gradually began to twist, as if transforming into a monster. A pair of horns emerged from his forehead, and his