Three Tomoe Rinnegan (One Eye)

"Uchiha Senga."

After stating his name, purple eyeshadow appeared at the corners of Senga's eyes, while Haki Hearts appeared on the backs of both hands. Since his battle with Tokikake, Senga had been able to enter Armament Haki Sublimation with both hands at once.

There was no doubt that Senga had entered his strongest combat state. After all, his opponent was Silvers Rayleigh. One lapse in concentration, and even Senga could be defeated on the spot.

After confirming that he was in peak condition, Senga opened with Twelve Divine Air Strikes. Twelve fist-shaped shockwaves wrapped in Armament Haki instantly sealed off Rayleigh's movements, leaving him nowhere to dodge.

However, Rayleigh was still Rayleigh. Faced with the move that had once instantly defeated Tokikake, he remained utterly calm.

Holding his sword in one hand, he gave it what seemed like a casual light swing. The wall of air formed by the twelve Divine Air Strikes was split down the middle, and Senga's attacks brushed past Rayleigh on both sides before vanishing into the distance.

Although Senga's attack appeared to have been easily neutralized by Rayleigh, only Rayleigh knew the power behind that move. Suppressing the tremor in his blade, Rayleigh pondered briefly before saying,

"Compressed Armament Haki, with some other power added to it as well? This is getting more and more interesting."

As expected of a powerhouse who had been famous across the seas for so long. In a single exchange, he had already sensed the extraordinary nature of Divine Air Strike.

Seeing that Senga said nothing, Rayleigh stopped wasting words. With a flash, he vanished from where he stood. He moved so quickly that, for the first time, even Senga, with his Rinnegan, could not see him clearly.

But the danger sensing of Sage Mode and the foresight of Observation Haki still made Senga instinctively dodge. Repulsion Force erupted, and with a Flash Step, Senga pushed his speed to the limit and appeared a hundred meters away.

Boom! The next second, a crack stretching beyond sight appeared where Senga had been standing. The pitch-black fissure was too deep to see through.

Rayleigh maintained his sword-swinging posture and smiled faintly at Senga.

In the distance, Senga looked at the fissure with lingering fear.

"That was close. If that had hit me, it would've been troublesome. It looked like nothing more than a basic attack."

For a powerhouse of Rayleigh's level, techniques had already returned to simplicity. Often, a casual slash, swing, or chop of the sword in his hand could unleash terrifying destruction.

This was especially true for swordsmen. Anyone who had watched the anime knew just how strong Hawk Eyes' basic attacks were.

Take Kaido's Thunder Bagua, for example. It sounded overwhelmingly domineering, but in reality, it just looked like him swinging a spiked club with all his strength. Yet that one swing had nearly cracked open One Piece's Luffy's head.

It seemed that he still was not Rayleigh's match in close combat. Senga already understood that his Haki training had been far too short. Using his weakness to attack his opponent's strength was clearly foolish.

With that in mind, Senga suddenly brought his hands together with a clap, leaving Rayleigh stunned.

Just as Rayleigh wondered why Senga had suddenly made such a strange gesture, he felt the ground beneath his feet begin to shake violently. In the distance, Senga stared fixedly at Rayleigh and shouted,

"Wood Style: Unzip Pants! (Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence)"

Senga was not only the one who had awakened the Rinnegan. Hashirama's cells were also within his body.

Although he was still inferior to Hashirama in Wood Release and could not yet use techniques like the Wood Golem Jutsu or True Several Thousand Hands, he could still easily use something on the level of Deep Forest Emergence.

Crack, crack! The ground beneath Rayleigh's feet continuously split apart, and endless giant trees surged out from the fissures, charging at Rayleigh as if they possessed wills of their own.

This outrageous sight caught even Rayleigh off guard. Vines spreading from the giant trees wrapped around his waist, and the instant he touched them, Rayleigh discovered that his stamina was flowing away through the vines.

While Rayleigh was temporarily restrained by the vines, Senga had already formed his hand seals. He aimed both palms at Rayleigh, pressed his index fingers and thumbs together, took a deep breath, and exhaled fiercely.

"Fire Style: Great Fire Annihilation!"

A stream of flames burst from Senga's mouth. The moment it touched the air, it transformed into a raging inferno that blanketed the entire forest. When the flames landed on the trees, the blaze became even more terrifying.

"Damn!"

Senga's successive bizarre techniques made even the usually composed Rayleigh curse aloud before he was swallowed by the sea of fire.

It was not only Rayleigh. Kalifa, watching from afar, saw the burning forest reflected in her glasses, while her pupils beneath the lenses had widened.

Every one of Senga's moves seemed utterly unreasonable to her. The abrupt shift in the style of battle had completely stunned the poor woman into forgetting everything. At that moment, only one thought remained in her mind.

"Who am I? Where am I? Is that Uchiha Senga even human?"

Buzz! An overwhelming aura erupted from the sea of fire, and the flames that had been burning wildly were extinguished in an instant.

Then came several terrifying slashes. The impenetrable forest was directly carved into a broad passage.

Rayleigh appeared at the end of that passage. The calm and relaxed air he had possessed at the beginning was nowhere to be seen.

His upper clothes had been burned into scraps, hanging off his body in strips. Only his large underpants remained relatively intact, probably because he had deliberately protected them. Everyone had a little image to maintain, after all.

Whoosh! Rayleigh exhaled a huge mouthful of black smoke and glared coldly at Senga. After being put through all that, there was no way he could still look kindly upon Senga.

"It seems you have quite a few secrets. Just who are you, Marine?"

Senga spread his hands and said,

"Actually, I'm a ninja."

"A ninja? Are you from Wano Country? Do you know Kozuki Oden?"

Here it came again. Whenever ninjas were mentioned, most people here immediately thought of Wano Country. But could that bunch even be called ninjas?

They put on a few serious-looking outfits and called themselves ninjas, and that made them ninjas? If they spat a little saliva, would that count as Water Release too?

Curling his lips, Senga spat disdainfully and said,

"Don't compare me to that trash from Wano Country, bastard. And what kind of useless trash is Oden? He's trash among trash."

"What did you say?!"

Kozuki Oden had once been Rayleigh's crewmate, after all. Hearing his companion insulted, Rayleigh was enraged.

Switching from holding his sword in one hand to both hands, Rayleigh truly lost his temper. His feet erupted with several times the speed from before, and he instantly appeared above Senga. He raised his sword and viciously brought it down toward Senga's head.

Senga could tell that Rayleigh was genuinely angry this time, but that was exactly what he wanted. He needed a combatant like Rayleigh to test his new power next. He shouted in his heart,

"Metis!"

"Understood, Master!"

As Senga's summoned beast, connected to him in heart and mind, Metis naturally understood his intent without needing further explanation. She raised her head, opened her mouth, and spewed out a massive mass of Black Flame that instantly surrounded Rayleigh and froze him solid.

The freezing power of Black Flame naturally could not trap Rayleigh for long, but it was enough for Senga.

A door appeared out of thin air beside Senga. He reached one hand inside and pressed it against the Gravity-Gravity Fruit he had just obtained from the auction.

No one could see what that hand was doing. The Preta Path ability activated, and he absorbed the Devil Fruit's power into his body.

As the new power entered him, Senga's Pupil Power immediately surged. The intense fluctuations made him instinctively cover his right eye.

Crack! The ice sealing Rayleigh shattered. With a flip, Rayleigh landed not far in front of Senga and looked at him gravely. His instincts told him that, during the brief time he had been frozen, some dangerous change had occurred within Senga once again.

"Ha... hahaha, hahahahahaha!"

Senga, still covering his eye, burst into wild laughter. Rayleigh had no idea what was going on, but it gave him chills, and he unconsciously tightened his grip on his sword.

After laughing for a long while, Senga slowly lowered the hand covering his right eye. Within that Rinnegan, an additional black tomoe had appeared. His voice emerged coldly.

"The real show is only just beginning, Dark King Rayleigh."