Blood sprayed—
Izou crashed heavily to the ground.
His strength was draining away, and the light in his eyes gradually dimmed.
"I was tricked..."
"We were the ones who let our guard down..."
His weakening eyelids slowly closed, concealing the last trace of light.
This man, who had been born in Wano Country and served aboard the Whitebeard Pirates' ship for more than twenty years,
swallowed his final breath in unwillingness.
Maud flourished his blade beautifully, then flicked the blood on it back onto Izou.
The moment Izou's breath faded, the rewards came rushing in.
His enhanced physique silently accelerated the healing of his wounds and restored some of his strength.
But what surprised Maud most was the reward to his Haki—the seventh Star Frame showed faint signs of taking shape.
"Tch. What an unexpected haul."
Maud took another look at Izou's corpse.
He had not expected this man from Wano Country to provide such an abundant Haki reward.
With Haki of this level, if he had chosen the sword instead, he could definitely have become a great swordsman no weaker than Vista.
What a pity he had chosen the path of a gunslinger...
Here was something Saul would probably beat him senseless for saying.
Given the same physical foundation, the swordsman and body-tempering paths were indeed better choices.
"The fourth."
Counting Little Oars, the Whitebeard Pirates' Thirteenth Division Commander, the Buffalo Atmos; Grand Fleet Captain Delacroix; and the Whitebeard Pirates' Sixteenth Division Commander, Izou, whom he had just killed,
four heavyweight targets had provided Maud with considerable gains in physique and Haki.
But it still was not enough.
Before the chance to take Whitebeard's head arrived, he had to harvest as much experience from these commander-level opponents as possible.
Most importantly,
he had to seize every opportunity to fight