Anthony lay in the ruins, leaning against a rock as he looked at Barton. His left arm was already gone, leaving only a bloody stump.
"Ha ha ha! Anthony, you've finally run out of steam. Now die!" Barton raised his scythe toward Anthony.
Anthony knew there was no way he could dodge. A faint smile crossed his face as two women appeared before his eyes: Fanny and Anne. I'm sorry.
The blood scythe came down, but a black hand caught it in midair, stopping Barton's attack and giving Anthony hope.
"Zeha ha ha! Looks like I'm not too late." Teach's laughter rang out. He turned to look at Vice Admiral Anthony on the ground.
"You're a pirate? Why would you help me?" Anthony asked, bewildered.
"Of course, at the request of my future first mate, Queen Anne, I came to save her father—a man who was both a proper father and an improper one." Teach laughed. "Can you still fight? I don't want to face this monster alone."
"Anne?" The image of that lively, adorable girl appeared before Anthony's eyes. He ignored the words that came before it and got to his feet. Hope filled his heart. He wanted to live. Anne needed him, and he didn't want to lose her.
"Of course I can. I'm Anthony!" Anthony smiled.
"Damn it! Why can't you two just die already? And you, kid! Since you came here, I'll take your head too!" Barton roared, not expecting another troublemaker to suddenly show up.
Barton's eyes were bloodshot. A red gleam flashed across his blood scythe, turning it an even deeper crimson.
But now it was two against one, giving Anthony a chance to catch his breath. While Teach kept Barton occupied, Anthony found his severed arm and pressed it against the wound. "Life Return."
Anthony reattached his arm. As a master of physical combat, losing an arm would greatly affect his strength. The reattached limb naturally wasn't as nimble as before and would need time to heal, but it was good enough for the fight ahead.
Barton was strong, and his Armament Haki was formidable. Combined with the power of his Devil Fruit, he made Teach's hand tremble. Blood ran from the thumb web of the hand coated in Armament Haki.
Teach had caught Barton's other scythe too, but Barton stood four meters tall and had roamed the seas for many years. How could the still-young Teach possibly match him? Barton completely overpowered him. Teach's arms bent slightly as he gritted his teeth, his legs trembling. Under that tremendous force, both his feet sank completely into the ground.
"Six Powers Secret Technique: Rokuogan - Exploding Bear!" A voice rang out. A powerful shockwave closed in on Barton from behind. The delay had given Anthony ample time to prepare.
Barton instinctively sensed the danger. He released his pressure on Teach and tried to turn and face the attack. A smile appeared on Teach's face. He strained with both arms, his muscles suddenly swelling as he clung tightly to Barton's scythes.
Barton flew into a rage and kicked Teach in the stomach, deactivating his power. The two scythes reverted to hands and slipped free of Teach's grasp.
The kick sent Teach flying backward. "That was a miscalculation!" He rose from the ruins and wiped the blood from his mouth. He hadn't expected Barton to have a counter like that. It seemed he still lacked some combat experience, but he'd done enough.
With Teach holding Barton up, Barton frantically turned to fend off the attack. His arms transformed back into scythes, but before he could steady himself, Anthony's powerful, prepared strike slammed into them. The tremendous shockwave broke the sound barrier and tore through the air. With a thunderous boom, Barton's scythes began to bend—no, his arms were bending. They couldn't withstand such a powerful impact.
The Rokuogan broke through Barton's scythes and slammed straight into his stomach, right where his old wound was. Barton's mouth fell open, and blood spilled out. "Ah—cough!"
Even with Armament Haki covering him, he could barely withstand the blow. The Rokuogan punched right through Barton's abdomen, concentrating its devastating force into a few points. Teach could clearly see the gaping hole in Barton's stomach.
"Damn you, kid! Anthony!" Barton's eyes turned blood-red as he gritted his teeth. He swung his blood scythe, but Anthony sensed it in time and quickly dodged.
Barton grew even more dangerous. "You're all going to die! Blood Scythe Hell!"
The world around him began to change, starting from beneath his feet. The ground, the ruins, and even the houses were all assimilated. One strange scythe after another burst from the earth, seeming to swim through the ground.
"It's awakened! I didn't expect Barton to have a trick like this up his sleeve." Anthony frowned. This erased their advantage in numbers. This was Barton's domain, and everything within it was under his control.
"Zeha ha ha! We'll have to go all out. With those injuries, he won't last long." Teach laughed, but grew serious. "Don't die!"
Teach charged ahead without drawing Purgatory or Thunder Fang. His swordsmanship wasn't powerful enough yet.
Teach's arms formed claws, wrapped in Armament Haki. Lightning and fire intertwined, while an invisible aura clung to his claws, making them seem all the more dangerous.
"It's been a long time since I've had a fight that got my blood pumping like this. Barton, I'm going to kill you right here!" Teach charged excitedly. Facing a powerful opponent was the best way to improve. He couldn't beat Barton at full strength, but now was just right.
"The qualities of a king, huh? You're something, kid!" Seeing Teach's Conqueror's Haki, Anthony was surprised. Then he smiled. "I can't let a youngster look down on me."
He flashed forward and joined the fight. "Steel Fist · Bone Shatter!" Anthony had mastered Armament Haki, and he'd developed this punch based on the fists of the Marine hero Garp.
This was the final battle. He had little stamina or Haki left. It came down to who could hold out longer.
Scythes suddenly sprang up from the ground, their blades slashing toward Teach. He twisted aside, stepped down, and used Geppo to dodge the attack. Such moves were useless against him; he dodged each one by the skin of his teeth.
Teach's target was Barton. Once Barton was taken out, the domain would disappear. But Barton wasn't about to let him have his way. Giant scythes appeared one after another, blocking Teach's path before surrounding him on all sides. "Zeha ha ha! That was close!" Teach laughed. There was nothing to do but fight, but he felt no fear—in fact, he grew even more excited. This also gave Anthony an opening.
An attack on this scale was a huge drain on Barton's stamina.
"Come on!" Teach faced the blood scythes and held out both claws. "Let's see whose is tougher!"
"Clang!" Metal crashed against metal as claw and scythe collided again and again. Shockwaves from their immense strength swept in every direction. Clouds gathered overhead, and flashes of lightning streaked through their center.
"Teach should be okay, right?" In the distance, Anne and the others stood on high ground. Anne spoke anxiously. Even from outside the battlefield, she could see that the fight had grown more intense. The weather itself had changed.
"Teach is definitely going to be fine." Mobius nodded. He had developed an inexplicable confidence in Teach and was even calling him "Boss," leaving Anne at a loss for words.
The scythes attacked from every direction, and Teach had to treat every blow seriously. One blade after another slashed at him. Teach easily read their trajectories and dodged, but some attacks couldn't be avoided. His claws and the scythes clashed again and again as Teach entered a high-speed combat state. His Observation Haki remained active, while his Armament Haki slowly grew stronger and harder. His claws flashed with sharp glints.
Teach took two steps back and smiled as he looked at the cracks in the scythes. They were already repairing themselves. "Ha ha! Looks like my claws are tougher!"
At the same time, Teach could feel the attacks slowing down. Victory was within reach.
Meanwhile, Barton panted heavily. "Anthony, die! I'll take care of you first, then go butcher that kid." The scythes formed from his hands had grown even larger, and their attacks were even more powerful. But Barton was losing his reason, consumed by the desire to kill Anthony and Teach, heedless of how much stamina he was using.
Anthony had noticed this. He didn't know how long Teach could hold out, but he trusted the kid who'd dared to come and save him. He also needed to end the fight quickly.
"Rankyaku - Thousand Blades!" Anthony leaped into the air and kicked again and again, unleashing hundreds and thousands of silver-white blades at Barton at tremendous speed. "Die, Anthony!" Barton roared. He swung his massive blood scythe, destroying almost every blade. With a powerful push of his legs, he sped toward Anthony. Driven by rage, his scythe changed too. It had originally had only one blade, but now it had three, each edge sharp enough to cut through steel.
The giant scythe stretched fifteen meters wide as it opened. Anthony didn't dare meet it head-on and put distance between himself and Barton. When the giant scythe swung, Anthony leaped into the air and left the ground, dodging the attack. Gradually, Anthony also discovered Barton's weakness: his attacks now reached farther, but his close-range defense was lacking.
But Barton had clearly thought of that too. The domain beneath his feet was still active, ready to defend him at any moment. Now that his power had surged after awakening, Anthony couldn't deal with him at all.
Teach kept his Observation Haki focused on the fight over there. He could sense Barton's condition worsening, but Anthony couldn't. At the same time, Teach had underestimated how powerful Barton was after awakening. Perfectly controlling a domain required powerful Observation Haki, and Barton clearly didn't have that. He'd already devoted part of his attention to Teach, so how could he focus all his strength on Anthony?
But Barton knew where his advantage lay, so he used the domain mainly for defense.
Looks like I'll have to break through, Teach thought. He needed to break the circle Barton had prepared around him, which would take tremendous power and speed.
"Zeha ha ha! Then let's fight with everything we've got!" Teach used Life Return to make his hands stronger and better suited for battle. They became a pair of demonic claws. "I'll use that move. Consider yourself lucky. This is the first time I've used it since creating it."
"Demon Claw - Ghostly Blossoms! Zeha ha ha!" Teach laughed loudly. This move was deadly. In an instant, the air seemed to split into countless pieces, divided by fine lines. Each of those lines was a strike from Teach's claws.
Anthony and Barton, not far away, couldn't help turning to look toward Teach. They could both sense the terrifying power gathered there. Space seemed to stand still as countless streaks of blood-red light flashed. The scythes surrounding Teach shattered in an instant, their fragments scattering in every direction like a blood-red flower in bloom.
Their eyes widened, but in the next moment Teach was already rushing toward them. The scythes couldn't regenerate nearly as fast as he could move.
"Try this move, Barton!" Teach's voice rang out. The next moment, he appeared beside him. "Demon Claw - Yaochi-onna!" Teach's speed reached its absolute limit. For a brief moment, he exploded into blinding speed, seeming to appear in eight places around Barton at once. They were afterimages, but each one was real.
Yaochi-onna was a combination of eight moves, all executed simultaneously in a single instant. Teach pushed his speed to its limit for a brief moment and unleashed this powerful, deadly attack.
Barton sensed the danger. By instinct, he made scythes rise rapidly from the ground within his domain, surrounding him in an airtight defense.
But how could that possibly stop Teach's powerful claw strikes? Eight strikes erupted at once, accompanied by fire and lightning, their edges sharpened by Sword Qi. Cracks appeared across the scythes, and then they shattered like glass. Eight blood-red claw strikes tore into Barton. It was a brutally savage attack. Flesh ripped apart and blood spurted everywhere. One claw struck Barton's head in particular, leaving bloody gashes across his face. The eyepatch over his right eye was torn away and fell to the ground, revealing the hideous, hollow gap beneath.
That was Teach's all-out attack, a tremendous burst of power over a short period. Then his body stiffened. That was why, since developing this move, Teach had never used it. His body couldn't withstand the strain yet.
"That really hurt, kid. But you're still going to die by my hand! Ha ha." Barton endured the pain and spoke slowly. He slowly raised his giant scythe and swung it at Teach.
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