Essel Defeated

"They haven't gone far; there's a chance to catch them on the high seas." These criminals, in their current state, are no match for him; even killing them wouldn't allow them to escape.

Meanwhile, Essel was also worried about Magellan's safety.

Essel wanted to escape, Teach saw through Essel's intention, but how could he allow it? Teach didn't mind making things difficult for Essel.

At the same time, Teach also had to deal with one thing: Essel's ability, like the Vivre Card, could locate these criminals.

With this ability, even if these criminals escape, the Navy and the World Government can capture most of them in a short period of time.

Therefore, he needs to use his own abilities to disable Essel's powers.

The Dark-Dark Fruit is actually very effective against such abilities; once the ability fails, all connection between abilities will be broken and need to be reconnected.

According to the logic of Dark Light, unless one loses consciousness, the ability will be maintained until physical strength is exhausted, and the consumption of physical strength for such maintenance is not significant, but negligible.

Like Golden Lion's Float-Float Fruit, once his power is sealed by Teach, the islands floating in the sky will fall, and to make them float again, he needs to use his power again.

Now, Teach intends to use the power of the Devil Fruit. Endless darkness erupts from his body, and black energy swirls around him. Even the light is distorted and dimmed in the endless darkness.

"Not good!" Essel immediately knew what Teach was planning to do. He burst out with astonishing speed in an instant, trying to escape and avoid Teach's moves. Once caught by Teach's ability, most of these criminals would not be able to be brought back in a short time.

"Hehe!" Teach looked at Essel and smiled. His Dark Water was a bug that could be used against Devil Fruit User, and it had never failed so far.

If there are any limitations, then how can it be called the "most vicious ability," the nemesis of Devil Fruit?

This is the absolute gravity of darkness; you can't escape it simply by creating a little distance, as long as you're within its line of sight.

"Dark Water!"

Teach extended his palm, and a dark vortex, like Black Hole, appeared in his palm, constantly drawing in the air. The invisible gravity directly grabbed the Devil Fruit power within Essel' body.

As Essel fled, he suddenly felt an intense pulling force that made it impossible for him to resist.

The departing figure suddenly froze, and then flew backwards towards Teach.

"Flutter!"

Essel flew to Teach grabbed Essel's shoulder.

Because the Dark-Dark Fruit only disables Devil Fruit abilities, Essel still maintains her formidable fighting capabilities.

To prevent Essel from taking this opportunity to attack Teach, Teach used "Dark Binding".

The bondage of darkness.

Before Essel could make a move, incredibly hard dark chains appeared from Teach's body and bound Essel's body.

The current Dark Binding is more solid and harder than before, and it also carries a powerful gravitational force that restricts Essel's physical movements.

Dark Binding was originally developed to complement Dark Water.

Sensing the failure of his physical abilities and falling into a deep sleep, Essel clearly felt that the countless points of light connected by his Devil Fruit power suddenly dissipated, and he could no longer detect the location of the criminals.

At the same time, Essel felt his stamina rapidly depleting, his abilities failing, and there was no one else to help him with this rapidly depleting stamina.

This was the first time in all these years that he had felt his physical strength being depleted so quickly; he had always maintained a lot of energy.

Dark chains had bound Essel's body tightly before Teach captured him, so Essel had no chance to resist.

"Did you feel it? The ability to disappear." Teach laughed as he looked at Essel, the hand that was gripping Essel's shoulder suddenly moving to grab Essel's neck.

With a gentle pull, Essel struggled to break free from Teach's dark restraints, but to no avail.

He brought Essel's face close to his own, gripping Essel's neck tightly, his taut muscles and flowing domineering Haki covering Teach's single arm.

The situation reversed in an instant; the clash of Haki forces created a friction that subtly sparked future conflict.

"Now, let me show you the pain I suffered before." Teach laughed, grabbing Essel's neck and using the dark chains to easily lift Essel's body up.

Immediately afterwards, he slammed the ball down to the ground, as if history was repeating itself, except the positions of the two players had changed.

Teach unleashed tremendous power, his arm muscles bulging violently.

Boom!

The ground sank, creating a huge crater, and Teach slammed Essel's head directly into the ground.

The ground trembled, and although Essel didn't bleed, the violent impact brought him a long-lost pain.

The impact of Teach's immense strength, Impel Down itself, gave him an extraordinary feeling.

Essel hadn't felt this kind of pain in a long time; the ability to connect with the fruit had almost made him lose the sense of pain.

Even Teach was no different from a mosquito bite to Essel.

The pain stimulated Essel's nerves; this unfamiliar sensation made him extremely sensitive.

Before Essel could even react, Teach wasn't going to give him a chance.

"Do you still remember the pain from when you were injured before?" Teach sneered, releasing his grip. The next moment, a whooshing sound rang out, and this punch, a punch delivered without reservation, landed directly on Essel's abdomen.

With his overwhelming Haki and explosive power, Teach instantly shattered Essel's defenses.

Essel's abdomen was nearly pierced by Teach's fist; it was visibly embedded entirely in Teach 'Essel abdomen.

Behind Essel, the jailer's clothes on his body tore open as if struck from behind, creating a small hole.

Essel coughed up a mouthful of blood, his eyes widened, and pain shot through his entire body. A bead of cold sweat appeared on his brow.

Having not experienced such pain for a long time, he had almost forgotten what pain was, and this side effect came about.

The stimulation it brings is extremely intense, no less so than the double pain side effect of Teach's.

Seeing Essel like this, Teach was also somewhat excited. After being beaten for so long, he needed to get revenge. How could being beaten up be more enjoyable than beating someone up?

"Get ready to try this move; it didn't do you much damage before."

"Yaochi-onna!"

Teach retracted his fist, and with a wave of his hand, his fists transformed into claws. The appearance of these claws caused Essel's expression to change drastically, posing an extremely deadly threat.

On its jet-black claws, sharp edges pierced the skin, and faint black and red Inazuma flashed, interspersed with silver Inazuma.

Conqueror's Haki coiled around Teach's arms and even around his fallen claws.

An invisible aura of Haki, yet carrying a tangible pressure, flashed with black and red—a manifestation of Conqueror's Haki —appearing before Essel's eyes and leaving him utterly shocked.

This claw strike was far more terrifying than the previous one.

The look in their eyes as they looked at Teach was one of utter shock; they hadn't expected Teach to have reached this point.

The application of Conqueror's Haki is a technique.

Based on its performance, Teach further divided it into two levels.

The basic binding technique involves binding a certain amount of Conqueror's Haki coating one's fist or the weapon held in one's hand.

Top-tier entangling techniques, Conqueror's Haki, allow for the creation of invisible attacks, enabling long-range strikes against enemies.

Teach is currently only at the first level; top-tier Conqueror's Haki Entanglement techniques are not so easy to master.

The difference in destructive power between the two is not significant; the difference lies in the difficulty of application. Compared to ordinary Conqueror's Haki entangling, long-range attacks are undoubtedly more difficult.

In that case, Teach has already stepped one foot into that level, which is something Essel can hardly believe.

Teach's strength has reached this level, which really requires time to accumulate. In order to quickly improve his combat power, in addition to physical training, he also needs to develop his Devil Fruit and train in Two types of Haki.

Teach devoted more time to practicing Conqueror's Haki techniques.

Teach is very talented, especially in Haki, particularly Conqueror's Haki. He has a significant advantage in this area, and he can be said to have mastered the technique of Conqueror's Haki Entanglement. Even the top-level Conqueror's Haki Entanglement technique is Teach is confident he can control in the future.

Time stood still at that moment, Teach raised his claws, which were wrapped in black and red Inazuma.

Teach unleashed his full power, his strongest attack, the sharp tip of his claws, like Demon Claw, radiating the edge of Sword Intent.

The surrounding space darkened at that moment, and outside, the sky suddenly burst open. The clouds drifting in the sky were torn apart by an invisible force, ripped into countless pieces, and scattered in all directions. A wind actually rose in the Calm Belt.

The weather changed dramatically; the once calm sky was suddenly filled with thunder, as if the heavens and earth were enraged.

Teach's powerful claw Teach caused a change in the celestial phenomena, and this commotion also attracted the attention of the vicious criminals who had Impel Down and were staying on the warships.

One can't help but wonder who was behind it all, causing such a huge commotion.

Some of the stronger and more perceptive individuals guessed that Teach was behind it, because they sensed Teach's Haki.

"Don't die." Teach's voice rang in Essel's ears, sending a chill down his spine.

Teach's deadly claws, sharp claws that tore through everything, pierced straight into Essel's chest like a spear.

The claws pierced Essel's skin, and the very space seemed to tremble.

This claw seemed to gleam with light, so dazzling that it was impossible to open one's eyes.

"Sizzle!"

Essel stared wide-eyed, his body bound, unable to assume the best defensive stance. Faced with such a terrifying attack, he could only rely on Armament Haki for defense.

Sharp Demon Claw tore through Essel's flesh, then emerged from behind Essel, stained with Essel's blood and filled with a stench of carnage.

As Teach withdrew his hand, a gruesome bloody hole was revealed in Essel's broad chest, exposing the white sternum and fragments of bone that Teach had brutally shattered.

His chest heaved, his heart pounded violently. Teach's claw hadn't struck Essel's heart, but rather Essel left chest.

At this critical moment, when Teach was launching a full-scale attack, his control over the Dark Chains inevitably weakened slightly.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Essel unleashed his immense power, breaking several dark chains and gaining some ability to move.

He shifted his body slightly to the right, which just prevented him from being fatally struck.

The dark chains loosened their grip on Essel, Essel body fell to the ground. Even if the claw hadn't killed him, it had inflicted severe damage.

Life Return, used instinctively, used with all one's might, to replenish his depleted flesh and blood, and to heal his wounds.

If no effective measures are taken, even a strong person like him, with a powerful physique, will not die from excessive blood loss, but will quickly lose physical strength and vitality.

Such injuries will also affect his ability to fight normally.

Essel had never felt death so close to him as he had just experienced.

He used Life Return to its fullest potential, but the rapid depletion of his strength nearly drained him.

However, Essel obviously wouldn't do that. Stopping the bleeding and stabilizing the injury first was important to maintain his fighting ability. His torn chest and depleted flesh wouldn't heal so quickly; it would take at least a long time to recover.

Essel was kneeling on the ground, panting heavily. The pain in his chest, though no longer bleeding, was still affecting his fighting ability and could even have some negative consequences during the battle.

"He can still stand?"

"Then let's fall completely."

With a faint, somewhat cruel smile, Teach vanished from his spot in an instant, bursting forth with incredible speed as he rapidly approached Essel.

At such close range, Essel was powerless to resist, Teach wouldn't give him much time to recover in such a short time.

He tried to dodge, but the intense pain made him pause slightly. At that moment, Essel appeared in front of him.

Teach raised his foot, and with a swift, swift kick, unleashed a "Razor - Dragon Tail Sweep!"

This kick directly interrupted Essel's recovery. Teach's kick Teach at a very tricky angle, right at Essel's chest.

A powerful kick landed directly on Essel, sending Essel flying.

At the same time, Essel's not-yet-fully-healed wound ruptured, splattering blood and Essel further injury.

Essel was kicked flying a kilometer away. Teach kicked Essel directly into the Impel Down, where he was spread out like a starfish, his whole body embedded in the wall, surrounded by spiderweb-like cracks.

Teach showed no mercy with this kick, robbing Essel of his last bit of strength, and the combined effect of the second blow was outstanding.