The Late Monkey

With Oven helping to intercept him, Katakuri closed in within attacking range in just a few steps. Knowing that an elite Navy Vice Admiral from Marine Headquarters would not be easy to handle, he did not try to finish him with a weapon thrust. Instead, he first moved to restrict his opponent's movements. "Mochi Giri!"

Katakuri's long kicking leg instantly turned into more than a dozen sticky mochi strands. Grumir dodged the first, then the second, then the third, but he ultimately failed to evade them all and was struck.

Though his formidable Armament Haki protected him from serious injury, Katakuri had never intended to take him down in one blow. He only wanted to stick down this fly that kept buzzing around everywhere.

"Get down here!" Katakuri retracted his leg and yanked Navy Vice Admiral Grumir out of the air.

Geppo allowed one to step through the air, but air was still only air, and the support it could provide was limited. Once the mochi mass stuck to Vice Admiral Grumir and pulled downward, there was no way he could keep his footing.

Seizing the opportunity, Katakuri swung his trident, Mochi Thrust, and stabbed it toward the falling Navy Vice Admiral Grumir. This was the true killing move!

With nowhere to dodge, Vice Admiral Grumir could only cross his arms before his chest to shield his vital points. Gritting his teeth, he used Tekkai from the Six Powers and pushed his Armament Haki to the limit to reinforce his defense.

Then Katakuri witnessed the fruits of this veteran Navy officer's decades of training. He had put seventy to eighty percent of his strength into that thrust, yet Mochi Thrust only pierced Vice Admiral Grumir's arms. It could go no farther and completely pierce his chest to take his life!

Without a Devil Fruit ability, he had trained his Body Techniques and Haki to such a level? For the first time, Katakuri felt admiration for an enemy.

But his thought was cut short halfway through, because his younger brother, Charlotte Oven, suddenly appeared behind Vice Admiral Grumir.

To deal with Katakuri, who was closer and seemed more threatening, Vice Admiral Grumir had pushed his Armament Haki to its limit. He could not maintain Observation Haki at the same time.

As a result, he failed to notice Charlotte Oven closing in from behind. By the time Grumir sensed him, Oven's enhanced full-power punch had already smashed brutally into the center of his back.

Oven's attack power was already astonishing. Vice Admiral Grumir's Armament Haki was focused on his front to withstand Katakuri's attacks, so his back was naturally much less protected. Without even a pair of arms shielding it, how could he endure a direct hit?

With a bone-chilling explosion, Oven's massive fist instantly punched through his body. Vice Admiral Grumir's tough physique, hardened by Tekkai until it was stronger than iron, suddenly seemed no sturdier than paper.

Charlotte Oven's fist was too large, and it was imbued with his heating Devil Fruit ability. In an instant, it boiled the water inside his target's body, producing an explosive effect. Vice Admiral Grumir's body blew apart into several pieces.

At this point, every commanding officer in the Navy fleet had been wiped out. Aside from the Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral who had already been shackled with Seastone and locked in the lower hold of the Queen Mama Chanter, the other seven had all been killed. Meanwhile, the BIG Pirates had not suffered a single casualty.

It was undoubtedly a brilliant victory, yet Katakuri's expression became even grimmer. An uninvited guest wearing a Navy Justice Cape had suddenly appeared in the sky.

"How terrif—" Borsalino's usual catchphrase, "How terrifying," caught in his throat halfway through.

Because the scene truly was terrifying. Thousands of Navy officers and soldiers lay sprawled across the ground, their fates unknown. As for the Marine Headquarters officers, each had been reduced to incomplete corpses. When had the Navy ever suffered such a disastrous loss in its history?

Before coming, Borsalino had hesitated for a while because the mission he had been carrying out was more important. But now, he bitterly regretted not making his decision immediately.

With Borsalino's speed, if he had rushed over the moment he received the distress call, he could at least have saved Vice Admiral Grumir, who had made that call.

No matter how flippant he usually was, seeing so many comrades massacred still filled Borsalino with rage. Veins bulged across his forehead, nearly bursting through his skin!

But before Navy Vice Admiral Borsalino could speak, Katakuri used Geppo to launch himself into the air and charged at him first.

This pillar of the Charlotte Family's second generation had already thought it through. Against an enemy whose speed completely surpassed his and who could attack from extreme range, allowing the distance to open would inevitably mean being worn to death.

Especially since he had younger brothers and sisters to protect, he could only fight at close quarters and struggle for that slim chance of victory.

Seeing this, Oven wanted to come help, but Katakuri sent him back with a single glare.

What a joke. He had only learned Geppo today, and he wanted to fight an aerial battle against Borsalino, a Logia-type powerhouse who could naturally fly? Was he tired of living too long?

The moment Katakuri was distracted, Borsalino immediately spotted an opening. He flew over and delivered a kick straight into Katakuri's shoulder.

If Katakuri had not anticipated this and formed a layer of chilled mochi harder than steel over his body beforehand, then coated it with Armament Haki, he would likely have been seriously injured at once.

But Mochi Armor's defensive effect was truly extraordinary. Under its protection, Katakuri did not even feel pain after taking that kick.

What surprised Katakuri most, however, was his opponent's method of attack. Why did he just kick directly instead of using his Devil Fruit ability? He did use Light Speed Kick, but that move increased his power through acceleration. Its strength lay in attack power rather than its own extreme speed, so it was not the light-speed attack Katakuri feared most. Was he holding back? How could that be possible?

After exchanging several more moves, Katakuri finally understood what was happening, and his heart immediately relaxed. So that's it. He has to flash first before he can become light. Every time he uses his Devil Fruit ability, he must flash before launching an attack. At close range, direct punches and kicks are actually faster. And because of light's nature, every attack directly launched through his Devil Fruit ability can only travel in a straight line. With such limitations, even if his attacks truly move at light speed, I can use Observation Haki to predict their path and dodge in advance.

Yet Borsalino grew more alarmed the longer they fought. He knew Katakuri's age; he was a full ten years younger than him, yet his Observation Haki seemed to be even stronger.

Even if pirates in the New World generally mastered Haki earlier than Navy officers—unless Navy officers awakened it on their own, they normally had to rise to at least Marine Headquarters Rear Admiral before qualifying to learn it—wasn't this far too talented?