Shinra Tensei Shows Its Might! Luo Tian vs Zephyr!

Thinking of this, Luo Tian took a deep breath.

On the other side of the deck, Rocks seemed to sense something and glanced over.

Their gazes met in mid-air.

Rocks said nothing, merely giving a slight nod.

Luo Tian utilized Space Leap, instantly appearing beside Golden Lion Shiki.

"Hm?! Why did you come over, kid?" Shiki tilted his head slightly, though his eyes remained locked on Zephyr.

On the warship, Zephyr's expression turned grim.

Trouble.

One-on-one, he didn't fear Golden Lion, and he was confident he could suppress Luo Tian.

After all, according to intelligence, while the kid's fruit ability was bizarre, his raw strength still fell short of the top tier.

But if he had to deal with both of them at once...

Luo Tian grinned: "Shiki! Leave Zephyr to me! You go take the Heavenly Tribute!"

What?!

Shiki was stunned, then a flash of brilliance erupted in his eyes.

Right! As long as he touched the Treasure Ship, his Float-Float Fruit ability could lift it into the air and carry it away.

By then, even if Marine reinforcements arrived, they would never be able to catch up.

And Luo Tian holding off Zephyr was exactly the opportunity he needed!

Luo Tian could also utilize spatial buoyancy, so why didn't he go steal the Heavenly Tribute himself?

For one, he felt his mastery of buoyancy wasn't as refined as Shiki's.

After all, spatial buoyancy was just one branch of the many abilities of the Space-Space Fruit.

On the other hand, stealing things wasn't nearly as satisfying as a good fight.

"Understood!" Shiki nodded heavily, hesitating no longer.

He unleashed the full power of the Float-Float Fruit, his figure transforming into a golden streak of light, diving toward the distant treasure ship like a falling star.

"Don't you dare--!!"

Zephyr's expression changed drastically.

If the Heavenly Tribute were stolen, not only would the encirclement plan fail completely, but the dignity of the Marine Headquarters would be swept into the dirt.

More terrifyingly, those Celestial Dragons in the Holy Land would never let it go, and the Marine Headquarters would face unimaginable pressure.

He could not let the pirates succeed!

Zephyr stepped on the air using Geppo, his body shooting out like a cannonball, chasing after Shiki in the sky.

His iron arms hardened with Armament Haki once more; even if he had to use Iron Body: Empty Wood to tank Shiki's slashes, he had to stop him.

However, the moment he took to the air--

"Spatial Imprisonment!"

The next instant, Zephyr's charging figure felt as if it had sunk into a quagmire.

"What?!"

Shock and fury flashed in Zephyr's eyes.

He erupted with all his strength, muscles bulging, attempting to break free from the invisible restraint.

But every burst of power felt like punching into cotton.

Luo Tian drew his Supreme Grade sword, Black Dragon, and swung his right hand down.

"Slash Wave--Heavenly Fall!"

The blade energy he unleashed did not travel in a straight line; instead, manipulated by gravity, it curved and accelerated like a living thing, its trajectory too bizarre to predict.

Zephyr's pupils shrank to the size of pinpricks.

He couldn't dodge it.

Then--

"Black Arm: Absolute Defense!"

Zephyr retracted all his Haki, forming a flowing suit of armor over his body.

At the same time, he crossed his fists in front of his chest, his muscles tensing to their limit.

He chose to tank it head-on.

BOOM--!!!

The blade energy struck.

A blinding white light exploded where Zephyr stood, and a spherical shockwave expanded, shattering the warship's main mast and tearing the deck apart inch by inch.

The exclamations of the marines were drowned out by the sound of the explosion.

"Vice Admiral Zephyr--!"

"Impossible... how could Vice Admiral Zephyr..."

"Shut up!" A blood-soaked Rear Admiral roared, slashing down a pirate charging at him:

"How could Vice Admiral Zephyr lose to pirates! Everyone, fight to the death! Sacrifice yourselves for justice!"

"Fight to the death--!!"

Grief and indignation turned into strength, and the marines erupted with astonishing combat power, engaging in an even more brutal slaughter with the pirates.

On the other side, the battlefield between Sengoku and Whitebeard had already caused the heavens and earth to change color.

Whitebeard bent one knee slightly and grabbed at the void with his right palm. In his palm, a translucent shockwave orb spun rapidly and expanded.

With his Observation Haki fully activated, he locked firmly onto the golden giant Buddha charging toward him from a hundred meters away.

Sengoku likewise pushed his Devil Fruit ability to the limit.

His fifteen-meter-tall golden Buddha form expanded once more, reaching twenty-five meters.

The energy shockwave in the Buddha's palm no longer radiated outward, but instead contracted inward like a black hole.

Both men were brewing their power; the next strike would decide the victor.

"Great Buddha Secret Technique: Pure Land Soul-Suppressing Palm!"

"Quake-Quake Secret Technique: Heaven and Earth Shattering Roar--!!"

They erupted simultaneously.

The golden Buddha palm pushed forward, the palm print detaching from his body and transforming into a tangible hundred-meter giant palm.

Whitebeard threw a punch, and the space shattered like a mirror.

Whoosh--BOOM!!!

On the sea surface, a perfectly spherical depression with a diameter of three hundred meters appeared.

The seawater at the edge of the depression rose like a wall, forming a hemispherical water wall.

Inside the water wall, two figures stood proudly.

On the other side.

Zephyr had just rushed out of the explosion's smoke and dust. When he saw Golden Lion Shiki had approached within a hundred meters of the Treasure Ship and was about to rush over to stop him, Luo Tian teleported and blocked his path.

"Get out of the way--!!"

Zephyr roared, throwing his Fist with the strongest strike of his life.

He held nothing back in this punch; his Armament Haki, the secret techniques of the Six Powers, and the physical strength honed over a dozen years were all condensed into a single point.

Wherever the fist pointed, the air was compressed into a solid state, forming a conical vacuum channel.

Luo Tian remained expressionless, raising his right hand with his five fingers slightly spread.

"Shinra Tensei--"

Just as Zephyr's Fist was about to strike Luo Tian's face--

The air solidified.

No, the entire space within three feet of Luo Tian had turned into an absolute forbidden zone.

An invisible air barrier, like an inverted bowl, suddenly expanded.

Zephyr's Fist was only three inches from the tip of Luo Tian's nose, yet it could not advance a single inch further.

Hum!!!

The next instant, the invisible air barrier suddenly erupted with a terrifying repulsive force.

"What?!"

Zephyr had no time to react--no, he was simply unable to react.

Even though his Observation Haki had long since warned him of the danger, his body was meaningless in the face of spatial-level repulsion.

One moment his fist was still three inches in front of Luo Tian, and the next, he had been sent flying back a hundred meters!

"Pfft--!"

Blood sprayed from Zephyr's mouth, drawing a harrowing line of red in mid-air.

His chest felt as if it had been struck by an invisible ten-thousand-ton hammer; had it not been for his Haki protecting his body, this strike would have been enough to leave him severely wounded!

"Cough... cough..."

He forcibly twisted his body in mid-air, triggering seven consecutive sonic booms with Geppo beneath his feet, only then managing to stabilize his backward flight.

"To be able to repel all external forces completely..."

Zephyr raised his hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, his gaze as heavy as iron.

Luo Tian did not give Zephyr much time to think, tapping his feet lightly and closing the distance like a phantom.

There were no afterimages, no sonic booms, only the eerie sensation of space being compressed.

The blade flashed like a crescent moon, striking directly at Zephyr's throat!

But Zephyr was, after all, a top-tier combatant of the Navy who had experienced a hundred battles.

At the critical moment, his pitch-black Fist blasted out as if pre-calculated, slamming precisely into the side of the blade without a hair's breadth of deviation.

He wasn't meeting the edge head-on; he was deflecting the trajectory of the strike!

Immediately following, the shadows of his fists grew as dense as a rainstorm!

"Six Styles Secret Technique: Hundred Fist Chaos!"

This was a physical technique secret he had created himself, perfectly fusing the speed of Soru, the penetration of Finger Pistol, the sharpness of Rankyaku, and the hardness of Tekkai.

The pitch-black fist shadows descended like a torrential downpour, attacking from every direction.

The power of every single punch was enough to shatter a steel warship.