Flame vs. Flash

"!!!"

At that moment, even Kizaru, who had always been known for being unserious, couldn't control his expression under Ye Mu's question, his face filling with astonishment.

Enel, on the other hand, didn't care much. He looked at Kizaru in the distance and said, "He really loves doing reckless things... But this guy's strength really is worthy of our Sky Pirates..."

Kizaru, who had come back to his senses, truly grew serious.

"What a shame... I have absolutely no interest in pirates... But capturing the two of you... that interests me quite a bit..."

As Kizaru spoke, golden light flickered in his hand, and the Ama no Murakumo Sword appeared once again.

"That really is a shame..."

As Ye Mu spoke, he also swung Lion Maru in his hand and said to Enel beside him, "I'll take this one..."

Enel looked somewhat displeased, but he also knew that if he fought alone right now, he was no match for the Marine before them. The clash of strength just now had already proven everything.

As for Ye Mu, perhaps maybe...

"Then it's settled. Next time, it's my turn..."

"No problem... Remember to stay on guard. Don't let anyone interrupt my fight after this..."

"Don't worry..."

As soon as the words fell, Enel's figure also flashed, withdrawing from the battlefield.

Watching this scene, Kizaru's expression also turned faintly displeased as he muttered under his breath, "Oh... one versus one... Feels like I'm being looked down on..."

Ye Mu naturally heard him too. He held Lion Maru horizontally before his eyes, his gaze narrowing slightly as his entire aura began to rise, and he said with a smile...

"No... This isn't looking down on you... It's respect for an opponent..."

"Oh..."

Kizaru's eyes sharpened. Sensing the aura climbing from Ye Mu's body, he also became solemn.

"In that case, then I'll get a little serious too..."

As soon as the words fell, Kizaru's figure instantly seemed to teleport, turning into a streak of golden light and vanishing from where he stood.

Almost at the same time, Ye Mu glanced slightly upward from the corner of his eye. Kizaru had already appeared above his head, swinging the Ama no Murakumo Sword down at him.

Facing this strike, Ye Mu returned the courtesy in kind.

"What terrifying speed... But you won't cut me like that..."

Clang...

The black blade Lion Maru and the Ama no Murakumo Sword collided in an instant. Flames and golden light scattered in all directions, and countless holes were blasted through the entire deck in an instant. The already fragile warship broke apart even further.

"Oh... How frightening... You're clearly only this age, yet you possess such power... To think you can actually withstand one of my strikes..."

"You really do love lying... Marine, your strength isn't inferior to mine in the slightest..."

Or to put it more accurately, Ye Mu could sense that the current Kizaru's strength was greater than his own.

However, that was also normal. Not to mention that Kizaru was nearly ten years older than Ye Mu at this moment, even the battles he had experienced far outnumbered Ye Mu's. If the strength he had accumulated could be so easily surpassed by Ye Mu, then a future Marine admiral would be far too cheap.

But the gap between the two of them had not reached the point where Kizaru could defeat Ye Mu through strength alone.

So after that probing strike, neither of them stopped attacking. Both gripped their sword hilts with both hands and slashed at each other.

In an instant, the entire ship's deck shone with red flames and golden light. Waves of air tremors not only made the warship more and more fragmented, but also caused the surrounding sea to churn.

However, Kizaru could afford to waste time like this and compete with him in stamina, but Ye Mu could not.

His goal was to test his current strength through a battle with Kizaru and see exactly what level he stood at in this world.

So he directly gave up on competing in swordsmanship. The moment he broke away from their battle, he swept both hands.

A huge sheet of flame appeared before Ye Mu's eyes.

"Yasaka Magatama..."

As soon as Ye Mu's words fell, those flames rapidly condensed together, turning into chains linked one after another, bearing five enormous crimson magatama, and flew toward Kizaru like a meteor hammer.

This was a move Ye Mu had learned from Naruto, and it was Ye Mu's favorite technique. Aside from being able to control it freely, it could also bind enemies like chains. Of course, the most powerful part was still the crimson magatama condensed from flame.

Kizaru did not underestimate this move in the slightest, because he could sense the heat and temperature contained within the crimson magatama. If they exploded, even if he could turn elemental, it would not feel good.

So he leaped straight into the air, wanting to dodge this strike, only to discover that the flaming magatama had actually followed him.

"Interesting..."

In an instant, he pressed his hands together, and dazzling golden light burst from his body, turning into countless points of light.

"Yasakani Sacred Jewel."

Countless dazzling light bullets directly and ceaselessly struck the flaming magatama.

Boom...

A violent explosion rang through the sky, whipping up wave after wave of fierce wind.

Countless streaks of golden light instantly pierced the pitch-black smoke and shot toward Ye Mu on the deck.

Unlike the god of outlining he had been during the Summit War, the light orbs Kizaru fired this time were terrifyingly accurate.

The sky was packed with dense clusters of light orbs, all of them bearing down on Ye Mu alone. Not a single one strayed onto the deck or harmed the unconscious marines.

"And he still says there's nothing fishy going on here..."

Ye Mu grumbled inwardly, but his feet did not slow in the slightest.

Whether it was Enel's Rumble-Rumble Fruit or Kizaru's Glint-Glint Fruit, both shared one trait: their penetrative destructive power was incredibly strong.

That powerful piercing destruction was so dangerous that even if Ye Mu covered his entire body in Armament Haki, he still would not dare take it head-on.

All he could do was keep twisting, turning, and shifting away. At the same time, his hands did not idle either.

One had to know that the Flame-Flame Fruit had two characteristics: one was burning, and the other was explosion.

Burning produced high temperatures, while explosions produced impact.

If he were facing a clumsy opponent, burning would be a very effective means of attack. But against someone as agile and lightning-fast as Kizaru, if he wanted to land a hit, the only option was explosion.

Faced with attacks with such terrifying penetrative power, the high heat of flames clearly could not form a defense. In that case, there was only explosion.

And the method to make an explosion powerful enough was very simple: absorb enough heat.

Kizaru's Yasakani no Magatama light bullets attacking Ye Mu, and Ye Mu constantly dodging them—in a battle of this level, what was being tested was no longer simple speed and reaction, but a contest of Observation Haki.

Although Kizaru was still young and had not yet reached the admiral-level strength he would possess during the Summit War, when he dared to challenge two Four Emperors by himself, and although his current rank was only vice admiral, in terms of true combat power, he had already reached the lower tier of admiral strength within the navy. His Observation Haki was even mastered to perfection. Yet at this moment, he discovered that his Observation Haki simply could not lock onto the pirate before him.

This meant that the pirate before him had Observation Haki that was, compared to his own, at least no weaker—if not stronger.

"...He's even mastered Observation Haki... and to such a refined degree... Are all rookies monsters these days...?"

By this point, Kizaru had already given up hope of capturing Ye Mu and Enel.

Logia types were rare to begin with, yet this pirate crew actually had two of them, and they were the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and the Flame-Flame Fruit, both among the strongest Logia types.

On top of that, there was such polished Observation Haki.

And just then, Kizaru's Observation Haki sent him a feeling that made him extremely uneasy.

He looked in the direction his senses pointed, only to see that Ye Mu, with the help of the Flame-Flame Fruit, had actually passed through the endless rain of light orbs and was flying straight toward him.

And in his hand, he was gripping a rolling, spinning fireball that looked like magma, its color almost a dark red-black.

"Take this... Great Flame Rasengan..."