With a clang, it stabbed into the deck at Charlotte Linlin's feet, its blade still humming.
"What, do you still want to go head-to-head?"
Mu Chen took a step forward. Red Conqueror's Coating suddenly burst from beneath his feet, like a crimson tide flowing across the deck toward Charlotte Linlin. Wherever it passed, the planks were scorched until white smoke rose, and even the cream in the cracks was burned into charcoal.
Charlotte Linlin hurriedly leaped aside, but the red Conqueror's Coating seemed to have eyes as it chased her footprints.
The faster she jumped, the more urgently the red Conqueror's Coating spread. Before long, it forced her to the ship's rail.
"How can you be this strong?!"
Charlotte Linlin roared fiercely despite her inner fear. She simply could not believe that she was actually no match for Mu Chen.
She lowered her head and glanced at the blade trembling and humming by her feet.
Napoleon cried out in pain, "Mama, it hurts!"
Then she looked at the crimson tide spreading in every direction beneath Mu Chen's feet and suddenly realized that the planks where he stood had been covered in spiderweb-like cracks by the red Conqueror's Coating.
Mu Chen took another half-step forward and said flatly, "Strong? You're just too weak."
Those words stabbed straight into Charlotte Linlin's heart. She had lived for so many years, fighting for candy from the cradle all the way to the position of one of the Four Emperors. Apart from being overshadowed by Roger and Whitebeard back then, no one had ever dared call her weak.
"Bullshit! I'll show you who's weak!"
Charlotte Linlin clenched her fist fiercely. Black Conqueror's Coating surged around it into a sphere as she smashed it toward Mu Chen.
But the instant her fist touched Mu Chen's body,