Can You Still Fly with One Wing Missing?

Lin Ye pulled back, his gaze falling on King as he landed in a blaze of fire.

To conceal his racial traits, King still wore that black outfit that covered his entire body, though the enormous wings on his back were exceptionally conspicuous.

Lin Ye sheathed his sword and sized King up.

King was sizing Lin Ye up as well.

"I told you to stop!"

King spoke with killing intent filling his voice. This man actually dared to ignore his command.

At the thought, killing intent surged from King.

Especially after his gaze fell upon the headless corpse on the ground, his anger grew even fiercer.

The thing he had least wanted to see had truly happened.

He did not care whether Kurozumi Orochi lived or died, but that fool was still useful. Kaido's plan needed him. At the very least, Wano Country could not descend into chaos at this time.

Kurozumi Orochi might have been foolish, but he was obedient enough.

But now that Kurozumi Orochi was dead, Wano Country would surely fall into disorder. Sorting out Wano Country's internal affairs would likely take quite some time.

At that thought, King's eyes beneath his mask brimmed with killing intent as he raised a hand and gripped the hilt of his sword.

Lin Ye merely gave a derisive snort upon hearing him.

"Hmph. You alone aren't enough. Maybe if Kaido came himself."

The moment those words left his mouth, the killing intent around King erupted violently. Lin Ye's words had clearly provoked him.

What did that mean?

Was he looking down on him?

The people one followed shaped one's character.

After escaping the World Government's research facility with Kaido, King had remained at Kaido's side, naturally picking up some of Kaido's traits.

Whoosh!

The massive blade swept down with an afterimage, slashing straight toward Lin Ye's head.

The blow was heavy and powerful, as if it intended to cleave Lin Ye in two.

Lin Ye's freshly sheathed sword was coated in Conqueror's Haki as he raised it horizontally to block the overhead slash.

The air churned, yet Lin Ye's body did not even sway.

King, wielding his sword one-handed, was startled. The fury filling his chest settled somewhat.

This guy had blocked his strike that easily?

Kozuki Oden had barely been able to resist him, and that had made Lin Ye realize that his current strength was no longer weak.

The change in strength brought a change in mindset.

And that mindset, in turn, allowed him to draw out his own strength more perfectly.

It was difficult to say whether Level 6 calmness had played a role in it.

But Lin Ye could clearly feel that when facing certain matters, it was hard for him to become emotional. Or rather, his emotions no longer influenced his judgment.

His strength had risen rapidly, yet he had adapted to it just as quickly. That mentality was of immense help as well.

And now, although he was much shorter than King, his presence overwhelmed King's.

That was without even unleashing his Conqueror's Haki.

"You bastard!"

King's voice turned grave. He abruptly withdrew his sword and retreated, taking up a guarded stance.

"Then take a slash from me too!"

Seeing King draw back, Lin Ye smiled and swept his Black Blade sideways.

Boom!

A black slash shot forward.

King's pupils contracted sharply as he gripped his sword with both hands and slashed with all his might at the incoming attack.

Boom!

King's enormous body was blasted backward, smashing through more than a dozen houses before being buried beneath the rubble.

The next instant, a pillar of fire shot into the sky.

King stood in midair with his sword in hand, his wings spread wide as orange flames appeared over his wings and above his head.

This was the Lunarian Tribe's racial gift. They possessed extraordinary vitality and could instinctively generate a certain kind of high-temperature flame.

It was precisely because of these racial traits that the Lunarian Tribe had been targeted by the World Government and nearly exterminated.

As far as anyone knew, King was the only Lunarian remaining.

Watching King surrounded by flames, Lin Ye suddenly felt rather sentimental.

"Sure enough, the Flame-Flame Fruit isn't even worth feeding to a dog."

Although many people argued that there were no weak Devil Fruits, only weak users, the Flame-Flame Fruit, despite being a Logia, had never displayed the power it should have possessed.

The various powerhouses of the New World all knew a trick or two involving flames.

Or perhaps Ace had simply used it too superficially.

The thought suddenly surfaced in Lin Ye's mind, then immediately faded away.

"Flame-Flame Fruit? This isn't the Flame-Flame Fruit."

King gave a cold snort after hearing Lin Ye's words.

"I know. The Lunarian Tribe, right? The race the World Government nearly wiped out."

Lin Ye waved a hand, speaking as though he could not care less.

"You... why do you know that?"

King completely lost his composure. Even his voice changed, his emotions clearly surging violently.

"With traits that obvious, it'd be hard not to know. Or are you planning to kill me here to keep it secret?"

Lin Ye narrowed his eyes at King in the sky, deliberately making his tone mocking.

"You bastard, you must die here."

In an instant, King recalled the torment he had suffered in the World Government's experimental facility.

He did not even want to remember those days.

King had not yet developed the composure he would possess twenty years later. Lin Ye exposing his identity had directly shattered his composure.

"Tankyūdon!"

Flames blazed brightly around King. Then his entire body transformed into a massive pteranodon, Armament Haki coating his body as his wings became like two enormous blades that dived toward Lin Ye.

He was too fast.

In the blink of an eye, his huge, flame-wreathed body had arrived before Lin Ye.

His enormous, sharp beak coated in Armament Haki was already right in front of Lin Ye.

Lin Ye held his sword upright and slid his body slightly along King's diving trajectory, brushing past the sharp beak. Then King's blade-like wings came sweeping toward him.

Lin Ye smiled, raised his left hand, and coated it in Level 9 Armament Haki. He grabbed the edge of King's outstretched wing, his left arm suddenly bulging as he twisted and caught King just as he was about to fly away.

King tried to flap his wings, but it was already too late.

Grabbing King's massive wing, Lin Ye spun once before violently smashing him into the ground.

Boom!

The entire Flower Capital shook.

The ground exploded open.

The attack looked terrifying, but it did limited damage to King.

After all, when he had used Tankyūdon, his body had been coated in Armament Haki.

But in the next moment, Lin Ye had already raised the sword in his hand.

The Black Blade, coated in Two-Color Haki, slashed down.

Blood sprayed as King's massive left wing was severed directly by Lin Ye's blade.

Armament Haki was indeed durable, but it had encountered a Black Blade coated in Two-Color Haki, along with a slash whose Armament Haki was of even higher quality.

King let out a miserable scream. His remaining right wing flapped wildly as his body tumbled away erratically.

After smashing through several houses, King dropped to one knee.

His body had already reverted from its pteranodon form. His left wing had been severed at the root, scarlet blood gushing out.

Lin Ye flicked the blood from his Black Blade, then turned to look at King, who was kneeling on one knee with his body trembling uncontrollably.

"Originally, with your advantage in the air, catching you would've been genuinely inconvenient."

Lin Ye walked toward King as he spoke.

"Now then, with one wing missing, can you still fly?"