Shadow Transposition!

The surrounding pirates were taken aback at first, then burst into laughter.

"Hahaha! This kid doesn't even know how to use domineering aura!"

"You dare to cause trouble on our Beasts Pirates' territory?"

"Boss, let us handle this! You don't need to deal with this kind of trash yourself!"

Several pirates, eager to show off, stepped forward, rubbing their hands together.

In their eyes, this kid who didn't even know how to act domineeringly was simply offering himself up for credit.

However, the pirate captain raised his arm, stopping his restless subordinates from making a move.

"All of you, step back."

"I've been so bored these past few days, and now that this clown's finally here, I'm going to play with him myself!"

The leader twisted his thick neck, stretching his muscles as he walked towards the Akuta.

Despite the approaching pirate leader, Akuta remained completely calm.

So what if we can't break through the defenses? It's not a big deal.

Back then, Megumi Fushiguro, with just a small knife, defeated the original Tenno, Needle Senjun, one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Tokyo.

With the help of the Shadow- Akuta Fruit, defeating the even stronger giant in front of him today wouldn't be a problem for him.

They're both shadows; anything Megumi Fushiguro can do, he can do too!

The next moment, the Akuta was loosely clenched in his right hand, and the shadow beneath his feet began to writhe again.

The shadow climbed onto his palm, condensed and compressed in his hand, and finally formed a jet-black hand spike.

This is the form he further compressed and condensed after creating a large number of shadows.

The compressed shadow consumed more of its own shadow, thus gaining greater hardness, which could mitigate the disadvantage of not having Armament Haki to enhance the shadow to some extent.

Is it a death throes?

The pirate captain grinned, completely disregarding the Akuta.

Even after seeing Akuta walk towards him, he unexpectedly burst into laughter.

"Hmph! You're coming straight at me now? Instead of running away, you're actively approaching me."

"Hmph." Akuta responded with a cold laugh.

"If I don't get close to you, I won't be able to give you a proper beating."

"Hehe, let's get even closer then."

The moment they got close, the man and the dog moved simultaneously!

Akuta had already taken the initiative to meet him.

His speed was much faster than before, and the shadow beneath his feet propelled his body like a catapult, turning him into a black afterimage as he instantly cut into the pirate captain's close range.

"So fast!"

The leader's pupils constricted slightly, and he instinctively swung his fist in a sweeping motion.

Its transformed arm, as thick as a bucket, slammed down on Akuta's head with a whistling sound.

Akuta twisted his waist, sliding down the air at an angle almost touching the ground, while simultaneously thrusting his hand straight at the ribs of the head.

Bite!

A crisp clang of metal clashing rang out.

The tip of the dagger seemed to be blocked by an invisible armor, unable to even pierce the leader's skin.

"It's no use talking!"

The leader grinned maliciously as he turned around, his other hand spreading its sharp claws to strike down at Akuta's crown.

He withdrew the Akuta and retreated, his hand dagger drawing a black arc on the ground.

His expression remained calm; that attack was merely a test.

He was searching for blind spots that the opponent's Armament Haki couldn't cover.

Armament Haki needs to be actively applied.

Akuta didn't believe that this pirate, who would be unknown in the future, could have any real Armament Haki.

Inner side of joints, behind the ears, at the jaw junction, the suture between the spine and the skull...

There must be a relatively weak point somewhere here!

Why are you hiding?!

The pirate captain grew increasingly excited as he fought, his fists pounding down like a storm, each punch carrying the power to shatter stone.

Akuta weaves and dodges amidst the shadows of fists, like a leaf swept by a whirlwind, seemingly on the verge of being torn apart at any moment, yet always managing to evade fatal attacks with perfect timing.

The extra power from Shadow Projectile always allows Akuta to adjust its position at crucial moments.

But simply hiding isn't enough.

During a brief moment of retreat, Akuta glanced up at the leader's eyes.

Those beastly eyes were filled with rage and contempt, clearly indicating that they didn't yet consider him a real threat.

"Now! Shadow Mage!"

Akuta activated Shadow Mage, and a shadow clone crawled out from under his feet.

As soon as it took shape, it assumed a fighting stance, flanking the leader with Akuta on either side.

The leader paused for a moment.

He then threw his head back and let out a deafening burst of laughter.

"Hahahaha! Shadow clone? I thought you were going to pull out some ultimate secret technique!"

Akuta did not respond; it simply launched an attack simultaneously with the Shadow Mage.

Two figures rushed towards the leader, one after the other.

The leader didn't even bother to dodge; his skin, hardened by Armament Haki, easily blocked the dagger from the Akuta.

With his other hand, he casually swung it to the side, directly shattering the Shadow Mage's fist into a cloud of black mist.

"Too weak! Too weak!"

The leader unleashed both fists simultaneously, one punch forcing back the Akuta, and the other shattering the newly formed Shadow Mage.

"Look at your clone, it's as soft as mud! I'll stand here and let it hit me, could it even knock a hair off my head?!"

He became more and more relaxed as the fight progressed, and even began to deliberately toy with the Shadow Mage.

He could have easily shattered the attack with a single punch, but instead, he waited for the Shadow Mage's attack to land on him, then used Armament Haki to withstand it, and exaggeratedly made a "startled" expression.

Ouch! That hurts! Hahaha, just kidding!

The surrounding pirates also started to jeer.

"Boss is awesome!"

"What kind of bullshit clone is this? It's just a circus trick!"

"Kid, are you from a circus?"

The leader had had his fill of fun.

He ignored the Shadow Mage's attacks, letting the dark fists land on his back, shoulders, and the back of his head.

He couldn't even sway his body slightly.

"Alright, this farce should end now!"

His gaze was fixed on Akuta; he had had enough and was ready to end this farce once and for all.

This time he held back, charging headlong into the Akuta.

The Akuta propelled the Shadow Bolt backward at high speed, but the leader was even faster.

Its enormous body caught up with Akuta with an agility completely disproportionate to its size, and its fists poured down on Akuta, each punch wrapped in the dark luster of Armament Haki.

Akuta struggled to withstand the rain of punches.

He had pushed the thrust of Shadow Launch to its limit, his figure flashing and shifting constantly, but the leader's attacks were too dense and fierce, giving him no chance to catch his breath.

Even worse, the Shadow Mage's attacks posed no threat to the boss.

Akuta could clearly see that the leader didn't even bother to turn around and glance at the black clone that kept throwing punches at him.

Under the leader's onslaught, Akuta's position was constantly compressed, until he was finally forced into a corner.

The leader sneered as he looked at the motionless Akuta.

Why did you stop running?

The next moment, he raised his right fist high, and jet-black Armament Haki covered the surface of his fist.

This punch will send you on your way!

However, facing certain death, a smile slowly crept onto Akuta's lips.

The leader's pupils contracted sharply, and an inexplicable sense of crisis suddenly surged into his heart, but he didn't have time to think about it before his fist was already outstretched.

Boom!

The fist slammed down solidly.

However, just as the fist was about to make contact with the Akuta, the Akuta vanished.

Instead, there was a shadow mage, completely black.

The leader's fist pierced through the Shadow Mage's chest, and black shadows scattered everywhere.

But the leader's sinister smile froze completely; his pointed head left him utterly bewildered as to what was happening before him.

How... did it turn into a clone?

Where did he go?

All the thoughts rushed into my mind almost at the same moment, and the answer arrived at the same moment as well.

A chill ran down his spine, and the leader instinctively tried to look up, but a dark shadow descended from the sky like a falcon.

Using the Shadow Mage's swapping ability, Akuta had already swapped positions with his clone just before being cornered, and then circled around to directly above the leader.

At this moment, he was upside down, holding a compressed shadow dagger in each hand, and he was about to fall straight at the leader's face.

The leader raised his head.

The last thing he saw was Akuta's terrifyingly calm eyes, and two dark, cold glints rapidly enlarging in his pupils.

"Oops!"

The leader tried to turn around, but it was too late.

The sudden repositioning of the Akuta caught him completely off guard, and the Shadow Strike pierced his eyes without any resistance.

The sound of the eyeball rupturing was exceptionally clear in the air, followed immediately by the shadow piercing through the eye socket and penetrating the head's brain.

The leader's body suddenly stiffened.

The enormous body remained upright, its arms still raised in mid-air, as if making a final stand.

But his eyes were already unfocused, and dark red blood mixed with other liquids slowly flowed down from his eye socket, which had been pierced by the Shadow Thorn.

Akuta flipped and landed.

Behind him, the massive body swayed, finally losing all its strength, and collapsed to the ground with a thud.