Death (2)

Boom... bang bang!

A powerful gale swept up. Two figures flashed one after another through the towering mountains. As hill after hill exploded, one figure coughed up blood and crashed into the ruins, his face covered in blood.

Stepping out of space, Rob Lucci dropped to one knee, blood dripping continuously from his mouth.

Amid the rubble opposite him, Rayleigh's left hand rotated as if it were a door, clearly crippled.

Scorching steam spread from his body. Lucci rose to his feet and looked at Rayleigh as he stood back up, a slight Bai pallor showing on his face.

"I really am old."

He kept coughing, his aura in complete disarray. He was badly injured.

Fluorescent light flowed over his hands as a strange glint flashed through Lucci's eyes. "Wouldn't retirement be better?"

"He is my captain."

Smiling, Rayleigh assumed a stance and continued, "Come on!"

Their eyes narrowed. As small craters exploded across the ground, both vanished at once.

Three hours later, Lucci lay heavily injured amid the ruins, while Rayleigh had lost his breath.

Whoosh!

A figure suddenly appeared at that moment. Vergo looked somewhat battered, almost Wolf-like on the surface, but his aura had not changed in the slightest.

"Are you all right?"

It was Vergo's first time seeing Lucci in such a half-dead state.

"I won't die yet. Did you take care of your opponent?"

Blood dyed the ground red as Lucci propped himself up against the rock behind him.

"Just a Shichibukai. I let him escape last time, but he fell into my hands again this time. Bad luck for him."

"A Shichibukai?"

"Sound Wave Eldrago."

Vergo grabbed Lucci and lifted him up. He pressed his right hand against Lucci's chest, and a mountain-sized red bear paw appeared behind him. Lucci's complexion gradually regained color.