The Failed Secret Art

Thanks to reader ~FanFanFanYou~ for the 100 reward!!! Thank you.

"Ding, congratulations to Big Tree L for earning the achievement: [Ten Fans]!"

Minnie had been taken out again less than three seconds after appearing. Simon froze. "Damn, did you have to kneel that fast? Why the hell was I saving you?!"

Loa kicked Minnie aside and approached Simon while rubbing his fists. "So, are you choosing to pass out, or get knocked out?"

Get knocked out? Did he think I was stupid?

But I wasn't going down that easily!

Simon's gaze sharpened as he swiftly pulled something from his pocket.

"Still trying to resist?" Loa sneered and stepped forward, his fist the size of a sandbag flying straight at Simon's big face.

Suddenly, Simon raised the thing in his hand and held it in front of the fist.

Whoosh~

The powerful gust from the punch blew past, sending the white cloth fluttering backward and plastering it against Simon's face.

It was a white flag.

Loa stopped his attack, his mouth hanging open as he stared dumbfoundedly at Simon, who was squatting with his head covered. "I have never seen such a shameless bastard!"

"Hey, Fleet Admiral Sengoku, Vice Admiral Garp, and Chief Instructor Zephyr are all watching from up there! Do you have no shame at all?!"

"Nope. Just don't hit me."

Simon answered cleanly, not even lifting his head.

In the distance, Sengoku and Garp exchanged strange looks, then both turned to Zephyr.

Zephyr bared his teeth and roared, "What does that have to do with me?! That's just the Westin Family's house rule! What was I supposed to do?"

"All of you, move aside!"

Suddenly, a deep voice rang out.

Everyone looked toward the source. Tony Mill, still holding his sword-drawing stance, slowly raised his head. His pale blue pupils had turned blood-red, locking onto Loa.

As he raised his head, terrifying killing intent abruptly filled the field. The moment he finished those words, that killing intent became several times more concentrated.

Simon, who had been squatting with his head covered, glanced back, then immediately scrambled away on all fours. At the same time, he called to the stunned "survivors," "Stop standing there! Tony's move doesn't distinguish between friend and foe! Do you want to be cut in half? Run if you can; lie flat if you can't! And knock down those idiots stacked on top of each other! Don't keep your necks at the same height as Loa's!"

In the stands, Sengoku narrowed his eyes. "That's Asura Swordsmanship, isn't it? I didn't expect it to still be passed down. Didn't its last successor die while challenging Mihawk?"

When Sengoku was young, he had once fought a successor of Asura Swordsmanship and suffered no small loss. That was why the style had left such a deep impression on him.

Zephyr nodded, then explained to the bewildered Garp, "Unlike ordinary swordsmen, whose ultimate principle is to cut to the utmost, Asura Swordsmanship is a sword style born specifically for killing. Before this, it had always been the trump card of the Underworld's number one assassin."

Then he looked at Sengoku. "Although the assassin codenamed Shura did indeed die, before his death, he left this swordsmanship behind on the seas. Tony is one of its successors. That was also why his hometown was attacked by pirates. For this power, the bounty issued by the Underworld reached one billion Beli."

"However, after all these years, we only found Tony. We haven't received even the slightest news about any other successors, so Tony may be the only successor of Asura Swordsmanship left in this world. But unfortunately, Tony himself isn't suited for this sword style, and the strength he can bring out is very limited."

The two men facing each other on the field had no way of knowing Zephyr's explanation.

Can't dodge!

That was Loa's conclusion the moment their gazes met.

Swordsmanship in this world had always been a mysterious power. Swordsmen could develop flying slashes, attach Haki to something as intangible as a slash, and even, like now, lock onto a target with sword energy, creating a feeling that there was nowhere to escape.

Loa didn't understand the principle behind it, but he knew Tony's next attack would deal him fatal damage. Even the Silverback Great Ape had failed to do that.

Alarm bells rang wildly in his mind, and the instincts brought by his Dragon Body frantically urged him to evade.

Ha, this is getting more and more interesting~ They're obviously just a bunch of extras, so why do they have this kind of power?! Minnie, Arudo, and now this Tony too!

Just then, sensing that Loa had been intimidated, Tony moved.

"Shura Secret Art: Thousand Corpses Pagoda!"

Without a sound, Tony's sword lightly swept through the air. He sheathed it again at incredible speed, as if he had never drawn it at all.

A scarlet red line appeared in the air, then vanished instantly.

Danger! The alarm in Loa's mind exploded. Goosebumps rose all over his body, and cold sweat unknowingly soaked through his clothes.

Yet he discovered that his legs felt as though they had been filled with lead, refusing to obey him.

The next instant, the red line appeared before Loa. It was less than ten centimeters from his neck, and the bone-chilling killing intent made his skin tighten.

Splat!

(This was originally supposed to be the end of the previous chapter, but wouldn't this kind of cliffhanger get me beaten up?)

Sengoku: ""

Garp: ""

Simon: ""

Tony: ""

Onlookers: "Wait, why does even the author look completely confused?!!!"

Loa gasped for breath and reached for his neck, only to find that the smooth Ice Armor bore nothing more than a fingernail-deep scratch.

Forget a fatal wound—it hadn't even pierced the Ice Armor!

"Huh? He's completely fine!"

Awakened by everyone's furious shouts, Tony froze as well. But he quickly came back to his senses and awkwardly apologized to everyone, his face full of embarrassment. "Sorry, sorry. I forgot—I still can't cut through steel."

Sengoku looked helplessly at Zephyr and asked, "Zephyr, what exactly is going on?"

Even he had felt alarmed by Tony's momentum just now. He had even thought that the Underworld's number one assassin truly had extraordinary methods.

But what happened?

Forget killing Loa—he hadn't even left a wound!

Zephyr covered his face helplessly, his voice muffled through the back of his hand. "Shura Secret Art differs from ordinary slashes. After it hits a target, it doesn't cause penetrating damage. Instead, it remains inside and tears the target apart. With the softness of the human body, how could anyone resist sword energy shredding them from within? That's why it is called a 'killing sword style.'"

"But because of that, it cannot directly break through the target's defenses. It requires the swordsman's own raw strength to break them first."

"That brat Loa has always been strengthening his own defense. I don't know exactly how hard the Ice Armor around his neck is, but it definitely isn't something the current Tony can cut through."

If Loa had heard Zephyr's words, he definitely would have said, That's exactly what I wanted to hear!

Kuzan had taught him from the beginning not to spread his defenses out. He only needed to focus on protecting vital areas.

He had always done exactly that. After several upgrades, the Ice Armor no longer looked bulky or hindered his movements, while its defensive power had increased greatly.

Especially around his vital areas—even Arudo, who could use Armament Haki, found it extremely difficult to shatter it. Tony, with only half-baked skill, stood even less of a chance.

Even so, Tony's attack had been enough to alarm Loa.

A secret art that required a full minute of charging was indeed extraordinary, and Asura Swordsmanship truly deserved to be the number one assassin's ultimate move. But unfortunately, it had encountered Loa, who always put up his shield before a fight.

"What the hell! So that's what it was!" Garp picked his nose. "In other words, if that kid didn't have that layer of ice around his neck, he'd have a big gash there by now?"

"That's true enough." Zephyr had no interest in arguing with Garp. He exchanged a glance with Sengoku and decided not to tell him about Loa's situation for now. It wasn't that they didn't trust Garp; the man was simply too unreliable.

After a pause, Zephyr continued, "But Zoan users naturally have extremely strong recovery abilities, not to mention the Giant Dragon Fruit, which ranks among the best even among Mythical Zoans. Once, Loa fought Kuzan and had his lung pierced. Before Kuzan could even find a doctor, the massive bleeding had stopped on the spot. After resting for a day, he could even resume low-intensity training!"

"There's something like that?!" Garp was startled and looked toward Loa below the stage. "Are Mythical Zoans really that ridiculous?"

"Yes, they really are that unreasonable." Zephyr smiled bitterly. Loa's vitality was among the strongest he had ever seen. To kill Loa in one strike, there was really no good way other than directly destroying his vital points.

What Zephyr didn't know was that Loa's powerful recovery ability was actually thanks to the system.

Loa himself didn't know exactly how it worked. Thinking of the original story, the Dragon Slayers there did not possess Loa's current monstrous strength and recovery ability.

Magic power was not something that could be quantified as data, and magic required long-term study to master. There were no classifications such as energy stages, either.

The only reasonable explanation for these differences was probably the system itself.

After the excitement from first transmigrating had faded, Loa would study and tinker with the system whenever he had free time. He had long since become extremely wary of all the unreasonable changes appearing in his body.

He had a feeling that, as a transmigrator, his greatest enemy might very well be his cheat system.