Battle Reaches a Fever Pitch

The two men's swords locked in midair once more.

Rolling shockwaves spread out, and the aftermath of their battle began to plow through the ground. Flowers, grass, and trees were crushed into powder under the unbearable pressure.

"By the way, Shanks, have you ever bathed in lightning?" After they separated, Yake pointed at the dark clouds overhead.

Although he could release lightning directly, harnessing natural weather was far less taxing. Ever since the battle began, Yake had silently been gathering storm clouds. Once enough had gathered, he could easily unleash his awakening.

"Masaka?" Shanks had a bad feeling. He had nearly forgotten that Yake was a Logia Devil Fruit user.

"You can't escape, Shanks! Hahaha, Thunder Hell: Doomsday Judgment!" Yake burst into laughter as he watched Shanks scramble away. With one hand clenched in the air, thunder and lightning rained down like a violent storm. This kind of large-scale AOE was Yake's favorite.

"Mamamama..." Shanks failed to dodge in time and was struck by the dense lightning, twitching in place for a moment. But the lightning in the sky seemed to have found its target, all crashing down onto Shanks at once.

A thunder bath—I'd call you the strongest!

"Shanks, resign yourself!" Tensa Zangetsu, wrapped in purple-black lightning, slashed across Shanks's chest, spraying blood everywhere.

"Hey, hey, Captain looks like he got chopped by a sword. Should we go save him?" Yasopp saw Shanks's miserable state through his sniper scope.

"No. The captain's gotten serious," Benn Beckman said calmly.

"Damn it, Yake! I got struck by lightning too! My beautiful feathers!" Morgans stared at his bald, scorched, foul-smelling backside.

"Yake, it seems you've grown a great deal. Your strength is no longer beneath mine, so I can rest easy. Since we've drawn our swords, we have to stake our lives on this." Shanks's face darkened as his overwhelming Conqueror's Haki erupted violently. The strongest Conqueror's Haki was what had allowed him to dominate the New World.

"Watch out, kid." Shanks raised Griffin in one hand. Dense purple-black energy coiled around the blade, and the killing intent hidden within the sword sent chills down one's spine.

"Is that... Conqueror's Haki Infusion? Dad said it was a technique that could only be comprehended in a battle of life and death." Yake could clearly feel that Shanks's presence had changed. Compared to before, Shanks now resembled a savage beast ready to devour its prey.

Yake clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.

"That power... I have to master it!" Yake stomped on the ground, and a precise layer of Lightning Armor covered his body. His electromagnetic field was fully unleashed. He could no longer rely on his flesh to take attacks head-on, or he would truly be injured.

Shanks's lethal slash had already arrived. Yake sensed it and raised his sword horizontally to block.

In their previous clashes, the two had been evenly matched. But this time, Yake was actually pushed into a disadvantage.

Yake roared and forced Shanks's sword away, then flashed behind him, preparing to give Shanks a vicious strike.

Shanks reached back and clenched the air, then turned around and actually caught Tensa Zangetsu's sword tip in his hand, leaving Yake trapped between advancing and retreating.

Whoosh!

Griffin struck Yake's Lightning Armor with a sharp metallic clang, yet it still effortlessly broke through his defenses and carved a bloody gash across his chest and abdomen.

Yake hurriedly retreated and looked down at the wound on his chest.

"It really hurts, Shanks. But I won't lose. Lightning Activation!" Yake used lightning to stimulate his cells and accelerate healing. The vicious scar quickly smoothed over as if it had never existed.

"Again!"

Sky God Kingdom, Angel Island.

Morgans's reporters had already flooded into the Sky God Kingdom, taking photos and gathering material throughout the nation. Whoever's report stood out would become the newspaper's editor-in-chief.

Like a swarm of locusts passing through, the reporters photographed nearly every corner they could reach. They even refused to spare the Sky God Kingdom's residents, dragging in anyone they found and practically shoving microphones into their mouths.

"It's really lively!" Robin stood atop the tallest building on Angel Island, looking down at the scene below. Just as Yake had said, on the first day of the nation's founding, reporters had come uninvited from all over the world, flooding onto the Island That Reached the Heavens and taking Heaven's Ladder to the nation above the clouds.

Fortunately, the patrols of the city defense forces had been strengthened in time, preventing any unrest. Once these reporters made their Skypiea experiences public, tourists, merchants, and pirates would surely arrive in an endless stream.

"I wonder how Yake is doing." Robin murmured as she gazed at the sea of clouds outside the window. In more than two years of knowing him, Yake had already left an indelible mark in her heart. Although their relationship had yet to make any breakthrough, Robin no longer minded intimate gestures. She even felt a little secretly delighted by them.

Strangely, Hancock, his official girlfriend, seemed completely oblivious to it. Who knew what kind of bewitching potion Yake had given her? And then there was that little vixen Reiju, who liked to provoke Yake—and even Robin herself—every now and then.

As for Perona, she ate, drank, and played every day, only training occasionally. She was the most restless one on the ship, a princess in every sense of the word. She always said she wasn't afraid of what Yake might do, yet secretly followed Yake's orders obediently. She was quite... tsundere?

There was no need to mention Anna. She had been abducted and made a slave at fourteen. Yake had saved her during the darkest time of her life, and Anna depended on him the most, treating him as her own older brother.

Robin watched Perona and Anna playing around in the room while Reiju quietly studied a sea chart nearby. It felt like there were a few too many rivals, and she could not help cursing inwardly. It was all Yake's fault for being such a womanizer. Three were already too many...

Meanwhile.

Hancock stood in the central control room, monitoring the entire island and seriously carrying out the task Yake had given her. At the slightest disturbance, she would personally step in and suppress it.

"I wonder how Yake is doing now..."

A trace of unease rose in Hancock's heart.

New World, evening.

"Hey, hey, isn't this ridiculous? The captain and Yake are still fighting. Are they both monsters?" Lucky Roux tore into the chicken leg in his hand. He was already hungry after just three minutes without food, which showed just how monstrous the captain and Yake were.

"Yake's strength is absolutely no weaker than any of the Four Emperors. Their battle won't end so easily. Just wait," Benn Beckman said with certainty. If that dragon they had seen two years ago had been Yake... But could the sea truly hold such similar abilities? That was the doubt lingering in Benn Beckman's heart.

"Cough, cough. Shanks, are you tired? The warm-up has only just begun!" Yake grinned, spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm, and watched his wounds heal rapidly. The blue-purple lightning wrapped around his body had never faded.

"You brat, aren't you Kaido's illegitimate son?" Shanks was utterly speechless, nearly on the verge of collapse. He could not help asking Yake the same question again. That shameless recovery ability was practically molded from the same template as Kaido's.

"Funny Mud GO Pee!" Yake felt insulted.

"Funny mud go pee? What does that mean?" Shanks was completely baffled, having no idea what Yake was talking about.