Frenchman Shanks

"I don't care. My only family is the Roger Pirates and the people you just saw."

Shanks grinned playfully, adding more force to his left arm gripping the sword.

Dawn's mouth twitched. "You really are a filial son."

Using the force, he retreated and vanished from where he stood, reappearing at Shanks's side as Kikoku swept horizontally. The air along the blade's path let out a piercing boom.

As if he had anticipated it, Shanks tapped the ground and vanished in a flash. Dawn's attack missed, and an enormous Flying Slash flew into the sea, carving a hundred-meter trench across the surface. The water split to either side, revealing the dark seabed below, before crashing back together seconds later and sending towering waves into the air.

The next instant, Shanks appeared behind Dawn and swept Griffin horizontally.

Dawn frowned. He had intended to use Observation Haki to predict the attack, only to discover that his Observation Haki had unexpectedly failed.

Observation Killing.

Fortunately, his physical abilities were nothing to scoff at. He could react to a slash of this level even without Observation Haki, so he hurriedly raised his blade to block.

Clang!

The two blades collided, and terrifying shockwaves surged in every direction. The air trembled incessantly like unending stormy waves. A shallow pit ten meters wide was blasted into the sand beneath their feet, fine grains spraying outward like a fountain.

Then, as if by mutual understanding, both borrowed the force of the clash to draw back their swords and unleashed a barrage of slashes at each other.

The paths of their blades nearly formed a curtain of light, covering all the space ahead. Sparks burst within that curtain, while their Haki clash produced black-red arcs of lightning. Crisp collisions rang out without end; at first, each clash