Dawn VS Golden Lion

High above Upper Yard.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Black vortices emerged. Kikoku fell into Dawn's palm, and bursts of air-cloud explosions erupted beneath his feet, layer upon layer like blooming lotuses, propelling him through the air at breakneck speed.

The air tore into white torrents behind him, and the howling wind was left far behind. At that moment, his eyes held only the golden figure rising from Vermo Island.

"Your speed at running away has truly impressed me. Let me see whether you still possess the courage a legendary pirate ought to have."

Separated by several hundred meters, Dawn raised Kikoku and slashed through the air. A massive crescent-shaped slash several kilometers long instantly took shape, tearing through the sky like golden lightning as it screamed toward Golden Lion.

"Jiehahahaha!"

Golden Lion let out his signature arrogant laugh.

"I admit I underestimated you a little, but an accident like that won't happen again!"

[Chop Wave]!

The famed blade Oto embedded in Golden Lion's leg chopped down with overwhelming force. A dazzling slash nearly equal in size to Dawn's flew forth, like a brilliant aurora, as if it would split the sky itself in two.

Boom!

The two slashes, each containing terrifying power, collided in a precise cross high in the air with an earth-shattering explosion. A massive shockwave surged wildly outward from the point of impact, shredding the clouds apart. The island clouds below were crushed into a depression hundreds of meters wide, kicking up waves of milky white vapor.

Yet even as the violent shockwave raged, the two golden figures ignored it completely, piercing straight through the surging blast like meteors before crashing into each other the next instant!

The instant their blades collided, they let out a piercing metallic clang. A visible ring-shaped airwave violently spread through the sky.