Red-Haired's Shock

Teach stood in the air, gazing down at Red Hair Pirates's Red Force. The bone-chillingly cold aura caused many ordinary crew members on the Red Hair Pirates ship to change countenances drastically.

"Zehahaha! Long time no see, Red-Haired!" Teach looked at Red-Haired with malicious intent, the anger in his eyes nearly condensing into something tangible.

"Blackbeard! Why are you here?" Red-Haired rested his only remaining left hand on his custom-made sword. With a crisp clang, Gryphon—one of the Supreme Grade Twelve Swords—was slowly drawn by Red-Haired. The blade radiated a formidable aura, making it clear that Red-Haired took Teach extremely seriously.

"Zehahaha! Could it be that you, with a bounty exceeding 4 billion Beli, are actually afraid of me, a small-time pirate with a bounty of only 1.3 billion? If word gets out, people will probably laugh their heads off!" Teach looked mockingly at the domineering man before him. The next second, a suffocating Conqueror's Haki burst forth from Teach as the center, pressing down toward Red-Haired's Red Force like a night's curtain. Thump, thump—more than half of the ordinary crew members on Red-Haired's ship rolled their eyes and collapsed unconscious to the ground.

Red-Haired was slightly taken aback. He had not expected Teach to possess Conqueror's Haki as well, and the level to which he had trained it was by no means low!

Yet, who was Red-Haired?

His Conqueror's Haki was the absolute strongest among the four Emperors of the Sea!

"Hmph!" Red-Haired let out a cold snort as he unleashed his Conqueror's Haki. The blood-red Haki and the azure Haki locked in a steady stalemate, and slowly, Teach's Haki was pushed onto the defensive.

"As expected of the youngest Emperor of the Sea!" Teach inwardly started in surprise. His Three-Color Haki had already reached a terrifying level through the system's check-in enhancements. By Teach's estimation, his Conqueror's Haki was probably on par with Big Mom and Kaido, but Red-Haired's Conqueror's Haki had been honed to an extremely lofty realm; if he wanted to overpower it, he would likely need a bit more time.

"Blackbeard, are you trying to provoke us?" Standing beside Red-Haired, Benn Beckman drew a handgun, the muzzle locked steadily on the center of Teach's brow!

"Zehahaha, don't be so nervous! I'm just looking to spar a bit with my old friend!" Feeling a faint hint of danger, Teach inwardly cursed himself for being careless.

The Red Hair Pirates did not have only a single Emperor-level powerhouse in Red-Haired!

Teach swept a brief glance around. The officers of the Red Hair Pirates were all staring at him with unblinking focus; if he made a move now, he would likely be swarmed by them all!

However...

"What, Red-Haired, are you afraid of me? Do you think I'm going to take away your throne as an Emperor of the Sea?" Teach looked at Red-Haired with a half-smile, the provocation in his eyes glaringly obvious.

"I'd be afraid of you? Don't make me laugh! Beckman, find an uninhabited island! I'm going to teach this guy a good lesson!" Shanks glared angrily at Teach. As an Emperor of the Sea, his dignity must never be provoked by others!

"What a brainless captain!" Benn Beckman said helplessly. This was an extremely obvious case of goading by Blackbeard, but there was no help for it—even knowing it was a provocation, Shanks, as one of the Emperors of the Sea, could not possibly refuse.

"Zehahaha! Burgess, keep up with them!" Teach returned to his pirate ship, waiting in excited anticipation for the battle to come.

Red-Haired, I am definitely going to knock out your teeth!

On an innocent, pitiful, and weak uninhabited island.

Two opposing presences, one black and one red, stood confronting each other.

"Zehahaha! Red-Haired, after all this time, has your strength actually increased at all? Besides, with one arm missing, how much strength do you even have left?" Teach looked at Red-Haired's left eye. Those three ferocious scars really were quite the fine decoration!

"Hmph! I let you take advantage of me last time, let's see how I deal with you this time!" Red-Haired noticed Teach's gaze, then looked down at his own empty sleeve, a trace of anger involuntarily welling up in his heart.

"Talk is cheap! Blackbeard Teach! Take this!" Evidently unwilling to continue trading verbal jabs with Teach, Red-Haired drew the Gryphon at his waist and vanished from the spot in the next instant!

"So fast!"

Teach's countenance shifted. Augmented by Observation Haki, he barely managed to catch Red-Haired's offensive.

"Iron Body: Hard!" Teach thrust out his right hand, pitch-black Armament Haki combining with the Six Powers's Iron Body to barely block Red-Haired's slash.

"Ryuo-level Armament Haki!" Red-Haired started inwardly. He was well aware that Teach's physical combat techniques were formidable, but back when they last met, his Armament Haki had by no means been this hard.

"It seems you've improved a lot as well!" Red-Haired gathered all twelve points of his focus, his entire aura turning sharp and piercing, giving off the sensation of an incomparably keen treasured sword!

"Zehahaha! Did you think only you would progress? I haven't slackened off on my cultivation for even a single moment!" Teach raised his right hand, striking a pose that left Red-Haired utterly perplexed.

"What is this guy trying to do? That pose looks so familiar!" Red-Haired was still pondering, but in the next second, a sound that shocked him to the core rang out!

"Crack!"

The sound of shattering space echoed wildly across the entire ocean, and the Red Hair Pirates, famed as an iron wall, were already erupting into a heated flurry of discussion.

"Isn't that Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit? How could Blackbeard possibly possess such an ability!" "This immense power is definitely the Tremor-Tremor Fruit without a doubt! It's just not as terrifying as Whitebeard's!" "But the question is why he has this ability! What on earth is going on here?"...

Yasopp and the others furrowed their brows tightly. Everyone understood Blackbeard's strength; every single bounty issued by Marine HQ laid bare just how powerful Teach was, and furthermore, Blackbeard had recently even been selected as a Shichibukai!

"Could it be that Blackbeard had a falling out with Whitebeard?" Countless answers flashed through Beckman's mind, ultimately leading him to believe that Blackbeard might have already defected from the Whitebeard Pirates!

"Shanks, be careful!" For some reason, Beckman had an ominous prefiguring lingering in his heart.

"Whitebeard's ability?" Standing before Teach, Red-Haired felt the terrifying pressure washing in from space, and huge tumultuous waves kicked up in his heart as well.

"Zehahaha! Courtesy demands reciprocity! Red-Haired, eat my punch!" White light waves wrapped around Teach's right hand. He exerted force with his legs, and the ground beneath his feet instantly cracked open into a massive pit!

"Whoosh!"

A tearing sound ripped through the air. Red-Haired had just raised the Gryphon in his hand when, the very next second, a colossal force traveled from the blade straight into his arm!

"You really have given me a massive surprise, Blackbeard Marshall D. Teach! A man like you actually became a running dog of the World Government! How could you look Uncle Whitebeard in the eye?!" The more Red-Haired spoke, the angrier he grew, exerting a sudden burst of force with his sole remaining arm to spring Teach backward. To his astonishment, he discovered that the Gryphon in his hand was actually whimpering!

"Did the blade sustain damage?" Red-Haired widened his eyes. His beloved sword had accompanied him through nearly twenty years of battle without ever suffering a scratch, yet Blackbeard's punch was shockingly tyrannical!

A trace of killing intent flashed across Red-Haired's eyes! The next moment, a dark-red sword aura slashed toward Teach!

"Divine Departure!"

The calm voice seemed to ring out within everyone's heart, and all of them watched with shocked eyes as Red-Haired unleashed the sword aura, its terrifying aura spawning a hint of dread in everyone's chest.

"Slash!"

The blade struck Teach, and blood sprayed wildly into the air! Teach was repelled a great distance by the mighty force, and the moment he hit the ground, billowing dust and smoke surged into the heavens!

"To make me use this move, Blackbeard, you truly are a formidable opponent!"

Red-Haired sheathed Gryphon and turned to walk away, giving off the classic sensation of a true man never looking back at an explosion.

Yet...

"Zehahaha! Zehahaha! Zehahaha!"

A formidable killing intent rolled outward from within the dust and smoke, its majestic aura as chilling as the netherworld!

Red-Haired turned around in shock to find that six crimson rays had actually pierced through the haze of dust!

"Quite the slash indeed! Zehahaha! Warm-up is over, let's begin the second round, Red-Haired Shanks!"