Difficult Match! Swain vs Akainu

A fierce battle broke out right then and there!

The moment their moves collided, their auras drew a sharp, distinct line between them.

The red and blue shockwaves clashed evenly.

Yet the very next instant:

"Brat! You're still too green."

With a roar from Akainu, the red shockwave instantly seized the upper hand.

So strong! Swain felt a pressure even greater than the one from Kuzan.

Akainu's strikes carried an utterly ruthless edge!

Bang! Friction at the point of collision kicked up a plume of white smoke, and a figure was sent flying straight back.

The first exchange between the two produced a result.

Swain was a fraction inferior!

His body shot backward like a cannonball, churning up thick dust from the ground and crashing through seven or eight houses in a row before he finally managed to grind to a halt.

He truly lived up to being the strongest of the Three Admirals!

"Ouch! That really hurts, though!" Swain couldn't help muttering.

Though he had been sent flying, he hadn't sustained any real injuries.

Under the state granted by the Blessing of the Sea God, his physical prowess, defense, and attack power were all comprehensively enhanced!

It was fair to say that Swain's current defense could rival the physical bodies of the Lunarian Tribe.

What was more, he had coated his entire body in Conqueror's Haki.

This was somewhat similar to Kaido's physical body and Luffy's Gear Four, using Haki to wrap around himself so that his defensive capabilities reached unprecedented heights!

After all, Haki was what reigned supreme above all else!

When the smoke and dust cleared, Swain walked out from within them once more.

"How is this possible! He actually blocked Admiral Akainu's strike?!" an ordinary soldier exclaimed in disbelief.

"Duh! How could a pirate with a bounty of 1.6 billion be defeated so easily!" said a pirate who had appeared nearby.

"But Admiral Akainu—back when he was hunting down a billion-berry pirate in the New World..."

"Under this move, they would either be dead or severely wounded. How is this pirate completely fine?"

That soldier clearly often followed Akainu on missions, which was why he trusted him so deeply.

"Didn't you see the Conqueror's Haki on Swain? That's Ryuo Haki! Naturally, it enhances his defense."

"Even in the New World, strong individuals who can use Ryuo Haki are few and far between."

The pirate chiming in next to him was also someone who had seen the world.

Naturally, the soldier didn't know what Haki was, but he couldn't help wondering why this person beside him kept speaking up for pirates.

He turned his head and saw that this individual wasn't even wearing a military uniform yet dared to show up here—without a doubt, he had to be a pirate.

The two locked eyes.

"Don't run!"

The pirate bolted in a flash, prompting the marine to fire off several shots in his wake.

Meanwhile, in the middle of the battlefield, Swain and Akainu were locked in an intense, evenly matched struggle.

Leveraging his speed advantage, Swain closed in on Akainu and drove a fist straight into his face.

Akainu grimaced in pain, biting down hard on the butt of his cigar.

He grabbed Swain with his right hand while transforming his left hand into a Magma Fist.

He slammed it hard into Swain's abdomen.

The blow instantly caused the Haki on Swain's belly to scatter, and the magma began to scorch his skin.

He was trading injury for injury!

Seeing that things looked bad, Swain twisted his body in the opposite direction, hooking his left leg up to kick at Akainu's neck.

His other leg quickly lashed out toward his chest as well.

Only then did the two of them break apart.

"What a absolute maniac!" Swain said, retreating far away.

He reached down to touch his stomach, which was already a bloody mess.

It looked quite gruesome.

Good thing I protected myself with Haki! Otherwise, I'd be roasted well-done right now. He gritted his teeth against the waves of stinging pain.

Akainu, on the other side, had also sustained minor injuries.

A scratch had appeared near his neck, seeping a thin trickle of blood.

That was too close!

If the Haki had been just a little stronger, it could have seriously wounded him!

Unfortunately, Akainu would only make that mistake once.

Akainu cast a sidelong glance at his own wound and said:

"Brat, you've successfully pissed me off."

Gushing streams of magma began to well up from his arms.

The violently high-temperature magma dripped onto the ground, burning straight through it into bottomless pits.

Trying to fight this mad dog with sheer brute force will only end in mutual destruction. Swain weighed his options for victory.

He had to deal Akainu a heavy blow through the element of surprise!

Yet combat changed in the blink of an eye; how could anyone afford him time to think?

"Great Eruption!"

Akainu launched a magma fireball into the sky, which burst outward in all directions like densely packed cannonballs.

He was cutting off Swain's footing!

Only by doing so could he reduce Swain's formidable speed advantage to the absolute minimum.

Volcanic projectiles rained down across every corner of the area.

He completely disregarded the lives of the other people around him!

Cries of agony rang out one after another.

"Report! Please, General..."

Before the soldier could even finish his sentence, Akainu's vicious glare terrified him into complete silence!

"For the sake of justice, you must be prepared to make sacrifices!" Akainu said.

"What kind of bullshit justice is that! Even murdering your own comrades!"

Swain looked on with utter contempt.

With a sweep of his palm, he wrapped the hundred-meter radius around him in a semicircle of seawater.

The people behind him were thus spared from the carnage.

Akainu's expression shifted, as if he had been provoked by Swain's words.

"What do you know?!"

"This is justice!"

With that, Akainu leaped forward and struck at Swain.

Swain coated his fist in Ryuo Haki, meeting Akainu head-on.

Yet in the span of mere seconds, the Haki on his hand dissipated as it neutralized the ferocious high heat.

Swain had no choice but to change tactics once more, throwing an uppercut from below with the intent to deal a heavy blow to Akainu's midsection.

His current grasp of Haki was limited to the lower stages of Ryuo, and he still lacked mastery over its application, unable to sustain a continuous output into his fists.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been kept on the defensive by Akainu's magma time and time again.

"Sea: Entanglement!"

Several black chains instantly wrapped around Akainu's ankles.

In an instant, he felt his entire body drain of strength.

It was that familiar feeling of helplessness, just like falling into the ocean.

Though it lasted only a moment, it was more than enough for Swain to seize the opening!

A mirror surface manifested in front of Akainu, and Swain pulled his fist back to gather power before unleashing a blow.

Bang!

Akainu's body flew backward like a cannonball, sent reeling through the air.

"Cough, cough, cough!" Even as his body flew backward, he began to cough up blood.

"It worked!" Swain said.

He had dared to go toe-to-toe with Akainu because he had capitalized on the man's arrogant psychology—something proven by how he had dared to face Whitebeard alone during the Summit War two years later!

Only by doing so could he catch him off guard and coil the seawater around his ankles.

That momentary loss of all bodily strength had provided the exact opening Swain needed; against him, an attack of this magnitude could deal massive damage.

Still, Swain knew that he only had one chance to inflict damage through this little trick!

"Can you still get up?" Swain asked, staring ahead.

The rubble that had buried Akainu transformed into flowing magma!

Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff, puff!

Hundreds of volcanic projectiles rained down on Swain.

"Sea: Great Tentacle Spike!"

Massive tentacles materialized around Swain, wrapping entirely around him to form a protective barrier.

The volcanic fireballs slammed into the tentacles, leaving behind a flurry of hissing sounds and plumes of water vapor.

Akainu stood up, magma dripping down from his waistline.

Good news: he had injured him.

Bad news: he seemed even stronger now.

Swain cursed endlessly in his mind.

Just how durable is this red dog?

His previous blow was practically equivalent to an attack from Akainu infused with the power of a Fruit, yet the man had weathered it just fine.

Anyone else would have lost their entire lower body by now!

You could only say that Akainu was an absolute tank!

And it made sense; after all, in the original storyline during the Summit War, Whitebeard had nearly beaten him into a pulp, yet he had still managed to stand back up and deal Whitebeard a fatal blow!

Damn it all...

Swain felt things getting very tricky.

Meanwhile.

The combat footage was also being transmitted via Projector Snail to the office of World Conquest.

"Swain? It seems he is the one who ate the Sea Fruit!"

An elderly, white-haired swordsman said.