Otherwise, facing an overwhelmingly powerful swordsman who stood at the pinnacle of the seas, a careless Dragon might have fallen even faster than the Okama King and the others.
Yet amid their exchanges, the Bald Five Elder still detected his opponent's urgency.
"Heh, you seem awfully concerned about those little rats in the palace below~"
The Bald Five Elder sneered, and his Sword Momentum abruptly slowed.
As one of the sea's greatest powers, the Bald Five Elder understood something perfectly well, even though he had not fought in years.
Barring certain extraordinary beings who appeared only once in several centuries, battles between the sea's strongest fighters were generally difficult to settle.
At the very least, deciding a winner in a short time was impossible!
This "short time" usually meant three to five days.
Even the Bald Five Elder lacked the confidence to defeat Dragon within three to five days, especially since his opponent possessed the Logia-type Hurricane Fruit, which allowed him to fly freely through the sky!
That was right!
As the true masters of the seas, the Five Elders knew Dragon's abilities very well.
Aside from his exceedingly dangerous ideology and his unique martial art, the Dragon Claw Fist, Dragon's Devil Fruit power also ranked among the greatest on the seas!
The Logia-type Hurricane Fruit could create savage hurricanes capable of tearing apart the sky and sea, anytime and anywhere!
(This is only the author's personal speculation, but Japan's three great disasters—tsunamis, hurricanes, and volcanoes—corresponding to Whitebeard, Dragon, and Akainu certainly feels like a reflection of reality.)
Besides granting Dragon offensive power comparable to a natural calamity, the Hurricane Fruit also made him extremely mobile, allowing him to advance or retreat at will.
Under those circumstances, the Bald Five Elder naturally changed his strategy from "defeating" him to "keeping