At last, he had arrived.
A refreshing fragrance began to fill the air around the doors, exquisitely carved from precious timber.
Dragon's elemental body slipped through the gap between the doors.
Clang!
It was too fast. Dragon had no time to react.
A sword slashed down. Under that overwhelming Haki, Dragon had no way to evade it. The Haki caught his body, forcing him into solid form.
Blood sprayed, and Dragon felt nothing where his left arm should have been.
His left arm had been severed clean off.
Enduring the excruciating pain, sweat already beading on his forehead, he tried to make out the figure before him.
But another sword strike was already coming.
Precise, impossible to match, and imbued with terrifying killing power.
Only a top-tier Great Swordsman could display such skill.
At the critical moment, Dragon instinctively moved his vital points out of the way. The blade pierced his abdomen. Had it struck just a little lower, the future Pirate King might never have been born.
The successful ambush had given his opponent an enormous advantage from the outset.
Without Haki to protect it, the human body was fragile.
Besides, although Dragon was already among the sea's strongest fighters, he still had some way to go before reaching the true pinnacle of strength.
The person before him was even stronger, posing a greater threat than the Five Elders he had encountered.
If he had to find a comparison, it would be Rocks D. Zebek back then—the pinnacle of individual combat strength in this world.
That terrifying presence, vast as an abyssal sea, constantly exerted invisible pressure on him, as though pinning his body in place.
His Devil Fruit powers were suppressed. He could not even use Elemental Transformation.
Beneath the black robe was an unfamiliar face that looked