On Reef Rock Island, the sea wind howled past, carrying the salty tang of the ocean.
Rayleigh slowly removed his shattered glasses. His golden hair stirred without a breeze, and a chilling sharpness flashed in his eyes.
Then he casually tossed them into the sea. The lenses traced a silver arc in the sunlight before the churning waves swallowed them.
"The warm-up is over." Rayleigh turned his wrist slightly, and his rapier-like sword traced a crescent through the air.
"Now... don't accuse me of picking on a youngster!" Before he finished speaking, his figure abruptly blurred.
"A completely different style from Oden's!" Gern pushed his Observation Haki to its limits, yet caught only a fleeting afterimage at the edge of his vision.
An instant later, he instinctively swept Black Blade: Eight Desolations upward, meeting a pitch-black sword flash coming diagonally from below.
Clang! Amid the deafening crash, the reef beneath Gern's feet exploded.
In that instant of contact, Rayleigh's blade changed angles seven times in succession, each shift precisely targeting a weak point in Black Blade: Eight Desolations' defense.
Kozuki Oden's swordsmanship relied mostly on broad, sweeping strikes, while Rayleigh's was pure skill and speed!
"So fast!" Gern's pupils abruptly contracted.
This was no simple slash, but a lethal move that perfectly fused a Great Swordsman's mastery with advanced Soru techniques.
After barely parrying it, Gern pulled his right leg half a step back, clenched his left fist, gathered vibration particles, and smashed it toward Rayleigh!
"Whitebeard's move, eh?" Rayleigh held his sword across his body to block. The weapon and the tremors clashed evenly, shattering the air.
Bang! Whoosh! As they separated, Gern used the recoil to shoot backward.
Rayleigh followed like his shadow. He seemed to stroll leisurely, but every step fell precisely in the gaps between shifts