Just as a violent explosion rocked Shakky's Rip-off Bar, filling it with smoke and dust...
Outside the bar, a figure came ambling across the lush green clearing.
He had slicked-back hair, half blond and half white, with whisker-like strands framing his face, a scruffy beard, and a tall, straight frame.
With a flask and a longsword hanging at his waist, the man strolled along, his face flushed with drink and his manner languid.
It was none other than "Dark King" Rayleigh, returning from a slave auction house where he had just "earned" some drinking money.
But when he saw the familiar bar's doors and windows shaking, smoke and dust pouring through the gaps, the languor vanished from his face. His pupils abruptly contracted!
Shakky! Rayleigh's heart lurched.
He knew that, with Shakky's strength, dealing with a few blind fools was normally child's play.
But as the Great Pirate Era unfolded, countless powerful rookies who had no idea of their own limits had emerged.
No one could guarantee that some dangerous customer wouldn't come knocking.
Better safe than sorry!
Without a moment's hesitation, the drunken haze vanished from Rayleigh's eyes.
With a sharp swish, he drew the longsword at his waist in a reverse grip and shot toward the bar's entrance!
His powerful Observation Haki spread like a surging tide, piercing the clouds of smoke and dust.
It locked precisely onto the strongest, most threatening presence inside the bar.
"Hey! You brat of the new era!" Rayleigh growled, flicking his wrist.
His longsword became a cold flash as swift as lightning, tearing through the air to stab at the indistinct but powerful figure in the smoke!
"This isn't a place for you to cause trouble!" Just as his words faded and his sword tip was about to pierce the smoke...
Whoosh!