At the center of the battlefield, Gern and Shanks still had their hands clamped firmly over Griffon's hilt, neither able to move an inch.
Shanks stared at Gern, who stood mere inches away, and made one last attempt to defuse the situation, his voice grave.
"Gern... do this for my sake."
Those words had settled countless disputes in the New World. They carried the prestige of Red-Haired Shanks, one of the Four Emperors.
"For your sake? Heh..." Gern sneered as though he had heard something laughable, never easing the pressure of his hand on the hilt.
"Sorry, Shanks..."
"Your prestige... means nothing to me."
Gern tilted his head slightly, the contempt in his eyes deepening. "Oh! Right. Never mind your standing as one of the Four Emperors..."
His eyes narrowed as he delivered an even more shocking statement, word by deliberate word.
"Even if you added 'Saint' to your name..."
"I still wouldn't give a damn!"
"!!!" Shanks's pupils contracted sharply, and his aura faltered for an instant!
He had exposed the secret of my origins, something I had buried so deeply, just like that?!
At the same time, Gern keenly caught that fleeting change in his expression, and his smile grew even brighter.
"Getting upset?! Looks like... I hit the mark!"
With his secret exposed and his attempt at reconciliation rejected, Shanks knew this could no longer end peacefully.
The hilt pinned beneath their hands transmitted his opponent's unyielding strength. Every avenue of retreat seemed sealed.
A thoroughly provoked fury, mingled with the resolve to defend his own dignity, erupted!
"Gern!!!" Shanks growled. All hesitation vanished from his eyes, leaving only an uncompromising will to fight.
"Do you think... I really wouldn't dare draw my blade against you?!"
The instant those words fell-
"Bang!!!" A strange, faint sound rang