The Blackbeard Pirates were like rats hiding in the shadows.
Only after they were utterly-no, one hundred percent-certain that Golden Lion Shiki showed no signs of life,
and even the last faint trace of his life force had vanished, did they dare emerge from their hiding places and vantage points, trembling with fear.
They quickly gathered at the center of the battlefield, around the figure lying in a pool of blood, nearly torn to shreds by the aftershock of the golden cross-shaped slash.
"Captain!"
"Captain Teach!"
Even Doc Q's sickly face wore a rare look of gravity. He and the Curse Doctor, Samuel Kronos,
immediately crouched down and frantically examined Teach's injuries.
But what they found shocked them.
Both their faces turned grim.
"Hey, hey, don't tell me he's dead?" Shiryu frowned.
"If that's the case, we should leave too!" Butterfly agreed.
"That's right." The Corrupt King nodded.
They had never thought much of Blackbeard, let alone if he was already dead.
"Captain Teach isn't dead!" Doc Q retorted.
Although Blackbeard's chest had almost been pierced clean through, his internal organs were badly damaged, and countless bones throughout his body were shattered, he was still breathing. It was so faint, though, that he was barely clinging to life.
"Damn it... his injuries are too severe..." Doc Q rasped.
The Curse Doctor Kronos's eyes flickered beneath his hood as he murmured quickly, "He survived even this... what a strange constitution..."
Then he used the Mushroom-Mushroom Fruit's power to cover Teach's body in restorative fungi.
Blackbeard had only managed to preserve a sliver of life under that fatal blow thanks to his unique, abnormal bodily structure, which could withstand the powers of two fruits,
and the Dark-Dark Fruit's bizarre properties of "absorbing damage" and "enduring pain," even though it could not let