As the cats finished off their respective opponents, the battle between Xie Wen and Mihawk, who were gradually getting serious, also reached a fever pitch.
The flashes of steel they unleashed with each swing were formidable attacks to anyone else, so not long after they began trading blows, everyone deliberately avoided the area where they fought. As their battle grew fiercer, that area continued to expand.
Meanwhile, the ice beneath their feet finally gave way under the crisscrossing sword energy, breaking into floating chunks of various sizes.
Neither Xie Wen nor Mihawk was a Devil Fruit user, though, so they did not particularly care.
"Has Xie Wen really become this strong? He's actually fighting that Hawk-Eye on equal footing!"
Some Marines whose impressions of Xie Wen were still stuck in his Shichibukai days could not help exclaiming in surprise.
It could not be helped. The cats of the Palico Research Commission were simply too eye-catching, leaving Xie Wen, their Sapphire Star-and cat freeloader-with somewhat less of a presence.
Some people who did not know Xie Wen very well even thought that this Sapphire Star had only "ascended" to a seat among the Five Emperors by riding the cats' coattails...
Though that was not exactly wrong.
Still, to be fair, as a transmigrator with a cheat, even if Xie Wen's cheat was a little stingy and did not improve his strength as easily or conveniently as many other transmigrators' golden tickets, his growth was already far from slow compared with the natives of the One Piece world...
Especially since this timeline did not have a certain pink-haired Deserter King with a two-hundred-times-effort cheat.
So even with only a Long Sword, no cats, and no potions, Xie Wen could now trade blows with the "World's Greatest Swordsman."
The special mechanics of certain