Lin Xuan's shoulders began to shake. His head was lowered, his tousled hair hiding his eyes, and only laughter he could no longer suppress escaped his throat.
"Hey, Vice Admiral."
Lin Xuan abruptly raised his head. Gold gleamed in his dark eyes, and his mouth stretched into a terrifying grin, revealing white teeth.
"Haven't you gotten something wrong? On this sea, whether you're a great pirate flying a pirate flag or one of you wearing a Justice Coat... once you pick up a blade, you'd better be ready to be cut down!"
The moment he finished speaking, a dark red surge of air exploded from his body.
This wasn't Conqueror's Haki. It was a thirst for blood born from the Kenpachi Zaraki template, tempered through countless battles to the death.
That presence left everyone there feeling suffocated.
The Marine soldiers on deck felt their chests tighten. They instinctively backed away, their rifles trembling in their hands.
Carina's legs gave out, and she slumped to the floor.
Even Zoro had cold sweat beading on his forehead. Veins bulged on the back of his sword hand as he stared fixedly at Lin Xuan's usually languid back.
This guy was serious. He really wanted to slaughter a Headquarters Vice Admiral right here.
Looking into Lin Xuan's ravenous eyes, the gloom on Onigumo's face actually disappeared.
He gave a low, strange chuckle, his voice like rusty chains scraping together.
"Heh heh heh... interesting. I thought you were just a brat who didn't know his place. I never expected you to have so much nerve."
Onigumo slowly exhaled a smoke ring, his eyes holding cruel amusement mingled with contempt and a desire for destruction.
"Since you're in such a hurry to die, I'll spend what little time I have before we sail back playing with you."
As his words fell, the unruly long pink hair behind Onigumo's head suddenly came alive, writhing and extending wildly.
Like tentacles, those locks wrapped around six sabers handed over by nearby Marines. Together with the two in his hands, eight blades gleamed coldly in the sunlight.
Life Return: Eight-Sword Style.
At that moment, the Marine Vice Admiral looked like a giant spider perched at the bow.
The surrounding air seemed to freeze.
The Marine soldiers scattered with practiced ease, even keeping their breathing as quiet as possible, afraid to break the deathly silence.
Everyone knew that once Vice Admiral Onigumo entered this state, he intended to kill. Anyone who approached would be minced to pieces.
Facing this display, the light in Lin Xuan's eyes only grew brighter.
"That's it! That's the feeling!"
Lin Xuan excitedly licked his dry lips and swept his left hand sharply. The system interface flashed across his retinas, and seven streaks of light appeared out of thin air.
[System skill loaded: Arakure Washō Gasha Blade (replica)]
They were seven oddly shaped short blades, with nearly transparent threads wrapped around their hilts.
They didn't fall to the ground. Instead, they hovered to Lin Xuan's left, ringing with metallic notes at the slightest movement of his fingers.
Though he couldn't afford the original Eight-Sword Style, that didn't stop Lin Xuan from using the Spiritual Pressure manipulation skills granted by the system and this world's set of exotic weapons, the "Arakure Washō Gasha Blade," to recreate a duel between multiple-blade styles.
"Come on, Onigumo! Let's see whether your hair is tougher or my blades are faster!"
Boom!
Two powerful presences slammed together in midair.
Two walls of water several meters high instantly erupted from the calm sea. The enormous warship rocked violently under the impact, groaning beneath the strain.
Onigumo moved.
His figure left an afterimage where he had stood, his speed astonishing.
Eight blades wove into a net and descended over Lin Xuan's head with a shriek that tore through the air.
"Die, brat!"
Rather than retreat, Lin Xuan advanced.
Holding the plain Asauchi in his right hand, he met the sky-filling blades and hacked upward with sheer brute force.
Clang!
The tremendous clash of metal made everyone's eardrums ache.
The deck beneath Lin Xuan's feet instantly cracked apart, sending wood chips flying.
With a single blade, he forcibly blocked Onigumo's two frontal swords and two hair-wielded blades attacking from the flanks.
But that was only the beginning.
A cold smile appeared on Onigumo's lips as he controlled the remaining four hair-wielded blades, ready to run Lin Xuan through from his blind spots.
"Don't underestimate me..."
Lin Xuan abruptly raised his lowered head, the five fingers of his left hand dancing furiously as though playing a piano.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!
The seven short blades hovering beside him came alive, turning into seven bolts of silver-white lightning that traced devious arcs through the air.
"A boring joke like that will get you killed."
Onigumo's voice sounded like rusty sheets of iron scraping together.
The pink locks behind his head suddenly tightened, and the net woven from eight sharp blades abruptly closed in midair.
Like porcelain striking a steel wall, the trajectories of Lin Xuan's seven hovering short blades shattered in an instant.
Crack, crack, crack!
With several sharp reports, the seven short blades were knocked away by savage slashes. Spinning, they embedded themselves deep in the railings on both sides and the mast, their ends still quivering.
Deathly silence fell over the deck.
The Marines gaped, forgetting to breathe.
To their eyes, the exchange had been so fast that they could see only afterimages, and then all of that arrogant boy's weapons had been knocked away.
"So this is... the strength of a Headquarters Vice Admiral?" Zoro stared fixedly at those hair-wielded blades, his pupils contracting sharply.
Had he faced that net of swords himself, he probably would have been sliced to pieces without surviving even one move.
Yet Lin Xuan, at the center of it all, showed no sign of defeat.
The tremendous recoil traveled back to his fingertips along the Spiritual Pressure threads. The tingling sensation made him narrow his eyes in pleasure.
Still not enough.
This much pain wasn't even enough to scratch the Kenpachi Zaraki template's itch.
"Without those circus throwing knives, you're a toothless tiger." Onigumo slowly advanced, all eight blade tips pointing at Lin Xuan as murderous pressure bore down on him. "Kneel and beg now, and I might consider leaving your corpse intact."
"Beg?"
As though he had heard a joke, Lin Xuan shook out his slightly numb left hand, that beastlike grin spreading across his face again.
Not only did he refuse to retreat, he lowered his center of gravity, every muscle in his body tightening like a spring.
"I'm not great at arithmetic, but even I know seven plus one makes eight."
The deck beneath Lin Xuan's feet exploded. Amid flying wood chips, he launched himself straight at the blade tips like a cannonball.
"As long as I've still got one sword in my hand, plus those seven from before... I'm using Eight-Sword Style too!"
There was no intricate sword technique, only a simple, brutal two-handed downward slash.
That strike unleashed all the boredom he had suppressed along the way, along with his hunger for powerful opponents.
The Asauchi's pitch-black blade tore a piercing shriek through the air, as though it would cleave both the warship and the man before him in two.
A lunatic!
Onigumo's eyelid twitched. He had never seen a fighting style that abandoned defense and sought only mutual destruction.
Clang!
A deafening metallic crash rang into the heavens.
For the first time, Onigumo's expression changed.
He had thought he could easily chop his opponent into pieces, but what came through that black blade was monstrous force like a collapsing mountain.
This was nothing like the strength a sixteen-year-old boy should possess. It was even more brutal than a giant's!
Screeeech-
Sparks sprayed where the blades crossed. Onigumo's firmly planted feet were actually forced to slide backward, his soles scraping two charred tracks across the deck as the smell of burning filled the air.
"He actually blocked it..." Onigumo gritted his teeth, veins bulging at his temples. His eight blades braced desperately against Lin Xuan's descending slash, and a distinct ache spread through his wrists.
This brat wasn't merely arrogant.
He truly had what it took to run rampant on the sea.
"What's wrong, Vice Admiral? Your legs are shaking!"
Lin Xuan's face, mere inches away, was filled with fervor. Sweat dripped from his chin onto the scorching blade, instantly evaporating into white mist.
The next second, his attack suddenly changed.
Lin Xuan abruptly released his force and twisted his body at an unnatural angle. The Asauchi in his hands shifted from a slash to a thrust, darting toward Onigumo's heart like a venomous snake.
The strike was lightning-fast and came without warning.
An ordinary master swordsman would probably have been run clean through by now.
But Onigumo was, after all, a Marine Vice Admiral who had fought countless battles. In that split second, he forcibly twisted his waist while controlling the locks behind his head to defend.
Clink! Clink! Clink!
Another series of dazzling collisions followed.
Like two ferocious beasts, they fought at close quarters on the cramped bow.
Flashing blades swallowed their figures. Every collision sent blood spattering-their skin was being sliced open by stray sword energy.
Just as Lin Xuan knocked aside the two sabers in front of him, in the instant when his previous force was spent and fresh strength had yet to gather, a dangerous chill suddenly stabbed at the back of his neck.
It was an instinct honed through years spent walking the line between life and death.
A lock strangely separated from the long pink hair Onigumo used to guard his back. Like a scorpion's stinger, it curled around a short dagger concealed behind him and silently stabbed toward Lin Xuan from his blind spot.
This was a dirty trick that had never appeared in the intelligence-true killing moves often didn't need to be held in one's hands.
"It's over, brat."
Onigumo's lips curved into a cruel smile.
At this distance, from this angle, evasion was almost impossible.
The blade was less than three inches from Lin Xuan's throat.
He couldn't dodge it.
With only this one blade in his hands, there was no time to bring it back to defend.
In the distance, Luffy's eyes widened. Zoro's hand was already on his sword hilt, but there wasn't even time to draw.
Yet in that moment between life and death, the golden light in Lin Xuan's eyes didn't fade. Instead, it burned even brighter.
One blade wasn't enough?
Then he'd just add a few more.
His gaze passed over Onigumo's face and landed on two other sabers on the deck, his grin stretching wider.
Chapter 33: Who Said Blades Had to Be Made of Iron?
That blade tip rapidly grew larger in his pupils.
Can't dodge.
If I can't dodge, I'll just make things a little more chaotic.
As that thought crossed Lin Xuan's mind, everything around him suddenly slowed.
The five fingers of his empty left hand abruptly clenched into his palm, and those invisible Spiritual Pressure threads instantly pulled taut.
Before you continue