Golden Lion, Whitebeard, and Pluton had each driven one of the Five Elders away from the battle.
The crews of the three pirate crews swarmed forward, and with their powerful senior officers joining in, even the elite Marines no longer held an advantage.
Now.
Two of the Five Elders, two Marine Headquarters Admirals, and one Marine Headquarters Fleet Admiral were still surrounding Shane.
One against five!
"My back and shoulders ache. I must have been living too comfortably lately."
"I suppose I've gone so long without fighting that you've all gotten the impression you can stand against me."
"How many of you haven't lost to me before?"
Shane looked at the five men surrounding him.
Relying on their numerical advantage, they had grown arrogant once again.
"What are you doing here, you skeletal centaur?"
He cast a sidelong glance at Saint Nusjuro.
Half his body was a skeletal white horse, while the other half wielded a sword.
His years of constant training also made him the most formidable fighter.
During meetings of the Five Elders, he was almost always sharpening his blade.
"Insolence!"
Saint Nusjuro slashed, and his strike actually formed an X!
It was an exceedingly strange attack.
"Are you trying to catch me off guard?"
More than ten hands appeared behind Shane. Their pairs of fingers immediately pressed together, and a barrier blocked Saint Nusjuro.
"Awakened Haki can indeed pass through obstacles and let you fight from a distance, but as long as the distance is great enough, those moves of yours are completely meaningless."
There were actually dozens of meters between them.
Shane also had a layer of barriers around himself as armor.
Even if the sword energy retained some power after crossing that distance, it was weak and feeble by the time it reached Shane.
"Too