The azure sky was devoid of the sounds of cannons roaring or people fighting and shouting.
The fighting in some areas was exceptionally fierce.
Zoro gritted his teeth, raised his Wado Ichimonji swords like horns, and after charging up again, he suddenly attacked, his whole body moving like a ferocious demon.
" Oni Giri!"
Clang!!
Daz, dressed as a bald monk, was knocked to the ground by a tremendous force.
Zoro, having passed his opponent, suddenly turned around, his twin swords Wado Ichimonji crossed into claw-like shapes, shouting, " Tora Gari!"
Boom!
The towering Daz was instantly cleaved into the yellow sand, creating a crater the size of a house.
Zoro, who had stepped back to catch his breath, let out a disgruntled sound, "You're all alright?"
Snap,
Daz calmly dusted off his clothes as he stood up from the sandpit; Zoro's combo hadn't even torn the hem of his clothes.
I told you not to waste your energy.
"My Devil Fruit power makes my skin as tough as a famous sword, and even my internal organs are as strong as steel."
Daz cracked his neck. "Your plan to injure me with a concussion is ruined."
Zoro pursed his lips. Creating shockwaves through slashes to destroy from the inside was a method he had come up with, but it seemed that his first use of it had been completely ineffective.
"So troublesome..." Devil Fruit are really unfair.
Zoro felt utterly helpless.
"Do you want to give up?" Daz asked again. He seemed like a man of few words, but he was surprisingly talkative at heart. However, he wouldn't speak to those small fry.
He was willing to say a few more words to a swordsman of this caliber, in order to demonstrate the power of the Dice-Dice Fruit.
Zoro pursed his lips, and the veins on his forehead bulged slightly.
"Since you've cut enough."
Daz pushed off with his foot and charged towards Zoro, his hands clasped together in a palm shape, his ten fingers transforming into sharp blades, pushing towards Zoro like a Kamehameha.
"My turn to attack."
Sparkling Daisy Cutter!
Clang!
Zoro, who had been forcefully propelled by the opponent's immense strength and slammed into the rocks behind him with his twin swords crossed in front of him, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He was suddenly stunned.
Because behind him, ten huge, radiating knife marks appeared on the cliff face, corresponding to Daz's ten fingers.
This guy can actually unleash such a fierce slash?
"Fly!"
With Daz's indifferent voice, ten radiating slashes suddenly appeared on Zoro's chest, as he had already been cut through by the opponent's invisible strike.
With a bang, Zoro was sent flying backward as the giant rock behind him collapsed, crushing him beneath it.
········
I trained harder than anyone else, and I narrowly escaped danger several times...
Those trapped under the rocks, like Zoro, asked themselves, "We are by no means lazy."
So, what exactly are his shortcomings?
Could it be the sword the teacher was talking about, the one that can't even cut paper? But can it cut steel? And what does it mean to have a sword that can't even cut paper?
All I know is that the path of a swordsman is to forge ahead relentlessly.
"What's wrong? You think you can beat me by just playing defense all the time?"
Daz crossed his arms and shouted from outside.
With a thunderous roar, Zoro rose from the ruins, gritting his teeth. "What a pity you won't see me cut through iron and gold. When I can do that, it will be your death!"
With that, Zoro lifted a boulder the size of a house and hurled it down on Daz's head.
Faced with an attack powerful enough to smash flesh and blood into mincemeat, Daz simply spread his ten fingers into a knife.
"No matter what it is, I will chop it into pieces."
Atomic Spurt!
In an instant, a dense barrage of slashes sliced through the oncoming boulder, neatly dividing it into hundreds or even thousands of pieces.
"Cut!"
Zoro launched another fierce attack, his sword slashing down with devastating force. If he couldn't cut through metal, it only meant he hadn't tried hard enough.
This only shows that your strength is not enough, so you need to be stronger, faster, and more ferocious.
In an instant, the sword strikes resumed, and Zoro's aura and killing intent were several times stronger than before.
" Kani Grab!"
In this battlefield beside the cliff, accompanied by the deafening roar of blades cutting through the air, three swords, held in reverse and crossed horizontally, slashed towards Daz's neck, his entire stance resembling a crab about to seize its prey.
As Zoro forcefully pulled the knife he was holding in reverse, a phantom image of a crab claw appeared behind him.
Daz even saw the cold iron pincers gripping the sharp blade and suddenly slashing, the murderous aura swirling, the thick stench of blood suffocating.
"Waaah,"
Daz was struck hard on the neck by Zoro, experiencing a long-lost pain, as if his proud skin was about to be torn apart at any moment, forcing him to immediately be on high alert.
To avoid any unforeseen complications, we should act swiftly and decisively.
Spiral Hollow!
Two thick arms suddenly transformed into rings of blades that spun rapidly, deflecting Zoro's sword upwards.
"Oh no!" Zoro thought to himself, trying to dodge, but he couldn't escape Daz's attack.
Puff puff puff puff!
The rapidly spinning blade instantly grazed Zoro's chest, staining it crimson. " Spiral Punch!"
The high-speed spinning blade punch slammed into Zoro's chest, instantly turning his eyes white and knocking the long sword out of his hand, even though Zoro was not human.
He flew backward, crashing heavily into the cliff face before falling to the ground.
You can't... you can't turn your back on the enemy...
Zoro, whose consciousness was already clouded, managed to get up by sheer willpower and try to stand up, only to be met with an even more deadly attack.
" Metsuretsu Zan!"
The sharp slashes cut through everything in their path, cleaving Zoro's chest to shreds and splitting the cliff behind him in two.
Countless boulders collapsed, and with a thunderous roar, Daz turned and left.
"Finish...?!"
Daz abruptly stopped, turned around abruptly, and stared incredulously at the man standing amidst the rubble. "With such severe injuries, you should have died!"
Yes, I should have died. That's how it should be; I dodged the boulder's attack!
No, I think I heard something about a place where the boulder won't fall.
"Why are you still standing there? I slashed you so badly, and you still managed to dodge the boulder!"
Seeing the shock on Daz's face, Zoro didn't even have the strength to answer; he could only mentally experience the feeling of impending death.
It was so quiet that you could hear your own heartbeat clearly. Perhaps because he was on his deathbed, the whole world seemed to have changed in Zoro's eyes.
The sky, the earth, the rocks... and the enemy opposite him, everything exuded a unique breath, and in Zoro's eyes, all of this was so clear.
As long as you follow the rhythm of your breathing, it feels like you can cut through anything.
Is this the power the teacher spoke of, the power to sever all things?
Zoro picked up the Wado Ichimonji from under the rock, pointed the katana at Daz in front of him, and the meaning was self-evident.
"You think you can stop my attack with a knife?"
Zoro said solemnly, "I won't block anymore."
"Have you resigned yourself to your fate? You're smart, Dust-Slicing Blade!"
Daz's ten fingers were like knives as he suddenly rushed forward, but Zoro simply and unhurriedly sheathed his sword, assuming a stance for drawing his sword and slashing.
"One-Sword Style Iaijutsu: Lion's Song!"
The moment the sword was drawn, its speed instantly changed from extremely slow to extremely fast; this strike seemed to transcend the boundaries of time and space.
Zoro vanished in an instant, and when he reappeared, he was already standing behind Daz, the Wado Ichimonji in his hand slowly returning to its sheath.
puff!!
Daz, who claimed to have never been injured by a swordsman, coughed up a mouthful of blood and turned around with a grim expression.
He didn't even know when he was struck; how did this guy's strength increase so much in an instant?!
"... The next step... is it to cut open the diamond?"
Daz asked with difficulty, and Zoro replied calmly, "That would be such a waste."
It's not that it can't be done, it's just that it would be too wasteful...
"I'm really impressed by you."
Peng, Daz fell directly to the ground.
Zoro, panting, realized he had lost too much blood and that if he continued fighting, he would likely struggle to exert much of his fighting power.
But he had no intention of resting. Daz was just the beginning; there was someone else he needed to defeat: Crocodile!
"What?!"
Crocodile's roar echoed from the carriage transporting the giant tortoise Banchi by land and water.
Say that again!
Crocodile, dressed in a black fur coat, suddenly stood up, completely lacking his usual composed demeanor, and loudly questioned the Den Den Mushi he held in his hand.
"Yes... yes..."
On the other end of the Den Den Mushi was a company commander who had narrowly escaped.
As Baroque Studio spy infiltrated into the King's army, he was fortunate enough to escape the purge and make contact with high-ranking officials outside the city.
"The cadres encountered the enemy one after another. Because Princess Vivi met with Kohza, the 700,000 rebels did not continue their attack on the palace. Kohza went to the palace to meet the king."
As a grassroots leader, the squad leader already had the right to choose his own clothing and did not need to have the Baroque Studio logo tattooed on his body, so he allowed them to escape with their lives for the time being.
However, with a large number of low-ranking personnel being apprehended, these junior commanders will eventually be identified, and their fate will certainly not be good.
Thanks to the work of their Baroque Studio, the number of people who have died in Alabasta due to drought and civil war is not in the hundreds or thousands, but in the hundreds of thousands or even millions.
"... Excuse me, is Miss All Sunday? We should..."
Card.
Crocodile casually hung up the Den Den Mushi, too lazy to care whether the poor bastard on the other end who had tipped him off lived or died.
His whole demeanor darkened, and a dangerous glint appeared in his eyes as he looked at Nicole Robin beside him.
"I understand how you feel, boss."
Nicole Robin casually spread her hands, "But we should think about the next step now."
To be honest, the fact that the princess was able to go this far, almost ruining the plan, was truly beyond her expectations. Perhaps revealing that Crocodile was the mastermind behind it all wasn't a very wise move.
But it's really interesting how the bad luck was averted thanks to Princess Vivi's efforts.
"I know."
Crocodile took a deep drag on his cigar, forcing himself to calm down. At this point, assigning blame was pointless.
He also hoped that this woman could help him decipher the Poneglyph; without her, no one could understand Poneglyph.
Moreover, Robin also longs to decipher the Poneglyph, and this situation is definitely not what she wants to see.
It can only be said that things developed in a way that exceeded their expectations. If they had known, they shouldn't have spent a few minutes with that silly Straw Hat.
"Should we retreat, boss?"
Robin smiled and said something that had a hint of provocation in her words; she knew very well what kind of person Crocodile was.
If even this person backs down, then she can only watch helplessly as the Poneglyph slips away before her eyes.
"Heh heh heh, you're not happy about it either, Nico Robin?"
Crocodile sneered. At this point, he had no way out. "It seems I've been a hero in this country for too long, so long that people have forgotten my true purpose."
He's Seven Warlords of the Sea!
"Let's go see King Cobra, and then we'll meet Princess Vivi."
Since the entire plan has been sabotaged and the peaceful takeover of Alabasta has become a pipe dream, Crocodile doesn't mind taking a gamble.
With the entire country of Alubarna hostage, surely the merciful Nefertari Royal Family knows what to choose?
With a flick of his trench coat, Crocodile swept Nico Robin up with him, and their lower bodies transformed into a swirling tornado, hurtling away into the distance.
Since the scheme failed, let's break the deadlock with force.
kill!
"Is Father not in the palace?"
Vivi looked shocked. She had some suspicions about the Nanohana incident, but due to the time constraints, she hadn't had time to think carefully about why her father hadn't come forward to deny it.
Chaka's answer made her understand why her father didn't come forward to deny the rumors.
" Vivi! Do you still want to argue?"
Kohza growled, "The king disappeared when the Nanohana incident broke out, and this is the royal palace!"
" The Baroque Studio has infiltrated the royal palace."
Chaka roared back, his face contorted with rage, "The evidence is them."
The guards dragged up the low-ranking employees with wing tattoos on their arms. "They are Crocodile's spies planted in the palace."
Chaka said, grabbed one of the men, and said, "Tell me, where exactly was the king taken?"
"No, I don't know. It was all done by high-ranking officials."
The man answered hastily.
Kohza glanced at the tattoo on the arm and was struck dumb. He remembered that someone he knew had the same tattoo.
Could it be...? A shadow crossed his eyes. " Crocodile."
"Is there something you need from me?"
An arrogant voice rang out, and yellow sand gathered on the palace roof, forming the shape of Crocodile.
At the same time, a figure covered in wounds was left behind.
That was King Cobra.
He coughed.
"Father!" Vivi shouted, trying to rush forward.
The guards also wanted to go up.
" Sixteen Fleur." Robin used her ability, extending her arms to cover the ground, and flung Vivi and the others away.
Crocodile didn't waste any words, "King Cobra, do you want to watch your country perish?"
A storm gathered in his palm.
Kohza raised his hand, " Hadō #4, Byakurai!"