Faced with Ace's sudden attack, Blackbeard knelt on one knee amidst the burning ruins, his body covered in wounds, black blood flowing from multiple wounds and pooling on the ground.
Several of his men had already collapsed in the distance.
Blackbeard's breathing was heavy, like a bellows, and his once arrogant face was now filled with pure fear.
Ace descended from the sky and landed in front of Blackbeard.
Flames rose around him, the orange-red light reflecting off his face and making his eyes look like burning amber.
"It's over, Teach."
"Aton for the sins you have committed."
Blackbeard suddenly looked up.
His eyes held madness, resentment, and the desperate struggle of a cornered beast.
He pushed the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit to its limit with all his might, his right hand transforming into a massive dark vortex.
The gravitational pull emanating from the center of the vortex sucked in the surrounding burning flames, shattered rocks, and even air.
"Hahaha! I'm not going to die here!"
Darkness expanded wildly in his palm, like a bottomless black hole.
" Black Hole --!!!"
This was his last desperate attempt.
Regardless of the consequences, leaving no room for maneuver, they staked everything on this attack.
Ace showed no fear.
He raised his right fist high, and flames gathered from his entire body towards his fist. The orange-red flames grew denser and brighter as they were pressed down, their color changing from orange-red to golden yellow.
It changed from golden yellow to incandescent white, and finally to a dazzling bluish-white.
Flame Emperor.
A colossal fiery fist took shape in mid-air, exceeding tens of meters in diameter, radiating light and heat that eclipsed the flames of the entire Banaro Island.
The blue and white light illuminated Ace's face, Blackbeard's terrified eyes, and the entire burning sea.
"Drink it--!!!"
Ace's right fist slammed down.
Blackbeard roared as he pushed his Black Hole to their limit.
The two attacks are about to collide.
This is the moment.
Just as Ace's Great Flame Emperor and Blackbeard's Black Hole were about to collide, Ace's Observation Haki suddenly failed.
The feeling was extremely eerie.
The vision of the future he saw suddenly flickered violently, like a television screen with a poor signal; the trajectory of Blackbeard's attack, which he had clearly predicted, became blurred in that instant.
Blackbeard was clearly right in front of him, and the dark vortex of the Black Hole was clearly expanding, but Ace's perception seemed to be interfered with by something, resulting in a blank period of a fraction of a second.
It's just a fraction of a second.
Thousands of meters above the clouds, Roy intently surveyed the battlefield below.
The red light in his eyes shone brighter than ever before.
This was his first attempt at remotely and precisely controlling his Telekinesis to interfere with his Observation Haki.
The principle is actually not complicated—everyone's Observation Haki has its own unique fluctuation frequency.
With his immense mental power, as long as he can capture this frequency, he can release a Telekinesis wave with a completely opposite frequency, which will overwhelm the original signal like noise.
However, a simple principle does not mean simple execution.
The target was hundreds of meters away, and they were still engaged in high-speed combat. The frequency of his Observation Haki was constantly changing, and Roy had to control his Telekinesis waves to an extremely low level.
If she's too strong, Ace will notice; if she's too weak, she won't be able to interfere.
Roy tapped his right index finger lightly under his cloak.
An almost imperceptible wave of Telekinesis shot out from his fingertips, precisely covering the frequency of Ace's Observation Haki.
Two waves of opposite frequencies collided silently in the air, like two waves crashing together, canceling each other out and forming a calm surface of water.
Ace's Observation Haki completely failed at this moment.
But this is only the first step.
Roy simultaneously opened his left hand, extending his Telekinesis in another way.
He cannot directly attack Ace with Telekinesis: Attack.
First, Ace was quite strong; he would definitely have noticed something was wrong if he had taken a Telekinesis attack.
Secondly, Roy didn't want to injure Ace; he wanted Blackbeard to capture him.
This requires an extremely delicate balance --
The goal is to weaken Ace's attack without letting Ace realize that someone is plotting against him.
Roy condensed his Telekinesis into a transparent film, which silently adhered to the outer edge of Ace the Great Flame Emperor.
This membrane of Telekinesis did nothing but briefly weaken the impact of the Flame Emperor 'Flame Emperor collision with the Black Hole.
It's like someone tying an invisible rubber band to a boxer's fist just as he's about to land a blow.
The fist was still thrown, but its power and speed were reduced.
This requires extremely precise control.
The red light in Roy's eyes continued to flash, and a few beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
This kind of precise remote control was also a first for him.
On the battlefield, their attacks finally clashed.
The giant blue-white fireball of Flame Emperor crashed into the dark vortex of the Black Hole.
Flames and darkness clashed violently, producing a piercing hissing sound.
Darkness desperately devoured the flames, while the flames desperately burned the darkness; the two diametrically opposed forces collided to form a terrifying energy vortex.
But Ace sensed something was wrong.
His Great Flame Emperor was at least 20% weaker than he had anticipated.
It wasn't that the temperature of the flames decreased, nor that the Haki dissipated, but rather that the transmission of the impact force was hindered in some way.
It's as if a fireball has hit an invisible cushion, dispersing the most intense initial impact.
This weakening gave Blackbeard enough time to react.
Blackbeard instinctively deflected the absorption direction of the Black Hole a few degrees, diverting the Great Flame Emperor's core power to the side.
A blue-white fireball grazed Blackbeard's body and exploded on the ruins behind him.
The explosion sent flames soaring into the sky, turning half the sky blue and white. The shockwave flattened all the surrounding ruins and even shattered the broken fishing boats moored at the dock.
Blackbeard himself was only grazed on the shoulder.
He screamed in agony as his left shoulder was scalded by the aftershocks of the Flame Emperor's attack, and he rolled several times on the ground.
But he wasn't hit head-on.
Blackbeard got up from the ground, panting heavily, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
A survivor.
He looked down at his left shoulder—it was charred black, a bloody mess, and the bone was vaguely visible.
But he's still alive, still able to move, and the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit is still functioning.
But Ace's next attack was yet to come.
Ace's right arm stiffened for a moment after he swung the Great Flame Emperor.
It wasn't that he was physically exhausted, but rather that his body was momentarily stunned by the missed attack.
He clearly predicted Blackbeard's location, and he clearly detected the other's presence using his Observation Haki.
But for a moment, his Observation Haki suddenly became disordered, causing a slight deviation in his attack angle.
It was in that moment of stunned silence that Blackbeard seized the opportunity.