Just before Oto and Kogarashi were about to merge, Roy's body leaned back at an incredible angle.
The blades of the two swords grazed the tip of his nose.
At the same time, he sprang up with his right leg, his knee slamming hard into Shiki's abdomen.
Shiki groaned as he was sent flying.
Before he even landed, Roy's slash arrived.
The slashing wave from Shusui flew across the sea surface, cutting a bottomless crack in the seawater, chasing straight after Shiki's flying figure.
Shiki twisted his body desperately in mid-air, crossing his two swords in front of him to block.
The moment the slashing wave struck the sword's edge, he felt as if his arm had been hit by a mountain.
The old wound on his hand reopened, and blood seeped out from the crack, flowing down his wrist.
But he gritted his teeth and blocked the attack.
The cost was that his body was propelled backward hundreds of meters by the impact of the slash.
The swords on its feet carved two white tracks in the air.
"Cough--"
Shiki coughed up a mouthful of blood, which drifted into the air.
He looked down at his trembling hands; the wound on his thumb and forefinger revealed the muscle tissue underneath, and every movement of his sword-wielding hand was accompanied by excruciating pain.
"I'm getting old, really getting old," he muttered to himself.
The Golden Lion raised its head and looked at Roy in the distance.
Roy did not pursue him, but simply stood there watching him, his Black Blade Shusui, pointing diagonally at the sea.
"Shall we continue?" Roy's voice traveled hundreds of meters to reach Shiki's ears.
"Nonsense." Shiki spat out the blood and foam from his mouth and gripped his twin swords tightly again.
He knew why Roy was so patient; that kid was even trying to recruit him.
They even wanted him to be some damn transportation captain.
Just thinking about it makes Shiki angry.
At the height of his power, Golden Lion Shiki commanded dozens of pirate crews and tens of thousands of followers. Even Whitebeard, that old geezer, had to give him some respect.
These days, they want a kid in his early twenties to be a porter?
After a lifetime of hard work, is this all I'm worth?
Shiki grew angrier the more he thought about it, and his domineering Haki surged uncontrollably within him.
The ship's rudder above his head began to throb again—every time he got emotional, that damned rudder would hurt like a nail driven into his brain.
But this time he didn't suppress the pain. Instead, he used the stimulation from the pain to unleash all the Haki within him.
Conqueror's Haki erupted with a deafening roar.
Dark red Inazuma struck wildly in all directions from Shiki as the center.
This time, his Conqueror's Haki was even more ferocious than before, and closer to the level he had at his peak.
Bullet, who was watching the game, raised an eyebrow. "The old man has this trick up his sleeve?"
"Just a final burst of energy before death."
Tesoro said coldly. But his eyes remained fixed on Shiki's movements, golden arcs of electricity dancing faster than usual at his fingertips.
Shiki roared and charged at Roy.
He raised his twin swords high, their blades simultaneously imbued with both Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki.
Although the Conqueror's Haki Coating him and the ship's rudder above his head was not yet stable, at least for this moment, he had succeeded.
"Lion's Cross Slash--!!!"
The two swords slashed down simultaneously.
A massive slash, crackling with black and red Inazuma, flew from the sword's edge.
This slash was larger than any before; where the shockwave passed, the sea was split in two, and a straight crack was torn in the clouds in the sky.
Roy's eyes flashed with surprise when he saw the sword strike.
This sword strike already possessed seven-tenths of his peak skill level.
But it's only seven points.
Shusui Blade also condensed its Conqueror's Haki Inazuma.
Black and red electric arcs danced wildly on the blade, growing denser and brighter with each press.
The color changed from dark red to deep red, from deep red to purplish red, and finally to a glaring blackish red.
He slashed out with a single stroke.
The two slashes collided fiercely in mid-air.
"Boom--!!!"
The explosion was brighter than the sun.
The shockwave spread in all directions, overturning the sea surface within a radius of several kilometers.
The members of Hachinosu who were watching the battle had to retreat a distance to barely avoid the aftershocks.
The light faded.
Shiki was sent flying backward, his clothes completely torn at the chest, revealing his battered skin underneath.
Blood gushed from the corner of his mouth, and his hands gripping the sword trembled violently.
Roy stood still, not taking a single step back.
But if you look closely, you can see that his fingers holding the knife are slightly white—he wasn't completely unscathed from that clash.
"That was a pretty good sword strike."
Roy glanced down at the small tear in his sleeve caused by the shockwave.
"If you can maintain this level of performance, you might actually get me to give it my all."
Shiki managed to steady himself a few dozen meters away.
He was breathing heavily, his chest heaving with alarming force.
He could feel his strength draining away at a visible rate—that last sword strike had almost drained most of his power.
But he still grinned.
"You're going to use your full strength?"
Shiki wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth.
"So, you've been holding back just now?"
"Of course," Roy did not deny it.
Shiki was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly burst into laughter, the sound echoing across the sea and causing the surrounding Water 7 to tremble slightly.
"Hahahaha- Roy, you're even more arrogant than your old man was in his youth!"
After laughing, he raised his twin swords again.
"But that makes sense."
If you didn't have that confidence, you wouldn't have been able to cut off Saint Saturn's head.
Golden Lion took a deep breath and crossed his two swords in front of him.
This time, he didn't rush to charge, but slowly closed his one eye.
The surrounding air began to flow around him.
The Conqueror's Haki that had been mostly depleted began to slowly recover under his urging.
"In my entire life—"
When I was young, I felt like I was afraid of nothing.
Challenge Rocks, join his pirate crew, fight Whitebeard, and compete with Roger for territory.
At that time, I felt that nothing on this sea could stop me.
"After Rocks was defeated, I formed my own Flying Pirates."
At its peak, it commanded dozens of captains and tens of thousands of men.
Whatever Lao Tzu says, the New World must listen to.
"Then—we encountered that damn storm in Edd War."
Shiki's voice suddenly turned low.
"My fleet, my brothers, my empire—all were destroyed by that storm."
Don't you think luck is very important?
Roger was lucky; the storm helped him.
"I had bad luck; the storm ruined me."
"From that day on, Lao Tzu's fortunes have been on a downward spiral."
The fleet was lost, they were captured by the navy, and after escaping Impel Down, they suffered one defeat after another.
Then, one by one, you new-age brats emerge and trample the old fogies of the old era down."
Sometimes I really envy that old man with the Whitebeard.
He died on the battlefield, on the way to the charge, dying like a true pirate.
His life may not have started as gloriously as mine, but his ending will definitely be more impressive.
Shiki opened his eyes, a complex light flashing in his single eye.
"So— Roy, do you know why I rejected you?"