"Buzz~!"
Roy's signature slash shot skyward.
Immediately afterwards, Roy's voice exploded across the battlefield, like a red-hot knife plunged into ice.
"Stop holding back! Let's attack together!"
"Certainly!"
Kaido followed closely behind.
In his dragon-human form, he was a size larger than usual, and lightning crackled like serpents across his blue dragon scales.
The staff of the Hassaikai was imbued with the vibrational light sphere of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, wrapped in a purplish-black Conqueror's Haki Inazuma, and slammed down towards Imu's head.
Imu raised his sword to parry, and the moment the Black Blade clashed with the Hassaikai, it was as if something had torn a hole in the entire sky.
The shockwave exploded between the two, shattering the surrounding clouds.
"Hmph! Damn remnants of the Oni!" Imu said coldly, flipping his wrist as the Black Blade slid down the staff of the Hassaikai, aiming straight for Kaido's fingers.
Kaido reacted extremely quickly, his dragon tail whipping around from behind, crackling with lightning, and striking Imu's side, forcing Imu to stagger half a step to the side.
Bullet happened to be waiting in that spot.
The Demonic Aura on the White Tiger Armor had become so dense that it had materialized. Bullet's fist, imbued with the power amplified a hundredfold by the More-More Fruit, slammed solidly into Imu's back.
"Bang!"
The solid punch sent Imu's body tilting forward, and several fine cracks appeared beneath the brown skin on his back.
Before he could even adjust his stance, Hawk Eyes's slash had already arrived.
A green blade of light sliced in from the side, precisely striking Imu's right shoulder joint. The black blood that splattered out was instantly evaporated into black mist by the blade's energy.
Just then, the Red Count emerged from the shadows behind Imu, his blood claws aimed straight for the back of Imu's neck.
Ember's flaming blade swooped down from the sky, blocking Imu's escape route.
Yamato thrust his Ice Twin Power from the front, the spear tip coated with Conqueror's Haki, aimed directly at Imu's throat.
Attacks from five directions arrived simultaneously.
Faced with such a crisis, all nineteen eyes on Imu's body opened, and black mist surged out from his body, forming an impenetrable barrier around him.
The five attacks struck it, as if they had hit a swamp, their power being dispersed, absorbed, and neutralized layer by layer.
However, the barrier itself also showed obvious signs of shaking.
His defense is weakening.
Roy's voice came from mid-air.
Imu did not refute.
Roy's Telekinesis Field had locked onto the entire battlefield; he could sense every breath, every movement, and every fluctuation of power Imu.
Compared to before, Imu's aura was noticeably disordered, and the black mist was no longer flowing as smoothly as it had at the beginning.
"Continue," Roy said.
Kaido grinned and charged forward again.
The shockwaves from the Hassaikai struck Imu's chest, causing a muffled thud to emanate from within Imu.
Bullet followed up with a punch, his white tiger claw tearing open the black scales on Imu's abdomen.
Hawk Eyes unleashed seven consecutive slashes with his Black Blade Yoru, each striking precisely at the weakest point in Imu's defenses.
Imu was overwhelmed by the three men.
It wasn't because he got weaker, but because the three of them were working together more and more seamlessly.
Kaido's overwhelming force, Bullet's flank breakthrough, Hawk Eyes's precise strikes, coupled with Red Count's assassination-style raid and King's aerial blockade, Imu with absolutely no chance to breathe.
Roy was waiting for the right opportunity.
His Observation Haki was like a vast net, capturing every subtle change in Imu.
When Imu swung his sword to block Kaido's attack, his left shoulder would involuntarily twitch backward.
When Bullet attacks from the right, Imu's right leg will have a very short shift in his center of gravity.
These are all flaws.
"Now."
Roy moved.
His body vanished from mid-air and reappeared a moment later to Imu's left.
The indigo light on the Shusui Blade flowed like water, while the Conqueror's Haki condensed on the blade, forming an extremely thin and sharp edge.
He cleaved down with a single stroke.
Imu sensed danger and leaned back sharply, trying to avoid the blow.
But Roy's Telekinesis Field pressed down on Imu in that instant, slowing his backward movement by half a beat.
Shusui slashed into Imu's left shoulder.
Imu's defenses were sliced through like paper by this blade; the indigo light pierced through flesh and reached the bone.
Black blood gushed out; Imu's left arm was almost completely severed by this strike.
"Ah--!"
Imu let out a low growl and swung his Black Blade at Roy with a backhand strike.
Roy pulled back, the blade slicing past his chest a few inches away, tearing his clothes and leaving a thin line of blood on his skin.
"What a pity," Roy muttered after retreating to a safe distance.
He wanted to cut off the mark on Imu's left arm.
But Imu reacted at the last moment, forcibly altering the blade's trajectory with black flames, causing Shusui's landing point to deviate by a few inches.
Imu's left arm hung limply, black mist gushing wildly from the wound, attempting to repair the damage.
However, the Conqueror's Haki attached to Roy's slash clung to the wound like a leech, slowing down the healing process of the black mist considerably.
"You care a lot about that place," Imu suddenly said, his voice tinged with annoyance.
Roy did not deny it.
"Then you can forget about surviving."
Imu's wings suddenly unfurled, and black flames erupted from the wound, engulfing his entire left arm in flames.
The flames burned so fiercely that they distorted the air itself.
A few seconds later, the black flames subsided, and the wound on his left arm had completely disappeared.
But Roy noticed that Imu's face had turned noticeably paler.
"Forcing yourself to repair your body must have taken a toll," Roy said.
Imu did not answer.
Kaido and Bullet have already charged forward again.
Imu was forced to switch to defense again, but this time his movements were noticeably slower than before, and his angle of attack was not as precise.
It's cracked.
Bullet punched Imu in the chest and discovered that his fist had left a clear dent in Imu's black scales.
Spiderweb-like cracks extended from the dent, and black blood seeped out from the cracks like tiny streams.
"His body is collapsing!" Bullet roared, his attacks becoming even more ferocious.
Imu suffered repeated defeats.
The black mist that formed a protective barrier on his body peeled away in patches, revealing brown skin underneath, which was covered with cracks, like porcelain that had been burned.
Black blood seeped continuously from the cracks, staining the ground beneath his feet a dark red.
Everyone on the battlefield witnessed this scene.
"Now!" Tesoro's Golden Domain suddenly contracted, concentrating entirely at Imu's feet. The liquid gold seemed to come alive, spreading upwards from Imu's feet.
Imu tried to flap his wings to escape, but Crocodile's sand blades had already sliced through from the side, tearing a large gash in his right wing.
Black mist seeped from the wound, and the wings could no longer maintain their shape.
Tesoro seized the opportunity and unleashed the full power of his Rumble-Rumble Fruit.
Dozens of thick bolts of lightning rose from the Golden Domain and struck Imu simultaneously.
The electric current was conducted through the liquid gold, enveloping Imu in a blinding white light.