The Battle Against the Admiral, Part Two

"I'm a Marine Admiral, and since you've shown up here, I suppose you must be the admiral of Hachinosu!"

Bright pointed his sword at Kaya.

Kaya gave Bright a different impression. Even though he stood there full of openings, Bright didn't dare act rashly.

"Back in the day, Rocks killed a Marine Admiral in his debut battle. If I'm looking for a stepping stone for my debut, I doubt there's anything better."

Kaya's emotionless words made Bright's eyes blaze with anger in an instant.

The death of a Marine Admiral was an absolute disgrace!

As far as he knew, nothing like it had ever happened in Marine history before.

Every Marine remembered that hatred and silently awaited the day of revenge. The sinner's blood had to be offered to console the departed spirit.

"Roy was a righteous Marine. He was sick that day, and that was the only reason Rocks managed to ambush and kill him!" Bright said in a low voice.

"Mm, good one." Kaya couldn't help smiling. "You could even say he was a desk-bound Admiral. None of us would object."

"Bastard!" Bright's face darkened. "You're a deeply sinful man too. Your continued existence is a misfortune for the whole world... I'll take your head first!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Bright leaped forward.

Kaya moved his hand, forming a Reishi sword in it, and raised the blade to meet Bright's attack.

The sparks from the collision lit up their faces. One was furious, the other nonchalant, yet as their blades met head-on, neither could overpower the other.

The clang of metal against metal rang out without end.

There was nothing flashy, only the purest clash of swordsmanship, with stray sword energy tearing through the earth.

After a series of hammering impacts, Bright's expression grew solemn, but the heart in his chest quietly sank to rock bottom.

Not a single opening. His strength was impossible to gauge...

That was his assessment of Kaya.

He had reached a conclusion: this fight would continue indefinitely.

And time was precisely what he lacked most!

"Severing Moon Flash!"

Bright raised his greatsword and chopped down hard, gathering his spirit, energy, and focus into a single point for an ultra-high-speed vertical slash.

A solid, crescent-shaped slash flew from his sword, shattering the ground in its path as it swept toward Kaya with peerless force.

Kaya held his sword across his body to block it, feeling the pressure spread on contact and envelop him from every side.

At that moment, Bright darted past his side.

That guy... was he trying to pin me down with that move, then go straight to the Execution Platform?

Kaya reached his free hand beneath the armpit of his sword arm, gathered a small ball of Reishi at his fingertip, compressed it to the utmost, and fired a beam.

Boom!

Bright, sprinting through the air with Geppo at full strength, was struck from behind and knocked out of the sky in an instant!

Kaya exerted his strength and shattered the slash.

Then he turned toward the spot where Bright had fallen, striking the ground and raising billowing clouds of dust.

He flicked a finger, sending a ball of cyan flame flying.

The flames erupted the moment they touched the dust! An explosion roared like powerful explosives, and a gigantic pillar of ultra-concentrated Reishi light shot straight into the sky!

The technique gathered Reishi, compressed it to an extremely high concentration, and set it alight, releasing a terrifying heat of tremendous destructive power.

Bright was buried within it, his figure still hidden from view, but Kaya was ready to end the fight.

"Great Heilig Bogen!" Kaya raised his voice slightly.

Above the clouds, the light of Reishi suddenly tore across the blue sky, boiling like rising steam.

Vast power surged forth as countless streams of Reishi converged and took shape, forming an immense and magnificent sacred bow.

Its enormous frame glowed a clear, piercing azure, its arc spanning the entire sea of clouds. Several arrow shafts formed from Reishi stood straight up, their arrowheads gleaming coldly as they pierced the dark blue sky.

Clouds churned beneath the great bow, stirred by raging currents of spiritual energy, and arrows of light containing vast amounts of Reishi crashed down!

Their shafts were wrapped in dazzling, cold blue light as they tore through the sky with the force to crush everything.

The ground was instantly swallowed by blinding azure spiritual light. A violent shockwave exploded outward from the impact point, and the torrent of Reishi tore up and hurled away the hard bedrock!

The brilliant light dyed the rolling dust and sea of clouds icy blue, while ripples of energy spread outward in layers.

Kaya stood on the ground as a fierce, high-pressure wind struck his face, whipping his black hair and robe.

The blue light had not faded. At the very center of the attack, a battered figure knelt on the ground, trapped in a crater where the earth had sunk around him.

Bright panted, one hand clutching his severed shoulder. His face was charred, and most of his body was broken.

Burns from the searing heat, or sheer impact-perhaps both. After several attacks in quick succession, he was in terrible shape.

Except at the severed limb, the blood had drained from his body.

He glared fiercely at Kaya. Less than half a minute ago, he had been as properly dressed as his opponent. Now Kaya was spotless, while his own body was nearly destroyed.

The change had come too suddenly to accept. In just a few moves, the battle had been decided.

"Is this all? I didn't expect it to be so easy," Kaya said, seemingly to himself.

"Aaaah!" Bright roared. Clenching his teeth, he suddenly picked up the greatsword at his feet, half its blade broken off, and charged with a roar.

"You never had a chance of winning from the start. This battle will become a stepping stone for the pirates you hate most." Kaya raised one hand, his palm glowing.

"Sankt Altar!"

Kaya flung out several spirit bullets. Rather than attack Bright directly, they formed a huge pentagram above his head.

It was as though blue raindrops were falling from the sky. Bright was bathed in them, and his strength ebbed away like the tide.

Clang!

The sword that had once carried him through every battle suddenly became so heavy that he could no longer hold the broken blade. It slipped from his grasp and struck the ground with a clear ring.

Bright could no longer muster even the slightest bit of strength. He crumpled to the ground as though every bone had been pulled from his body.

Kaya lowered his hand. In it was a ball of flowing, surging light, like a glowing water balloon, containing a profound energy.

"...Powerless, far too powerless!" He tightened his fingers slightly and crushed the ball of energy.

Bright's swordsmanship and Haki, all the power he had forged through countless years of training and battles to the death, had been taken by Kaya!

Bright's vision blurred, and until his final moment, he was too weak to utter a single word.

Kaya lowered his head and looked down at Bright, his eyes betraying no emotion.

"The power of this world really isn't worth mentioning. Is the world itself holding you back? Then keep growing... O world!"