A blinding aureole of gold burst across the field, swallowing sight itself.
"Borsalino?!"
The attack came so abruptly that even Sengoku froze. He had expected someone to snap after Darren's taunts—hot-blooded Sakazuki, perhaps, or an impetuous charge from Kuzan—but never the famously languid Borsalino.
In that stunned heartbeat, the lightspeed kick scythed in.
A cold red glint sparked in Darren's eyes. Observation Haki flared; he read the line of the attack and leaned into it, forearm raised.
Haki-hardened bone met shin with a cannon-crack.
Biu—BOOM!!
A laser howled from the white leather shoe, lancing past Darren to obliterate a distant building in a pillar of flame and smoke. Heat rolled across the ruins. Borsalino rubbed his chin with a put-upon sigh.
"Blocked again… what a monster."
He clapped his hands; a sword of pure radiance drew itself from his palms.
"Ama no Murakumo no Tsurugi."
With one hand, Borsalino brought the blade down toward Darren's face.
Clang!
Sparks sheared off into the rain-thinned air, briefly lighting the Vice Admiral's scarred, blood-spattered features. A black demon blade whistled up to catch the stroke.
"Aren't you one of the monsters yourself?" Darren said, smiling.
"I'm nowhere near as terrifying as you are…" Borsalino muttered.
The air split with a low whistle. A jet-black claw wreathed in crackling lightning ripped toward Borsalino's abdomen.
"Dragon's Claw."
"Dragon's close-quarters—how troublesome." Borsalino's body shattered into photons and re-formed high above. He struck a florid pose, fingers tipped in an orchid flourish, white cloak spilling behind him.
A storm of gold erupted.
Countless light bullets poured down like a monsoon, drowning the ground below.
"Yasakani no Magatama."
"Still the same tricks," Darren said, squinting into the glare. "No originality."
He drew a deeper breath. His cigar burned down a finger's width.
He stepped in.
Smoke rolled from his nostrils and mouth, coiling into the phantom of a vast dragon. He raised his arm and closed three fingers into the iron curl of the Dragon Claw.
"Dragon's Breath."
BOOM!
A tangible shockwave, veined with black Armament lightning, tore upward like a purgatorial gale and met the golden downpour head-on. Midair blossomed with fire; heat surged back in hammerblows.
Through the blast—two giants, one black, one yellow, smashed together again.
Clang!
Boom!!
Black iron gauntlet collided with the light-sword; sparks fanned out as the earth heaved, shockwaves scouring the smoke away.
"You don't seem pressured at all, Darren," Borsalino said, a crooked grin on his lips as the sword thrummed against Darren's strength.
"Neither do you," Darren replied.
He palmed the light blade, pivoted on his left foot, and whipped a Haki-blackened boot at Borsalino's temple.
Bang!
Borsalino caught it on his forearm and detonated into a beam, skittering hundreds of meters in a straight gold line before scything through a string of buildings.
Boom!
A far fortress belched flame.
Blue arcs crackled over Darren's skin as he sprang to follow—then he stopped short, hand snapping up. Phantom slashes hissed out, shredding an ice spear to glittering dust.
"Kuzan…"
A predator's smile touched Darren's mouth.
Crack.
The ground behind him fissured. Scarlet light pulsed at his back. Danger coiled up his spine.
He turned and drove a fist into the onrushing heat.
The earth split, vomiting a column of magma. A figure vaulted from it like a hellhound—right arm swollen and jagged, the killing blow already mid-swing.
"Magma Hound: Red Lotus!"
BOOM!!
Black lightning met molten fist. The impact pulverized the ground for a hundred meters around, dropping the terrain in a sudden sink as dust and smoke erupted outward. Marines stumbled back, eyes wide. Cracks webbed away; magma frothed through the seams. Black and red tore the air into two storms.
"I didn't expect this fight so soon," Sakazuki growled, magma sweating from his brow, gaze flat on his former adjutant.
"I think it's a little late," Darren said, grinning.
A question flickered in Sakazuki's eyes. So—this defiance had been in Darren's bones for a long time. No wonder the preparations in the North Blue. No wonder that fleet.
A shadow fell across Darren.
"Hahahaha! Darren, feast your eyes on the results of my training!"
Kuzan's laugh boomed as he cocked his arm back, a massive globe of ice swallowing his fist.
"Ice Fist!"
To be continued...