"You bastard! Don't even think about it!"
With a feral roar that seemed to tear at the air itself, Lion's eyes went bloodshot. His body swelled, expanding in an instant as thick brown fur sprouted all over him. Fangs jutted from his jaws, and his hands and feet twisted into razor-sharp claws.
With a sudden jerk, his now-beefy wrist tore free from Aeridar's grip.
Whoosh—
BOOM!
Aeridar barely registered the rushing wind before something slammed into his skull with the force of a cannonball. He didn't even get a chance to look up.
Like swatting a golf ball off the tee, Lion's massive right arm swung down, sending Aeridar flying.
RUMBLE—!!
He was airborne for dozens of meters before smashing into the ground with a thunderous crash. The impact carved a crater into the earth, but his momentum didn't stop there, he tumbled violently across the terrain, shattering two boulders along the way, before finally crashing into a tree so massive it would take five men linking arms to circle its trunk. Only then did he come to a stop.
"Damn... My head's ringing."
Leaning back against the tree root, Aeridar rubbed his temple with a grimace and slowly got back to his feet.
After all, he was the user of the Impact-Impact Fruit, conventional physical attacks rarely fazed him. He could neutralize the force behind most blows entirely. The only reason that last hit worked was because he'd been caught off guard.
"What a monster..."
The beastly Lion, now in full Zoan transformation, narrowed his eyes at the unscathed Aeridar. His brow creased with unease.
That strike, hurried as it was, should've been more than enough to pulp a rhino's skull. But this guy just brushed it off? Freakish.
From the crater, the metal lion Rhein clambered out, shaking its head as it glared at Aeridar. Its eyes, usually burning with violence, now flickered with wariness.
"Well I'll be damned... That thing's got intelligence."
Noticing the fear in Rhein's eyes, Aeridar's gaze sharpened. His curiosity toward the living glove worn by Lion deepened.
"Get him!"
Lion didn't bother retrieving his dropped golden battle axe. He charged barehanded, snarling with wild abandon.
At the same time, Rhein lunged forward as well, perfect synchronization with its master, aiming to flank Aeridar from both sides.
"You really think you can beat me? You fools…"
Aeridar sneered, utterly dismissive.
"If I wasn't worried about damaging these gloves, I would've leveled this place already."
He was already treating the living glove as his own property.
"Rokushiki: Soru!"
With a quiet snarl, Aeridar vanished on the spot.
"So fast—!"
Lion's eyes flew wide. He tried to stop, crossed his arms in front of him, yet—
THWACK—!!
A dark fist materialized out of nowhere, smashing into Lion's guard.
CRACK—!
A faint snapping sound whispered in the air. Lion's face twisted in pain as his entire body was thrown back, skidding more than ten meters across the ground, carving twin grooves in the earth beneath him.
"My bone... it cracked...!"
His voice was strained. One arm trembled uncontrollably.
ROAR—!!
Rhein charged again, maw wide open, jaws ready to snap Aeridar in half.
"Tch... what a pain, you metal mutt."
Aeridar frowned. This thing was too damn sturdy, even several solid blows hadn't done much damage. Looks like he'd have to go harder.
He pivoted swiftly, slipping past Rhein's snapping jaws and shifting to its right side. Lifting his arm, he formed a blade hand, two fingers extended straight, palm edged. His entire arm darkened as it hardened with Armament Haki, vibrating at a frequency too fast for the eye to follow.
And then—
A blade of shock and pressure tore through the air as Aeridar slashed sideways, striking at Rhein's midsection.
Armament Hardening, Impact Vibration: High-Frequency Black Blade!!!
CLANG—!!
ZZZZZZZRT—!!
BOOOOM—!!
Sparks exploded in the air like fireworks, the sound of metal shearing through metal echoed like a buzzsaw grinding through steel. Rhein was sent flying sideways, skidding through the dirt for dozens of meters before finally stopping.
"Ssshh—hell! That's one tough bastard."
Aeridar shook out his arm, dispersing the Haki, his hand trembling from the backlash.
That High-Frequency Black Blade was something he'd improvised just now; first, hardening his arm with Haki to make it virtually indestructible. Then, by layering it with rapid-fire micro-vibrations from his Impact-Impact Fruit, he created a high-frequency cutting edge using his hand as the blade itself.
Its killing power against single targets was monstrous, it could pierce or slice through steel like paper.
The downside? It drained stamina like crazy.
And worse, if the target was too hard, the vibrations could start damaging his own hand, because no matter how much Haki he used, it was still flesh and blood underneath.
Rhein slowly rose to its feet, shaking its massive lion head. It looked almost unharmed, save for a half-meter-long gash along its waist, maybe four or five centimeters deep.
On a beast that was five meters long from nose to tail? That kind of damage was barely a scratch.
BOOM—
Suddenly, a shadow came crashing down from the sky like a meteor, slamming into the ground with bone-rattling force.
The impact gouged a massive crater into the earth, kicking up a roaring shockwave and a blinding cloud of dust. Shards of rock exploded outward like shrapnel, pelting exposed skin with sharp, stinging pain.
"What the hell was that? A bird?"
Aeridar squinted into the dust, he thought he'd seen wings.
Whoosh—
Tap. Tap.
A second figure landed beside him, accompanied by a dry remark.
"Captain, still not done yet?"
Aeridar turned his head slightly, irritation creeping into his voice. "Arlan, are you trying to piss me off?"
Arlan stood nearby, dressed in his signature blue suit, though it was now tattered and streaked with blood. His face was pale, clearly worse for wear.
"B-Bastard… I'm gonna kill you!"
From within the dispersing dust came a shrill, furious voice.
As the cloud cleared, a figure emerged at the edge of the crater—a woman, though it wasn't immediately obvious.
She had dark, obsidian wings and wore a broken mask. Through the shattered porcelain, her exposed skin was strikingly smooth, youthful, and almost ethereal. Her eyes shimmered like rippling water, but behind the beauty lurked razor-sharp intent.
"…Wait. That's a woman?" Aeridar blinked, momentarily thrown.
The woman didn't hesitate. With a flick of her hand, she tore the mask from her face and flung it aside. It clattered onto the cracked earth, revealing a sharp, beautiful visage, a face that carried strength and cold, commanding confidence. Her eyes locked onto Arlan with icy precision.
"Eagle, you alright?"
A second figure, Lion, rolled his arm as he approached, eyeing Eagle's charred and bloodstained frame.
Eagle turned her head, glancing at her scorched left arm. "Not dead yet," she replied tersely.
"Damn… So she really is a woman. And a knockout at that." Arlan's eyes went wide, he hadn't expected to be trading blows with someone like her.
"You got a problem with that?"
Eagle's eyes flared. With a single beat of her wings, a flurry of black feathers launched from her back like a storm of obsidian daggers.
Whsst—whsst—whsst—whsst—whsst—!
In a blink, both Aeridar and Arlan vanished from sight.
The next instant, the ground where they'd stood was blanketed in feathers, each one embedded deep—deadly, precise, merciless.
"Woman or not…" Aeridar's voice rang out from behind her, "I don't pull my punches."
Before the words had even faded, he was already there, right beside her, his leg sweeping in for a ruthless roundhouse strike.
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