As soon as Smoker retreated, Bai Yu stomped his right foot against the ground with force.
Boom!
Zzzzt!
In the blink of an eye, thunder exploded beneath Bai Yu's feet. Lightning surged wildly, and his figure transformed into a streak of brilliant blue light, crackling through the air as he lunged straight toward Doflamingo!
Fwoosh!
Seeing the blinding speed, Doflamingo's eyes narrowed sharply. He instinctively knew that engaging Bai Yu in close quarters would spell disaster. Without hesitation, he manipulated his strings, attaching them to nearby buildings to hurl himself backward.
Simultaneously, he unleashed his Kenbunshoku Haki—his Observation Haki—desperately trying to track Bai Yu's erratic movements.
Yet the moment his Haki expanded across the battlefield, Doflamingo's expression twisted.
Even with heightened sensory awareness, Bai Yu's trajectory was practically unreadable.
"He's even faster than before!" Doflamingo cursed internally.
Bai Yu, empowered by the lightning element fused through his body, had achieved a level of explosive speed that outpaced his earlier attacks by more than double.
Clenching his jaw, Doflamingo crossed his arms and responded swiftly.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
With a flick of his fingers, countless razor-thin threads sprouted from the ground around him. These weren't ordinary threads—they were the fruit of his Ito Ito no Mi's full awakening.
Hummm—
Doflamingo didn't stop there. He wrapped each thread in a deep, purple-black Busoshoku Haki, hardening them to the point of being sharper than steel.
With a sharp motion, he swung his arms wide and then brought them together in a cross-shaped gesture.
"Goshikito: Itonoko Jūshijin (Thousand Arrows Piercing the Heart · Feather Strike · Line)!"
Thousands of Haki-hardened strings surged forth, curving through the air like flamingo wings, converging on Bai Yu in a deadly net. It was one of Doflamingo's most devastating large-scale attacks—designed to overwhelm by covering the target's entire area of movement.
Meanwhile, in mid-flash, Bai Yu remained composed.
Watching the densely packed net of threads closing in from all directions, he didn't flinch. Instead, he inhaled deeply.
"Seiryuu · Chikiriya!"
(青龍 · 斬霧谷 – Azure Dragon · Mist-Slicing Valley)
He gripped Sakuragi, his forged saber, with both hands and unleashed a flurry of rapid, fluid slashes.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
A barrage of gleaming, pale blue sword waves laced with lightning burst forth from Sakuragi. Each arc of light carried the heat of white flame and the intensity of sharpened thunder.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Within seconds, the slashes collided with Doflamingo's Haki-infused threads.
But to Doflamingo's shock—
His "feather-blade" threads, which could normally restrain even a Marine Admiral, shattered instantly.
The combination of lightning speed and cutting power in Bai Yu's strikes sliced cleanly through them.
Zzzzt!
Thunder roared again. Before Doflamingo could regroup, Bai Yu blitzed through the storm of falling strings and appeared directly in front of him.
He raised Sakuragi high, blade humming with energy.
"What are you waiting for?!"
Doflamingo suddenly shouted toward the sky.
Shff!
At that moment, Bai Yu sensed a powerful presence descending.
A violent gust broke above his head—the air howled as a new threat fell from above!
Eyes narrowing, Bai Yu immediately adjusted his stance and spun Sakuragi upward in a defensive arc.
Clang!!
BOOM!
A thunderous impact rang out as his blade met the descending force. Sparks erupted in a blinding flash, and the shockwave gouged a massive crater beneath Bai Yu's feet.
The attacker was knocked back by the recoil and tumbled through the air before landing beside Doflamingo.
Bai Yu looked up.
The newcomer wasn't human—not in appearance, at least.
Sharp fangs, mossy green hair, a horned military cap, and tattoos shaped like dragon wings marked his feral presence.
Recognition sparked in Bai Yu's mind.
Sasaki—a powerful executive under Kaido of the Beasts.
A member of the Tobi Roppo—the Flying Six.
A user of an Ancient Zoan: Ryu Ryu no Mi, Model: Triceratops.
"Doflamingo," Sasaki said coldly, "Master Kaido is... disappointed with your results."
Doflamingo gritted his teeth.
"You saw for yourself—this kid isn't normal!"
"Even the admirals never pushed me this far!"
He was right to be furious. Bai Yu's blade had sliced through his strings effortlessly, even ones coated in advanced Armament Haki—threads that could restrain Vice Admirals and clash with Gear Fourth Luffy.
It was as if Bai Yu was made to cut through them.
Sasaki snorted. "Then you understand why Master Kaido will reduce your next shipment... by 20%."
Doflamingo's fists clenched.
Their deal—weaponized SMILE fruits for Kaido's armory—was delicate. Any loss in quantity meant a major blow to his operations.
But he suppressed his rage.
"Fine! But only after we kill this bastard!"
He pointed his finger at Bai Yu, fully aware he was bargaining with blood.
Sasaki sneered.
"You hold him. I'll crush him. No one survives a charge from me."
Crack! Crackle!
His muscles tensed. Flesh rippled. Bones cracked like drumbeats.
Sasaki's form ballooned, flesh thickening, bone plates expanding, until he towered over the battlefield as a hulking, horned dinosaur.
The Triceratops Zoan form!
Even more telling, Sasaki didn't reach for his usual rotary blade—a weapon he used with terrifying efficiency.
This time, he went straight into his beast form.
"Let's finish this."
BOOM!
The massive beast pawed at the ground, rear foot scraping into the stone.
Then, with a thunderous stomp, Sasaki launched himself forward like a living cannonball, horns leveled like lances.
"Kaikyō · Baibo!"
Simultaneously, Doflamingo slapped his palm to the ground.
His awakening activated again—Haibara: Baibo, a sub-technique where the ground itself transformed into sentient strings.
From beneath Bai Yu, the terrain writhed and surged like a sea of serpents.
Thousands of threads—armed and awakened—rushed up like a tsunami, trapping Bai Yu between the rampaging beast from the front and the ground itself from below.
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