"Gura Gura no Mi (Tremor-Tremor Fruit)… nothing special!"
Even though the spot he'd been hit was throbbing with brutal pain, Aegis still gritted his teeth and pretended it was nothing. He countered with a backhand punch that smashed into the momentarily stunned Creed.
"Boom!"
Creed was blasted away, but the recoil that came from Creed's body told Aegis one thing very clearly—
Creed's defensive power was almost on par with his own.
"What? How can he have such strong defense?!"
Aegis was shocked.
He had originally believed that among the top combatants present today, the strongest defense belonged to Big Mom, famed for her iron skin. Only she should have been able to keep up with him in that regard.
Yet Creed's resilience wasn't much inferior at all.
"Damn it, how can he have so many broken-level powers and also such a ridiculous defense? Right… when Shi hit him with that full-power slash just now, why did he look like it was nothing?!"
Along with the shock, another thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.
Even with Aegis's own monstrous defensive power, if he took Shi's full-power slash head-on, he would likely lose half his fighting capacity at least.
Bits of information pieced themselves together in his head, and he "picked out" a few details he'd overlooked—
The wound on Creed's back was actually healing at a rapid pace.
"Heavens… what kind of ability is that? I've never seen such broken-level regeneration and recovery…"
Before Aegis could finish being astonished, Creed had already teleported back.
With a single downward swing, four strands of supreme sword intent flooded out toward him.
"Roooar!"
"Boom!"
Aegis threw out a Ryuu Ken (Dragon Fist).
Ryuu no I (Dragon's Might) roared forth as fist force and sword intent crashed together.
But hidden behind that clash was a peculiar sword intent Creed had kept in reserve—suddenly slicing in from the side.
"Roar!"
As sword qi and fist force churned together, a strange divine beast faintly took form, flying forth with a roar no weaker than a dragon's.
This creature had the body and claws of a lion, but the head and wings of a great eagle. The aura it carried as it swooped in was absolutely supreme, in no way inferior to a dragon's oppressive breath.
"Shanks's griffin sword intent? You—"
Aegis had seen much of the world; he instantly recognized the origin of that sword-beast and couldn't help but turn pale.
The best blade in Shanks's hand was the sword named Griffin, the "griffin."
It had clashed and contested with Mihawk's black blade Yoru countless times without suffering the slightest damage, and was also a supreme-grade great blade.
From that sword, Shanks had comprehended a unique sword intent—
Shishiju Ken'i (Griffin Sword Intent).
This kind of fully manifested sword intent was far more condensed and flexible than typical sword-aura phenomena, and that made it much harder to deal with.
Yet it still didn't end there.
Creed followed up with another sword strike.
Gray sword light surged, eroding power bursting forth and shrouding everything in the shadow of death.
"Shokumetsu Ken'i (Eroding Sword Intent)?! Damn it!"
Aegis roared in anger.
For the first time, true fear spread through his heart, slowly condensing into outright terror.
Other than Imu-sama… this was the first time he had ever felt this kind of dread toward a second person.
The first time Creed had crossed swords with Shi, he had grasped Shi's peerless sword intent without even having to clash directly—and the power of that copied intent seemed to surpass the original.
Such an ability was enough to throw anyone into despair.
"Maybe that Kopī Kopī no Mi (Copy-Copy Fruit) of his is actually the true number one. No… he may be stronger than me, but he absolutely isn't a match for Imu-sama!"
For decades, Aegis had believed that his Devil Fruit power was unrivaled in this world, second only to Imu-sama.
Facing Creed, that conviction he'd held for tens of years was crushed in a single encounter.
"Dark!"
Shi leaped out from a nearby air door, sword intent skyrocketing as it lashed toward Creed's back.
"Hmph."
Creed snorted. He didn't block, didn't dodge—he simply charged straight forward.
"What?"
Shi had thought Creed would once again unleash that overwhelming, invisible force.
He never expected Creed to choose a style that looked like a mutual-destruction trade instead.
"You asked for this yourself. Don't blame me for what happens next!"
Shi sneered, driving the tip of the Tenshiken (Heaven-Eroding Sword) straight toward Creed's heart.
The Tenshiken was a supreme great blade ranked among the top three in the world. Shi had always believed that Creed would dodge rather than take this strike head-on.
But—
"Clang!"
"Gara gara!"
The Tenshiken stabbed into Creed's chest where his heart should be, yet the result was a harsh metallic crash rather than the sensation of running a sword clean through flesh.
At the same time, Creed's hand clamped around Shi's throat and lifted him high into the air.
Clear light blazed around his palm—the power of the Gura Gura no Mi (Tremor-Tremor Fruit) was savagely tearing Shi's body apart from the inside.
Only then, in that instant of horror, did Shi finally understand why his supreme great blade had failed to pierce through.
Creed's entire body was already covered in a layer of cold, pitch-black scales.
On top of that layer, two different Haki auras were defending him—Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki) and the invisible pressure of Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki).
Those two kinds of Haki weren't what terrified Shi.
What terrified him was the layer of scales on Creed's body—
That was clearly the same Ryuu Ki Kasen (Dragon Aura Scale Transformation) that Aegis was so proud of.
And Aegis had only just used it moments ago…
Now Creed had already "got it" and put it to use himself?!
Monster.
Too monstrous.
"Puh! Puh!"
Under the torrential power of the tremors, it took only a brief moment for Shi to start bleeding from all seven apertures. His consciousness began to drift, turning hazy.
He swung the Tenshiken wildly in a desperate counterattack, stabbing Creed's body more than a hundred times in the blink of an eye.
But he still couldn't break through Creed's defense.
At most, he could cut open the outer surface of Creed's skin a little and draw a few thin lines of blood.
"Boom!"
Aegis couldn't take it anymore; he shot up to rescue Shi.
Without Shi, it would be very difficult for him alone to defeat Creed.
Especially now that Creed had acquired Ryuu Ki Kasen (Dragon Aura Scale Transformation) as well—
The battle plans Aegis had prepared were becoming almost impossible to execute. He needed Shi's Shokumetsu Ken'i (Eroding Sword Intent) badly.
Up until recently, Creed's defense had already been close to his own.
Now, with Dragon Aura Scale Transformation layered on top, Creed might very well have surpassed him.
"Get lost!"
Creed unleashed another Shinra Tensei (Almighty Push), knocking aside Aegis's attack, though he himself was also blasted back by the overwhelming force.
Aegis's raw power was still frighteningly strong.
But—
Shi was already on the verge of death.
"Puh! Puh! Puh!"
He spewed great mouthfuls of blood as he plummeted from the sky.
His defense was nowhere near Aegis's.
With only SSS-rank Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki) and SSS-rank physical defense, he was as fragile as thin ice in front of the awakened power of the Gura Gura no Mi (Tremor-Tremor Fruit).
"Creed!!"
Aegis roared, using an air door that appeared out of thin air to snatch Shi away from his fall, then flew up to face Creed head-on.
"The Doa Doa no Mi (Door-Door Fruit) and the Devour-Devour Fruit clearly aren't all there is to you. Don't hide it—show me just how terrifying the Devour-Devour Fruit really is."
Creed looked at him coldly, then slowly raised one hand, pointing toward the distant sky.
Aegis followed the line of that outstretched hand with his eyes, and his heart gave an involuntary lurch.
In the next instant, a thunderous rumble echoed down from above.
Aegis looked up toward the source of the sound—
And what he saw made him cry out, unable to stop himself:
"What?!"
(End of Chapter)
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