After the explosion echoed across the valley, every samurai froze. Shock rippled through their ranks, followed by a wave of panic. Even the head samurai felt his heart tighten—he had clearly kicked an iron wall. His earlier greed vanished, replaced by grim seriousness.
"Everyone, attack!" he barked. "Guns! Sword slashes! Don't give him another chance to breathe!"
Flowing River Style : Meandering Path Cut
Flowing River Style : Great River Divider
Gale Wind Sword Style: Stormclaw Combo
Iron Fang Sword Style: Nine Fangs Severance
The elite samurai obeyed instantly, surrounding Ace from every direction and launching a barrage toward his face and body. But Ace didn't even blink. He simply raised one arm and rotated it slowly. Flames spiraled around him, gathering momentum until they twisted into a blazing vortex.
Inferno Tornado.
The swirling firestorm wrapped around Ace like a rotating dome, swallowing every bullet and slicing down every sword slash aimed at him. The attacks vanished before they even reached him.
The samurai grit their teeth. The head samurai, refusing to lose face, charged straight toward Ace with a roar. The others followed, blades raised, haki shimmering on their bodies.
Ace sighed.
He didn't want a head-on clash — not yet. If he wanted, he could use a single move to erase everyone here. But he wanted to test his newly developed techniques, to see how they flowed together in actual battle.
He spread his arms wide. Flame gathered in his hands, twisting, elongating, compressing—
A flaming whip materialized.
Blazing whip strike
Ace crossed his arms and spun in a full 360-degree rotation. The whip expanded outward instantly, forming a 20-meter ring of fire that tore through everything in its path. Every samurai inside that circle who couldn't dodge were sliced cleanly in half, their bodies burning to ash before they even hit the ground.
The remaining samurai stiffened. Fear crept into their eyes.
But they were elites—panic was useless. And they believed one thing:
A man who uses large-scale attacks exhausts himself faster.
They were wrong.
People were different.
The old Ace using his strongest attack couldn't match even a casual strike from Kaido in his dragon form. And in the One Piece world, the gap between people were greater than strength difference of ant and an elephant.
The surviving samurai coated themselves fully in armament haki and charged again. Ace raised one hand. Flames condensed around his arm, forming into a sharp, lethal spear.
Scorching Fire Spear.
The same technique Ace once used against Blackbeard.
He lunged forward and clashed with the samurai. When he couldn't dodge in time, he simply became fire—letting blades pass harmlessly through him. The battlefield was a blur of sparks, flames, and haki.
After several furious exchanges, Ace suddenly leapt high into the sky.
The samurai stared up, confused.
Jumping into the air meant no footing—no evasion—an open target.
"Now!"
They prepared to strike.
But flame burst beneath his feet—an eruption of fire propelling him even higher.
Combustion Kick Boost
From above, Ace twisted his body and hurled the flaming spear downward with perfect precision.
The head samurai, sensing the danger, roared and unleashed everything he had.
Iron Fang Sword Style: Heaven-Splitting Summit
His blade, covered in the deepest armament haki he possessed, sliced the spear in half.
For a heartbeat, he felt victorious.
Then the two halves of the spear recombined behind him.
He didn't even have time to turn.
The tip pierced straight through his heart.
Flames ignited instantly, consuming him from the inside out.
Within seconds, the head samurai crumbled into drifting ash.
The battlefield was silent for a heartbeat.
Every samurai froze.
They had seen their captain—one of Wano's elite—reduced to dust before their eyes. Fear twisted their expressions, but instead of taking advantage of Ace's moment in the air… they hesitated. Panic made them blind.
Ace, however, did not waste the opportunity.
Still free-falling, he pressed one hand downward. Flames surged from his palm, swirling violently. In just a few seconds, the fire condensed into a blazing sphere the size of a one-story house.
The samurai stared in horror.
Ace pushed the sphere down.
Titan Fireball.
The massive fireball plummeted toward them. The elite samurai roared and attacked it with everything they had—sword slashes, haki-covered thrusts, gunshots, even throwing rocks in desperation. The fireball never reached the ground. It exploded mid-air in a thunderous burst of heat and pressure.
The shockwave tore apart their formation. Samurai rolled across the dirt like scattered leaves, their ears ringing, their faces burned.
Ace landed gracefully amidst the chaos. Corpses—charred, smoking—lay scattered at his feet. The samurai who were still alive stared at him with wide, trembling eyes. But Ace knew they hadn't lost their will yet. They were preparing for one final, desperate push… and after that, they would run.
He couldn't let the fight drag on.
He raised his hand and swung it in a wide arc. Seven small fireballs appeared, each hovering before him, no larger than a glass marble.
Infernal Fire Orbs.
The orbs expanded slightly, glowing fiercely as they floated forward. The samurai, thinking they were weak, swung their swords at them. But the fire orbs split into pieces, vibrated like living creatures, reformed instantly, and attacked from blind angles.
One samurai screamed as an orb drilled through his chest and ignited him.
The others charged Ace with haki-coated fists and blades. Instead of dodging, Ace welcomed them. He hardened his arm with Ryou Armament Haki and clashed head-on.
Sparks burst with every collision.
Shockwaves rolled across the battlefield.
The air trembled from the heat and force.
Ace laughed lightly.
This was good training.
This was real combat.
Minutes passed, bodies fell, and the ground grew littered with swords, armor, and ash. One by one, the surviving samurai broke mentally. Their discipline shattered.
Some charged Ace blindly, screaming in fury.
Some ran in all directions, shouting for Orochi-sama, Kaido-sama, or any god that might hear them.
Some simply collapsed, trembling.
Ace sighed.
Time to end this.
He raised both hands slowly. The samurai immediately flinched and pointed their swords downward, instinctively sensing this attack was on a completely different level.
Around Ace, hundreds of small fireballs began appearing—tiny sparks at first, then growing larger. The samurai didn't wait. They ran. They scattered. They screamed.
The fireballs expanded to the size of human heads… and then sharpened. Their flames condensed into blades—hundreds of fire swords floating around Ace like a burning halo.
Swordstorm of Fire.
With Ace at the center, the fire swords began rotating, slowly at first… then faster… then fast enough to carve the air itself. The first rotation created a ten-meter ring of annihilation. Then fifteen. Then fifty.
Anything that touched the storm—rocks, trees, samurai, armor, corpses—was shredded instantly, then burned into nothing.
The Swordstorm grew larger and larger, its diameter stretching hundreds of meters. Within that zone, not a single living or dead samurai remained. Everything was reduced to dust and drifting ash.
Ace exhaled, feeling the heat settle around him.
He got the idea for this move from Blackbeard—the way he crushed an entire town into a single mass with his darkness and used it as ammunition. Ace couldn't replicate the darkness, but he could create a cleansing firestorm that wiped out weak enemies instantly.
Useful. Efficient. Clean.
When the storm faded, the world around him was silent. Every body had been erased. Not a single samurai remained.
He stood alone in a field of blackened earth, a faint glow rising from the smoking ground.
Ace stretched his shoulders.
He felt stronger. More complete. His soul—changed, empowered—seemed to flow naturally with the Mera Mera no Mi. His control over flame had reached a new height. It wasn't awakening yet… but it was close. He could feel it.
Kaido was right. Haki was everything.
But Ace believed something else, too:
If you take anything to the extreme… you become unstoppable.
If his flames ever reached the level of Yamamoto Genryuusai—the old man from Bleach—then even haki-coated monsters would burn like paper.
"So, Mera Mera first," Ace muttered. "Haki later. Flames are my sword. Haki is just the handle."
He scanned the battlefield for survivors. He found none—not even a finger. Every body had become ash.
Satisfied, Ace turned toward the Flower Capital.
He began walking.
Wano would soon feel tremors far greater than this small massacre.
And Ace was just getting started.
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