Fortunately, Shiki was also a veteran powerhouse whose name had resounded across the seas for years.
With his rich combat experience, just a brief clash had already allowed him to gauge how strong Doflamingo really was. Being able to wield advanced Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki) in tandem with his Devil Fruit ability, Doflamingo was, Shiki had to admit, a gifted monster in terms of raw capability. That level of power was enough for Shiki to look at him as a fighter on the same tier as himself.
Recognizing Doflamingo, however, did not mean Shiki had any intention of backing down.
The strong have the pride of the strong. Shiki would never concede. He sprang out from the hull, using his Devil Fruit ability to rocket into the sky. While in midair, he drew his two beloved blades, "Sakura Ten" and "Kogarashi," and a horizontal wave of sword aura roared out, cleaving straight toward Doflamingo. In the end, it was as a swordsman that Shiki staked everything.
On Doflamingo's side, the seawater lost Shiki's control and flowed back into the ocean. Doflamingo directly took Shiki's slash head-on with his body. Against someone like the Golden Lion Shiki, using his ability could indeed end the fight, but only a brutal, fist-to-flesh suppression would make a proud man like Shiki truly submit.
The sword aura crashed into Doflamingo's body with a loud, metallic clang. Doflamingo, wrapped from head to toe in Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki), was like a heavy tank, seemingly unafraid of slashes. Shiki's sword aura only left shallow, pale marks on the surface of Doflamingo's skin before vanishing in an instant.
Doflamingo rose into the air as well, choosing to fight Shiki at close quarters. For a swordsman, long-range exchanges were obviously more advantageous; Doflamingo had no reason to fight the battle on his opponent's terms.
After dozens more exchanges, the Golden Lion realized that every one of his attacks seemed to be pre-read. Each strike was dodged in advance by Doflamingo, who then counterattacked a heartbeat ahead of him. Dozens of rounds later, it looked, on the surface, like he was pressing the attack with his blades, but in reality, he had no idea how many times Doflamingo had already hit him. Shiki could even feel that his internal organs might have been injured.
At the same time, the Golden Lion looked down at the remnants of the Flying Pirates and the main ship being torn up by their battle, and a trace of reluctance flashed in his eyes.
It was not that his heart had suddenly grown soft. It was just that these people were, after all, the subordinates who had followed him and survived to this point. Even if the Flying Pirates were to disband, ensuring their safe retreat was still a responsibility he had to shoulder as their captain.
That thought in the Golden Lion's heart quickly seeped into his fighting. Whether consciously or not, he began steering away from the pirate ship, luring Doflamingo out over the open sea. Several times, he even intentionally refrained from avoiding Doflamingo's attacks.
How could Doflamingo possibly fail to understand what the Golden Lion Shiki was thinking? A light touch of Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki) to sense the near future was enough for him to grasp the cause and effect. He slammed his lightning-wreathed fist into Shiki's blade once more, then spoke with rare straightforwardness:
"Shiki, use your strongest move. If I can't block your strongest attack, I won't make any demands at all. I'll even help you get back to your base safely, free of charge. On the other hand, if you lose, all I want is for you to promise me one thing."
Knowing he had no better options and weighed down by his own concerns, the Golden Lion agreed to Doflamingo's terms without hesitation.
"Brat, don't you die on me. This is my strongest move!"
"Shishi Senkiri-dani (Lion: Thousand-Cut Ravine)!"
Shiki crossed Sakura Ten and Kogarashi in front of him, gathered power, and unleashed multiple crisscrossing waves of yellow sword aura. The slashes sliced across the air and skated over the surface of the sea, actually carving out several hundred-meter-deep vacuum ravines in the water.
"Fufufufufu. Good, very good. Then let me show you my strongest defensive state."
Seeing such a devastating technique from Shiki, Doflamingo did not feel fear. On the contrary, he was faintly excited. Up to now—truthfully—Shiki was strong, but Doflamingo had not felt especially pressured. This move, however, gave him a hint of real strain. To pay proper respect to his opponent, Doflamingo shouted:
"Ni-oku Volt: Susanoo (Two Hundred Million Volt: Susanoo)!"
Black lightning began to surge from Doflamingo's feet, streaming up his body and gradually wrapping him completely, forming an outer armor reminiscent of Susanoo. Yet it did not stop there. The lightning continued to pour out, building and building until a Susanoo armor giant several hundred meters tall took shape.
Standing within the Susanoo, Doflamingo slid his left foot back, set his right foot forward, and drew back his right fist toward Shiki's oncoming slashes. The massive Susanoo mirrored his movements; despite its enormous size, its motions were impossibly fast.
The transformation looked long and dramatic, but it all happened in the space of a heartbeat. Even Shiki was shaken by Doflamingo's sudden escalation, never having imagined that the man could explode with such a terrifying technique. Setting aside the actual power, just that towering, hundred-meter lightning giant form would be enough to make a real giant tremble.
Doflamingo's strike landed in an instant. Susanoo's fist collided with Shiki's slashes, and without the slightest pause, it shattered all of Shiki's sword aura, then roared onward with world-ending momentum, crashing straight down toward the sword-wielding Shiki.
"Can't dodge. Damn it… if I dodge this, I'll definitely die!"
That was Shiki's most instinctive reaction. So he chose not to evade. Gritting his teeth, he prepared to take Doflamingo's attack head-on.
But what happened next took Shiki completely by surprise. Susanoo's fist halted one meter in front of his face. The suddenly arrested wind pressure hammered against him, crumpling his facial skin like wrinkled paper, making it ripple and flap. Even his thick, golden mane was partially torn away by the gale.
Though Doflamingo had stopped the attack, he did not immediately dispel Susanoo. That alone told the Golden Lion everything he needed to know. He let out a deep sigh.
"I lost."
Seeing this, the corners of Doflamingo's mouth curled up slightly. As he dispelled Susanoo, he flashed past Shiki and reached the Flying Pirates' deck first. Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki) exploded from him in full force, and he precisely, without the slightest spillover, knocked every last remnant of the Flying Pirates unconscious.
By the time Shiki returned to the deck and witnessed Doflamingo's practiced use of his Haki, he felt even more convinced of his loss.
A man cannot be someone who cannot accept defeat. Take Roger, for example. When Shiki had fought Roger, sometimes he won and sometimes he lost. They might have been enemies, but Shiki still felt that a man as strong as Roger was someone worthy of sharing the world with him.
Of course, now… perhaps one more person had to be added to that list—the kid standing in front of him.
Shiki only furrowed his brows slightly at seeing his own crew knocked out by Doflamingo, but he did not blame him. That would be a joke. With someone like Doflamingo, if he wanted Shiki to do something, was it really something Shiki's subordinates were qualified to overhear? As far as Shiki was concerned, if they did hear it, there was a good chance he would be the only one left alive on this ship. It was the intuition of a veteran powerhouse.
And indeed, just as Shiki had guessed, the reason Doflamingo chose to knock them all out—aside from finding it troublesome to silence them one by one—was not because he particularly enjoyed using Haoshoku Haki (Conqueror's Haki).
"All right then, Shiki. Since you've admitted defeat, I assume a man of your renown isn't going to go back on his word?"
To be honest, Doflamingo was still a little uncertain. Men like Shiki, burning with ambition, were capable of doing anything for the sake of that ambition. Whether Shiki would genuinely stick to what he had promised was hard to say.
"Since I agreed to your terms, of course I'll keep my word. Speak. Whatever you want me to do, even if it's my life you're after, I'll have no complaints."
Shiki was utterly forthright. In a straight-up fight, he probably truly could not win. And he had already acknowledged Doflamingo's strength. As things stood, his pirate crew was down to just a handful of people, and Shiki had not yet figured out his next step. If what this kid asked for sounded reasonable, there was no harm in making it his goal for the foreseeable future.
(End of Chapter)
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