"Heh…"
Hawk-Eye drew in a deep breath and raised the Black Blade, Yoru, upright before him.
A completely different presence surged up from within his body.
No longer the overwhelming, outwardly explosive pressure from before—this was compression taken to the extreme, concentration honed to its absolute limit.
Like a peerless blade on the verge of leaving its scabbard, poised to sever all things.
"As you wish."Hawk-Eye's low voice pierced through the swirling dust, reaching Gern's ears with chilling clarity.
Gern's steps slowed. He looked at his opponent, whose aura had transformed so abruptly, and a trace of genuine interest flashed through his eyes.
"So you're finally getting serious, Mihawk?"
Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth—
Hawk-Eye moved.
There was no earth-shaking spectacle. His figure merely flickered—
—and in the very next instant, he had crossed dozens of meters, appearing at Gern's left side!
The speed was so terrifying that a slowly fading afterimage was left behind where he had stood.
Still no named technique. Or perhaps—still no need to call one out.
The Black Blade, Yoru, became an almost invisible line.
Silent.Soundless.Yet faster than nerve impulses themselves.
It thrust straight toward the opening at Gern's left ribs.
Speed and precision were pushed to their absolute limits. At the tip of the blade, Armament Haki condensed to a depth like a black hole, carrying an ultimate, skin-piercing penetrative force!
Gern's Observation Haki predicted the future. At the critical instant, he twisted his body aside.
Shkraa—!
The blade tip scraped past the admiral's uniform at his ribs, tearing it open to reveal skin beneath—and even drawing a string of fine blood droplets!
"What a fast blade!"Even with future sight, Gern had still come perilously close to being cut, sending a chill through his heart.
One strike missed—and Hawk-Eye's swordplay flowed onward like running water, without the slightest hesitation.
With a flick of his wrist, the thrusting Yoru smoothly turned into an upward slash, carving toward Gern's chin!
At the same time, Hawk-Eye's footwork shifted. He stepped and pivoted, circling to Gern's other side and sealing off his retreat!
In an instant, countless green sword-lights lashed out from every direction like a torrential storm, each strike aimed at a vital point.
The shrill shriek of blades tearing through the air overlapped into a continuous roar that stabbed painfully into the ears!
This was no longer a mere clash of brute force—
This was the perfect manifestation of swordsmanship at its absolute peak!
The World's Greatest Swordsman, having fused a lifetime of mastery into something deceptively simple—yet endlessly mutable—
A dance of slaughter.
Gern's pupils constricted. He pushed his Observation Haki to its extreme, trying to capture the true killing intent hidden within the countless sword-lights.
The Black Blade Eight Desolations whirled wildly in his hands as he blocked!
For a moment, deafening explosions rang out across the ruins like rain pounding on banana leaves!
Black-purple light and emerald radiance collided, clashed, and detonated in mad succession!
Countless sparks and fragments of energy burst forth like fireworks, shrouding the two figures locked in battle!
Gern possessed no refined swordsman's technique at all—only overwhelming, open-and-close swings. Every strike carried monstrous strength and high-frequency vibrations, trying to crush Hawk-Eye's exquisite swordsmanship through sheer power.
But Hawk-Eye was entirely different.
His swordsmanship had reached the realm of transcendence. At the very instant blades were about to collide, his sword tip would tremble ever so slightly—almost as if it were alive—
Slipping past the sharpest frontal edge of Eight Desolations by a hair's breadth, or using impossibly delicate force to deflect from the side, guiding and dispersing the terrifying vibrational power, shedding most of its impact.
Shk!
A streak of sword-light flashed past—leaving a mark across Gern's shoulder!
Shk!
Another sliced through—his trouser leg at the calf tore open, a line of blood appearing beneath!
Hawk-Eye's blade was too fast.Too tricky.Too precise.
Time and again, just as Gern finished blocking a frontal strike, a bone-chilling cold would bloom at his ribs or his back!
"Tch!"Gern frowned deeply.
He could feel it clearly—his opponent was using absolute, peerless swordsmanship to gradually compress his room to maneuver, restricting his ability to fully unleash his destructive power.
Like countless thin yet unbreakably tough threads, layer upon layer, binding a primordial beast.
If this continued…defense would inevitably fail.
Boom!
Gern suddenly forced his strength through a single strike, blasting away the frontal slash, then used the recoil to leap half a step backward, trying to widen the distance and reset the fight.
But Hawk-Eye had no intention of giving him that chance.
At the fleeting instant when Gern's backward momentum was about to fade—yet hadn't fully ended—
Hawk-Eye seized the opening.
Both hands clenched tightly around the Black Blade, Yoru. His Haki surged like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, flooding madly into the blade.
The cross-shaped patterns along the blade seemed to come alive, emitting a soul-chilling,幽幽 glow!
Man and blade became one—
A supreme edge that tore heaven and earth apart!
A jet-black, ink-green line, condensed to the extreme, slashed toward Gern at a speed beyond thought!
This strike discarded all flourish.
Only pure speed.Pure power.And the will to cut through everything.
Where the blade passed, space itself seemed to be silently split open, leaving behind a thin yet eternal black fissure!
A lethal sense of danger stabbed into Gern's spine like an ice spike!
I can't dodge it!Blocking it head-on—my defense might be broken by this blade!
In that lightning-flash instant, Gern made a shocking choice.
Instead of forcing a block or evasion, he slammed the Black Blade Eight Desolations straight into the ground at his side!
RUMBLE—!
A towering energy barrier formed from vibrating particles erupted upward in an instant, standing between him and that ink-green line!
Almost simultaneously—
The slash arrived.
SHRRR—!!
There was no violent explosion—only a teeth-grinding sound of cutting!
The vibrational barrier was cleaved cleanly in two, sliced apart with eerie smoothness!
But it delayed the attack—if only for a fraction of a second!
And in that fraction—
Gern had already twisted his body sideways. His left hand, fingers wrapped in an unprecedentedly violent vibration wave intertwined with Conqueror's Haki, surged forward—
Not retreating, but advancing—
Grabbing precisely for Hawk-Eye's sword-wielding wrist!
Hawk-Eye's pupils shrank.
He had never imagined Gern would counter in such a reckless, lethal way—and at this distance, he had no time to change moves!
Snap!
Gern's palm clamped down like a steel vise, locking onto Hawk-Eye's wrist!
High-frequency vibrations and Haki infusion exploded instantly, smashing violently against Hawk-Eye's Armament defense!
"Ghn!"Hawk-Eye let out a muffled groan as searing pain shot through his wrist, as if the bones themselves were about to shatter!
The trajectory of Yoru's slash was forcibly dragged off course!
BOOOOOOM—!!!
The terrifying ink-green slash skimmed past Gern's body—
—and split the distant ruins behind him, along with the sea beyond them, into a colossal abyss that stretched beyond sight, seawater unable to close the gap for a long, long time!
The two fell into a perilous struggle of pure force!
Hawk-Eye tried to wrench his blade back. Gern held fast, vibration power surging continuously—while the Black Blade Eight Desolations in his right hand was already raised high!
"So this is the swordsmanship of the World's Strongest…"Gern stared at Hawk-Eye from point-blank range, battle intent boiling in his eyes."I've seen it. Now—my turn!"
"Heaven-Shaking—Eight Desolations Slash!"
The Black Blade descended with cataclysmic force. Dark-red fissures erupted, blazing with a sun-like radiance as the strike came crashing down toward Hawk-Eye's head!
At the brink of death—
A resolute glint flashed through Hawk-Eye's eyes.
He actually released his grip on the blade with his left hand!
At the same time, he used the pulling force from Gern's grasp to hurl his body forward—
His right elbow, coated in top-tier Armament Haki, smashed out like a warhammer toward Gern's chest!
A close-range strike traded for the blade itself!
Gern hadn't expected such decisiveness. His grip on the wrist faltered for a split second.
BOOM!
The elbow slammed solidly into his chest. Even with Armament defense, his blood and breath churned violently, and the downward momentum of his slash inevitably slowed.
In that fleeting instant—
Hawk-Eye's freed left hand caught the falling Black Blade Yoru once more.
Using the recoil from the collision, his body drifted backward through the air—
—and the blade flashed upward from below, slashing toward Gern's abdomen!
Offense and defense reversed—
In the span of a single breath.
Gern stepped back, forcing Eight Desolations downward, turning attack into defense.
CLANG!!
The two separated again, standing opposite each other, breathing slightly heavier.
Above the ruins, only the mournful howl of wind through drifting dust remained—along with the gradually steadying, yet still heavy, breaths of the two combatants.
"Sorry," Gern said, looking at Hawk-Eye as he rolled his neck, producing a sharp crack. A more excited grin spread across his face."I know a bit of hand-to-hand combat too."
"Good."Hawk-Eye met his gaze, eyes sharp and unwavering."In that case… I'm not done having fun either. The only question is—can you endure it?"