The Flame Cutter
"START!"
The moment Present Mic's shout kicked off the match, a massive explosion echoed from the left corner.
"DIE, YOU SCUM!" Bakugo roared at the top of his lungs, charging at his opponent with the speed of lightning. He used explosions from his palms to boost his speed, creating a terrifying air pressure behind him.
In contrast, Zoro didn't even blink. With his usual coldness, he raised his arm and tied his green bandana around his head. Then, in one fluid motion, he drew his three swords, placing one in his mouth and gripping the other two with firm holds.
BOOM! Bakugo lunged from above, aiming a direct, scorching explosion right at Zoro's head. But in a fraction of a second, Zoro raised his swords and blocked the explosion completely. The arena floor shook violently beneath the swordsman's feet and thick smoke billowed out, but Zoro... didn't budge a single inch.
Bakugo's eyes widened from behind the smoke while he was still suspended in the air, a fleeting thought crossing his shocked mind: Impossible! How can these pieces of metal withstand my fire without melting or breaking?!
In the commentator's booth, Present Mic screamed: "MY GOODNESS! Bakugo opens the match with a sweeping attack, but Zoro blocks it like it's just a breeze!"
"It's not just the metal blocking the explosion..." Aizawa muttered with intense focus, narrowing his eyes. "His physical strength is monstrous... He's reading the timing of the explosion and using the angle of his blades to generate a counter air pressure that shifts the flames and the shockwave away from his body."
Amidst the clash and continuous pressure, the "Sandai Kitetsu" sword in Zoro's left hand began to vibrate strangely. The cursed sword was trembling, thirsty for the taste of blood. Suddenly, the blade tried to forcefully twist in Zoro's hand, attempting to aim its sharp, cutting edge directly at Bakugo's exposed neck.
This cursed sword... Zoro gripped the hilt with immense force to compel it to stay directed with the blunt edge. From the sheer pressure, drops of blood began to seep from Zoro's palm and roll down the hilt of the sword.
Zoro raised his eyes toward the charging Bakugo and said in a low but terrifying voice: "Not today... This opponent doesn't deserve a taste of your blood."
In that exact moment, a dark and suffocating aura erupted from Zoro's body. It wasn't an emission of magical energy, but pure "bloodlust." Bakugo froze in his place for a moment, his pupils dilating. An instinctive terror crept deep into his spine... a very familiar terror. He immediately remembered this suffocating feeling; it was the exact same terror that had paralyzed him on the first day of school during Aizawa's test, when he tried to attack Deku and Zoro intervened!
This damn aura again! Bakugo became infuriated with himself; his pride couldn't bear feeling that fear twice against the same person. He gritted his teeth so hard they almost broke, retreated backward with a reverse explosion, and then flew high into the air, deciding to end this farce and prove his superiority with the strongest attack he had.
Bakugo began spinning in the air at blinding speed, unleashing continuous explosions that formed a massive fiery tornado, beginning to devour the oxygen around it.
"Let's see if your junk swords can block this!" Bakugo roared from the heart of the hurricane. "Howitzer... Impact!"
The massive tornado of flames and explosions plummeted directly toward Zoro. The fire completely engulfed the ring, and a wave of intense heat rose up, scorching the faces of the crowd in the stands.
Uraraka screamed in terror: "The entire ring has burned up!"
Up in the teachers' seats in the stands, All Might sat paralyzed, watching the ring in silence and holding his breath.
As for the school's infirmary, Midoriya was sitting alone on the edge of his bed, tightly gripping his bandages with his eyes glued to the screen.
Everyone in the stadium thought that Zoro was finished and completely charred.
But amidst the inferno of flames, Zoro stood for a moment, his eyes watching the approaching fiery tornado. He had never dealt with an attack of this kind before. He had previously managed to cut solid steel, and cleave hard ice, but... fire? An entity that has no fixed shape and no tangible mass.
For a fraction of a second, hesitation appeared on his face, but his mind was working at lightning speed. If I could cut steel and ice, I can cut fire too. I just need to hear the "voice" of its intersection... I have to sense the "breath of all things" just like Kenji taught me!
In that moment, Zoro closed both of his eyes, diving into the calm of "Observation Haki". In the blink of an eye, he perceived the path of the flames and the exact center of Bakugo's attack. He gripped the white "Wado Ichimonji" sword with one hand, tightening his hold.
In a movement far too fast for the human eye to catch, Zoro swung his sword with supernatural force, shouting:
"One Sword Style... Hiryu: Kaen! (Flying Dragon: Blaze)."
SHZZZZZZ!
A terrifying tearing sound ripped through the air. Everyone was shocked as they saw the strike cut the massive fiery tornado into two perfectly equal halves! The flames split and passed to Zoro's right and left without touching a single hair on him, dissipating into the air as if they never existed.
Above, Bakugo was still suspended in the air, his eyes widened to their absolute limits from the horror of what he saw. He cut fire?! How is this possible?! Bakugo tried to unleash an explosion to adjust his balance in the air, but he was shocked by his empty energy. He had drained all the strength in his arms for his last attack, and found himself falling toward the ring, completely off balance.
Zoro didn't waste a fraction of a second. Before Bakugo could even process what happened, Zoro gathered his strength into his other two swords, and unleashed an air-based strike using the blunt back of the blades, avoiding killing him.
"Thirty-Six Pound Cannon!"
A massive and terrifying wave of air pressure shot out from Zoro's swords, striking Bakugo directly in the chest while he was mid-air. The strike was so powerful that it uprooted him from his spot, sending him flying away like a light ragdoll completely out of the ring's boundaries.
CRAAASH! Bakugo's body slammed violently into the concrete stadium wall, and he fell to the ground completely unconscious from the sheer force of the impact.
A dead silence fell over the entire stadium. No one could believe what had just happened.
Zoro stood in the middle of the ring, which was still emitting light smoke. He returned his swords to their sheaths in a slow motion.
Click.
The sound of the sword clicking shut rang clearly through the deadly silence. Zoro looked out of the corner of his eye at the thrown Bakugo, and said coldly with a completely disinterested expression: "You had a lot of noise... but your strikes lacked weight."
Present Mic jolted up in the commentator's booth, screaming like a madman into the microphone until the speakers nearly exploded: "OH MY GOOOOD! HE CUT FIRE! HE BLEW HIS OPPONENT AWAY WITH THE WIND FROM A SINGLE STRIKE!"
Midnight raised her whip high amidst the smoke-filled ring, announcing in an absolute voice: "Bakugo is out of bounds and unconscious! The winner, and advancing to the final match... is Roronoa Zoro!"
The stadium erupted into a frantic roar from the shocked crowd.
In the infirmary, Midoriya froze in his place. He stared at the screen showing Zoro standing proudly in the middle of the ring without a single scratch. Midoriya looked down at his own shattered, heavily bandaged hands, and his legs that trembled just from standing... and swallowed hard. The final match was set.
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For Advanced Chapters:
Chapter 61 and 62 is Available now
The Hero Killer Stain arc has ended
Zoro used one of his most famous and prominent techniques against him. What do you think it was?
Zoro lost his ordinary sword, which ignited a great ambition within him. Will Zoro master Armament Haki soon, or will he acquire a powerful sword in the future? Will it be Enma or Shusui?
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