"Killed?"
Zaraki's shoulders began to shake.
He lowered his head, his messy hair falling over his eyes, and the only thing leaking out was a low laugh he could no longer hold back.
"Hey, Vice Admiral."
Zaraki suddenly looked up.
His eyes were stained with a golden gleam, and the corners of his mouth stretched into a terrifying grin that bared a row of white teeth.
"Have you got something twisted in your head? Out on these seas, whether it's pirates flying under the Jolly Roger or Marines draped in the cloak of justice, once you pick up a blade, you'd better be ready to get cut down."
The moment the words fell, a dark-red wave of murderous pressure burst from Zaraki's body.
It was bloodlust born from the Kenpachi Zaraki Template and tempered through countless battles, dense enough to leave everyone present short of breath.
The Marines on the warship felt their chests tighten at once and instinctively took a step back, their rifles trembling in their hands.
Carina's legs gave out and she dropped to the deck.
Even Zoro broke out in a cold sweat, the veins on the back of the hand gripping his sword bulging sharply as he stared at Zaraki's usually lazy figure.
'This bastard was serious!'
'He really intended to kill a Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral right here!'
The predatory gleam in Zaraki's eyes made the gloom on Onigumo's face melt away instead.
A low, eerie chuckle crawled out of his throat, a sound like rusted chains grinding against each other.
"Hehehe... interesting. I thought you were just some brat who didn't know his place, but I didn't expect you to have this much nerve."
Onigumo slowly exhaled a ring of smoke, his eyes full of cruel mockery, mixed with disdain and the urge to destroy.
"Since you're in such a hurry to die, then I'll use the little time left before we head back to play with you."
As those words fell, the hands at the back of Onigumo's head suddenly came alive, writhing and stretching madly.
Like tentacles, those hands snatched up six Marine sabers from the hands of nearby soldiers.
Together with the two swords already in his hands, eight blades gleamed coldly beneath the sun.
At that moment, the Headquarters Vice Admiral looked like a giant spider crouched at the bow of the ship.
The air around them seemed to freeze.
The Marines on deck quickly scattered to the sides, even suppressing their breathing to the lowest point, too afraid to break the dead silence.
Everyone knew what it meant when Vice Admiral Onigumo entered this state.
He was ready to kill!
And once he was in that mood, anyone who got too close would be torn to pieces.
Faced with that sight, the light in Zaraki's eyes only grew brighter.
"That's it! This is the feeling!"
Zaraki licked his dry lips with open excitement.
He did not bother with any trick.
The only blade in his hand was the plain Asauchi he had finally started using.
That was enough.
"Come on, Onigumo! Let me see whether your eight swords are sharper, or my one sword is harder!"
Boom—!
The two overwhelming auras slammed together violently in midair.
The calm sea instantly exploded upward into twin walls of water several meters high, and even the great warship shook under the impact, groaning as though it were struggling to bear the pressure.
Onigumo moved first.
His figure left behind an afterimage where he had been standing, his speed so fast it was almost absurd.
Eight blades wove together into a net, ripping through the air with a shrill scream as they crashed down toward Zaraki's head.
"Die, brat!"
Zaraki did not retreat.
He rushed forward instead.
With the Asauchi in his right hand clenched tight, he met that overwhelming rain of blades head-on in a brutally unreasonable posture, slashing upward with all his strength.
Clang—!
The deafening clash of metal against metal rang so violently that it hurt the ears.
The deck beneath Zaraki's feet shattered at once, and splinters of wood flew in every direction.
With a single blade, he forcibly blocked the two swords striking him from the front.
But the remaining blades came screaming in from both flanks and above, forcing his shoulders and waist into a savage twist.
Three cuts opened across his side and back in an instant, and blood sprayed into the air.
A normal swordsman would have pulled back.
Zaraki only grinned wider.
The sting of steel biting flesh made the madness in his eyes burn even brighter.
Onigumo's voice grated like rusted iron scraping together.
"Don't overestimate yourself. With one sword in your hand, you're nothing but a toothless tiger."
A deadly silence spread across the deck.
The Marines stood there with mouths open, forgetting even how to breathe.
In their eyes, the exchange had happened too quickly to follow.
All they saw was a blur of afterimages, and then blood bursting from the arrogant boy's body.
"So this... is the strength of a Headquarters Vice Admiral..." Zoro stared at the clashing figures, his pupils shrinking violently.
If he were the one standing there, he would have been sliced to pieces before he ever found the chance to counter.
And yet, at the very center of that sword net, Zaraki showed no sign of defeat.
The huge recoil traveled back through his arms and into his shoulders, leaving behind a tingling numbness that made him squint in satisfaction.
Still not enough!
Pain on this level was not even enough to scratch the itch of the Kenpachi Zaraki Template!
"With one sword?" Zaraki let out a low laugh.
Not only did he not retreat, he lowered his center of gravity instead, his muscles tightening like springs about to snap.
"My math isn't great, but I know one can become eight if I start taking yours."
The deck exploded beneath Zaraki's feet with a deafening roar, wood splinters flying everywhere as he shot forward like a cannonball and charged straight into the rain of blades.
There was no refined swordsmanship in it.
What came crashing down was a simple, brutal slash with both hands.
That strike carried all the boredom he had been enduring on the way here, together with the thirst that came from finally meeting someone strong.
The blade in Zaraki's hands tore through the air with a mournful shriek, as though it wanted to cleave both warship and man in half at the same time.
'He's a madman!'
Onigumo's eyelids twitched.
He had never seen a way of fighting so utterly suicidal, one that threw away all defense just to force a mutual kill.
Clang—!
A metallic explosion thundered across the sky.
For the first time, Onigumo's expression changed.
He had thought he could cut this brat to pieces with ease.
Instead, the plain blade transmitted a terrifying force like a mountain crashing down.
This was not strength a sixteen-year-old should possess!
It was even more violent than the strength of a giant.
Sizzle, sizzle—
Sparks sprayed wildly where the blades ground against one another.
Onigumo's feet, which had seemed nailed in place a moment ago, were forced backward, his shoes scraping out two scorched tracks across the deck as the smell of burning filled the air.
One of the sabers controlled by the hand behind his head was knocked loose by the shock and spun away, embedding itself in the deck with a violent tremble.
"He actually stopped it..." Onigumo gritted his teeth, veins bulging at his temples.
All seven remaining swords strained against Zaraki's downward slash, and a clear ache had already begun to spread through both wrists.
This brat was not merely arrogant.
He really did have the power to run wild on the seas!
"What's wrong, Vice Admiral? Your legs are shaking!"
Zaraki's face was only inches away, his eyes full of battle-frenzy.
Sweat dripped from his chin onto the overheated blades and turned instantly into white mist.
Then the attack changed.
Zaraki withdrew his force without warning, twisted his body in an unnatural motion, and shifted from a slash into a thrust, like a venomous snake lunging straight for Onigumo's heart.
The strike came too fast and with no warning at all.
A normal swordsman would have been pierced through on the spot.
But Onigumo was still a Marine Headquarters Vice Admiral who had survived countless battles.
In that split second, he twisted his waist by force and at the same time controlled the hands behind him to block.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Another dazzling string of collisions followed.
The two of them fought like savage beasts locked in close combat at the narrow bow of the ship.
Blade light swallowed their figures, and every clash drew blood as stray sword energy sliced open skin and clothes alike.
During the exchange, another saber was knocked from Onigumo's strange rear hand and clattered across the deck, skidding to a stop not far from Zaraki's feet.
Just as Zaraki knocked aside the two sabers in front of him, a dangerous chill suddenly crawled up the back of his neck.
That was a wild instinct he receive as a reward, a wild instinct of Kenpachi Zaraki, honed in the countless moments spent dancing at the edge of death.
From within the hands Onigumo had been using to defend his back, one hand suddenly separated in eerie silence.
Like a scorpion's tail, it curled around a hidden dagger and stabbed straight toward Zaraki's blind spot!
"It's over, brat."
A cruel smile curled across Onigumo's lips.
At that distance and angle, there was almost no way to dodge.
The hand was already less than three inches from Zaraki's throat.
There was no room to avoid it.
And with only one sword in hand, there was no time left to block.
In the distance, Carina's eyes widened at once.
Zoro's hand was already on his sword hilt, but there was no time to draw.
Yet even at the very edge of life and death, the golden light in Zaraki's eyes did not dim in the slightest.
It only burned brighter!
One sword was not enough?
Then he would just use a few more!
His eyes swept past Onigumo's face and landed on the two sabers lying on the deck, and the grin on his lips widened all over again.
---------
Read 30 chapters ahead and support me on patreon.
patreon (.)com/Newbietranslator