Hawkeye stared at the nine pillars of terrifying lightning that had risen around Sean, rotating slowly with him at the center.
He felt a sense of confusion. He had already noted that Sean was abnormal. Specifically, he couldn't sense a single shred of Sword Energy emanating from him.
In the world of One Piece, within the system of swordsmanship, Sword Energy was the fundamental basis for any master, let alone a Great Swordsman. Yet Sean seemed to operate on an entirely different system. While he could release slashes comparable to those of a master, they weren't driven by Sword Energy, but by an energy Hawkeye didn't recognize.
And now... this power, which felt akin to a Devil Fruit ability, left him even more perplexed.
"Kyūten Raika: Tenchi Raibatsu!"
There was no more time for contemplation. With a low shout from Sean, one of the surrounding lightning pillars surged violently into the sky, piercing the massive cloud of thunder above.
Instantly, the entire thunder pool erupted into a frenzy, churning violently. In the next moment, thousands of black lightning bolts rained down like a divine tribulation, striking with savage intensity.
Rayleigh had been severely wounded by this very move. Now, it was Hawkeye's turn.
But Hawkeye was not Rayleigh. While Rayleigh had once possessed the combat power of an Admiral, age had taken its toll; he likely possessed less than seventy percent of his peak strength. Hawkeye, however, was a man who could fight Red-Haired Shanks to a standstill and was currently in the prime of his life.
Even if Shanks had likely held back some of his secret trump cards during their bouts, it didn't change the fact that Hawkeye was monstrously strong—after all, Shanks was one of the Four Emperors.
Hawkeye gripped the black blade, Yoru, tightly. He lowered the sword, letting the tip rest on the ground to his left. Bending his body slightly, he began to gather his strength.
Then, he swung upward with sudden, explosive force.
A colossal, azure slash tore through the air.
Sean's brow furrowed slightly. While the slash looked similar to the ones Hawkeye had used previously, there was something more to it—something subtle that he couldn't quite put his finger on.
However, "Tenchi Raibatsu" consisted of a thousand simultaneous strikes raining down from different positions across the thunder pool. This meant the attacks were coming from a wide, multi-angled fan. Rayleigh had fallen because a single slash could only protect one direction, leaving him vulnerable to the lightning striking from all other angles.
Now, Hawkeye seemed to have no intention of launching a second slash.
Intrigued, Sean watched closely, wondering how Hawkeye intended to break this technique.
In the next instant, a miracle occurred. Despite it being only a single slash—one that covered less than ten percent of the attack area—it withstood every single strike.
This absurd sight unfolded before everyone's eyes.
But Sean saw the truth. He knew that one didn't always have to be directly touched by an attack to be harmed. For example, if Ace released a flame of several thousand degrees, you wouldn't be safe just because the fire didn't touch your skin; the heat alone would incinerate you. It was the same logic as the sun—you don't have to touch it to be burned.
Through the collision of his lightning and Hawkeye's slash, Sean could feel it. Even the lightning bolts that didn't directly hit the slash were being intercepted by a special barrier of energy, preventing them from descending further.
This force was merely the residual energy dissipating from Hawkeye's slash and wasn't particularly strong on its own. However, Sean's own attack had split its power into a thousand different pieces to achieve its wide-range effect.
Seconds later, the terrifying azure slash completely overwhelmed the hundred or so lightning bolts it directly contacted, carving a massive rift right through the thunder pool in the sky.
The battlefield, which had been as dark as night, was suddenly illuminated by a shaft of light. The remaining lightning bolts struggled for a moment against the dissipating energy of Hawkeye's slash before vanishing simultaneously.
'As I thought, a single move isn't enough to defeat Hawkeye,' Sean mused.
But that didn't matter. Kyūten Raika didn't consist of just one move—it had eight.
In truth, Hekireki's Bankai was somewhat similar to Toshiro's Hyorinmaru. Those nine pillars of lightning were the energy reserves Sean consumed every time he unleashed a major technique after activating Bankai. In other words, after releasing nine ultimate moves, he would be unable to fire a tenth.
Yet, while he was limited to nine moves, these were not the true trump cards of Kyūten Raika. The truly terrifying power lay in the blade Hekireki itself, which had transformed into a deep blue entity of pure energy. That was the ultimate ace.
If someone were actually capable of weathering nine ultimate attacks, they would finally get to see just how horrific that final trump card truly was.
"Since spreading the power doesn't work on you, then..."
"Kyūten Raika: Shinten Raihō!"
'Boom!'
Another bolt of lightning shot into the sky, diving into the thunder pool and triggering a deafening explosion. The pool churned even more violently than before.
A moment later, a silhouette emerged from the clouds. No, looking closer, it wasn't just a bolt of lightning—it was a massive, monstrous claw made of electricity. As the claw appeared, the rest of the entity gradually revealed itself. Finally, a giant dragon composed entirely of lightning appeared before everyone.
The spectators felt their scalps tingle in terror.
'Is this still swordsmanship?'
The dragon's eyes locked onto Hawkeye below, and it lunged downward.
Simultaneously, the Hekireki in Sean's hand changed form, transforming into a magnificent giant bow made of pure energy. Sean reached out, grabbed one of the remaining seven lightning pillars, and notched it onto the bowstring.
Sean intended to use two moves at once.
While "Shinten Raihō" was powerful and could likely wound Hawkeye, it likely wouldn't be enough to defeat him outright. Sean could tell from the quality of the energy Hawkeye had just released.
This man was far stronger than he had been described in the original stories. Had he actually taken that final step, moving beyond the realm of a Great Swordsman into an entirely new domain?
Sean didn't know, but he was certain that the power he felt was neither the Sword Energy of a master nor the Sword Intent of a Great Swordsman. It was something else entirely.
Regardless, the move he was about to use focused on concentrated, single-point destruction. While it wasn't the strongest of the nine moves overall, in terms of pure piercing power, it surpassed the other eight.
The massive, deep-blue energy bow was now drawn to its limit, aimed directly at Hawkeye.
At that same moment, the descending lightning dragon opened its maw wide, swallowing Hawkeye whole.
The onlookers were stunned. Was Hawkeye not going to resist?
But very quickly, they witnessed a shocking sight. Although the dragon had swallowed Hawkeye, it found itself unable to close its jaws.
Hawkeye was positioned with one knee pressed inside the beast's mouth, while Yoru acted as a brace between the dragon's upper and lower jaws, preventing it from closing.
Though it couldn't shut its mouth, the giant dragon seemed provoked by Hawkeye's audacity. It surged violently toward the sky, attempting to plunge the nuisance in its maw into the depths of the endless thunder pool.
In that moment, Hawkeye struck!
Gripping Yoru tightly with both hands, he threw his entire body into a rapid, 360-degree spin, rotating like a human top.
Instantly, a circular slash erupted. It looked like a small circle expanding into a larger one, shifting and growing in an instant. In a flash, the giant dragon was cleaved clean in half.
The spectators were dumbfounded. Was this how a slash was supposed to be used? A full 360-degree omnidirectional strike?
However, a faint smile played on Sean's lips.
'Did they really think a move like that would be so easy to counter?'
It was impossible.
Just as everyone assumed Hawkeye had finished off the thunder dragon, his pupils suddenly contracted. He instinctively shifted into a defensive posture mid-air.
The next instant, the sky erupted in a blinding flash of lightning.
Then came a deafening roar.
BOOM!!!
The reason the dragon's body had been so massive was that it served as a reservoir for an immense amount of lightning. When its physical form was destroyed, the result was inevitable...
Self-destruction!
Every ounce of lightning within its body was released in a single instant, obliterating everything across a vast area.
The glare was so intense that for a long time, no one could see what was happening within the storm. It was only after ten seconds or so that a figure emerged from the fading light, falling toward the ground.
Who else could it be but Hawkeye?
He looked somewhat disheveled; his clothes were shredded, and wisps of black smoke rose from his skin. Despite his ragged appearance, the damage wasn't critical—he had sustained only minor injuries.
However, because everyone's attention was fixed on Hawkeye, they ignored Sean on the other side. Sean had already drawn his bow, aiming directly at the falling swordsman.
"Kyūten Raika: Hokkyoku Raisen!"
'Screeeech—'
Like the cry of a predatory bird, a bolt of lightning shot forth the moment Sean released his finger, streaking toward Hawkeye with blinding speed.
The attack triggered every instinct in Hawkeye's body; a mental alarm screamed in his head. But he was stranded in mid-air, unable to use Reiryoku to tread through the sky like Sean could.
As the lightning closed in, Hawkeye didn't even have time to unleash a Great Swordsman's slash. Forced into a desperate close-quarters defense, he coated the blade of his sword in Armament Haki and swung directly at the incoming bolt.
'CRASH!'
Following the thunderous impact, Hawkeye's eyes widened in sheer disbelief.
Because...
The blade of Yoru... had shattered!
Having breached the defense of Yoru, the lightning bolt instantly pierced through his left shoulder.
'This... this is impossible!!'
The swordsmen watching from Volcano Island, and the Marines watching the broadcast on their warships, were equally stunned.
They could accept a swordsman playing the role of a mage—after all, once someone reaches the level of a Great Swordsman, their power often mirrors that of a spellcaster. That was manageable.
But how did he go from a mage to an archer?
Where was the justice in this world...