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Rokushiki: Kami-e is an incredibly useful technique. Once mastered at an advanced level, it allows someone to dodge every close-range attack, not by sight, nor even by Haki, but purely through the sensitivity of their skin.
But there's a catch. Kami-e's evasive power depends on sensing fluctuations in the airflow, those tiny disturbances caused by movement.
And right now... there's nothing.
Not a whisper of air. Observation Haki can't detect a single thing. Even the most basic currents vanish into thin air. The Black Mist shrouding Red might as well be invisible, no trace, no sign, aside from its color.
"Why would you think that if you can't track me, you'd be able to track the Black Mist?" Red sneered coldly.
Before Rowen could burst forward with speed to escape, a swirling mass of Black Mist, roughly the size of a man, twisted in front of Red and rapidly condensed into a savage, spiraling drill. Without hesitation, Red rammed it forward with brutal force.
Boom!!
Fortunately, the Black Mist still possessed physical substance. Rowen slammed his Thunder Halberd up just in time, barely managing to block an attack that could've split him in half.
But that brief pause came at a price.
The dense Black Mist all around surged forward like an unforgiving tide, and within half a second, countless red welts blossomed across Rowen's skin.
"Hah!!"
Blood rained down like a storm.
Rowen staggered as pain lanced through his body. He swung his halberd fiercely, buying precious space as he gasped, chest heaving.
Not a single patch of unscathed flesh remained. The Black Mist acted like a merciless meat grinder, scraping mercilessly across his body, leaving a trail of bloody lacerations.
His regeneration kicked into overdrive, rapidly knitting flesh and closing the wounds. Red didn't press the attack immediately. Instead, taking the form of a dark cloud, he silently floated toward the places where Rowen's blood had splattered.
Fwoosh!
A droplet of blood, falling in midair, suddenly halted. Then, defying all reason, it soared upward and disappeared, vanishing into the depths of the Black Mist.
"That's…!" Rowen's eyes widened in horror, his face darkening.
He had nearly forgotten, the true terror of the Vampire Fruit wasn't merely the Black Mist itself. It was its power to drain blood, just like the vampires of legend.
"Hmm… As expected of the famous Marine Azure Dragon's blood. It tastes exquisite."
"This puddle of yours gave me as much strength as draining an entire town."
Red looked completely satisfied. The blood absorbed into the Black Mist had clearly merged with his body.
Then, for a moment, he frowned in confusion.
"So… you're really not human, are you? Your blood… it's trying to take root inside me."
Though potent, what shocked Red most was how this blood refused to submit. Instead of simply becoming nourishment, it began consuming nutrients from its surroundings and replicating itself.
If any ordinary person accidentally ingested such blood… The nightmare it would unleash was too horrifying to imagine.
Rowen's lips twitched in disdain.
"How wicked. I've drunk fresh horse blood before... but I prefer boiled pig, duck, or chicken blood. Human blood? No thanks."
He tilted his head, eyes locked on Red, a hundred meters away.
"Though I'm curious… How does it taste?"
Red said nothing.
"Heh. Not funny," Rowen scoffed. "What I meant was, your blood gives me considerable strength. Got it?"
"Oh… I see."
Rowen casually picked his nose.
"A bit of a letdown. I thought a guy like you, who's started drinking human blood, had finally stopped pretending to be human."
"Jo, uh, never mind."
Red remained silent.
"Die, you little brat!!"
Geppo!
The Black Mist's spikes surged forth once again.
Since they were invisible to Observation Haki and caused no air disturbance, the only way to track them was with the naked eye. Rowen decisively used Geppo, stepping lightly on air to move within a limited radius, forcing himself never to lose sight of the Mist's position to avoid a fatal strike.
"Pointless resistance! Using just Geppo makes your speed far too slow!" Red's voice rolled like thunder as thick black clouds whirled around him, swallowing the moonlight and plunging the battlefield into suffocating darkness.
"Hrah!!"
Rowen didn't take Red's direct assault lightly. His long, sturdy Thunder Halberd whirled through the air, slicing fiercely at the encroaching Black Mist.
But it was useless. Whether or not he even grazed Red was doubtful at best. The cut Black Mist writhed and twisted, quickly reforming into a dense, dark cloud that surged back down toward Rowen.
"No! I can't hold on any longer!" he growled, struggling to maintain his defensive circle formed by the sweeping halberd.
From within the swirling mist, Red's crimson eyes gleamed like those of the most sinister devil, steadily closing the gap.
"I'm going to drain you dry, asshole!"
A cold killing intent slithered around Rowen's throat. Suddenly, a sharp, stabbing pain pierced through the back of his hand, forcing his halberd to halt mid-swing. A thin strand of Black Mist had snaked up from beneath his feet, shooting straight upward, piercing his palm from the inside.
His defense shattered instantly.
Seizing the perfect opening, Red surged forward like a black storm, fangs bared, aiming mercilessly at the arteries in Rowen's neck.
"Gross! Get the hell off me!" Rowen snapped, tensing his shoulder and unleashing a fierce jolt of force through his bones, enough to shatter steel.
But Red's teeth were harder than steel itself, they didn't move.
Instead, Red flicked his umbrella sharply, slamming away Rowen's struggling arm.
"I'll suck you into a mummy!!" he roared.
With primal zeal granted by his Zoan Devil Fruit, Red sank his fangs in and began drinking, predator and prey entwined in a brutal dance.
Gulp… gulp… gulp…
The wet sounds echoed as Rowen's skin visibly shriveled, vitality draining before his eyes.
Yet compared to Red's earlier blood-sucking, this time it was agonizingly slow.
Rowen's blood was unlike anything Red had encountered.
Even with the Vampire Fruit's power, Red had to focus deeply just to digest each mouthful safely. The aggressive cells in Rowen's blood resisted easy assimilation, something leftover inside could spell disaster, and Red wasn't about to find out what.
Famed and fearsome fighters like him never made rookie mistakes that drowned skilled swimmers.
Though Rowen's limbs were restrained, Red stayed vigilant, using his Observation Haki to watch his opponent's thoughts.
The moment he sensed any retaliation, Red would dodge instantly.
So far…
There was none.
In Rowen's mind, only one question echoed: Am I… going to die?
"Going to die? That's right. You're about to die," Red whispered darkly.
Everyone knows when a person loses their blood, they die, like a game character's HP hitting zero.
Revenge boiled within Red, a cathartic release after decades of humiliation. He wanted to howl at the sky.
Yet he kept his wits. Even now, as Rowen's body shriveled toward ruin, Red refused to relax until death was certain.
"…Huh?"
Suddenly, Red's gulping faltered. He lifted his head, eyes wide with shock and disbelief as he stared at Rowen.
"You… you actually…!!!"
"Hehe… had enough?"
Rowen's eyes fluttered open, weak but gleaming with the triumph of a cunning mind.
Fixing Red's horrified gaze, he slowly raised a pale, trembling hand…
…pointed at his own head…
And said with a crooked smile:
"Then go ahead… read my thoughts. What am I thinking… right now?"
Am I going to die?
…
Yes.
He really is about to die.
(End of Chapter)