Click!
The slash of the sword was forcibly snapped in half.
Sensing the danger behind him, Mihawk's eyes sharpened as he turned to meet the attack head-on.
Clang!
A long black-and-red spear clashed against the blade of Yoru.
The Supreme Grade sword, Yoru, visibly bent under the tremendous force.
The overwhelming power forced Mihawk's body downward, his feet scraping through the air as he struggled to maintain balance.
"Fufufufufu... Trying to get past me?"
Doflamingo let out a crazed laugh. Without waiting for Mihawk's reply, he added,
"Let me help you!"
With a beat of his wings, the fragile balance Mihawk had managed to maintain was completely shattered.
Doflamingo's long leg—taller even than Mihawk himself—swung up high.
He aimed directly at where Shanks had just landed.
With a sharp kick to the chest—
Thud!
Mihawk suffered the same fate as his good friend.
He was sent hurtling toward the coastline at breakneck speed!
...
Aboard the Red-Haired Pirates' ship—
The moment Vergo launched his attack, Benn Beckman's eyes went bloodshot.
As the vice-captain, watching his own sniper be taken down right in front of him was an unbearable humiliation!
With his specially trained Observation Haki, Beckman locked onto Vergo with deadly precision.
His rifle blazed with fire.
Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang!!!
Despite being just a rifle, it roared like a Gatling gun.
Bullets infused with Armament Haki poured out in a dense storm, forming a web that enveloped Vergo completely, sealing off every route of escape.
For the first time, Vergo felt a strange and unfamiliar sense of danger.
An opponent whose Observation Haki could lock on—this was a first for him.
But...
If he couldn't dodge, he wouldn't even try. Vergo had never been the type to evade.
He opened his mouth and took a deep breath.
The surrounding air seemed to collapse inward, as if a black hole were devouring everything.
The breath filled his lungs.
Then, Vergo raised his dragonfang staff to his mouth.
From the tip of the staff's tail, a blast of compressed air shot out like a solid bomb.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
A series of violent explosions detonated the storm of bullets before they could reach him.
The shockwave barreled onward, smashing into the ship's mast!
Creak!
The mast, made from the roots of the Yarukiman Mangrove, toppled with a tremendous crash.
But Beckman, the vice-captain, had no time to mourn.
He hardened his rifle with Armament Haki and braced it in front of him.
THUD!
A thunderous impact followed.
Vergo's staff, wrapped in lightning, slammed down with monstrous force.
Beckman's face twisted in pain as the searing heat gnawed at every inch of his skin.
The rifle creaked under the strain, its hardened body on the verge of collapse.
Yet...
It wasn't the rifle that gave out first.
It was the deck beneath Beckman's feet—it began to buckle.
Vergo's face remained expressionless.
He lifted his arms.
His already bulging muscles swelled even further.
Before Beckman could even catch his breath, the staff loomed larger in his field of vision.
CRACK!
The deck shattered beneath him.
Beckman was driven downward like a nail hammered into wood.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Layer after layer of the ship's structure was smashed through.
He finally stopped when he crashed into something soft.
Squelch!
"Ahhh, Vice-Captain!"
"Enemy attack!"
"No—!"
Beckman's eyes flew wide open in horror.
His feet had sunken into the gut of one of his own crew members.
He had killed one of his own men!!!
The crew, who had just been carried down here for treatment, were waking up one by one, screaming in disbelief at the carnage.
"This is what Doffy meant by 'the whole crew will go down together,' huh?"
A cold, emotionless voice floated down from above.
Beckman's heart seized as he realized the critical situation he was in.
Everyone looked up.
Their pupils contracted sharply.
Flames filled their entire vision.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The Red-Haired Pirates' ship was engulfed in a massive fireball.
The onboard munitions ignited in the intense heat, causing secondary and tertiary explosions.
One after another, burning figures plunged into the sea, wailing in agony.
Not everyone could survive the Dragon's Breath or the relentless explosions.
By the end of this battle...
Most of the Red-Haired Pirates were dead, swallowed along with their ship—only a few officers remained.
A black dragon soared through the sky, scanning the turbulent sea for any surviving enemies.
A charred, bloated figure floated to the surface.
What greeted him—
Was a storm of razor-sharp wind blades.
Vergo, watching the enemy flee below the waves, was in no hurry.
He had all the time in the world.
...
On the rocky coast of Raijin Island—
Huff!
Shanks staggered to his feet, clutching his chest.
Before he could steady himself, a looming figure approached.
"Stay back!"
THUD!
With a dull thud, Shanks and Mihawk tumbled into a heap, once again sinking into the rubble.
"Fufufufufu... You two seem awfully close."
Watching the two tangled together, Doflamingo spun the hat on his arm and spoke with playful malice.
Mihawk and Shanks instantly scrambled apart like struck lightning.
They glared at Doflamingo with wary eyes.
"Doflamingo," Shanks said, trying to stay calm, "give me some face. We mean you no harm. We're not your enemies. Just... if you'll return the captain's—"
He stopped mid-sentence.
When Shanks finally got a clear look at what Doflamingo was holding—
Rage ignited in his eyes.
"Doflamingo!!! What have you done?!"
In a flash of fury, Shanks slashed out with his sword!
BOOM!
A dense shield of silk threads sprang up from the ground, blocking the sword's gleam completely.
The threads dispersed, revealing Doflamingo laughing maniacally behind them.
"Fufufufufu... My dear little cousin," he sneered, "give you face? Who the hell do you think you are?!"
Shanks' eyes burned with murderous fury.
Doflamingo lifted the straw hat he had wrapped around his arm.
He crushed it slowly in his hand.
Along with it, he crushed eight hundred years of the inherited spirit of Nika.
"As for what I've done?I've shattered this cursed, so-called destiny!!!"
With those words—
The straw hat crumbled to dust.
"No!!! Captain Roger!!!"
Despair tore through Shanks.
Gone was his usual carefree spirit, replaced by a desperate roar.
A powerful burst of Conqueror's Haki exploded from him, shaking the heavens and earth.
It was like the first cry of a grieving boy standing at the edge of the underworld.
"Fufufufufu... Now this is getting interesting!"
Doflamingo's eyes flashed coldly.
An even darker, more violent, twisted Conqueror's Haki erupted from him.
It was like the arrival of a hellish king.
"But—You're still too green!!!"
The hellish king clashed with the young lion.
Shanks' roar was utterly crushed.
Doflamingo's brutal will swept outward like a tidal wave, smashing everything in its path.
The coastline was torn apart.
The thunder snakes in the sky danced wildly!
And standing between the two—
Mihawk finally understood the crushing pressure Shanks was under.
BOOM!
The air exploded from the clashing Haki.
But Mihawk's sense of unease only deepened.
The earth itself was trembling.
Far away, Doflamingo's smile grew ever more deranged.
"Fufufufufu...
Next up—
Try to survive!"
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Fanfic is finished 527 chapters in total on p@treon/tambeerg