High above, Bege kicked off the air, his expression solemn as he sensed the terrifying lightning power contained within Kemon. Though Kemon's body was aged, he still possessed combat strength that could not be underestimated.
A blood-colored aura began to drift from Bege's body, his muscles starting to bulge as a ferocious, wild energy surged from within him.
Kemon shot forward like a bolt of lightning tearing through the dark night, immediately unleashing a devastating Thunder Fist. Coarse arcs of lightning erupted from his fist, carrying destructive energy as they flew towards Bege.
Bege instantly drew his Fire Cloud Sword and, without hesitation, slashed down. The thick bolts of lightning were split and blasted apart by the high-temperature blade. The dispersed lightning surged around Bege, but it couldn't get close, blocked by an unseen force. The Fire Cloud Sword continued its downward path, landing on Kemon's Thunder Fist. Flames and lightning exploded outwards, wild thunderclaps clashing violently against Bege's Conqueror's Haki.
"Old geezer, that little bit of strength won't be enough to take me down," Bege said flippantly.
"Brat, don't get cocky in front of me!" Kemon's vertical pupils narrowed. Dazzling lightning erupted from his body once more, instantly forming a massive Thunder Lizard that pounced directly at Bege, blasting him away.
Bege retreated dozens of steps in a sorry state, arcs of lightning coursing over his body. His clothes were torn, and his Castle Skin showed blackened marks. However, these electric traces vanished in an instant.
"The old geezer still has a few tricks," Bege's gaze hardened. With a wave of his hand, he sent a massive flaming sword aura slashing through the sky towards Kemon.
Lightning surged from Kemon's body again, and he shattered the flaming sword aura with a punch. A fierce wind carrying fire and lightning battered the sky, and powerful shockwaves of air pressure slammed down from above onto the sea, churning it into raging waves.
Kemon seemed to transform into lightning once more as he charged at Bege. Endless electricity roiled behind him, coalescing into four seemingly solid Spears of Lightning. These four spears were concealed behind his back, difficult to detect.
"One Sword Style—Fire Demon Ape Slash!" Bege swung his sword, unleashing an even more astonishing and faster flaming sword aura at Kemon.
"Lightning Speed!" Kemon roared. His body truly transformed into lightning, instantly dodging the flaming sword aura. The attack sliced into the sea, cleaving it open.
In that brief moment, the lightning reformed into Kemon. His Thunder Lizard Fruit was not a Logia-type Devil Fruit; he could only achieve elementalization for a single breath's worth of time. But on a rapidly changing battlefield, that single breath was enough to evade a fatal attack.
Kemon's speed exploded, and he closed the distance in an instant. His lightning-wreathed fist smashed towards Bege like a meteorite. Bege hurriedly swung his sword to block. A deafening explosion shook the heavens and the earth, and the howling blast waves formed shockwaves that rippled outwards from the center of their clash. Countless lightning bolts, like electric serpents, spread out from the impact, streaks of electricity filling the night sky like cracks, as if the night itself was breaking apart.
Although Kemon was old and his stamina had greatly declined, far from his peak condition, his Thunder Lizard Fruit had been developed to an even greater extent. The lightning compensated for his diminished strength, allowing him to still wield immense destructive power.
"Die!"
With a fierce shout, the four Spears of Lightning shot out from Kemon's back, instantly changing direction in mid-air and rocketing towards Bege.
The four spears reached him in an instant, but when they were ten centimeters from Bege's body, they seemed to sink into a mire. Their speed drastically slowed, and the closer they got to Bege, the slower they became, finally stopping five centimeters away.
A cold sneer appeared on Bege's face. "Did you think I wouldn't notice your sneaky little moves? I won't fall for the same trick twice."
"Brat, you're still too careless!" Kemon's face contorted into a snarl. His left palm slammed into the end of one of the lightning spears. He intended to use his formidable strength to imbue the spear with enough impact force to shred Bege's defense. Although he didn't know how Bege had blocked the spears, he believed his full-powered palm strike would grant the spear the power to tear through Bege's defenses.
Terrifying force pushed the spear, tearing at Bege's invisible barrier, pressing relentlessly towards his body. But Kemon had underestimated the strength of this unseen rampart. It wasn't completely torn apart; instead, the Spear of Lightning snapped first, then exploded.
The spear, packed with horrifying electrical energy, detonated, also breaking the other three spears. This directly formed an astonishingly powerful explosion, an exceptionally terrifying electrical storm that instantly sent both combatants flying. The four near-simultaneous explosions created a cataclysmic thunderstorm, with horrifying lightning engulfing a hundred meters of the sky, blooming like dazzling yet deadly fireworks. The sea below surged with violent waves, and the wind howled ceaselessly.
Kemon tumbled through the air. He quickly kicked off the air to stabilize himself, then raised his hands in front of him, bracing against the spreading electrical storm. He gasped for breath, his stamina severely depleted. His scales were torn apart in the storm, his flesh mangled. Blood dripped from a wound on his forehead into his eyes, turning his vision crimson.
He wiped away the blood, his gaze suddenly focused. A sharp crackle of displaced air sounded as a figure burst through the still-dissipating electrical storm, diving towards him.
"Old man, take this!" The figure was, of course, Bege. He too was in a sorry state. The close-range electrical storm had torn through his invisible barrier and impacted his body; his clothes were ashes, and his Castle Skin was blackened.
Bege closed in instantly, blood-red flames erupting from his Fire Cloud Sword, an incredibly terrifying sword aura held back, ready to be unleashed.
At point-blank range, lightning erupted from Kemon. Endless electrical energy converged on his fist, compressing, then compressing further. His entire fist became even more dazzlingly bright, like a brilliant star in the pitch-black night sky.
But it was far more dangerous!
"Beast King!"
"Explosive Thunder Fist!"
The Fire Cloud Sword unleashed a blood-red sword light that tore through the night sky; the Thunder Fist launched a lightning fist shadow that ripped the night sky apart.
The two terrifying attacks collided like two meteorites. Horrifying destructive power erupted, blooming with an extremely blinding light that illuminated a thousand meters of the sea, followed by a world-shaking explosion. A ring of impact, like a tidal wave, swept across a thousand meters of the sky, blasting both men away once more.
The terrifying shockwave, like an invisible sledgehammer, struck the sea's surface, causing it to cave in.
The masts of the warships in the area were instantly crushed, and the entire vessels were pressed down into the sea. Fortunately, the warships were sturdy enough, or they might have been directly crushed by the pressure.
The fighting Marines, Revolutionaries, and Bege's men on the warships had their attacks interrupted by this astounding shockwave.
The submarines were directly shattered, their wreckage scattered across the sea.
The flocks of crows circling nearby were killed in droves by the impact, falling one by one into the sea.
Karasu, who had been riding amongst his crows, had a look of utter shock and horror on his face as he wiped away cold sweat. "Too reckless! Far too reckless! Luckily, I reacted in time, or my entire flock might have been wiped out by that shockwave."