"What incredible force!"
Nekomamushi's teeth were clamped shut as he felt a massive surge of power slam into him. The impact propelled his body backward, his feet carving two long, jagged furrows deep into the wood of the massive trunk.
After skidding more than ten meters, Master Nekomamushi sensed the crescent-shaped vacuum blade beginning to lose its momentum. With a sudden upward flick of his spear, he parried the attack, sending it flying off into the distance.
BOOM!
The Rankyaku projectile soared away, carving a deep, multi-meter-long fissure into a branch dozens of meters off.
"Not bad at all," Aeridar remarked, licking his lips with indifference. It would have been more surprising if a former member of Pirate King Roger's crew, the Ruler of Night himself, couldn't even handle a single opening move.
"Such strength... despite that small body..." Nekomamushi looked down at his trembling hands, his eyes filled with disbelief.
"However, I will never allow you to invade the Whale Forest or set foot within the Sacred Ground!" Nekomamushi's expression hardened. He spun his double-headed spear with a rapid whirl and charged forward, his paws thundering against the wood.
"Die!"
The spear pierced through the air, reaching its target in a flash.
"Hmph." Aeridar let out a cold snort. With a slight tilt of his frame, he effortlessly evaded Nekomamushi's strike.
"Strike! Strike! Strike...!"
Having missed his first thrust, Nekomamushi immediately retracted his weapon. He began to rotate around Aeridar at high speed, unleashing a continuous barrage of stabs toward the center.
Under this torrential rain of attacks, Aeridar's figure was like a willow catkin drifting in a storm, swaying left and right, bobbing and weaving. He accurately dodged every single thrust of the trident spear.
"Damn it! Why can't I hit him?!" Nekomamushi grew frantic, his roars echoing through the forest.
Snap!
Suddenly, Aeridar reached out a hand and accurately snatched the shaft of the double-headed spear mid-swing.
"Nani?!" Nekomamushi gasped.
"Hehe... Let go!" Aeridar looked at Nekomamushi with a sinister grin. With a sudden roar of effort, he exerted a burst of raw power, physically lifting the spear, and Nekomamushi with it, clean off the ground.
"Curse you!" Nekomamushi felt a colossal force transmit through the weapon, realizing his feet had left the trunk as he was hoisted into the air.
Zzzt— Zzzt—!
Suddenly, a fierce current of electricity erupted from Nekomamushi's body. The blue-white sparks crackled along the double-headed spear, conducting directly into Aeridar.
"Electricity?"
"Aargh!"
Seeing the visible, violent current coursing through the opponent, Aeridar was caught off guard. Before he could release his grip, the electricity enveloped him, causing him to scream out in pain.
After all, Aeridar was neither a thick-skinned Zoan-type user nor a freak of nature like Big Mom or Kaido. Being shocked by such a potent current without preparation was far from pleasant. Aeridar quickly let go and leaped back dozens of meters, the sparks finally dissipating from his skin.
"So you have a trump card like this... A Devil Fruit? No, a Mink Tribe innate ability?" Aeridar grumbled, rubbing his aching limbs while watching the electricity dance across Nekomamushi's fur.
While it couldn't compare to Enel's lightning, it was still formidable. He realized he simply knew too little about these rare races. If the Fish-Men could give birth to an Ancient Weapon as powerful as 'Poseidon,' it stood to reason that the Minks would have a natural ability to discharge electricity.
Having suffered this small setback, Aeridar stopped underestimating these Minks. Armament Haki flowed around his body, forming an invisible suit of armor. Simultaneously, he began to project a constant outward pressure, unseen by the eye, but detectable by the warping air currents.
Crackle— Crackle—!
Nekomamushi's electricity flared even brighter, wrapping around his spear as his massive frame charged forward like a high-speed locomotive.
"Give it a rest! Get the hell down there, you giant freak cat!" Aeridar threw a punch. The force of the strike exploded in mid-air, manifesting as a violent impact wave that rippled outward in a ring.
RUMBLE!
Because the distance was so short, Nekomamushi had no time to react before he was swallowed by the shockwave. He was blown backward by the sheer force. The trunk beneath his feet shattered, sending large chunks of wood flying.
When the shockwave finally subsided after a few seconds, Nekomamushi had been blasted nearly down to the roots of the tree. Had he not plunged his spear into the wood to stabilize himself, he would have been knocked off the Whale Tree entirely.
"Cough... Impact Wave!" Nekomamushi spat out blood, but his gaze only grew more ferocious.
Crackle— Crackle—!
Without even wiping the blood from his mouth, he wrenched the spear from the wood. With the roar of electricity returning, he began a mad sprint back up toward the top.
"Still haven't fallen? Then let me give you a proper send-off!" A flash of cruelty crossed Aeridar's face. He raised a leg and swept it downward.
Rokushiki: Rankyaku—Flying Shot!
Swish!
Blue-white vacuum blades erupted from the void, piercing downward like harpoons.
"Nya!" Nekomamushi let out a strange cry and twisted his body to the right while running at full speed.
BOOM!
Dust flew as the trunk below was blasted into a deep, bottomless pit several centimeters in diameter. By this time, Nekomamushi had reached Aeridar once more, thrusting his spear toward the man's chest.
Swish!
Aeridar twisted his body, letting the spear graze his shoulder. Simultaneously, he balled his fist and hammered the air in front of him.
CRACK—! RUMBLE!
The atmosphere shattered like a mirror, spiderwebbing with cracks. A formless, terrifying vibration force erupted, transmitting through the air. The trunk beneath them disintegrated on a massive scale.
"Whitebeard—!"
Nekomamushi's face was filled with horror. He managed only to gasp out the name 'Whitebeard' before being blasted away, leaving a stuttering trail of blood in the air behind him.
This time, Nekomamushi had no chance to stabilize himself. He was hammered straight off the Whale Tree, crashing down into the Whale Forest below and kicking up a pillar of dust and air.
"Finally, the annoying one is gone!"
Aeridar grinned and took to the skies, turning back toward the upper reaches to continue his search for the entrance.
A moment later, he spotted an anomaly. It wasn't the texture of the tree trunk; it was stone covered in moss. Aeridar moved closer to confirm. It was indeed a stone doorway camouflaged by the environment.
"It seems this is the place. The 'Sacred Ground' that freak cat mentioned!"
Aeridar landed and pressed his palm against the stone, feeling its damp coolness. In the next instant, his palm began to vibrate hundreds of times per second, a speed invisible to the naked eye.
CRACK—!
A single fissure appeared, followed by a web of countless cracks spreading across the entire surface of the stone.