"No-Sword Style?" Alucard had never heard of this technique before. However, he had seen a similar fighting style half a year ago during the Battle of Mariejois with the old man who had the Swap-Swap Fruit and used his hands as swords.
A violent golden storm blew, easily tearing through flesh. As Alucard's body was forced back two steps, Rayleigh charged forward, angrily imbued the sword stuck in the ground with Haki, and twisted his body to slash at Alucard.
Shwa!
A huge gash was cut into his elbow, and blood gushed out. But before the blood could even drip to the ground, it had already healed.
Seeing this, Rayleigh gave a wry smile. "You're in my top three list of people I never want to fight."
Rayleigh had seen this kind of regenerative ability for the second time. Ten years had passed, but seeing it again, it was still just as outrageous.
"Then retire for good. Don't stay in this state of wanting to retire but not," Alucard said. He fired a shot, and Rayleigh raised his sword to block it.
The two exchanged hundreds of blows. For these two, who were close to the peak of power in this world, it would take days and nights to determine a winner.
"Hey, can you let me off the hook? I wasn't originally here to fight you, and you should take a look at where we are right now."
It wasn't just that Rayleigh had already lost his ambition as a pirate; if it were a normal day, he wouldn't mind fighting Alucard to see what he could do. But this was Mariejois. Even though it was burned to a pulp, it was still Mariejois, not a suitable place for a fight.
"Are you scared?" Alucard mocked.
"Yeah, that's right," Rayleigh said with surprising frankness. "When you get old, you get more and more timid."
"Then become food for the wild dogs, Rayleigh." Alucard didn't give Rayleigh any face. Several black dogs appeared around Alucard.
Rayleigh shook his head and suddenly plunged his Haki-hardened 'sword' fiercely into the ground in front of him. With a loud rumble, huge, irregular cracks began to spread, as if it were the effect of Whitebeard's Tremor-Tremor Fruit. The ground for miles around became uneven and even approached the Marines near Kong.
"My apologies. You want to fight, but I don't. If you have time, I'd be happy to accept a drink from you." After saying that, Rayleigh retreated toward Sabaody Archipelago. If Alucard wanted to chase him, he could. It would take some effort, and he could even hunt Rayleigh down in Sabaody Archipelago. But that would be boring, and Alucard disdained to do so.
Alucard took one last look at the palace he had lived in for half a year, which was once magnificent but was now burned to a crisp. If the Gorosei had sent their internal personnel, it would have been possible to stop this, but they simply hadn't, and he didn't know why.
In this situation, he couldn't continue to be a Celestial Dragon and play around. It was time to return to his old profession as a pirate.
Before the fight with Rayleigh, he had told the three Boa sisters to wait for him at Sabaody Archipelago. When Alucard confirmed that Tiger had burned Mariejois, he already knew that his identity as a Celestial Dragon was no longer tenable.
If he was going back to being a pirate, didn't he have to make a bigger spectacle?
"You fish-men brought the slave liberation incident forward? Fine, I'll bring forward the Era of the Four Emperors." With that thought, Alucard leisurely leaped over the jagged rocks and headed toward Sabaody Archipelago.
On the other side, in the Marines. A Lieutenant Commander saluted Kong and reported from the list in his hand, "Fleet Admiral, the statistics are in. A total of thirty-six World Nobles have been rescued alive. In addition, eight have minor injuries, fourteen have serious injuries, and the number of fatalities..." The Lieutenant Commander hesitated for a few seconds before finally saying the number. "The number of fatalities is thirteen, seven of whom were Celestial Dragons."
Kong took a sharp breath and asked, "Who did this?"
"According to our investigation, the main culprits are fish-men who have not yet been selected and are still unknown, as well as a small number of Revolutionary Army soldiers."
"The Revolutionary Army? I just sent Sengoku and Kuzan to negotiate with the Revolutionary Army leader, Dragon... they did this..." Although Kong's strategic mind was slightly inferior to Tsuru's, he was not stupid. He immediately reacted and gritted his teeth.
"Are they playing a feint?" Kong pounded the ground and asked, "What was that fight just now?"
"It was a battle between Alucard the Immortal and Dark King Rayleigh. However, according to the lookout's report, they only fought for about ten minutes before Rayleigh retreated," the Lieutenant Commander said with a worried expression.
"The Immortal who disappeared for half a year and Rayleigh, whom we haven't been able to find for years, are both involved?" Kong clutched his head. He was also shirking responsibility. Although there were still a lot of things that were unclear, damage control was the most important thing right now.
Kong sighed and waved his hand. "Send out a wanted poster. Also, notify the news department to compile a report on this."
"But... the Gorosei just gave an order to pin this entire incident on the Revolutionary Army. The specifics are still being discussed." The Lieutenant Commander was hesitant, a hint of fear in his eyes.
"What?" Kong's face showed surprise, which was quickly replaced by anger. "What do they mean by that?"
"The Gorosei also knows that the Marines fell for the Revolutionary Army's feint and that the Government's lack of preparedness allowed them to succeed. They don't want to publicize the incident, so they decided to pin all the blame on the Revolutionary Army. Everything else is still being discussed."
"These guys..." Kong clenched his fists tightly. A few seconds later, he slowly unclenched them. "Fine. I have a lot of questions for them too!"
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