"I want to see if you can really recover from any number of injuries."
Creed said calmly.
The moment his words fell—
Boom!!
An aura even stronger than before surged into the sky, sword energy raging violently around Creed's body.
The churning seawater around him seemed to be sliced into countless droplets by tiny invisible blades, falling back into the ocean.
Danger!
Extreme danger!!
The old woman's face suddenly changed. Ever since her "son" had been covered in countless wounds while his opponent remained unscathed, she had already been harboring thoughts of retreat.
What's more, the opponent's blade was of very high quality.
After just half an hour of clashing, her "son's" massive blade already had many chips and cracks.
At this moment—
An unimaginably terrifying sword intent burst out from Creed's body. The nearby seawater boiled and trembled violently.
The very air around him seemed to distort.
Creed opened his eyes, and in that instant, the sky darkened.
In the eyes of the old woman and Edward Weevil, Creed's body turned pitch-black, like a living shadow.
Gripping Rinne, his voice came like a whisper from the depths of the underworld—icy and merciless.
"Rinne · Akki-do (Path of the Evil Ghost)!!"
A jet-black slash erupted forth, as cold as the Nine Hells.
At that instant, Creed's sword intent transformed into countless evil spirits, enough to shake the soul itself.
The two of them lost focus for a split second, terrified by the vision.
"Run!!!"
The old woman's eyes widened in sheer horror.
She leapt onto Edward Weevil's shoulder.
With a splash, he plunged into the sea.
The black slash swept in a wide arc, and everything in its path—the floating debris on the sea—was shredded into dust by countless fine threads of sword energy.
Boom! Boom! Boom!!
The world went silent as sword energy ran rampant.
Seawater surged high into the air, over ten meters, before falling back down as a torrential downpour.
It took half a minute for the rain curtain to fade away.
In front of Creed lay a fan-shaped gap where a massive section of the ocean's surface had been shaved away.
The sea was now tiered, like steps—Creed stood on a "higher" level, while the fan-shaped area before him was a step lower.
It had been physically carved out by the slash.
When the sword energy lingering on the sea faded, the seawater rushed back in to fill the gap.
Corpses of Sea Kings floated on the surface.
Far off, Edward Weevil and the old woman floated in the water, their bodies covered in wounds so deep the bone was visible.
Creed stepped through the air with Geppō (Moon Walk) toward them.
The old woman regained consciousness, scrambling onto a floating plank.
She was almost unscathed—clearly she had used her "son" as a shield at the critical moment.
Her face was pale with fear as she looked at Creed.
"Spare me! Spare me! You can't kill me! I'm the wife of one of the Four Emperors, Whitebeard! And he's Whitebeard's biological son!"
Fearing her words weren't convincing enough, she quickly pulled out Whitebeard's bounty poster.
"Look! Look at the mustache! Isn't it exactly the same as Whitebeard's?"
"Oh? Even if your claim were true, so what? Even Whitebeard's son won't escape capture!"
Creed sneered. He didn't believe their story for a second.
How could Whitebeard possibly have such a brainless son, or such a malicious, dwarf-like wife?
Seriously—how does someone with giant blood, over seven or eight times taller than a normal man, have a child with someone barely taller than a five-year-old!?
By their size difference…
It's like an elephant mating with a Chihuahua! How!?
She tried to say something more—
"You're noisy."
Creed gave her a cold glance, coated his fist in Busōshoku Haki (Armament Haki), and punched down.
The old woman immediately passed out, several teeth flying out.
Creed wouldn't show mercy to someone like her.
Grabbing the two of them, he stepped through the air with Geppō back to the warship.
Bang!
He tossed them to the deck. "Shackle them and take them below."
The two were dragged away.
[Ding! Congratulations, you have obtained a Purple Mystery Chest!]
Creed had claimed the chest from Edward Weevil.
Zephyr looked at Creed, the shock in his heart refusing to fade.
Two years apart, and Creed had already grown to this level…
He was now nearly his equal.
With swordsmanship like that, Creed could already roam the seas freely.
Perhaps in a few years, he could even challenge for the title of the world's strongest.
Zephyr couldn't help but feel deeply moved.
He had always known Creed was a monster, but not this monstrous.
Nearby, Smoker and the other fourteen trainees wore complicated expressions.
They had thought that once Creed left the elite training camp, his growth would slow, while they—under Zephyr's guidance—would surge ahead.
Who would have thought the gap would only grow wider?
In two years, he had reached Zephyr's level.
"You alright, Ain?"
Creed turned to Ain. Earlier, she and the others had done well—facing death, they had not taken a single step back, protecting the injured Smoker and the others.
"I-I'm fine," Ain replied, her face suddenly flushing red.
Creed nodded, then turned toward a commotion in the distance.
Ain stole a glance at his back, her cheeks still pink, before quickly looking away so no one would notice.
A warship approached.
Shhh—
From the sky, a figure descended—it was Garp.
Seeing everyone safe, he let out a long breath.
Marine Headquarters had received a distress call via Den Den Mushi. When Garp learned it was Zephyr's trainee ship in trouble, he had rushed here without delay.
"The enemy? Driven off?"
Garp looked around at the countless fragments of ships and the bloody sea.
This scene alone told him how strong the enemy had been.
"They've already been captured."
"Hahaha! Zephyr, you old fossil! Didn't think you'd be this sharp after twenty years off the front lines—still got some bite, huh?" Garp clapped him on the shoulder.
"It was Creed who defeated them."
Garp: "…"
(End of Chapter)
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