The most infuriating thing about a greatsword master is that with a casual stroke he can unleash wide-area devastation that most Devil Fruit users and even many Haki powerhouses cannot achieve.
Against such a swordsman, only an equally formidable martial artist, someone whose Haki is trained to the highest realm, or someone with an overwhelmingly powerful Fruit can contend.
Shiki the Golden Lion, once a contender for the title of the world's greatest swordsman and the foremost dual-blade master, has seen his swordsmanship degrade because he lost a swordsman's most vital legs.
Even so, the slashes he kicks out are still greatsword-master level.
In an instant, green light became a slash at least a hundred meters long and blasted Yami away.
Yami reacted just as fast. Before the green light fully formed into a slash, he crossed his arms and a near-invisible transparent halo sheathed his body.
The green slash hurled Yami hundreds of meters. Its terrifying cutting power shredded his sleeves, yet could not pierce his defense.
Boom.
As the colossal slash drove him off the island, Yami changed from a double-arm guard to one arm blocking while the other clamped down.
In a heartbeat, the mountain-cleaving slash was torn apart on the spot.
Then, returning courtesy for courtesy, Yami kicked across the air at Shiki.
A matching hundred-plus-meter slash roared toward the Golden Lion.
Unlike Shiki's slash, which was full-sized the moment it left his leg, Yami's was only two or three meters when it flew out.
But within a few breaths, that two-to-three-meter slash swelled into a giant a hundred meters long.
Clear-headed now, Shiki saw it plainly, and shock finally crossed his face.
With a precise change of trajectory from a single raised kick, he let the slash obliterate the island behind him.
Then he shouted in disbelief. "More-More Fruit amplification. You're not just a Dark-Dark user?"
"As expected of Senior Shiki, you noticed so quickly."
Yami smiled lightly. "I'm a multi-fruit user. I have the Paramecia More-More Fruit and the Logia Dark-Dark Fruit."
"Eh?"
Shiki's eyes bulged. For a moment he looked muddle-headed again, wearing a comical expression. "A multi-fruit user really exists in this world?"
"Of course. I am."
Shiki clapped on reflex, then recovered and yelled in excitement. "Brat, become my subordinate. When I conquer these seas, I'll split the world with you."
"Senior Shiki, how pitiful."
Yami looked at him with pity, the very picture of a do-gooder. "Don't worry. I'll soon free you from the pain that damned helm has brought."
"Nonsense. You want my ability."
Shiki snapped another slash at Yami, suddenly sharper. "When I was locked in Impel Down, Byrnndi World was frozen, so he couldn't have died, and the World Government and Marines wouldn't have let him die."
"But now his Fruit is on you."
"My base has been hidden here for more than ten years without being discovered. Yet today a one-of-a-kind freak found it. You have a way to seize Devil Fruits or make them reborn nearby."
His last words were full of certainty.
Clearly, this great schemer knew some truths of the world.
Yami kicked away the incoming slash and grinned. "Since Senior Shiki has seen through it, I won't hide it. I am indeed here for your Float-Float Fruit."
"So please lend me a hand, Senior Shiki. Black Hole."
With that final line, Yami's smile vanished. He raised a hand and condensed a black hole the size of a bowling ball.
A terrifying gravity field yanked at Shiki.
"Take it if you can."
Shiki roared again and fired off two more colossal slashes.
They never reached Yami. Near the black hole, they twisted.
When they struck the void, an invisible hand of gravity crushed the slashes into raging air currents and hurled everything into the darkness.
After a brief struggle, Shiki felt the pull lighten and understood the black hole's flaw.
He shot out a storm of mountain-cleaving slashes, then bolted skyward to break free of the gravity for good.
Seeing so many slashes, Yami didn't waste stamina trying to swallow them all. He canceled the Black Hole and used a speed-amplified Moonwalk to leave their range.
Rumble.
The ground below suddenly heaved.
The earth rolled like ocean waves, surging again and again.
Roar.
Surging ridges became lions the size of mountains, their bellows deafening.
"Lion's Threat, Earth Scroll."
High above, Shiki moved to drive the earth-lions at Yami.
Clap.
Seeing Shiki unleash his finisher, Yami didn't hesitate. He slammed his palms together, taking the battle into its white-hot phase and toward its end.
Endless darkness welled from every pore of his body and gathered into the ten fingers laced before him.
At the same time, a transparent halo wrapped his hands like a ripple of light, the staggering amplification molding what lay between his palms at speed.
A few seconds later, Yami opened his hands and gently lofted a black energy sphere sheathed in a transparent halo, calling out:
"Hundredfold Gravity Cataclysm."
Under the halo's effect, the black sphere swelled fast, in the blink of an eye to cannon-shell size.
It climbed ever faster.
When the sphere stopped expanding, blinding white light burst from within, replacing the golden sunlight and turning the world in Yami's and Shiki's eyes to pure white.
Apart from the black sun blazing with white light in the sky, the whole world became a field of white.
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