"Who are you people?"
Somaz frowned, asking impolitely as he looked at Rocks and Carlo, who had suddenly appeared before him.
It wasn't that he didn't feel the powerful oppressive aura emanating from the two men in front of him.
But... so what?
He was a noble member of the Shepard Family, and had already passed the assessment of God's Blade, officially becoming a member of the God's Knights.
If he performed well in this hunting game today and won the grand prize.
Not only would he get that beautiful woman as a slave.
He could also, as the champion of the God Valley tournament, compete for the position of Commander of the God's Knights one day in the future.
Even more!
There was a chance to become one of the Gorosei, a position of even higher status and closer to His Majesty!
Therefore, to achieve his ambition and to first win this hunting competition, Somaz would not spare anyone who dared to obstruct his path!
However, facing his challenge, the two men who had appeared out of nowhere completely ignored him.
They didn't even glance at him.
They only looked at each other.
"You or me?"
"Doesn't matter, it's all the same, just trash."
Hearing the word 'trash' full of disdain from the other party, Somaz was stunned for a moment.
Then his face instantly turned red, and bulging veins crawled across his forehead.
Immense rage and murderous intent instantly surged into his heart.
"You're asking for death!"
He pointed his right hand at the two figures in front of him.
"Thorn Serpent!"
An invisible power erupted from him.
The ground around Somaz quickly ruptured as something drilled through it.
Vines with sharp thorns emerged from the cracked earth, twisting rapidly like venomous snakes, surrounding and piercing towards Rocks and Carlo.
Soon.
Numerous thorny vines enveloped the two, forming a circular cage around them.
Then Somaz smiled cruelly and clenched his five fingers tightly.
"Enjoy the pain bestowed upon you by my greatness!"
"Piercing Hell!"
Instantly, dozens of surrounding thorns tightened, squeezing towards Rocks and Carlo in the center.
"Nonsense."
Rocks shook his head and took a step forward.
"I'll do it, I've had enough of this trash."
He just took one step forward.
With that simple step, the ground within a dozen meters instantly cracked.
The dozens of thorns squeezing in from around were swept away like paper by a violent current, then exploded into fragments!
Meeting Somaz's stunned gaze, Rocks casually slashed forward with his blade.
"Swish!"
No Haki, no Haki Entanglement.
Just a simple aerial slash, and the blade unleashed a fierce attack, cutting Somaz, along with a hundred meters of ground behind him, into two halves.
What was shocking was that under such a terrifying slash, the little boy behind Somaz, who had lost his father, was completely unharmed.
Somaz's body, however, was evenly and cleanly sliced vertically from head to toe, becoming two halves.
But what surprised Rocks was that even like this, Somaz in front of him was still not dead.
His body split in two, he still stared at Rocks with furious eyes.
"A Devil Fruit user? Logia type? Or some other ability?"
He had seen earlier that Somaz's body had been pierced by rubble, yet he was completely fine.
His body, riddled like a sieve, quickly healed automatically, just like a Logia user's elementalization.
"Vile mortal! How dare you commit such an impudent act against my greatness!"
Many dense black mists extended from Somaz's split body, rapidly adhering to the two halves.
In just a few seconds, his body had returned to its original state.
The moment his body recovered, Somaz thrust the longsword in his hand at Rocks.
At the same time, countless thorny vines burst from the surrounding ground, swarming to entangle, bind, and pierce Rocks.
"Die for me!"
"Combined Assault! Piercing Domain—Pfft!"
Before his roar was completely finished, Rocks' long blade struck again.
This time, a surge of black-red lightning suddenly erupted from the thick blade, striking the void a few meters in front of Somaz.
The invisible void visibly shattered and collapsed under Rocks' strike.
Then, the shattered void spread, instantly crushing over Somaz.
"Boom!"
Somaz's entire upper body was crushed into a bloody pulp by the shockwave that struck from the air.
Only his two lone legs remained standing in place.
Rocks sheathed his blade and sneered, "This time, you can't recover, right? With this slash, I hit your true body, and I even used Haki... What?"
He hadn't finished speaking when he was slightly shocked by the sight before him.
Because Somaz, whose entire upper body he had shattered, was still not dead!
His body, which had exploded into a bloody pulp, scattered on the ground, rapidly transforming into clumps of dark liquid and mist, adhering to each other like slime.
Before long, Somaz's vanished upper body reappeared and floated out of thin air, flying towards the two legs still standing in place.
It seemed to be trying to reattach.
Rocks frowned, "I clearly should have hit his true body, so why isn't he dead yet?"
Seeing Somaz's upper body flying over, he took a step forward and kicked, sending Somaz's standing legs flying like cannonballs.
"Though I don't know why you're not dead yet, I won't let you recover your body as you wish."
"It doesn't matter! Even if I abandon that part of my body, it doesn't matter! At most, the recovery time will just be extended a bit! I am immortal! No matter how strong you are, it's useless! This is the power of a god! How could a lowly mortal like you understand it!"
Somaz rushed forward, swinging his large hand.
Countless thorny vines, either emerging from the soil or appearing out of thin air, wrapped around Rocks.
"Can't be killed? I refuse to believe it! I..."
Rocks was about to swing his blade again.
However, a towering black crescent-blade slash suddenly shot out from his side.
Like a shark's fin cutting through the sea, it instantly swept past his side, flashing across Somaz.
Somaz, who had been lunging with a sneer, had his smile freeze on his face.
A line of blood appeared on his body, flying out from behind him.
His body was once again cut into two halves.
Before black mist could emerge from his body, preparing to heal his severed form.
"Boom!"
Another even larger slash, like a massive black battleship cutting through waves, crashed head-on into his body.
The next moment, with a booming explosion, his entire being was shredded into countless pieces of flesh by the enormous incoming slash.