Seeing the steering wheel Carlo had pulled out, Golden Lion Shiki was instantly enraged.
He grabbed the two world-renowned swords, oto and Kogarashi, in his hands and, without a word, charged straight at Carlo.
The distance between the two sides was still dozens of meters apart.
The twin swords in his hands had already slashed out.
Two massive sword qi slashes erupted from the blades of the double-edged swords, one horizontal and one vertical, forming a giant cross-slash that struck toward Carlo with fury, as if to slice Carlo and the sky behind him into four pieces.
Although Golden Lion Shiki was a Float-Float Fruit Devil Fruit User,
he was also a top-tier grandmaster swordsman with superb sword skills.
He specialized in the Two-Sword Style.
The weapons he used were'swords' in the truest sense.
Unlike others on the sea called swordsmen, who actually used'sabers'.
Golden Lion's oto and Kogarashi were two broad-bladed, double-edged greatswords.
A saber is single-edged with a spine, emphasizing heavy hacking.
A sword, however, has two edges; it possesses not only the hacking of a saber but also various flexible and versatile combat methods such as stabbing, parrying, slicing, flicking, and thrusting.
However, under the drive of Golden Lion's power, which was strong enough to look down upon all others, there were few enemies left who required him to use such complex moves.
So in most cases, his moves were simple, unadorned power slashes.
Normally, that would be enough.
But today, the opponent he faced was Carlo.
The slashes from his twin swords held no advantage against the crushing, hammer-like strikes of the heavenly dragon halberd!
Watching the massive cross-slash sword qi coming at him, Carlo simply gripped the halberd with one hand and slammed it forward heavily!
The next instant.
The air in front of him erupted with a deafening, earth-shattering explosion.
The air within a hundred-meter radius was violently blasted apart, rippling out in a circle of white sonic booms.
Amidst the raging winds, the incoming cross-slash was blown apart in mid-air by the impact erupting from the heavenly dragon halberd!
Without waiting for Golden Lion to swing his swords again,
Carlo took the initiative to attack!
Without any visible movement, a mass of violent, rapid wind had already appeared out of thin air around him, wrapping around his body.
With a step of his foot, he disappeared from the spot as if teleporting, leaving behind a gust of wind.
When he reappeared,
a pitch-black war halberd exploded downward in the air in front of Golden Lion!
Red light flickered in Golden Lion's eyes as if he had foreseen it; the longsword in his right hand was raised a step ahead of time, held above his head in an attempt to parry.
At the same time, the Kogarashi sword in his left hand lunged forward in a thrust.
Unparalleled sword qi bloomed from the tip of the longsword, forming a physical arrow-shaped edge that emitted a sharp whistling sound, piercing straight toward the chest of the flashing Carlo!
One sword for defense.
One sword for offense.
With twin swords in hand, Golden Lion could be said to be capable of both offense and defense at this moment.
If Carlo slashed with all his might at the oto sword swung by his right hand,
then Carlo would be pierced by the Kogarashi in his left hand.
But if Carlo avoided the thrust from his left hand,
then the oto swung by his right hand would erupt with an unparalleled slash to pursue Carlo.
This was Golden Lion's powerful sword technique that integrated offense and defense.
"So next, are you going to run? Carlo!"
The moment the twin swords struck out together, an arrogant smile uncontrollably appeared on Golden Lion's face.
However, the next instant.
His eyes, flickering with red light and utilizing Future Sight Observation Haki, seemed to see a glimpse of the future; the smile that had just appeared on his face instantly froze.
Golden Lion subconsciously wanted to retreat backward.
But it was already too late.
The war halberd slashing down from above did not deviate in the slightest, striking solidly against the oto longsword he had swung out to block.
Clearly,
Carlo had chosen the first option: a head-on collision.
He did not avoid the left-hand sword and continued to slash down.
But this force... what was going on?
The moment the oto longsword in Golden Lion's right hand was struck by the wide blade of the heavenly dragon halberd,
an overwhelming, mountain-toppling force spread along the blade, instantly impacting Golden Lion's wrist.
He felt as if the sword he swung out was trying to block a ten-thousand-meter mountain pressing down, or a meteorite falling from the heavens.
The wide blade emitted a harsh grinding sound, throwing off a shower of sparks as it was pressed into a curve.
Terrifying power crushed down, causing Golden Lion's raised right hand to emit an overburdened cracking sound, as if the bone were about to break, forcing it back against his own body.
With a dull, heavy thud,
Golden Lion groaned, his body falling toward the sea below like a meteorite.
In just an instant,
amidst the cries of alarm from countless pirates of the Flying Pirate Crew, he smashed from several hundred meters in the air into the sea directly below.
"BOOM!!"
The sea surface for a thousand meters around caved inward.
Tens of millions of tons of seawater were squeezed outward, forming a giant wave dozens of meters high that pushed away the pirate ships of both sides engaged in fierce crossfire.
In the sea that had sunken over a hundred meters deep like a giant bowl, Golden Lion's falling body did not drop directly into the ocean.
Instead, just before he would have hit the water, he used the Float-Float Fruit's power to make the sea surface below float, displacing millions of tons of seawater.
Although he didn't fall into the sea,
Golden Lion still looked very disheveled.
His clothes were soaked by seawater.
A trace of nearly imperceptible blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.
He was injured!
He was actually injured!
Golden Lion wiped the corner of his mouth; looking at that smear of crimson on his finger, the tyrannical aura in his eyes surged like a raging tide, instantly filling his gaze.
"Carlo!!!"
He threw his head back and roared.
The shoulder-length golden hair behind his head was driven by the aura he released, dancing wildly in the air like seaweed.
Streaks of black-red, blood-like lightning erupted from his body like a volcanic eruption, blasting away the surging seawater around him.
At this moment,
centered on Golden Lion, an endless black-red light, like an apocalyptic storm, continuously impacted and spread toward the surroundings and the entire sea!
Under the impact of these countless black-red lightning bolts,
the seawater within a thousand-meter, then several-thousand-meter radius around him was all pushed away, forming hundred-meter giant waves on the periphery that thundered toward the more distant sea.
Pirate ships tossed and swayed in the giant waves.
The pirates on board were even more dizzy from the shock, foaming at the mouth!
It didn't distinguish between friend and foe!
Golden Lion, releasing his aura in a rage, made no distinction; even the pirates under his own command were knocked unconscious by his Haoshoku.
With his aura fully unleashed, Golden Lion was like an unparalleled demon god; his body floated up out of thin air, whistling upward.
He soared into the sky like a rocket, twin swords out, slashing simultaneously at Carlo in the sky.
Unlike the small skirmish just now,
on the twin swords in his hands now, streaks of black-red lightning were wrapped around them.
The power of Haoshoku Infusion was being vented without restraint,
amplifying his already peerless slashes several times over, reaching a terrifying realm!
To say it could split the heavens and rend the earth was no exaggeration!
"Two-Sword Style: Slash Wave!! Heaven Splitter!!"