A blood-colored demon hound wrapped around a fair and delicate fist came howling through the air, tearing through space. The whimpering wind it stirred was like the whispered chant of Death itself.
"Hell Dog!"
Puff!
Absalom's body jolted as he sprinted seven or eight meters away, staring in disbelief at the blood-red fist emerging from his chest.
Tiny streams of fresh blood on the fist's surface still gave off warmth.
A heart-piercing pain surged from his left chest, making Absalom's vision darken.
As that fist, which had pierced through his chest, was withdrawn, his body quickly lost its transparency and froze in place.
Absalom struggled to turn his head, looking at Hibari, who didn't pause at all and was already darting toward the surrounding zombie soldiers. He then glanced at Roronoa, who was swinging his blade, severing one zombie warrior after another.
He looked at Rob Lucci, whose indifferent expression became wilder as his body grew taller and transformed into a leopard man—like a bloodthirsty beast rampaging among the pirates, piercing throats with sharp claws.
In his fading vision, Absalom caught sight of the towering figure on the sea, godlike and demonic, pressing the legendary great pirate Chinjao into continuous retreat.
"Master Moria… I'm sorry… I failed… I couldn't complete the mission you gave me…"
His figure swayed, then collapsed to the ground.
On the sea, after a moment of chaos, the pirates still managed to light the cannons aboard their ships, firing black cannonballs toward the harbor.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The deep roar of cannons shattered obstructing ships, the shots raining into the crowd at the port, exploding indiscriminately among friend and foe, leaving pirates cursing in terror.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Seeing the heavy cannonballs flying toward the Navy ranks, Hibari, Lucci, and the others prepared to intercept them with Rankyaku kicks.
But a larger spherical dome spun out from between Roronoa's outstretched fingers, instantly expanding three to four hundred meters, enveloping all the Navy soldiers within.
In his right hand, he clutched a thumb-sized ball of lightning, which he slapped into his chest with a snap.
Immediately, everyone saw Roronoa grunt, veins bulging across his forehead. His lean, slender body swelled visibly, as he waved his hand at the dozens of suspended black cannonballs in mid-air.
"ROOM!"
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Dozens of cannonballs reversed direction, flying back toward their origin. In the bewildered and terrified gazes of the pirates, they exploded right at their own cannons.
Instantly, huge fireballs erupted across the pirate ships on the sea.
Roronoa's figure flashed, leaping high into the air, appearing above a pirate ship still firing. He raised his right hand sharply.
"Tact!"
Rumble!
The twenty-meter-long pirate ship trembled violently, and amid frantic screams, lifted from the sea, flipping backward dozens of meters into the sky before slamming down onto an adjacent ship.
The two massive pirate ships crashed together with splintering wood and roaring explosions.
Watching from below as he slaughtered pirates, Lucci paused, silently staring at Roronoa's back for a long while.
"The Ope Ope no Mi… a fruit worth five billion Berries. Said to grant eternal youth and immortality… yet even in combat, it's this powerful."
A faint bitterness rose in Lucci's heart.
"Why did I rush into eating such an ordinary Devil Fruit back then…?"
No matter how hard you train a basic ability, it could never match the growth potential of powers like these.
For others, their starting line was equivalent to the fruit of years of your painstaking development.
"If only I'd eaten a Mythical Zoan instead…"
"Hey Navy! Spacing out, are you? Go to hell!"
A burly pirate's roar snapped Lucci out of his daze.
A gleaming long blade stopped just an inch from his chest.
Lucci's face remained indifferent as he pulled his finger from the pirate's pierced forehead and unleashed a Rankyaku kick.
Shrrrip!
Like tearing cloth, the dozen pirates crowded ahead—including their shabby blades—were cleanly sliced in half by the crescent-shaped Rankyaku slash.
A mass of stinking, foul innards spilled onto the ground from the severed bodies, the stench nauseating.
Out at sea, amid a makeshift battlefield of a dozen ramshackle pirate ships, Rorschach wielded his battle halberd like a giant club, hammering at the Haki-clad Chinjao as if forging iron.
He relentlessly pummeled the old pirate with a bounty of over 500 million, driving him back with each strike.
Chinjao charged again and again, only to be swatted away each time.
The old guy's body and Haki were indeed tough.
"Brat! Give me back my Dragon Halberd!"
"Hasshoken! Drill Dragon Nail!"
Chinjao roared, his five-meter-tall bulky frame leaping into the air, his head coated in black Armament Haki, spinning like a drill mid-air as he hurled himself toward Rorschach.
That flat-topped head of Chinjao's always reminded Rorschach of those New Year's prints from his past life—the immortal holding a peach.
"What was that immortal called again? Barefoot Immortal? God of Wealth? Eh, never mind… better cut the nonsense and finish this fast."
Rorschach casually tossed the Dragon Halberd skyward, a grin curling at his lips.
Two giant arms, each over three meters long, clenched into fists. Deep blue Haki flowed over the fists, and with a clang, they collided once in the center, erupting in a sharp explosion.
Then, with a sudden lunge, the muscles on the giant arms rippled like waves and swelled with explosive strength, launching a punch straight at the spinning human-sized top flying toward him.
"Chinjao! How many years has it been since you last tasted the power of my fist bones? Come! Let me remind you what it feels like!"
"Fist Bone! Meteor!"
Boom!The dark-blue giant fist shot out like a battering ram, warping and shattering the air, slamming down like a blacksmith's hammer onto Chinjao's flattened head. A deafening explosion erupted on impact.
Rorschach's seven-meter-tall body staggered slightly, but an invisible swirling airflow gathered beneath and behind him, forming unseen air walls that halted his retreat.
Chinjao, on the other hand, didn't have it so easy.
Rorschach's explosive, overwhelming power—even against Chinjao's formidable body and thick Haki—made blood gush from Chinjao's nose and mouth as his brain rang with a deafening buzz.
His massive spinning body was flipped upside down midair by Rorschach's punch.
Through his blood-red vision, Chinjao saw a massive black hand, fingers spread wide, reaching straight for his face.
This move…This feeling!
"Damn you, Garp! Damn you, Navy brat!"
Chinjao's face instantly turned a liver-like purple-red from rage.
A surge of intense humiliation flooded his chest. With a furious roar, he kicked his feet midair, blasting out two shockwaves from his soles, accelerating his body as he charged once more at Rorschach's chest.
"Hasshoken Secret Technique!""Headless Dragon Headless Nail!"
This was Chinjao's strongest move in his current state.
Ever since Garp flattened his pointed drill head, he had been unable to concentrate his strength and Haki into a single point to smash open the frozen treasure vault of the Happo Navy, sealed for centuries.
The crushing blow and humiliation forced Chinjao to tirelessly temper his Haki and body, eventually creating this "Headless Dragon Headless Nail" technique, all so that one day he could ram that damned Garp to death.
A steady stream of pitch-black Armament Haki gathered onto his flattened head, turning it deep black.
The terrifying power of his plummeting charge caused the air within hundreds of meters to ripple like crashing waves.
Below, the floating wreckage was pushed aside by the powerful shock.
The seawater roared and parted.
"If I can't kill Garp, then I'll kill his disciple first! Let him taste the pain I've endured all these years!"
Chinjao's massive body crashed toward Rorschach like a meteor.
"Good! It's time to end this!"
"Life Return!"
"Deep Blue Armament!"
Rorschach's body suddenly expanded, his already towering frame growing even more muscular and imposing, exuding an aura like an erupting volcano.
Deep blue Haki coursed over his body; dazzling lightning crackled and roared around his storm-wrapped Kirin claws!
"Fist Bone! Galactic Impact!"
His pillar-like giant arm slammed down, warping the air itself. Within a kilometer radius, the atmosphere erupted into violent chaos, layer after layer compressing with explosive booms, forming shockwaves that collided with Chinjao's head like a comet crashing into Earth.
BOOM!
In the deafening roar of heaven and earth splitting apart, Chinjao's already flattened head was pounded even further in by an unstoppable surge of force.
Rorschach's hoped-for drill point never emerged from the back of Chinjao's skull.
Instead, massive jets of blood shot out from Chinjao's eyes, ears, mouth, and nose like high-pressure water hoses.
His bloodshot eyes bulged; his vision blurred. All he could feel was an immovable giant hand gripping his face, lifting his massive body into the air.
And then…
"Fist Bone! Abyssal Drop!"
Rorschach raised his massive arm high, then hurled Chinjao's face straight down toward the sea with a heavy slam.
BOOM!
The sea exploded upward in a towering geyser.
Amidst a series of sickening cracks, Chinjao's bones shattered inch by inch.
The breath of life rapidly drained from his enormous body, fading away.
On the island of Queen of Spring Castle, Glayver suddenly turned his head, pupils trembling violently as he looked in that direction.
"Chinjao… is dead?"
(End of Chapter)
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