Chapter 52: Fierce Battle
“Xi ha ha ha ha! John, hand over the treasure quickly, or the famous sword in my hand won’t recognize people!”
The Golden Lion, with a cigar in his mouth, looked down arrogantly at John below from the sky.
“Shiki, have you been floating in the sky too long and fried your brain? The treasure is mine, you won’t touch a single gold coin!”
Not knowing where he got it from, John took a bottle of wine and drank straight from it, his posture so casual as if he didn’t take Shiki in the sky seriously at all.
“Roar~ Since you won’t drink the toast, you’re forcing me to kill you, John!”
Seeing John not yielding at all, Shiki gave up on further persuasion.
The two famous swords in his hands crossed and rubbed against each other, sparking irritable sparks, as Shiki’s overwhelming killing intent pressed down.
“I’ll say it one last time, if you want my treasure, you’ll have to step over my corpse first!”
Throwing away the wine bottle, John also drew the saber originally stuck in the ground, pointing straight at Shiki in the sky.
“You really haven’t changed at all when it comes to treating treasure like your life~”
With his back to the sun, shadows covered Shiki’s eyes, his entire aura continuously rising, like a lion about to explode.
“Then go die! Lion·Thousand Cut Valley!”
【Sakura Ten】 and 【Suke Dake】, the two famous swords in Shiki’s hands, were swung continuously, countless slashes capable of splitting mountains and cracking rocks flying toward John below.
Ping, ping, ping…
The saber coated with Armament Haki continuously scattered the incoming flying slashes, and after a series of metal clashing sounds, the earth under John’s feet was already cut with countless crisscrossing sword marks.
“Lion Majesty·Earth Roll!”
Without giving the opponent a chance to breathe, Shiki’s next move came instantly.
The ground under John’s feet, already full of holes, suddenly began to twist and deform, turning into giant lions with blood basins wide open.
“Ha ha ha ha! I’ve long familiarized myself with the ground here, so take a good look at my power!”
With a clench of his palm, several lions made of earth directly bit toward John.
“Round Dance!”
A circular slash erupted from the center, cutting all the lions in half from their upper jaws.
“Fu hi hi~ Tricks like this are useless against me.”
John sheathed his sword and said easily. That face of his seemed forever adorned with a mocking smile.
Although the Fruity-Fruity Fruit was powerful, against an enemy of this strength, the pure Devil Fruit Ability was already hard to play much role, especially this control-type ability.
But the Golden Lion wasn’t some second-rate pirate who only relied on Devil Fruit Ability; what he relied on most after dominating the New World for years was still his swordsmanship that was almost unrivaled on the sea.
As one of the top great swordmasters of this era, the pair of famous swords in Shiki’s hands were not just for show.
“Is that so? Then…”
Seeing John easily resolve his attack, Shiki decisively dove down from the sky at extreme speed while brewing the next slash with both hands.
“Slash Wave!”
A powerful slash far surpassing the previous one was unleashed from the famous sword.
Looking at that golden slash that seemed able to split the sky and earth, John finally restrained his smile this time.
Sword held horizontally in front, John concentrated almost all his Haki on his saber and then swung it with full force; the thick, solidified Haki splashed dazzling thunder on the blade, clashing in the air with the incoming slash.
Boom!!!
Like a storm born at the center of the island, the outward-scattering impact uprooted all surrounding trees, the clouds in the sky surged, and the ground began to shake on a large scale.
“Ha ah!”
At this moment, John was tense all over, his arm trembling somewhat, his whole body continuously pushed back, clearly at a disadvantage.
Not only that, with no spare energy to use Haki for defense, the sword energy carried by that huge slash was continuously cutting his body, small wounds bursting open one after another, and his captain’s jacket was now full of holes.
『This guy Shiki is way stronger than back then! If this continues, I probably won’t last long… Sure enough, the prior arrangement was right.』
Finally, just before being pushed to the rear wall, John forcefully lifted his arm to divert this strike to the sky.
The cloud layer was instantly split in the middle, as if a corner of the sky was torn open by this sword.
“Hey ha ha ha ha! You get it now, right? You have no chance of winning at all! Hurry up and tell me the location of the treasure, and I’ll give you a quick death.”
Looking at John still panting heavily in front of him, the Golden Lion felt victory was in the bag this time.
“Huff~~ Huff~~”
“Fu hi hi hi… cough, your arrogance will eventually cost you your life, Shiki.”
Adjusting his breath, John regained his smile.
“But your greed will cost you your life right now! Lion·Dual Slash Wave!”
Dual swords struck together, Shiki’s aura turned into a ferocious golden lion, using the two famous swords as fangs to viciously bite toward John.
“Looks like I have no choice but to go all out…”
Crimson lightning bloomed from John’s saber; that was the power of Conqueror’s Haki.
“Final Dance!”
The crimson slash met the incoming lion, the two supreme powers on the sea colliding!
Boom!!!
Sky, earth, ocean… everything around seemed to shake under these two forces, as if this renowned pirate island was about to usher in doomsday today.
……
Unlike the heated exchange between Shiki and John, the three from BIG MOM, who had secretly formed an alliance on the other side of the island, were much more leisurely.
“Mama~ Mama~ Looks like things are going smoothly over with Shiki, only hope that guy John isn’t so fragile and can leave a few wounds on that lion.”
Looking at the sky above split by the clash of Haki, BIG MOM, sitting on a rock, couldn’t help but feel pleased.
“Are we just watching like this now?” Wang Zhi standing beside asked.
“Of course not, this is John’s main base, but isn’t it about to change owners soon? Let’s clean up a bit beforehand.”
Standing up and patting the dust off her pants, BIG MOM was about to take action.
“You old woman are clearly just impatient to go rob the treasure!”
“Kaido! You…”
Just as these two were about to fall into meaningless arguing again, Katakuri, who had killed his way from the other side of the island, finally found them.
“Mother, so you’re here.”
“Oh? It’s Katakuri, how did you find your way here?”
BIG MOM was clearly surprised by her son’s arrival.
“Where are the others from the pirate crew?”
“I had them go search for the treasure first. Now that John is at a disadvantage, all his subordinates are in chaos and have no will to fight; we didn’t tangle with them.”
“Mama~ Mama~ Well done! Katakuri, as expected of my favorite son.”
BIG MOM was very pleased to hear Katakuri’s arrangements.
Territory and treasure were the ultimate goal of the BIG MOM Pirate Crew; wasting strength deadlocking with John’s subordinates would be completely thankless stupid behavior.
Seeing that BIG MOM’s people had arrived, Kaido thought he should go notify his side too.
And just as he was about to get the Den Den Mushi, a black shadow suddenly appeared in the sky—Jin also arrived.
“Mr. Kaido, the battlefield situation is clear. John’s group of subordinates, except for a few executives, have all scattered on their own; they’re now looting treasure.”
Jin’s report was as concise and capable as ever.
“Hmph! Those rabble think they can snatch gold coins from John’s hands?!”
“That guy’s treasure probably only he himself can find; tell the subordinates, don’t bother looking for treasure, hurry to the weapon storage and load all the weapons onto the ship for me!”
“Got it, I’ll go notify them.”
“Wait, how’s the situation over there?”
“Burufaruto has sent a message; the opponent has made a move.”
“Uro-ro-ro-ro! Good!”
“Kaido, you mean the treasure isn’t on this island?” Listening to the unabashed exchange between Kaido and Jin, BIG MOM narrowed her eyes.
“I don’t know, anyway with that guy John’s personality, even if it’s on the island, we won’t find it in a short time. I only care about what I can get now!”
“Mm? Mm!”
Hearing this, BIG MOM nodded in agreement. No way around it, John’s image as greedy and stingy was too deeply ingrained.
“Then it looks like I can’t give you this island for a short time, Wang Zhi.”
“What do you mean by that? Linlin!”
“My meaning is, until we find the treasure, no one can touch this island!”
“Don’t bully me too much!” Wang Zhi directly drew his greatsword.
“If you want to fight now, this old lady will oblige!”
BIG MOM also took down Napoleon again, and on the huge pirate sword, a blood basin unexpectedly opened wide, then it spoke: “Mama, who are we chopping this time?”
The atmosphere tensed up once more; nearby, Silver Axe’s corpse was tossed around wildly by the outburst of their auras.
Pirates turn hostile just like that, suddenly and directly.
……
