"This is the power of a god!"
Floating at the center of the giant crater, Aeridar looked at the destruction he had wrought, somewhat intoxicated by the power he wielded.
Indeed, strength is everything.
Rumble!
Clatter!
"What in the world happened?"
Suddenly, a person stood up from a pile of rubble on the town's edge. His entire body was shrouded in a black robe, which was now completely covered in dust.
The black-robed man dusted himself off while surveying his surroundings. His eyes met a 'garbage dump' of ruins and a giant crater nearly ten kilometers in diameter.
"Uh... Did I swap to the wrong destination?" Mando the black-robed man looked utterly bewildered.
"Cough, cough... No mistake, Mando!"
A coughing sound rose, and a minotaur's head poked out from the bricks and stones beside him, its forehead stained with blood.
"Bo-Bowen?!" Mando was barely able to recognize him.
CRASH!
Pushing aside a half-wall that rested on him, a robust minotaur nearly five meters tall crawled out of the ruins.
Then, the heavily injured and blood-soaked Bowen sat on the ground, his body rapidly shrinking from a tall, strong minotaur into a two-meter-tall strongman.
"Hoo-hoo…"
Bowen gasped for breath, struggling to speak. "I almost died. You finally made it back."
"You look terrible. What exactly happened?" Mando ran over, frowning as he looked at the injured Bowen, who couldn't even maintain his ability.
"Look at that man!" Bowen shook his head, pointing toward the crater.
"Hmm?!"
Mando was puzzled and frowned as he looked, but the distance was too great; he could only make out a black speck.
However, that black speck was rapidly approaching, and Mando quickly recognized him.
"W-wait, no way! How did this man end up tracking us?" In an instant, cold sweat poured down Mando's pale face.
"Oh, Mando-san, you're late!"
Aeridar wasn't surprised by Mando's appearance. The few of them always stuck together, and whenever they encountered an unstoppable powerhouse, they would flee as a group.
Aeridar had launched a surprise attack this time, and his luck had been phenomenal—Mando, the escape expert, had been absent, giving him the chance to severely injure the Benson crew.
"Tell me, how many people can you save from me?"
Aeridar grinned, and his figure instantly vanished.
Almost simultaneously, Aeridar appeared directly above their heads. Wreathed in fierce gales of compressed air, he smashed down with a direct punch.
"Damn it!"
Mando was shocked. Without thinking, he instinctively grabbed Bowen's arm, and the two of them instantly vanished from their spot, leaving behind only a stray flagstone in their place.
BOOM!
The ground shook, bricks shattered, and a crater several meters in diameter appeared, with cracks as wide as five fingers rapidly spreading outward.
Whoosh!
"What a troublesome ability. I missed."
Aeridar shook his head, pulling his arm out of the ground. He then glanced to his right and whispered, "At this distance, you're still entirely within my attack range."
Pop!
In the next moment, Aeridar vanished from his spot again.
Meanwhile, near a tree stump three hundred meters from their previous location, Mando, still cloaked in his black robe, reappeared, gripping the injured Bowen. Both wore expressions of relief.
Mando wiped a bead of cold sweat from his forehead and said, "We can't stay here. Where are Benson and Genno?"
Bowen, supporting himself against the tree stump, shook his head. "I don't know. They must be buried under the rubble somewhere."
"I found you. Why didn't you run farther?"
"Hand Style: Impact Palm!"
A familiar, ghostly voice sounded from behind them.
"Oh no!"
The pupils in both men's eyes constricted sharply.
Splat!
A soft sound, and blood sprayed. A section of an arm fell to the ground.
Thump!
The upper half of the tree stump fell, its cut smooth and clean.
"Damn it, Bowen, your arm!" Mando barrel-rolled to the side, then looked back at Bowen in disbelief.
"Bastard… I'm fine! It's just an arm!"
Bowen looked at Aeridar with hatred and terror. His right arm was almost severed at the shoulder. He clutched the wound with his left hand, but blood still streamed from between his fingers, dripping onto the ground.
"Heh, a tough guy, aren't you?" Aeridar smirked.
"Freezing Ice Spear!!!"
Suddenly, the air temperature dropped, and a white blur shot forward, aiming for Aeridar's back.
"Boring. Impact Gun!"
Aeridar raised an eyebrow. He hooked his thumb against his index finger and, without turning around, fired a finger flick backward.
BAM!
The invisible burst of force instantly shattered the white blur into a thousand pieces of broken ice that rained down.
"To be honest, you've developed the Cold-Cold Fruit quite well, but your ability really isn't suited for sneak attacks," Aeridar said with a bored, dismissive tone, sensing the person approaching from behind him. "You don't even need Observation Haki; the dropping temperature already gives you away."
BOOM!
With a loud crash, dust billowed as Genno smashed through a pile of ruins and charged over like a wild bull.
"You two get out of here! I'll hold him off!"
As he spoke, Genno was already upon Aeridar, raising a three-meter-long stone support pillar and bringing it down with a heavy smash.
"Are you underestimating me?"
Aeridar scowled, and as the opponent closed in, he thrust out a direct punch.
CRASH!
The forty-centimeter-thick stone support pillar was pulverized by Aeridar's punch as easily as tofu, and the fist, without stopping, slammed viciously into Genno's chest.
BAM!
"Pugh!"
The force of the punch went right through him. Genno's chest caved in, his bones shattered. He spat out a mouthful of blood, and his massive body was once again sent flying.
By this time, Mando had already run up to Bowen, placing one hand on Bowen's shoulder while beckoning to Benson.
Benson halted his step, immediately pulling out a palm-sized black iron plate from his clothes and throwing it onto the ground.
In a flash, the black iron plate vanished, and two figures appeared in its place: Mando and the ashen-faced, bleeding Bowen.
"Trying to run? Leave another one behind!"
Aeridar spun around abruptly. At the same time, he pressed his five fingers together, coating his entire arm in black Armament Haki, and his body instantly vanished from its spot.
"Let's go!"
Mando pressed a hand onto Benson's shoulder.
Just then, Aeridar suddenly appeared directly above the three of them, bringing his hand down in a chop.
High-Frequency Vibration Black Blade!!!
Splat!
Thud!
Blood flashed, and a large spray of blood erupted. Simultaneously, three head-sized, round, flat stones appeared on the ground.
"Tch… They're fast."
Aeridar frowned, looking at the half-body they had left behind. A hint of anger flashed in his eyes.
Outside the town's port, two figures covered in blood appeared.
"Damn it! We were so close!" Benson's eyes turned red as he looked at the half-body of Bowen in Mando's hands.
It was a truly horrific sight. Bowen had been vertically sliced in half, so his intestines and other organs were also severed, leaving a trail of gore on the ground.
"He was too fast! That distance… he was just too fast!" Mando's pale face was filled with terror. He let go of Bowen's half-body, which fell to the ground with a thud.