Ryuma didn't know how he had "come back," only that the man before him called Magnus had awakened him.
From Magnus he sensed a blade-sharp pressure.
A true powerhouse.
A pity—just as Magnus said, had it been anywhere else, they might have crossed at full power.
But on this chaotic field…
Ryuma's Observation skimmed the battlefield and found many auras on par with Wano's greatswords.
Ally and enemy blurred.
Ryuma gripped his long blade and set to draw.
The legend said the dragon-slaying samurai could end any foe in a single flash. Magnus had seen that very cut in Wano—the Shimotsuki head had used it.
Same technique, different hands: heaven and earth apart.
"One Flash!"
The strike moved like thunder. Even with Magnus's eyes it left only an afterimage; if aimed at him, he couldn't guarantee Observation alone would catch it.
But what Observation misses, the body can answer.
For apex fighters,
a tempered body is the surest shield.
The Feigaland clan lived by that, too.
Arrogant, yes—but three Admiral-class in one family was why they could be.
Ryuma's blade was fast.
But the three Feigaland elites were also top-class swordsmen.
They countered almost at the same instant.
Ryuma's eyes lit.
"Good."
Undefeated in life, and in death meeting foes worth his full edge—
what fortune.
Facing four Admiral-class, Ryuma advanced instead of yielding.
He drew again—the cross cut wrapped in Conqueror's coating.
"Two Flash!"
A cross slash tens of meters wide raced for Lucas Saint's group. Lucas's face darkened; in Ryuma he felt an "invincible" pressure no weaker than Magnus.
"Damn!"
Lucas barked,
"I'll hold him. You three take Magnus!"
He stepped first to meet Ryuma's slash.
"Father!"
"Go!"
Lucas didn't dare make it a two-on-one with Magnus. That would drag the fight out—and they might still fail.
Ryuma's "wraith-calling" had ruined his plan.
Four on one should have settled Magnus; now Lucas had to answer Ryuma, leaving his two foolish sons and that CP fossil to beat Magnus. Could they?
Would they lose?
The thought flashed—and he crushed it.
Then he saw the other Knights punch into the lines. Marines and CP steadied, began peeling the White Wolf off their apex anchors.
Even Grindevin, who had been pressed by Newgate, Ripley, and Linlin, shook them with a Knight's help.
"I doubt you can spare attention while facing me."
"Three Flash!"
Black-violet arcs—three waning moons laced with red lightning—blinked at Lucas Saint.
Fear slid across his face.
"Cursed samurai!"
He'd always relied on "immortality" to swing wide open, but one exchange with Ryuma told him the truth:
like Magnus, this man could break the undying brand.
"Feigaland-ryu—Divine Grace!"
He pushed the family style to its limit, yet one blade slipped through the web and ripped his shoulder.
In a second, he abandoned the plan.
"Granreed—back to me!"
In panic, Lucas even dropped the noble "Saint" in his son's name; the severed shoulder was bound in Haki and refused to heal.
"Bastard!"
Seeing his father falter, Granreed shot Magnus a venomous glance and turned back.
"Haha."
At Lucas's state, Magnus couldn't help but laugh.
"Exalted Lucas Saint—you just swore you'd solo the samurai. Why call for help so soon?"
Truth is, if Lucas hadn't glanced around the field, he wouldn't have given Ryuma that window to take his arm.
Ryuma was famed for speed—Magnus himself never relaxed before him, much less Lucas who lagged Magnus's level.
And—
"Come and go as you please—did you ask me?"
Magnus roared. A sky-rending wolf's howl rolled as a white giant wolf, over ten meters tall, spread both claws and slapped Claude Saint and Stephens into the earth.
Frost breath billowed from his jaws.
"Roooaaaar—"
With one "mouth-cannon," Magnus broke Granreed's move to reinforce his father and pinned three Admiral-class at once.
What he showed looked like the "failed awakening" of a Zoan: body blown up, power and raw destruction spiking.
The price should be madness.
Yet he was anything but mad.
"Damn, damn, damn!"
Lucas panicked.
Magnus's posture wasn't ideal for apex duels—bigger and stronger, yes; overall performance worse than a balanced hybrid.
But Magnus didn't care.
If he could pin the three even for a while, maybe Ryuma would lop off Lucas's head.
Lucas wasn't stupid.
Abandoning his sons, he searched the field for the only Admiral-class with a hand free.
"Grindevin—here!"
Grindevin nearly coughed blood.
"What!?"
With a Knight's help he'd broken free and flipped the pressure on Newgate, Ripley, and Linlin.
Three-on-one he could manage.
Add a Knight, and the kids were wobbling.
He was about to crush them—then Lucas called him off the soft fruit to wager his life on hard steel?
Like hell he wanted that—
"Grindevin!"
But one look at Lucas's state, and even he had to pinch his nose and dive for Lucas and Ryuma.
"Lucas-sama, I'm here!"
He saw how bad Lucas looked—and Newgate and Ripley saw it, too.
In an instant,
Ripley swelled back to giant size.
"Newgate—hold the other one!"
"Right!"
The one flying to cover Grindevin was the same "command fruit" Dragon Newgate had met on Sabaody.
Two years ago Newgate couldn't lift a finger before Kurt Saint.
Now?
"Quake!"
With keen combat sense, Newgate broke the fruit in a few exchanges.
Sound travels by vibration.
His quake fruit was its natural nemesis.
The field was already chaos.
Layer the quakes—and Kurt's fruit was gutted. He had jumped in to help Grindevin out of spite for the White Wolf,
and with the birdman's help, he'd been barely useful.
But when Grindevin turned—
Newgate fixed him.
Kurt's own weakness suddenly lay bare.
Not that he was truly weak—
even the Knights' weakest bodies still matched a typical great pirate.
But he faced Newgate.
Not the kid who couldn't take one hit two years ago, but a fighter who'd brushed the summit of the sea.
Kurt tried only to block Newgate and Ripley from chasing.
Then came Newgate.
Milky halos flowered at Newgate's fists—the kind of supreme strike that could collide with Admirals. Not his absolute peak, but enough to drop an ordinary Knight.
"Stay—"
Newgate thought of Rocks.
"—down!!!"
At over six meters, cords bulged across his arms as he drove everything he had.
Kurt had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide—
only stare at that milky hammer descending.
BOOOOOOM—!
The blow rattled all of Akropolis; even the apex fighters glanced over.
At the same time,
giant Ripley seized Grindevin out of the air.
"How!?"
With Grindevin's Observation, how could he fail to read Ripley?
"Heehee—captain told me this: I haven't fully learned future-sight, but with my fruit, your ordinary future-sight can't always 'see' me coming!"
"Damn you!"
Fury flashed. "You think catching me matters?"
Feathers like blades chewed Ripley's palm; even with Armament she couldn't hold them off.
Then Linlin's voice:
"Ripley-nee, my turn!"
Seeing Ripley's fingers cut open, Linlin snapped. In the White Wolf, no one treated her better than Ripley—except Magnus.
And recently Magnus had gotten stricter; Linlin even ducked him now.
"Okay!"
Knowing Linlin's body was tougher, Ripley handed him off.
Grindevin tried to twist free—
and Linlin's hand closed around his throat.
"Just a giant brat—"
His words stopped with a crack. A strength that scared even him slammed him into the dirt.
"Gh—!"
Even "immortal," the slam shuffled his organs; he vomited blood.
"Die!"
Feather-knives burst again—against Ripley they'd cut; against Linlin they left chalk-white scuffs.
Impossible.
It wasn't his strongest volley, but no effect at all?
Pinned in Linlin's hands, bones creaking, all his Haki poured into defense—no room to muster force, let alone use internal destruction, the one thing that could pierce her.
His end made perfect sense.
As a whole he outclassed any one of the trio—but two of the three were "specialists."
Newgate had Admiral-class attack, but his defenses and Observation still lagged a touch.
Linlin's defense was outright Admiral-class; to break her, even an Admiral needed advanced Armament.
Caught off-guard by the one who best muddled future-sight—Ripley—he fell into the grip of Linlin, whose brute strength and defense were monstrous.
They couldn't kill him—but suppress him? Easily.
And—
though the three Knight leaders around Lucas couldn't be handled by "normal" means, ability-users like Grindevin and Kurt could.
Newgate's blow shattered most of Kurt's body; the undying brand knit him back in moments.
He had no time to gloat before a swordsman snapped a seastone collar on his neck—leashing him like a dog.
Even "immortal," he couldn't fight the sea.
Seastone was the same.
Moments later, Grindevin wore one too.
And then—
Magnus's laughter rolled over the field.
"Puhahahaha—these are CP's leaders?"
"These are Celestial Dragons?"
"Why do they look like dogs to me!!!"
(End of Chapter)
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