The wind over the bay suddenly changed.
What had been warm air carrying the faint scent of sulfur from the hot springs now felt tinged with a strange chill.
Potts had just tightened the final knot on the seastone rope when a shiver ran down his spine. He looked toward the horizon.
It wasn't Garon's massive warship this time.
A sleek, pitch-black vessel skimmed over the waves toward the shore, its narrow, dagger-shaped hull cutting through the water like a blade.
The strangest part was its sail; there was no fabric. It was woven entirely from countless shifting black shadows.
The shadows moved with the wind, not slowing the ship but propelling it faster, unnaturally fast. Even within Renzo's Domain of Absolute Sloth, its speed only dipped slightly. It was far more agile than Garon's heavy warship.
"Co-Commodore! There's… there's another ship coming!"
Potts's voice trembled as he nearly dropped the rope bag in his hands.
They hadn't even finished cleaning up Garon's mess, and now another pirate was arriving. He wasn't sure his nerves could take it.
Renzo, who had just closed his eyes for a nap, frowned as Potts's shout jolted him awake. He reluctantly opened his eyes, irritation flickering across his face.
The ship had already drawn close to the bay. There was no figurehead, just a silver blade emblem carved into the prow, glinting coldly under the sunlight.
Only one person stood on deck: a woman in a skintight black combat suit, her long hair tied in a high ponytail. In her hand was a thin, translucent blade, made not of metal, but of shadow. It rippled faintly with every move she made.
"Silver Blade" Lia.
Potts recognized her immediately. He'd seen her face before, on a Marine Headquarters bounty poster worth 480 million Berries.
A Shadow Blade Fruit user, able to shape her own shadow, or any nearby shadows, into razor-sharp weapons. She was infamous for ambushes and stealth kills; in the New World, she'd once sliced a Vice Admiral's battleship in half.
Lia stepped lightly off the ship's railing, landing soundlessly on the sand. The shadowy blade hovered beside her as if weightless.
Her sharp eyes swept the beach, first spotting Garon tied up with seastone ropes, then Renzo lounging near the hot spring, and finally the shattered pieces of Garon's steel armor scattered across the ground.
"Looks like I'm late," Lia said in a husky-sweet tone, like sugar laced with venom. "'Iron Spine' Garon… You got here first, huh? Already found the treasure?"
Garon's body was limp from exhaustion and the seastone's drain on his strength. He forced his head up, growling, "You… damn it, don't spout nonsense! I haven't found a damn thing!"
"Haven't?" Lia arched an eyebrow and glanced at the steaming hot spring. The scene hardly screamed hidden treasure, a lazy man reclining beneath a coconut tree, a cooking station by the hot-spring pool...
Still, she reasoned, Garon could've been ambushed and tied up, meaning the real treasure thief was someone else.
And that someone was most likely the slacker by the tree.
Lia didn't bother replying. Her figure blurred, vanishing into motion like a streak of black lightning as she lunged toward Garon. She wasn't there to help him; she just wanted to eliminate a rival before hunting for the treasure herself.
The Shadow Blade Fruit granted speed beyond human limits. Wrapped in shadows to cut air resistance, even under Renzo's field, she was still several times faster than a normal pirate.
"Watch out!" Potts shouted, trying to rush forward, but the field made his limbs heavy and sluggish.
Garon tried to dodge but couldn't; his body was still weighed down by seastone and lingering laziness.
The blade flashed toward his throat. He squeezed his eyes shut, resigned to dying at the hands of another pirate.
But the expected pain never came.
Clang!
The shadow blade struck Garon's heavy armor, producing a crisp metallic chime.
The oppressive weight of the field around Garon lessened. Renzo had deliberately weakened it, clearly not planning to let him die so easily.
Lia frowned. She'd expected to cut through the armor in one strike, but his Armament Haki hadn't completely faded. Her blade only scratched the surface.
"So you're not entirely useless after all," she sneered.
The shadow blade split into three, slashing toward Garon's shoulders, waist, and knees. Lia meant to cripple him first, then make him talk.
Garon roared and layered more Haki onto his armor, thickening it. But the blades kept biting deeper; at this rate, she'd carve through soon.
"Are you insane?! We're both after the treasure!" Garon shouted. "Deal with that lazy bastard first!"
Lia paused mid-swing.
She glanced at Renzo, still reclining beneath the coconut tree, eyes half-closed, looking completely uninterested in the chaos.
That unbothered attitude irritated her more than Garon's yelling.
"Fine," she muttered. The shadow blades reformed into one as she blurred again, this time dashing straight toward Renzo. "I'll get rid of him first."
Her speed surged even higher. The shadows trailing behind her stretched into thin, web-like threads, her signature move, "Shadow Blade Net."
It spread like a spiderweb, aiming to entrap Renzo and slice him apart piece by piece.
Sanji, who had just finished planting some new hot-spring moss, looked up and paled.
"Renzo! Watch out!"
He tried to intercept with his kitchen knife, but Lia was too fast; he'd never make it in time.
Potts covered his eyes, too terrified to watch. He thought Renzo would defend himself with his domain again, but Lia's attack was so fast, could the field even react in time?
Just as the shadow net was about to envelop him, Renzo finally opened his eyes.
He didn't dodge. He didn't even strengthen his field. He simply lifted a hand and said lazily,
"Don't be so sharp… soften up."
[Sloth's Declaration] activated.
Instantly, the shadow threads lost their edge, turning limp like soggy cotton strings. They fell uselessly to the ground.
Lia froze. She could feel her Shadow Blade powers becoming sluggish, as if even the shadows themselves couldn't be bothered to move.
"What… what's happening?" she whispered, eyes wide.
She'd fought countless ability users across the New World, but never one who could make shadows go lazy. It was absurd.
Renzo stood up, stretching lazily as his joints popped. "You're noisy."
He'd just started feeling sleepy again, only to be woken by her blade and Garon's yelling. Now, he was truly annoyed.
"What kind of power do you have?" Lia demanded, gripping her shadow blade tighter.
The oppressive lethargy was spreading through her body; if this dragged on, she'd end up as paralyzed as Garon.
"You don't need to know." Renzo walked toward her, unhurried. "Either leave now, or stay here like him and wait for the Marines."
Lia didn't move. She'd survived the New World's hell for years and wasn't about to back down because someone told her to.
Besides, his power felt more suppressive than offensive. If she could just outmaneuver him, maybe she could turn this around.
"You want me to leave? Beat me first!" she snarled.
Her figure blurred again, circling Renzo at blinding speed. The shadows on the ground stretched into interlocking trails, weaving a trap.
"Shadow Blade: Prison Cage!"
Walls of black shadow rose around Renzo, forming a cage of blades closing in from all sides.
Lia planned to trap him inside, then strike when he least expected it.
Renzo didn't even move.
He looked at the approaching shadow cage, frowning slightly. "So many cages… cleaning this up will be annoying."
At that moment, the Domain of Absolute Sloth expanded outward.
Within ten meters of Renzo, the air thickened, everything slowed, even the rising shadow blades. Their color faded, their edges dulled.
Lia's face went pale. Her power was being drained, her blades weakening beyond recovery.
"No… impossible! My shadows… can't…"
Before she could finish, Renzo sighed. "Go away. You're in the way."
The entire shadow cage collapsed like melting ink, flowing harmlessly back into the sand.
Lia fell to one knee, her weapon slipping from her grasp. The once-deadly shadow blade now lay flat and lifeless on the ground.
Now she understood, it wasn't that Garon was weak. This opponent was simply monstrous.
Still, she wasn't ready to give up.
Lia raised her head, glaring at Garon. "Garon! Team up with me! If we don't take him down, we'll both end up in Marine custody!"
Garon froze, then quickly nodded. She was right, alone, they didn't stand a chance. Together, maybe… just maybe.
"Fine! Get me out of these damn ropes first! I'll block his power!"
Gritting her teeth, Lia forced her sluggish shadows to move, forming a dull-edged blade that she tried to cut the seastone ropes with.
Sanji frowned. "They're teaming up now… what do we do?"
Renzo leaned back against the tree again, a faint smirk on his lips. "Team up? That's just two nuisances joining forces."
He didn't rush to act, just waited for Lia's shadow blade to inch closer to Garon.
He wanted to see what kind of "trouble" two New World pirates could stir up together.
Meanwhile, Potts had already hidden behind Sanji, clutching the rope bag like a lifeline, silently praying no more pirates would show up.
His heart couldn't take much more of this, his commodore was terrifyingly unpredictable, sometimes brilliant, sometimes utterly reckless.
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
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