Being called out in one breath by Ronan, the Golden Lion was genuinely surprised. After all, in front of him Ronan only looked like an eight-year-old child, and he himself had not appeared before the eyes of the world for many years.
Yet now a kid had recognized him directly, and spoke with neither humility nor arrogance—words that absolutely did not sound like they came from a child.
"Oh?"
The Golden Lion's tone held a hint of amusement. "Brat, you know who this old man is?"
"The Flying Pirate, the 'Golden Lion' Shiki, who once vied with Pirate King Roger and Whitebeard—on these seas, how many people could not know that name?" Ronan's tone remained calm, as if he were merely stating a simple fact.
"Jihahahaha!! Interesting! This is way too interesting!" The Golden Lion burst into laughter again. He had also noticed that Ronan was anything but simple—but the more unusual, the more fun.
"A little brat who doesn't match his age at all, with two… hmm? Two very unusual girls at his side. Looks like this old man really picked up a treasure coming out for a stroll today!" At first, the Golden Lion had only been mildly curious. Now, however, far more ideas were starting to form.
With a tone that brooked no refusal, the Golden Lion issued his invitation to Ronan. "Brat! This old man likes you, and those two bodyguards of yours have a lot of potential! How about it—bring them and join this old man's Flying Pirates! Follow this old man and conquer these seas together! Once this old man's plan succeeds, the whole world will crawl at our feet! Jihahahaha!!"
"Troublesome."
Hearing this, the thing Ronan had been most worried about still happened. He understood Shiki's personality very well—he was the type who would never stop until he got what he wanted. In the original story, he had fought the Straw Hat crew fiercely just to snatch Nami. At this moment, the three of them wanting to leave here peacefully was already impossible.
"Thank you for thinking so highly of us. However, we have no intention of joining any pirate crew. We have our own path to walk."
Facing the Golden Lion's invitation, Ronan did not hesitate in the slightest. His refusal was crisp and clean, without a trace of wavering.
The Golden Lion's smile vanished in an instant, his face turning cold. Just who was he? Back then, his invitation had been refused by Roger. Now, when he personally opened his mouth to invite a little brat, he was rejected just as bluntly?
"Brat," the Golden Lion's voice cooled, carrying a dangerous edge, "do you know what it means to turn this old man down?"
Before Ronan could answer, Beth at his side had already stepped forward, her silver eyes calmly fixed on the Golden Lion in the sky. Though she said nothing, that unwavering stance already made her position clear.
"It means…" Ronan spoke slowly, "we might have to rely on our strength to earn the right to leave."
"Jihahahaha!! Rely on strength?" The Golden Lion acted as though he had heard something hilarious, bursting into wild laughter once more—but now that laughter was filled with killing intent. "Just you lot? Fine! Let this old man see what kind of confidence you have to reject him!"
Before his words even finished, a gleam flashed in the Golden Lion's eyes. He did not move to strike personally. Instead, he lifted his right leg, the famous blade Oto strapped to it, and traced a light arc—
"Poison Serpents!"
In an instant, along the edge of the floating island, dozens of rocks of different sizes tore free from gravity's pull. As though gaining life, they lifted their "heads," turning into monstrous stone serpents that shot toward the three of them with shrill, air-splitting howls.
Facing this sky-filling rain of stone, Beth was the first to move.
At the very instant the largest stone serpent was about to swallow them, Beth's figure vanished from the ship's bow. In the next second, she was already in midair; the massive sword on her back had somehow appeared in her hand.
"Vmm—"
A strange wave of energy spread from within her. Her silver eyes gradually turned gold! At the same time, an aura different from her usual state began to leak from her body, and even the surrounding air trembled faintly.
"Yoki Release, twenty percent!"
Even though it was only a partial release, Beth's presence had already shifted dramatically.
She didn't even bother swinging her sword to block the incoming stones. Facing the roaring stone serpents, she simply stretched out her empty left hand, palm open.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The falling boulders slammed into an invisible wall and exploded one after another, shattering into dust and raining down as a cloud of stone powder.
The Golden Lion's pupils contracted slightly. At this moment, he also sensed the aura radiating from Beth—something he had never felt before. "A Devil Fruit user? No…"
Before he could think it through, Beth's golden gaze had already locked onto him. Her legs kicked hard in midair.
"Boom!"
With a deep explosion of compressed air, Beth stamped backward, using the massive rebound to rocket straight toward the Golden Lion, who hovered at the island's edge.
"Good! Come at me!" Instead of being shocked, the Golden Lion was delighted. What he loved most was this kind of head-on clash.
Beth's speed was incredible; in the blink of an eye, she had already closed in on him.
But the Golden Lion only laughed, swinging forward the famed blade Oto, which he used as a foot, in a vicious kick.
"Slash Wave!"
A crescent-shaped arc of golden sword aura burst from the tip of the blade, cleaving down toward Beth's head.
Beth's expression did not change. Without slowing her charge, she brought her greatsword up from below in a clean, decisive rising slash.
"Clang—!!"
A piercing metallic ring echoed through the sky!
"To actually split this old man's Slash Wave…" A sliver of arrogance faded from the Golden Lion's face, and his gaze toward Beth grew more serious. "Girl, you're pretty damn good."
Beth did not respond. Her figure blurred again as she closed in along a Z-shaped path, her movements sharp and erratic, deliberately avoiding the Golden Lion's slashes.
"Lion's Might!" the Golden Lion roared. His twin sword-legs lashed out in rapid succession, unleashing dozens of even denser slashes in an instant, as if to completely engulf Beth.
Beth whirled her greatsword, the blade-light weaving into a tightly-knit silver barrier in front of her.
"Ding ding dang dang ding ding—!"
"Annoying little fly!"
Seeing Beth block all of his attacks, the Golden Lion's brows pinched together. His patience was wearing thin. He suddenly stomped down with his sword-tip.
"Lion's Might: Earth Coil!"
The entire island's ground began to quake! The earth beneath Beth's feet, along with a vast swath of terrain around her, twisted and surged. In an instant, soil and stone transformed into several enormous stone lion heads. Their maws gaped wide as they lunged at Beth from all directions, trying to bury her completely on this floating island!
Faced with this seemingly hopeless situation, Beth stopped holding back. She channeled every bit of her released twenty percent of Yoki into her legs.
"Boom!"
The ground beneath her feet exploded into a shallow crater under the tremendous counterforce as her figure snapped out of the stone lions' encirclement like a teleporting blur. At the same time, she swung her greatsword with all her strength, bringing it down in a ruthless overhead strike at the Golden Lion's skull!
"What?!" The Golden Lion had not expected her speed to erupt yet again. Caught off guard, he hurriedly raised both swords to cross in front of him in a block!
"GONG—!!!"
Beth's massive sword collided brutally with the twin blades Oto and Kogarashi, sending out a visible ring of compressed air that expanded outward in a shockwave.
(End of Chapter)
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