Chapter 35: The Seven Warlords Who Love to Court Death
Akainu and Kizaru blocked Whitebeard’s path, with Su Xiao and Aokiji nearby.
“Kuzan.”
Kizaru’s lazy voice rang out. Both being Admirals, Kizaru and Aokiji had worked together for a few years in their youth, so Aokiji immediately understood the other’s intent.
Aokiji walked toward Whitebeard. Su Xiao held Dragon-Slaying Flash horizontally before him, his aura sharply rising.
“Yata no Kagami.”
Golden light surged from Kizaru’s body. A beam of light appeared, ricocheted through the air, and reached Su Xiao in an instant as Kizaru materialized from his elemental form.
Kizaru’s speed was too fast. Su Xiao almost instinctively raised his arm, a crystal layer climbing up his limb.
With a boom, a leg turned into light particles kicked Su Xiao’s arm. The speed was so great that his Instinct ability couldn’t track it; he could only rely on pre-judgment to defend.
Su Xiao was sent flying backward. The moment he landed, a pitch-black sharp spike stabbed toward the back of his head. He tilted his head, dodging the spike while countering with an elbow strike, his entire arm wrapped in Cyan Steel Shadow energy.
The black spike shattered into pieces. Among a group of Marines, the towering Moria let out a few sinister chuckles.
“Kizaru, I’ll take him on with you. After he dies, that sword and his corpse are mine.”
Moria held a pair of giant scissors split into two halves in each hand.
“Oh, how rare. A Warlord being this proactive.”
Kizaru didn’t agree outright but didn’t refuse either. Among the Seven Warlords, it wasn’t just Moria joining the fight; Bartholomew Kuma, Boa Hancock, Donquixote Doflamingo, and Dracule Mihawk all entered the fray.
Kuma was killing pirates without holding back. Little Oars Jr., who had fallen at the port, was taken down by Kuma. As for Doflamingo, he was laughing wildly, using his Devil Fruit ability to control a screaming pirate, forcing him to kill his own crewmates. The despair in the cries of the 13th Division Commander, Curly Dadan, was evident, and his crew’s despair was even greater.
Mihawk, meanwhile, was teaching Luffy a lesson. From his aura, it was clear he was holding back. Further away, Boa Hancock, furious to the point of performing her “facial expressions,” was ready to fight Mihawk to the death if not for the swarm of pirates around her.
Kizaru and Moria stood before and behind Su Xiao. As the saying goes, if someone wants to court death, no one can stop them.
“Of course.”
Kizaru spoke, and Moria grinned, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth.
With a whoosh, Kizaru vanished from Su Xiao’s sight. Su Xiao suddenly slashed forward.
A sharp clang of metal rang out as Dragon-Slashing Flash clashed with a photon longsword nearly two meters long—Kizaru’s Ama no Murakumo Sword. This time, the sword wasn’t directly extinguished by Cyan Steel Shadow energy; Kizaru continuously gathered photons into it to resist the energy.
A pitch-black spear suddenly thrust up from the ice layer. Su Xiao could only sidestep to dodge, but locked in a struggle with Kizaru, his evasion was slightly slow. The spear grazed a bloody gash across his rear shoulder.
Hum~
Light gathered before Kizaru’s face, blazing like a flashbang, searing Su Xiao’s eyes with pain. He immediately closed his eyes and commanded Banishment to stab at Kizaru’s chin, aiming to pierce the enemy’s skull directly. Compared to Kizaru’s threat, Moria wasn’t lethal.
Kizaru turned into a cluster of light particles, and the pressure on Su Xiao’s hands eased. Just as he prepared to seal the space ahead with a slash, Kizaru disappeared. Golden light flickered in the distance—the direction where Whitebeard was fighting Akainu and Aokiji.
Kizaru had fled, or rather, made a strategic retreat to gang up on Whitebeard. That had been his plan all along: use speed to knock Su Xiao back, then use that same speed to disengage and join the assault on Whitebeard.
“Shadow…”
Moria, who was about to use his “Shadow Mage” to ambush Su Xiao, froze, his voice cutting off abruptly.
Su Xiao’s right hand, clad in a metal gauntlet, touched his rear shoulder. Blood stained his fingers. He turned his head to look at Moria, staring coldly.
Moria transformed into a swarm of black bats. A blur of afterimages flashed, and several slashing arcs cut through the bats, causing a few to explode.
“Useless. That bastard Kizaru dared to use me.”
Moria’s voice came from within the bats. Banishment pierced the air, appearing above the scattered swarm.
With a crack, Banishment exploded, fragments scattering everywhere. When the fragments spread to a certain distance, Su Xiao raised his arm and clenched his fist.
Energy threads connected the shattered blades of Banishment, forming a net of Cyan Steel Shadow energy that descended toward the scattered bats.
The energy net contacted the swarm of bats, and a blue electric spark exploded, accompanied by a faint grunt.
As the blue spark burst, Su Xiao charged forward, throwing out a metal canister as thick as an arm.
Bang!
A blinding light flared. Shadows, even if they didn’t dissipate in strong light, became more conspicuous.
A black shadow appeared within the bat swarm.
Three metallic clangs of slashes rang out. The shadow froze mid-air, the three slash marks on it quickly fading.
A long blade cut through the air, aiming for the shadow’s neck. But the figure twisted strangely, miraculously dodging the strike, its snake-like neck bending nearly into an L-shape.
The blade’s momentum was spent. Su Xiao released Dragon-Slashing Flash, the hilt flipping between his fingers, turning a horizontal slash into a forward thrust.
Pfft!
The blade pierced flesh. Moria appeared in mid-air, Dragon-Slashing Flash thrust through his throat.
Su Xiao pushed the hilt forward, the blade tip slicing out from Moria’s throat, leaving a trail of blood in the air.
Su Xiao and Moria landed simultaneously. As they touched down, a spinning half-scissors flew toward Su Xiao. He tilted Dragon-Slashing Flash, deflecting the scissors, which embedded into the ice nearby.
Moria clutched his throat with one hand, blood gushing between his fingers. Among the Seven Warlords, he was among the weakest, and the outcome of facing Su Xiao was predictable.
“Cough, cough…”
Moria spat out several mouthfuls of blood, his eyes filled with terror as he looked at Su Xiao. The pressure Su Xiao exerted was immense, as if at any moment, a blade would sever his head.
Before Moria could use his shadow to stitch the wound on his neck, Su Xiao charged forward.
As Su Xiao advanced, he slashed the air, sending out a dense wave of blade auras to clear the path.
Moria took a deep breath. His seemingly round arms bulged with muscle, and the half-scissors in his hands spun into an impenetrable defense, shattering all the blade auras.
Moria turned his head left and right, scanning the area ahead. All he saw were Marines and pirates locked in battle. Su Xiao had vanished.
A sobbing sound came from behind Moria. Finger-thick shadow threads appeared, grabbing Moria’s head and forcibly pulling it down.
The long blade sliced close to Moria’s neck, cutting off his pointed left ear. A stream of pale blue energy invaded his body through the wound.
Just as Su Xiao finished his slash and prepared for a second, a purple-black figure appeared, identical in build to Moria but faceless—his Shadow Mage.
The Shadow Mage lunged at Su Xiao but slammed into an energy wall with a bang. Seizing the opportunity, Su Xiao kicked Moria in the lower back.
Moria felt a tremendous force strike his lower back, nearly making him kneel. His lower body suddenly went numb. Su Xiao’s kick had hit the base of Moria’s spine—a physical control move.
Pfft.
A cold sensation appeared on Moria’s forehead. The battle was over. Banishment flicked the blood off its blade and reattached itself to Su Xiao’s sleeve.
The long blade swept through, and a head flew into the air. Su Xiao walked past Moria’s spurting corpse. Warlord of the Sea, Gecko Moria, was dead. No matter what strength he once had, a pirate whose spirit had been broken could never defeat Su Xiao—there was a fundamental difference in their auras.