The woman opened her mouth and sang again but the voice that poured out was nothing like the lilting aria from before.
No, this was worse than wolves howling or ghosts wailing so grating it could drive a man mad, a hundred times harsher than a nail down glass.
Sound ripples shuddered visibly through the air.
"My ears !" Even sheathed in armor, Silver Axe groaned, clutching at his helm. It felt like his eardrums were splitting; he couldn't focus at all.
John clamped both hands over his ears, features twisting. "Damn it covering them does nothing!"
That was exactly the woman's aim to shatter their concentration. Sound travels through matter, she thought with cruel satisfaction. Muffle your ears and it still gets in. Without Observation Haki, let's see how you dodge…
"Petrifying Ray!"
The serpent hair writhed like a net of demons and bared their fangs, spitting barrage after barrage of blue fire.
John ripped his hands from his ears and, despite the cacophony knifing through his skull, relied on instinct and experience two blades flashing as he batted aside the rays.
Silver Axe fought the same battle, but his bulk and shorter reach worked against him. Even with the shield, he couldn't catch everything. Blue lances struck his plate again and again bright silver dulled to ashy gray, hairline cracks spidering across the metal where the curse took hold.
Dozens of serpents spat without tiring. Hemmed in, both men sweated through their grimaces, holding on by fingernails.
Dragged back from the cliff only to be shoved off again… John's mind raced. Those things are tough as iron and hardened with Armament Haki. I can't carve them apart… If we keep turtling, we're finished.
"Two-Sword Style Tempest Rend!"
While parrying the beams, he whipped the air hard enough to churn it wind gathering into a visible, whirling screen before him.
He shouted over his shoulder, voice like a roar through the din, "I'll hold the snakes you stop her singing! Another minute of this and my head'll explode!"
The wind shear blunted the song just enough that Silver Axe caught the words. He yanked his shield up to cover his face, lifted the massive axe in his other hand, and charged like a tank toward the Sea Fiend.
A tank or a walking suit of war. He was several meters tall; with armor and axe he might as well have been a man-shaped mecha.
"Ugly hag die!"
Behind the mask his expression curdled with loathing. He had the sick feeling this face would haunt him for months and if it popped into his head at the wrong time, well… he'd go limp on the spot.
Should've stayed on the ship, he thought darkly.
The serpents split off a dozen thick strands, snapping out like barbed whips to intercept him
"Two-Sword Style Iaido: Afterimage!"
John moved the instant Silver Axe did. His body blurred, splitting into overlapping phantoms seven, eight "Johns" fanning out, blades crossed to catch the striking hair mid-lash.
Ching! Ching! Ching!
Silver Axe's axe went black as ink under Armament Haki no gleam now, only the heavy aura of a brutal tool built to break mountains.
He chopped.
But the older the monster, the trickier it is and this one was born a Sea Fiend. With a liquid twist of her body slick as an eel she slid a meter or two aside, letting the cleaver gust past.
Mid-swing, Silver Axe rolled his wrists. The chop turned into a scything cut aimed at her waist. "Try dodging this!"
The woman only sneered. A piercing, needle-fine screech tore from her throat.
"Kiii!"
At the same time, as the edge reached her, she raised a scaled arm and caught the blade in her palm.
The shriek blanked Silver Axe's mind for a heartbeat. Hearing vanished; inside his skull the note kept ricocheting bzzzzz drowning out everything.
He didn't even hear John's "Look out!"
When his senses snapped back, a serpent tail was already there, hammering into his chest. The silver cuirass crumpled inward like soft tin, a monstrous force blasting him clear.
"Guh!"
Blood sprayed from his mouth as the human tank snapped away kite string cut.
For an instant he felt as if a giant had clubbed him with a tree.
"Silver Axe!" John shouted, frantic, blades still fencing a forest of snakes; he couldn't spare a hand to help.
The big man staggered to his feet. His breastplate bore a deep basin-shaped dent, scales printed clear as coins in the metal. His chest felt clogged; blood drew a thin red line down the armor's bright face.
He grimaced, pain sharpening his voice into a jeer. "Damn it she's as strong as she is ugly!"
He hadn't expected anyone to grab his axe. Only four people had ever given him that feeling: Rocks, Whitebeard, Linlin… and the upstart Ares.
She was the real deal. He had to admit it.
But he wasn't some nameless thug either. He was a cadre of the Rocks Pirates Silver Axe.
He let the shield fall with a clang, bared his teeth, and hefted the axe in both hands. "Been a while since I got serious. For the sake of my eyes and my beautiful soul today I'm chopping you in half, hag."
"Because I," he snarled, shoulders squaring as Haki surged, "am Silver Axe one of the Great Pirates!"
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