"Flap Thread!"
Although he wasn't sure how Sherwin knew those things, Doflamingo knew that today matter certainly wouldn't end just by handing all his subordinate forces over to Sherwin. Thus, he chose to preemptively strike without hesitation.
Monster Hunter Style: Crimson Morning Star!
Swinging the Longsword to cut through all the incoming white threads, Sherwin gripped the Longsword with both hands to prevent Doflamingo from accidentally harming Robin and the others, or the "spoils of war," or using them as leverage. After charging his power for a brief moment, he slammed a heavy downward strike toward the front.
Monster Hunter Style: Hunter Art: Impact Crater!
Although the damage of using a Hammer technique with a Longsword would be somewhat discounted, Sherwin move wasn't originally intended for raw damage.
Furthermore, releasing this move with a Longsword had one advantage—
The Impact Crater Sherwin just unleashed looked like an ordinary flying slash, successfully deceiving Doflamingo. As a result, when he stepped aside to dodge, he was caught directly by the explosion.
Sherwin naturally wouldn't let such a good opportunity pass and immediately followed up with dozens of genuine flying slashes.
Monster Hunter Style: Starry Sky and Moonlit Earth!
"Shield White Thread!"
A massive amount of white silk rose from the ground again, layer upon layer like an onion, protecting the blasted-back Doflamingo inside.
After the Awakening of his Fruit, the threads produced by Doflamingo had seen a significant improvement in both quality and quantity.
However, the flying slashes unleashed by Sherwin were equally numerous, and the Hunter strength was greater than that of the Heavenly Yaksha. So, even with many layers wrapped around him, those Shield White Threads were instantly hacked into pieces, exposing Doflamingo within.
Of course, the dozens of flying slashes Sherwin had thrown out were also exhausted because of this.
"Good! That how it should be!"
Sherwin was not disappointed instead, he nodded with satisfaction and waved to Robin and the others behind him. "You guys take Law and those prisoners out of here first. I'm going to keep playing with the Heavenly Yaksha for a while."
With that said, Sherwin figure blurred, appearing instantly in front of the layers of Shield White Lines that once again protected Doflamingo. Holding the Longsword level, he lunged forward with a ferocious thrust.
Monster Hunter Style: Crimson Horn!
"Sea of White Waves!"
Just as the fish-tail of the Longsword pierced the first layer of Shield White Lines, Doflamingo reacted swiftly. The surrounding ground surged like waves, and massive tentacles composed of countless threads rose up, attacking Sherwin by stabbing, whipping, and entangling.
Monster Hunter Style: Savage Dance!
Sherwin decisively changed his technique, spinning on the spot like a windmill and unleashing flying slashes in every direction.
This time, Doflamingo did not continue to summon Shield White Lines. Instead, he gritted his teeth and met Sherwin assault head-on.
"Thousand Arrows: Winged Strike Threads!"
Countless threads imbued with Armament Haki spread out like a pair of opening wings, closing in from both sides of Sherwin to collide with his flying slashes.
A massive number of threads were snapped, while most of Sherwin slashes were dissipated. On the surface, this exchange seemed to be an even match.
However...
"Puchi!"
"!!! When did—?!"
Doflamingo clutched the wound that had suddenly burst open on his chest, a look of disbelief on his face.
Hunter Style: Hidden Night.
Seijuro Meow and Huamei Meow had each developed "Plum Blossom Flash" and "Drizzle: Falling Plum" through the "Requiem BANDOROU" technique.
Sherwin naturally had his own "Three-Pace Hum," and had even integrated Spirit Possession into it, which was why Doflamingo had remained completely unaware that he had been slashed.
However, a wound inflicted by such a stealthy flying slash couldn't cause too much damage to Doflamingo. Even though he hadn't used Armament Haki to defend, Sherwin strike hadn't cut very deep.
Additionally, since Doflamingo could use strings to stitch up wounds both inside and outside his body, Sherwin would have to activate Flurry Rush and take him down with a single strike from Crimson End to finish him off quickly. Otherwise, it would take some time to completely defeat Doflamingo.
But Sherwin clearly didn't intend to do that.
He still needed to capture Doflamingo to "open the gacha box," so killing him outright would make things difficult. Moreover, he had previously promised Law that he would try to let him land the final blow.
Another reason was that Doflamingo served as an excellent sandbag. Sherwin could use him to validate what he had gained from his previous exchange with Mihawk, and perhaps even use the opportunity to unlock Adept Style.
The key reason Sherwin had been unable to unlock Adept Style until now lay in the step of "infusing one will into the blade."
For someone who had been educated since childhood to view the world through dialectical materialism, this kind of idealistic concept was something he simply couldn't grasp.
Even though he had long known the key was "infusing will," and Seijuro Meow had shared many of his own insights, Sherwin just couldn't understand it—or rather, he couldn't fully commit to it.
To put it simply, his mind was too cluttered. Every time he reached the point of "infusing will," Sherwin couldn't help but let his thoughts wander, and deep down, he even felt a bit of disdain for such an idealistic approach...
Because "injecting your will into the blade" or whatever just sounded way too chuunibyou!
However, Hawkeye truly lived up to his title as the world greatest swordsman he gave Sherwin a very practical method—
Since you like to overthink things so much, why not find someone strong enough to put real pressure on you and engage in a fight to the death? At that point, you won't have the luxury to think about anything else...
Like Kaido, for instance.
Basically, it was still that same old system of breaking through during combat in the pirate world.
But it was undeniably effective.
In fact, when Sherwin had clashed with Kaido previously, he truly couldn't think about much under that terrifying pressure. It was just that his mind had been focused on escaping from the very beginning back then, rather than intending to fight Kaido to the death.
Even so, Sherwin had gained no small amount of improvement during that battle.
As for Doflamingo, his strength was actually insufficient. At least until now, Sherwin hadn't felt much pressure from him, so the target he originally intended to use to trigger the opening of the Adept Style was still Kaido.
Except...
Who could have guessed that Amazon Lily would have such miraculous fungi as Rage Shrooms? More importantly, the Felyne Investigation Team had a master of pharmacology like Haibara Meow.
Hawkeye core point was to think about other things as little as possible, so using extreme emotions to constrain one thoughts should, in theory, also work.
There was nothing to lose anyway, so it wouldn't hurt to give it a try.
Thus, Sherwin once again used Shooting Star to stall Doflamingo, then pulled a thumb-sized glass bottle from his waist pouch.
A label was stuck to the bottle, with terrifying contents written in a cute font—Ultra Mega Demondrug (Prototype).
"Tsk..."
Despite having tested medicines for Haibara Meow many times before, Sherwin remained highly resistant to her prototype potions.
If it weren't for the sake of causing trouble for Kaido later...
Sherwin bit his teeth and, holding his nose, swallowed the bottle of "Mega Demondrug" in his hand, which was filled with an ominous aura.
"Huh? There actually no strange taste?"
After swallowing the potion, Sherwin smacked his lips in surprise.
And then...
"Ugh—!"
An unspeakable and bizarre flavor suddenly occupied Sherwin entire mouth, making him gag uncontrollably.
Before Sherwin could even take out a bottle of water to rinse his mouth, a surge of rage suddenly rose from his heart—
If it weren't for that bastard Doflamingo! Why would I have to suffer like this?!
That scoundrel not only acted as a mole but even pinned the blame on me he truly looking for death!
A piece of scum like him, with his "filial piety" and "brotherly love," just deserves to die a thousand deaths!!!
Originally, he just found Doflamingo unpleasant to look at, but under the rage buff granted by the Nitroshroom, Sherwin now absolutely loathed him to the core.
Fortunately, amidst such intense fury, Sherwin still maintained a sliver of clarity, suppressing the urge to instantly take down the Heavenly Yaksha with a Crimson Sky End.
However...
He still had to use an ultimate!
Hunter time, activate!
Hunter Style·Secret Technique·Thousand Sword Crown!
At the same time, Doflamingo, who had finally managed to block Sherwin overwhelming slashes once again, also chose to use his ultimate...
"Sixteen Holy Bullets: God Thread!"
...