Crimson lightning and silver shockwaves collided, warping the very fabric of space. The two opposing forces ground against each other, neither yielding, compressing further and further. Finally, when the space itself could no longer withstand the terrifying pressure, the fused energies reacted like a time bomb. They compressed one last time and then… exploded!
The titanic blast sent a mixed feedback of shockwaves rebounding toward the two men who had initiated the clash.
"Hmph!!"
Whitebeard gripped the shaft of his naginata with both hands, spinning it into a violent whirlwind to deflect the incoming crimson airwaves.
Behind him, the Wallachian Knights, who had been surrounding the pair, finally made their move. They leveled their long lances and lunged forward and downward, aiming directly for Whitebeard's back.
At this rate, if Whitebeard were pushed back another hundred meters, his body would be skewered by countless spears, turning him into a pincushion.
"Do you really think such parlor tricks can best me?!"
With a mighty roar, Whitebeard slammed his massive feet into the ground. Though the lack of a stable footing caused him to slide back even faster, the vibrations he channeled through his legs surged toward the charging knights. In an instant, men were sent flying and horses were toppled, their pained neighing filling the air.
Seizing the opening, Whitebeard shifted the direction of the shockwaves, using the recoil to vault himself high into the sky, leaving the brunt of the feedback to crash into the Wallachian Knights behind him.
But Alucard gave him no time to celebrate. Countless bats swarmed before him.
A flash of a blade appeared. Whitebeard moved his naginata to parry, but... he was a fraction of a second too slow.
The two landed back on the surface of the blood pool. A fresh trail of blood now ran down Whitebeard's left elbow.
"So, now that you're old, you've started relying on 'technique' during a fight? You weren't like this ten years ago."
Entering his Count Dracula state, Alucard spoke for the first time. Simultaneously, a pillar of flame-like energy rose from the blood pool at his feet to a height of two meters. As the flames receded, they left behind a weathered, bronze-colored lance of simple design.
The legendary weapon of the Count, Impaling Castle.
In their battle a decade ago, Whitebeard wouldn't have bothered with "redirecting force." A single, straightforward frontal assault would have been enough. Using these methods now was clever, but it was also proof that his age was catching up to him.
"Hmph!"
Whitebeard snorted. Holding his blade with one hand, he pointed it forward, signaling Alucard to bring it on.
In a pirate career spanning over half a century, he had sustained countless wounds, but not once had he ever received a scar on his back from running away. That was Edward Newgate.
Count Dracula charged instantly. He displayed a combat style entirely different from his previous gunplay or swordsmanship. With a single, direct thrust, he caught Whitebeard off guard. The tip of the lance was less than a meter from Whitebeard's abdomen, stopped only by Whitebeard's bare hand, which was encased in a silver sphere of vibration, desperately holding the point at bay.
Whitebeard was stunned; even the air itself was warped by his vibration, yet Impaling Castle showed no signs of distortion. It clearly wasn't an ordinary weapon.
Alucard retracted the lance and plunged it into the ground, uttering a phrase with cold indifference: "Kazzikli Bey."
As the words fell, countless spears erupted from the blood pool below, all zeroing in on a single target: Whitebeard.
This was a finishing move designed to trap and annihilate a single foe. If Dr. Vegapunk were here, he would surely be terrified. Was Alucard trying to kill Whitebeard? Whitebeard had to be kept alive for the coming war with the Navy!
In truth, Alucard wasn't holding back with this move, but he didn't intend to kill Whitebeard, at least not today.
There were two reasons he unleashed this: first, to see how Whitebeard would handle it; and second, he was confident he could retract the strike before Whitebeard was turned into a pincushion.
Whitebeard did not disappoint. After severing dozens of spears, he realized that "technique" alone wouldn't solve this.
Spinning three hundred and sixty degrees, he held off another wave of Kazzikli Bey. He threw his naginata aside as he didn't even have the spare second required to plant it firmly in the ground.
Right now, he couldn't afford to waste even a single second!
He brought his hands together and made a motion as if prying open a set of closed elevator doors. Just as two spears pierced his right knee and left calf, Whitebeard pulled with all his might.
In an instant, the sea was folded in two. The Wallachian Knights were tossed into the sky as the blood pool twisted and spiraled into the clouds in an impossible display of power.
Alucard lifted his left foot slightly, standing on the rising flames of the blood pool with his right. He raised his right hand, extending his thumb, index, and middle fingers in front of his face in a conducting gesture.
Immediately, the knights in the sky yanked their reins, adjusting their posture mid-air to regain balance.
Some succeeded, others failed. The successful hundreds re-aimed their lances at Whitebeard. Before they even touched the ground, they threw them in unison. A rain of spears blanketed the sky above the Great Pirate.
"Hey now... isn't this a bit much?"
With blood pouring from the holes in his legs, Whitebeard still stood as straight as a mountain. He snatched up his naginata and spun it like a helicopter rotor to deflect the rain.
However, the cost of such violent movement was his wounds bursting open, spraying blood everywhere.
Atop the flames of the blood pool, Alucard had already reverted from Count Dracula to his usual red-mantled form. His appearance shifted back from forty to twenty. He crossed his hands, leveling his black pistol, Jackal, at the spinning Whitebeard.
Bang!
The gunshot rang out. A Seastone bullet screamed toward Whitebeard's blind spot.