"Hahahaha! This feels incredible!" Roger laughed loudly as he drew his sword. "Kid, let me show you my real strength!"
"If you can't hold on anymore, just say so," Ritter replied, the corner of his mouth curling into an arrogant smile. "Don't dress it up as 'real strength.' Mist God Style: Blood Dragon Roar!"
The blood mist on Black Tide suddenly boiled, transforming into a ferocious crimson dragon coiling tightly around the greatsword. The dragon's roar thundered through the illusion as scarlet sword energy collided head-on with blazing red light.
"Prosperity!"
The shockwave tore open a gash dozens of meters long across the ground.
Someone might ask, hey, wasn't Old Ritter still in a forest just now? How did this turn into a canyon? Simple. The forest was sliced open and became a canyon. The shockwave ripped a trench dozens of meters long straight through the woods.
Roger's straw hat was nearly blown away, but he slammed a hand down to keep it in place. "Good kid! That move packs a punch!"
"I'm not done yet!" Ritter spun and swung again. "Mist God Style: Twin Dragons Play with the Pearl!"
Two blood dragons burst from the blade, lunging at Roger from both sides. Crimson flames burned in their eyes, their whiskers sharp as blades.
Roger's eyes flared with brilliant light. Ace erupted with dazzling golden radiance, and with a single strike he severed both dragon heads. Yet the shattered blood mist instantly reformed, turning into countless blood needles that shot forward.
Clink, clink, clink!
Roger's sword dance became a curtain of light, blocking every single needle. Seizing the opening, he surged forward, Ace aimed straight at Ritter's throat. "My turn! Divine Fall!"
Before the blade even touched him, the terrifying pressure made Ritter's skin prickle. He stumbled back three steps and raised Black Tide horizontally to block.
"Mist God Form: Dragon Scale Shield!"
Blood mist condensed into crimson dragon scales, forming a shield that took the blow head-on. The instant the shield shattered, Ritter borrowed the force to roll backward, Black Tide carving a perfect arc through the air.
Mist God Tide: Blood Moon Slash!
A crescent-shaped wave of scarlet sword energy tore through the earth. Roger laughed and split it apart with a single strike. "Not enough! Sea Splitter!"
Moonstone Shiki had to raise an arm to shield her eyes, peering through her fingers to see the two of them already leaping high into the air.
"Mist God Style: Nine Dragons Devour the Heavens!" Ritter descended from above. This was a downward-striking sword art. Nine blood dragons burst from the misted ground, vivid and lifelike, their scales gleaming with metallic luster.
Roger's fighting spirit surged even higher. "Fantastic! Solar Pierce!"
Ace exploded with prismatic light as a sky-spanning slash collided with the nine dragons. Dragon roars and sword howls echoed through the clouds, the explosive airflow scattering the illusionary sky itself.
You two. There is not enough room on the ground for you, so of course you fly into the sky.
Boom!
They landed simultaneously, the ground beneath their feet cracking apart. Roger's shirt was eaten through in several places by corrosive blood mist, while Ritter's black robe was torn by sword energy. Yet their eyes burned with the same fierce intensity.
"Kid," Roger wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, "you haven't lived these years for nothing. But if this is all you've got, you're going to lose badly, little Ritter."
"Of course I haven't lived for nothing. Didn't you just spit blood?" Ritter stared at the stain by Roger's lips. My god. After fighting this long, I finally hurt Roger once. Ritter wiped the blood from his own mouth. When their blades collided, Roger spat blood, and Ritter spat saliva. Ritter did not comment on how strong he was.
The surroundings began to warp and twist. The once-solid canyon floor softened like water. Mist rose around Roger's feet, dragging him downward. He swung his sword, but the blade felt as if it had sunk into a swamp, unable to break free.
"What is this?" Roger frowned, his Conqueror's Haki erupting as he tried to dispel the anomaly. Yet the Haki sank like a stone into the sea, completely ineffective.
The mist grew thicker and thicker, gradually swallowing Roger's figure. He felt as if he were trapped in an endlessly stretching maze. No matter which direction he went, he always returned to the starting point.
"Amazing!!!! Then I have to let little Ritter try it too!!" Roger's eyes gleamed with excitement.
"Bastard, what are you doing? We're fighting. Get serious!" Ritter created a mist clone that surrounded Roger, pointing at him and shouting angrily.
"Sorry, Ritter. Go back. Let's start over."
"Hmph." Ritter's mist clones slowly dissipated.
Roger closed his eyes again, focusing his mind, trying to see through the nature of the illusion.
What he saw was even stranger.
Countless faces flickered in and out of the mist. They were all enemies he had once defeated. Every memory was magnified infinitely, surging toward him like a tide.
"Huh? It's still not over?" Roger was stunned. At this rate, shouldn't this be an extremely crude illusion?
Ritter hid within the mist, not daring to make a sound. He knew exactly what could break Roger. Losing his crew. Witnessing the tragic end of the Roger Pirates with his own eyes.
This trick might expose a weakness in Roger, but the problem was that Ritter felt pain watching it too. It could just as easily expose his own weakness. This was not just stabbing Roger once. It was stabbing himself as well. Was he digging his own grave? Interesting.
"Fine. If there's no other way, I'll just swing!" Roger slashed at the phantom before him.
The blade passed straight through, cutting nothing. The illusions were like ghosts, insubstantial and unreal.
"Huh?"
Roger realized he was not fighting a simple hallucination.
"Trying to beat me like this is still too early!" Roger took a deep breath.
He knew Ritter had to be hiding somewhere in the dense mist. To break the illusion, he had to find its source, the true power controlling the fog.
He closed his eyes once more, pushing his Observation Haki to the absolute limit. This was the first time during a spar with Ritter that he fully activated his ability to hear the Voice of All Things, trying to sense everything around him.
But Ritter seemed to have vanished completely.
This time, he finally found something.
Deep within the mist, he sensed a faint trace of presence. It vanished in an instant.
"Found you!" Roger narrowed his eyes, then snapped them open and swung his sword toward the surge of blood energy.
"Sea Ripper!"
A blazing slash tore through the mist, racing straight toward the source.
"Prosperity!"
With a thunderous boom, the mist dispersed in an instant, and the surroundings returned to normal.
Roger found himself still standing within the canyon.
Ritter frowned. "Captain, how did you find me? I'm absolutely certain that even with the ability to hear the Voice of All Things, you shouldn't have been able to pinpoint my position."
"Oh, I only caught a fleeting trace, so I couldn't judge your exact location," Roger scratched his head. "But you have a habit. When you dodge, you like to move to the right. I guessed. And besides, if I'm not sure, I'll just swing a few more times. Hahahaha."
"True. Illusions alone can't defeat you." Ritter shrugged. "Still, letting you relive the pain of the past counts as something."
"Kid, your illusion was terrifying," Roger said quietly. "I almost lost myself in it."