"Haah!"
At the critical instant, Vergo twisted his arm and parried Law's cursed blade, Kikoku, then sidestepped to avoid Drake's feral lunge.
Drake missed his target and snapped his head around, his eyes pure white with no pupils — the sight made Vergo's skin crawl.
Now, Drake looked less like a man and more like a beast, driven purely by predatory instinct. He threw himself at Vergo again, jaws wide open to bite.
Clang!
The Allosaurus's bite was monstrously strong. Even with Armament Haki reinforcing his arm, Vergo felt a sharp surge of pain where the fangs clamped down.
"Are you insane?!" Vergo shouted, driving a heavy kick into Drake's chest.
The impact hurled Drake into a wall with such force that cracks splintered across the surface — yet he didn't even pause. He rebounded off the floor, steadied himself, and came charging again.
For the first time, Vergo found himself facing an opponent who had completely abandoned self-preservation. Feeling the pressure, he drew the bamboo staff at his waist, coating it with Haki, and thrust it straight into Drake's chest.
Shlk!
The Ghost Bamboo spear pierced through the same wound Vergo's palm blade had opened earlier — and this time, it punched clean through Drake's torso.
But Drake didn't even grunt. His pale, sightless eyes locked on Vergo as he advanced along the staff itself, forcing the weapon deeper through his own body.
The entire length of the bamboo was slick with blood.
Vergo's face drained of color.
Impossible! My Ghost Bamboo should've destroyed his heart! He shouldn't be alive — he shouldn't even be able to move!
In that moment of shock, Drake's fist crashed into Vergo's face.
BAM!
Vergo was sent flying, but twisted mid-air and stabbed both hands into the floor to arrest his momentum, gouging deep furrows through the metal.
Haki? Drake's using Haki — in that state?!
Looking up, Vergo saw Drake still impaled through the chest, the bamboo staff jutting out — yet the man-beast continued to charge!
A monster…!
As a Marine Rear Admiral and leader of SWORD, Drake had been among the Navy's brightest of the new generation.
He'd mastered Haki long ago, but had hidden that strength, never revealing it at Sabaody, Fish-Man Island, or even Raijin Island.
He had intended to keep Haki as his trump card — a dagger in the dark to be drawn only when it mattered most.
But Vergo's surprise attack had killed him before he ever had the chance to use it.
Now, through the power of Davy Jones's Contract — and the sheer hatred burning within him — Drake had risen again, a living corpse.
And at last, he could unleash his Haki without restraint.
Still bearing the bamboo staff impaled through his body, Drake charged like a rabid wolf.
"You bastard… why won't you die?!"
Vergo cursed, panic creeping into his voice. He steadied himself, fists up, bouncing lightly on his feet as he advanced.
They met in a flurry of blows — fists and shockwaves exploding through the corridor.
In the blink of an eye, they traded over a dozen punches, their afterimages overlapping like a shimmering veil.
The more Vergo fought, the deeper his frown became.
His speed… his strength… they've both increased!
No — this state has pushed him beyond his limits. He's fighting in complete overdrive — pure offense, no defense at all!
Vergo's punches and kicks sank deep into Drake's flesh, but Drake didn't flinch. Instead, he used every impact to drive another strike toward Vergo's face.
He's no longer human!
Vergo barely dodged a straight punch, only to take the next one full on.
CRASH!
His sunglasses shattered.
A heavy blow smashed into his right eye socket — the eyeball burst instantly under the pressure.
Vergo clutched at his ruined eye, blood seeping through his fingers. The pain finally broke his composure. He let out a beast-like roar and lunged at Drake.
"I'll kill you! I'll tear you apart!"
He bellowed, moving at blinding speed to slip behind Drake. His arms — thick and corded with muscle — clamped around Drake's neck, straining to twist it off.
But Drake didn't care if his neck broke. His hands turned into blades, stabbing diagonally toward Vergo's temples!
Vergo ducked low, his Haki flaring violently as he slammed Drake to the ground.
"Die!"
The one-eyed Vergo glared down, face blood-soaked and feral.
Then the world suddenly spun.
He felt weightless, dizzy — and then confusion, until his head struck the floor and rolled several times before coming to a stop.
His right eye saw nothing but darkness; his left was hazy, but clear enough to glimpse the scene.
Drake had broken free.
The beast tore into Vergo's body, rending flesh with his claws, disemboweling him, ripping out his heart — and crushing it in his hand.
Even decapitated, Vergo could feel the pain of his heart being destroyed.
Law stood beside Vergo's severed head, slowly sheathing Kikoku. He looked down coldly at his fallen foe.
"As I thought… in the instant you go for the kill, your Haki defense loosens the most."
He raised one foot and pressed it onto Vergo's face.
"Do me a favor — tell Corazon I'll be sending Doflamingo to join him soon. Tell him to wait a little longer."
Vergo thought of Corazon — of all the others who had died by his hands. A shudder passed through him, then his features stiffened… and never moved again.
Punk Hazard, Central Zone
After eight days of unrelenting combat, the battle between Fleet Admiral Sakazuki (Akainu) and Aokiji (Kuzan) had completely reshaped the island's terrain and climate.
A massive central lake now filled the crater carved by their clash — sea water cascading into it along the paths their attacks had gouged.
On one side of the lake, blizzards howled. On the other, rivers of molten magma flowed — an otherworldly landscape of ice and fire.
The two Admirals were both in tatters, uniforms reduced to little more than shredded undershirts, yet still trading blows with unbroken fury.
Ice Age! and Meteor Volcano! collided once more, cloaking the battlefield in smoke so thick that sight was useless.
But through their vast Observation Haki networks, each knew exactly where the other stood.
Again, fists and kicks clashed — Armament Haki grinding against Armament Haki — as both men sought to overpower the other.
Sakazuki's fist pressed forward inch by inch, forcing Kuzan back.
"Your wavering, indecisive brand of 'Justice' has no place in the Navy!" he roared.
Kuzan gritted his teeth, catching Sakazuki's fist with his leg and slowly pushing it back.
"And I'll never allow your brand of merciless, absolute 'Justice' to infect the Navy either!"
BOOM!
The shockwave sent both of them skidding apart.
Sakazuki's cap had long since been blown away; his eyes narrowed to slits.
"To deal with pirates and revolutionaries — with the embodiment of evil itself — you eradicate it, root and all! Your existence misleads the younger Marines into thinking leniency is acceptable!"
Kuzan shook his numbed arm, ice gathering around it as he shot back sharply,
"When it comes to true villains, I never hesitate! But there are people who are innocent — and you still strike them down! If we handle everything with such cruelty, the world will only tip toward another kind of evil!"
"You're dragging up the same old arguments! Ohara — you were there too! They weren't innocent!"
"Sakazuki, can't you see it yet? After all these years of warring against pirates, not only have we failed to wipe them out — they've grown stronger! Haven't you noticed that many people now see us as more brutal than the pirates themselves?"
"Justice is Justice! Only by eradicating every last disease of evil can the people of this world ever live in true peace! You're the one who doesn't understand — this world can't afford hesitation any longer!"
The duel between the two Admirals on Punk Hazard had raged for eight days — not only a clash of bodies, but of souls and ideals.
Their strength was nearly equal; victory could belong to either side.
For eight days they fought, for eight days they argued — neither yielding an inch.
But the moment one man's conviction wavered… the battle would be decided.
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