Just as Jozu was flung away by Ortoren, two powerful slashes suddenly burst forth from beneath the sea's surface.
"So, he can still fight?" Ortoren murmured inwardly as he sensed the attacks approaching.
Given Kozuki Oden's strength, it made sense—he shouldn't have been taken down by a single blow. It seemed he still had plenty left in reserve.
Perhaps wanting to truly test the full force of Oden's slashes, Ortoren didn't dodge this time. Instead, he coated his arm with Armament Haki and raised it to block head-on.
In the next instant, both slashes struck his arm one after another. The hardened Armament Haki shattered immediately, proving just how powerful Oden's attacks were.
However, after breaking through the Haki, their force weakened slightly. When the blades met Ortoren's skin, they only left two gashes about two centimeters deep before stopping.
That was as far as they went—Ortoren's unbelievably dense muscles absorbed the rest of the impact.
"Still hurts a bit..." Ortoren glanced at the wounds on his arm, shrugged, and muttered casually to himself.
Meanwhile, Kozuki Oden had already climbed out of the sea, landing on the wreckage of Reingal's shattered ship. Both swords in hand, his posture was slightly hunched, his wrist pressing against his abdomen as though the pain there was hard to endure.
A dark purple bruise spread across his waist and stomach, with tainted blood slowly seeping from the skin's surface.
Ortoren's "Full Moon" strike had been brutally savage. Oden considered his body incredibly resilient, yet that blow had nearly knocked him unconscious. If not for plunging into the sea and choking on several gulps of seawater that jolted him awake, he might have lost consciousness entirely.
Shaking the water from his hair, Oden's breathing gradually steadied. Straightening his back, he stood upon the wreckage and fixed his gaze on Ortoren, who hovered in the sky like a god of thunder.
Watching him, Ortoren raised an eyebrow. "Impressive endurance. You can still hold yourself together after that?"
To be fair, while Oden's physique couldn't match monsters like Ortoren or Charlotte Linlin, it was still remarkable—calling him a "little monster" wouldn't be wrong.
"Seems you've underestimated me..." Oden said, drawing in a deep breath.
With that, an overwhelming surge of Haki gathered around the blade Enma in his hand. At the same time, he sheathed Ame no Habakiri, freeing his other hand to grip Enma's hilt firmly.
In that moment, the Haki surrounding Enma burned even fiercer, as though the sword itself might ignite.
Oden's spirit, energy, and will aligned in complete focus. His eyes locked on Ortoren, and a piercing killing intent surged forth, enveloping the man like the gaze of a predator fixating on its prey.
Sensing that dangerous intent, Ortoren's once-carefree expression hardened into focus.
"Kozuki Ittō-ryū..." Oden murmured quietly, spreading his stance slightly, though his body remained still.
A sharp aura began circulating around him, gathering momentum. As it concentrated within his eyes, he moved—his wrist twisting, blade flipping, a flash of cold light reflecting into Ortoren's eyes, forcing him to squint instinctively.
In that fleeting moment, Oden roared, "Kuri!!!"
A fierce aura erupted from his body as his figure shot across the sky like a meteor, straight toward Ortoren. Enma in his hand seemed to blaze with life—the intangible Haki solidifying into a searing, violent flame that tore through the air.
The strike was impossibly fast. Before Ortoren could even fully relax his brow, Oden was already upon him.
Without hesitation, lightning crackled across Ortoren's form, and his figure vanished from sight—reappearing a dozen meters away in midair.
"Don't even think about dodging!"
Kozuki Oden seemed entirely unsurprised, his spirit and focus sharpened to a single point. Combined with his Observation Haki, he foresaw the next instant clearly.
The very moment Ortoren's form flickered into view over ten meters away, Oden had already locked onto him. A mere ten meters meant nothing to a top-tier warrior—especially to a swordsman.
In that instant, Enma finally struck. It was as if the world itself shifted color. A fierce, cutting slash transcended time and space, appearing directly before Ortoren.
If one could slow the moment down, Ortoren's pupils contracted sharply. Surprise flashed within them—astonishment at the attack's strange, overwhelming force—but it vanished just as quickly, replaced by a gleam of wild excitement.
A heartbeat later, Ortoren's body was engulfed by the blinding arc of the blade, faint bursts of blood scattering through the air. Yet the flash of the sword lasted only an instant before fading completely.
When the light vanished, Ortoren still hovered in midair—but the blood had been real. From his shoulder to his ribs ran a thirty-centimeter gash, deep enough to expose bone, blood pouring freely from the wound.
Running a hand over it, Ortoren's lips twisted upward. A faint, manic grin spread across his face.
"This is the kind of power I crave. This is the kind of pain I desire. Only a strike like that is worthy of my blood... Kozuki Oden, I acknowledge your blade. To repay that effort, I'll now fight you with everything I have!"
As his words fell, the sky erupted with a deep, rolling thunderclap—a sound that seemed to echo his will itself.
In that instant, lightning surged violently from Ortoren's body, covering him completely in blinding arcs.
"Lightning Release Armour!" Ortoren growled softly.
Electric power cloaked his entire form, awakening every fiber of his body. The wound that had been bleeding freely began to close under the guidance of the Rokushiki, the spilled blood even pulling back into his body.
Meanwhile, Kozuki Oden had landed once more on the remains of a shattered ship. The moment the thunder rolled, every hair on his body stood on end. A suffocating sense of danger locked onto him.
He knew that feeling. It was Ortoren's killing intent.
Without any warning, Ortoren's eyes burned with excitement and bloodlust. He stomped hard, shockwaves bursting outward through the air. Then, like a savage beast, he dove straight down—wild, unrestrained, a direct vertical assault on Kozuki Oden.
As Ortoren plummeted toward him, Oden's Enma flared again, wrapped in fierce, raging Haki. Yet this time, its intensity was weaker than before—the earlier strike that had gathered his full spirit and will had clearly drained him.
Still, without hesitation, Oden swung his blade again.
He could see it clearly—Vice Admiral Benn Ortoren, the so-called "Bull of Heaven," had no intention of dodging. On the contrary, his eyes shone with anticipation, as though he welcomed the pain to come.
The blade of Enma sliced through Ortoren's Lightning Armour. The cold steel pierced into his flesh, and a flicker of pain curved Ortoren's lips into a grin. This was the feeling he sought.
He didn't bother to defend. Every trace of his Haki had gathered in his arms.
The instant Enma cut into his skin, Ortoren's elbow—charged with explosive force—drove straight into Oden's chest.
But unlike Ortoren's reckless aggression, Oden fought with control. As he swung his sword, his free arm folded across his torso, coated in Conqueror's Haki for defense.
He meant to block.
Yet Ortoren's full-power strike exceeded all expectations. When the elbow slammed into Oden's arm, he felt a crushing, unstoppable pressure explode through him. His muscles buckled. His arm bones cracked. His chest caved under the impact, ribs pressing painfully against his lungs and forcing the air from his body.
Beneath him, the wrecked ship shuddered and splintered apart.
Through the deafening thunder came Ortoren's roar.
"Elbow Bolt!!!"
In the next heartbeat, Oden felt the world freeze around him. Then came the illusion of sinking into the sea again—but it lasted only a moment before Ortoren's explosive power erupted once more.
The seawater split violently apart, shockwaves compressing everything around them.
The area wasn't far from the island, and the water wasn't deep. As the waves were blasted outward, the seabed's sand and rock were laid bare.
Then, Kozuki Oden's body crashed down like a meteor, smashing into the seabed with devastating force. The resulting tremor sent the displaced water surging high, crashing back over the ocean with a roar.