Water 7. Junk Island old site.
Pain and Kizaru's battle had just begun when it already started to turn unfavorable for Pain. Kizaru's speed and the Physique of his Glint-Glint Fruit ability left Pain, who lacked Haki, with no solution.
All Six Paths of Pain's attacks were easily dodged by Kizaru, none of them able to get close to him. Although Naraka Path was fast,
neither its staff attacks nor its lightning attacks had any effect on Kizaru. Even if Kizaru's body was destroyed, he could reconstitute himself with light, completely unharmed.
Onigumo was a fighter whose combat power was comparable to Lucci's. In particular, Onigumo had cooperated with Kizaru during the Marineford War.
Their cooperation was close and caused Pain a lot of trouble. The attacks from Pain's Preta Path, Human Path, Asura Path, and Animal Path Summoned Beasts all failed to hit Kizaru or were ignored by him.
Most of the Four Paths' attacks were also contained by Kizaru, leaving very few attacks to reach Onigumo. Even if some slipped through, Onigumo could easily dodge them.
Although Kizaru's Armament Haki and Observation Haki were only at the Intermediate level, the Glint-Glint Fruit's ability was a superior version of Reno's Flash-Flash Fruit, with similar speed but a world of difference in attack power.
A Glint-Glint Fruit Ability User could condense light-speed attacks for pure physical attacks, and could also strike an enemy multiple times in the same spot within a second.
Energy attacks primarily consisted of lasers and light energy, making them impossible to guard against.
Pain temporarily had no way to deal with Kizaru, and Kizaru likewise had no way to deal with Pain.
Pain stopped actively attacking Kizaru, adopting a defensive stance and waiting for Kizaru to expose a weakness during his attacks, then trying to control him.
Pain recalled the Four Paths to his side, adopting a defensive formation with a four-way field of vision, launching long-range attacks at Kizaru and Onigumo. Human Path vanished into a light gate, awaiting an opportunity.
The sand from Preta Path, the rockets and missiles from Asura Path, and the Summoned Beasts from Animal Path, these relentless offensives were redirected to pursue Onigumo.
Although Kizaru could dodge most of them, Onigumo might not be able to. In order to rescue Onigumo, a few attacks still landed on Kizaru. Pain believed these seemingly ineffective attacks would surely deplete Kizaru's stamina.
Naraka Path continuously chased and entangled Kizaru, their speeds evenly matched. This distracted Kizaru's rescue efforts. Both Kizaru and Naraka Path possessed formidable attacking capabilities.
However, Kizaru held the advantage of Armament Haki and Observation Haki. If Naraka Path was hit, it would be sent flying, whereas Kizaru could recover if hit.
Pain had tried to use "Almighty Pull" to draw Kizaru into Preta Path's "Sealing Technique Absorption Seal" for ability control, but this usually infallible move failed this time.
Kizaru, possessing Observation Haki, had a premonition when Pain raised his hand and used his super-fast speed to evade the range of Pain's "Almighty Pull."
Pain realized his strategic error and could only wait for the cooldown to reset before using it on Onigumo, to see how Kizaru would rescue him then.
Pain could now only engage Kizaru in a war of attrition, hoping for Kizaru to overconfidently engage in close combat. Once Kizaru dared to fight at close quarters, Pain would use Preta Path's Sealing Technique Absorption Seal to control Kizaru's Devil Fruit ability.
If Kizaru and Onigumo did not engage in close combat, Pain could also temporarily stand undefeated through the defense of "Sealing Technique Absorption Seal."
The battle between Momousagi and Golden Lion was also at a stalemate. Golden Lion, with his ability to control the air, remained in a high-altitude assault state.
Momousagi could only use the Navy Six Styles' "Moonwalk" to briefly ascend for aerial combat. Both were master swordsmen, exchanging blows in a contest of speed and strength. However, in the air, Golden Lion fought with four swords.
His named swords on his feet could also slash quickly, though it was somewhat stamina-consuming.
Although Momousagi only had one famous sword, 'Konpira,' in her hand, this single blade was no less effective than Golden Lion's four-sword style, defending against his slashes flawlessly.
Both possessed Intermediate Armament Haki and Intermediate Observation Haki, making these two abilities evenly matched.
Momousagi's advantages lay in her Navy Six Styles application, which was no less skilled than Lucci's, her superb swordsmanship, and her age advantage.
Golden Lion's advantages were his Float-Float Fruit's air control ability and his exceptional combat experience. Thus, both fell into a stalemate, becoming an evenly matched war of attrition.
Looking at Nero's battle with Smoker, Smoker's condition was somewhat strained. Smoker's Smoke-Smoke Fruit ability had always been a bit lackluster, with attack power consistently being its weakness.
Over the next two years, he Cultivated Intermediate Armament Haki, but he had not Awakened Observation Haki. Facing Nero's elusive spatial ability attacks, he could only remain in a passive defensive state.
Every time Smoker tried to engage Nero in close combat, it ended in failure. Each time Smoker attempted to get close, Nero would escape into a spatial rift, creating distance. When Nero reappeared, it would be with spatial blades flying towards Smoker.
Smoker once tried to block the spatial slashes with his weapon, but tragically, his Sea Stone weapon was cut in half.
Given this situation, Smoker dared not let the spatial blades get close again, leaving him exhausted and passively defending against the elusive spatial blades.
This was the weakness of Smoker's ability: he lacked long-range attack capabilities and could only rely on close-quarters combat. This meant he could only be kited by enemies with long-range attack abilities. Although Nero possessed close-combat abilities, he chose not to engage Smoker.
This was also because Nero didn't want to harm Smoker; otherwise, Smoker might have faced an even more embarrassing situation against Nero's spatial abilities.
"Vice Admiral Smoker..."
"There's no need for us to fight to the death..."
"You are no longer my opponent..."
"Pretend to be defeated and leave..."
Nero didn't want to harm Smoker because he knew Smoker's character. Although they had never interacted much, it didn't prevent Nero, who once upheld justice, from acknowledging Smoker's integrity, thus informing him up close.
Nero stopped attacking, silently awaiting Smoker's reply.
"Nero..."
"When did you acquire such abilities?"
"Was it in the Akatsuki Organization?!"
"What happened to you?"
Seeing Nero show mercy, Smoker also stopped his attempts to counterattack and asked his biggest doubt.
"My situation is very complicated..."
"I don't know where to begin..."
"Please, Vice Admiral Smoker, cooperate by letting me repel you and leave quickly..."
"I suspect Kizaru and the others won't last much longer..."
"The Akatsuki Organization's strength..."
"is no longer as simple as you think!"
Nero had already revealed a lot of information through these few words. Nero felt that if Smoker still didn't understand, he would be too foolish.
"Is that so?"
"This battle wasn't one I wanted to participate in anyway..."
Nero ultimately went easy on Smoker, letting him go. Their battle appeared as if Smoker was no match, being heavily injured and sent flying by Nero, his fate unknown.
A fine drizzle suddenly fell from the sky. Pain's Rain Tiger at Will Technique enveloped the entire Seven Water Island, sensing the combat situation on the island.
The abandoned houses not far from the old Junk Island site had been completely destroyed by the aftermath of Lucci and the others' battle. The scene had turned into a situation where Reno, Lucci, and Kaku held an overwhelming advantage, Pressing Hawkins and Apoo.
Apoo desperately counterattacked using his body, which could transform into various instruments: sonic attacks from teeth turned into a harmonica, explosive attacks from long arms turned into a saxophone, and booming attacks from his body turned into drums.
These attacks were calmly dealt with by Reno and his two companions; Apoo made no progress.
Hawkins's scarecrow ability, however, was much more effective than Apoo's attacks, playing a certain role in containment, with a large portion of the trio's attacks being tied up by the giant scarecrows summoned by Hawkins's cards.
Hawkins's ability was a very strong support ability on the battlefield. If fighting alone, Hawkins might not be very strong.
But with teammates, Hawkins's ability would play a significant containment role on the battlefield.
The reason Apoo had been able to hold on until now without being defeated was largely due to Hawkins. But now, both of them were at their wit's end.
Hawkins watched as Apoo was about to be killed by Lucci, and had no choice but to once again use his giant scarecrow transformation, the "Curse-Warding Scarecrow," to block Lucci's killing blow.
However, when Hawkins's giant scarecrow suffered damage, the Ability User or the target to whom the Ability User transferred damage would also suffer damage.
Reno and his two companions ignored Hawkins's subordinates from beginning to end, but these subordinates had become scapegoats for Hawkins and Apoo. Now, not a single one remained standing.
There were twenty-seven of these subordinates, meaning that if not for these twenty-seven people, the two of them would have died twenty-seven times under the siege of Reno and his two companions.
To be continued...