Time rewinds to Water 7, not far east of Junk Island.
Oden's opponent was Burgess, Captain of the Blackbeard Pirates' First Ship, while Konan's opponent was Auger, Captain of the Third Ship.
Since Oden's identity was exposed, Oden no longer held back his strength as he used to.
Oden's hands were covered in Haki, and with a "Thousand Mountain Strike," he directly attacked Burgess, forcing Burgess to his knees.
After being struck by the Thousand Mountain Strike, Burgess first resisted with Armament Haki on his hands, then quickly transformed into Dark Kirin to resist, but Oden's Thousand Mountain Strike still created a deep hole several meters in the ground beneath him.
Burgess's Armament Haki state was suppressed by Oden's King-level Armament Haki, so Burgess decisively abandoned his Armament Haki defense and transformed into Dark Kirin.
Oden's Thousand Mountain Strike focused on power, not sharpness, so Burgess, with his power increased several times after transforming into Dark Kirin, managed to withstand the blow. Whether he suffered internal injuries has not yet been revealed.
From this, it can be seen that Burgess is much stronger than Kaku. Kaku was instantly defeated by this move, while Burgess, though struggling, still withstood Oden's attack. Burgess also instantly unleashed his Dark Domain when he transformed into Dark Kirin.
Because Oden possessed the ability to hear all things and Intermediate Observation Haki, he was not affected by the darkness and fought as usual.
The Dark Kirin that Burgess transformed into was three meters tall and four meters long. The Dark Kirin raised its head and spat dark fire at Oden, attempting to conceal the dark fire's existence under the cover of the Dark Domain to attack Oden.
But Oden's Intermediate Observation Haki had already predicted it, and he easily dodged the dark fire. The dark fire fell to the ground and burned into a wall of black flames.
Unless Burgess wanted the dark fire to extinguish, it would continue to burn, but at the cost of Burgess's stamina.
Oden was not surprised that Burgess could withstand the Thousand Mountain Strike while also launching effective counterattacks. After all, he was one of the Four Emperors' Blackbeard's men; how could he have been sent to act as a lurking threat if he didn't have some strength?
Oden, failing to land a decisive blow, intended to unleash his ultimate move, "Mimicry Ghost," to end the battle. Burgess, seeing Oden's imposing Aura, tried to interrupt Oden's charge with dark fire.
As Burgess's dark fire left his mouth, something unexpected also happened to Oden: the two famous swords in his hands struggled violently, almost flying out of his grasp. Oden gripped the swords tightly, barely managing to keep them from slipping.
Burgess's dark fire was easily avoided by Oden's Observation Haki, but Burgess also didn't want to miss the opportunity Auger had created for him.
As Burgess's dark fire exited his mouth, his four hooves galloped towards Oden. With a Kirin Tail Whip, his tail, imbued with Intermediate Armament Haki, struck Oden, who was wrestling with the two swords in his hands.
The reason Auger was able to free up his hands to control Oden's swords was that Auger's battle with Konan was also at a stalemate, with neither able to overcome the other.
Konan's Force-Canceling Bubbles were easily broken by Auger's transformed spikes, and her illusion bubbles were even less able to affect Auger's Mental Energy state, as Auger's Mental Energy strength was among the top three in this world.
Konan's paper attacks seemed pale and powerless against the Armament Haki and special abilities granted by Devil Fruits in this world.
Auger, transformed into a metal cuboid, completely ignored Konan's attacks. When Konan tried to wrap Auger with "Seal Breath Technique," Auger transformed into a metal sphere covered in spikes, making him look like a hedgehog.
Auger's attacks were equally ineffective against Konan. Konan's Physique ignored all physical attacks. Auger's strongest attack method was bullets imbued with Armament Haki, but they merely shattered some paper fragments when they hit Konan.
Due to these reasons, their battle was in a stalemate. Auger, transformed into a metal spike sphere, then focused his attention on Burgess's side.
Seeing Burgess at a disadvantage, Auger used his ability to control the two swords in Oden's hands, intending to leave Oden without a weapon.
Konan saw that Auger was ignoring her existence and interfering with Oden's battle, so Konan also chose to directly attack Burgess.
Konan's Force-Canceling Bubbles appeared out of nowhere on Burgess, making Burgess's Kirin Tail Whip suddenly weak and powerless. Oden stopped wrestling with the swords in his hands, letting them fly towards Auger.
The moment Konan enveloped Burgess with Force-Canceling Bubbles, Oden directly punched Burgess's Kirin rump, sending Burgess flying, smashing through a large pile of obstacles, and falling to the ground.
After Burgess was enveloped by Konan's Force-Canceling Bubbles, he broke free of them by emitting black fire all over his body, but he still couldn't avoid Oden's heavy punch.
Although Burgess's Dark Domain could affect the enemy's vision, it could not affect the vision of enemies not enveloped by the Dark Domain.
Therefore, both Konan and Auger could clearly see Oden and Burgess's battle, which led to the scene that just occurred.
After being sent flying by Oden's punch, Burgess shook his Kirin head and got back up.
"Woo... hahaha..."
"Kozuki Oden..."
"You are indeed very strong..."
"However, we still have other missions, so we won't continue playing with you. The next time we meet, it will be a fight to the death!"
"Woo... hahaha..."
After Burgess finished speaking, he carried the now human-shaped Auger and turned to run.
"This is fate..."
Auger didn't forget to add a remark before leaving, dropping Oden's two swords, and getting on Burgess's back to be carried away.
Oden initially wanted to get up and chase them to deal with the two, but Konan stopped him.
"Pain's battle situation is unclear; we need to rush back to support him."
Oden agreed that this made sense. These two individuals were insignificant to the Akatsuki Organization for now, and there would be plenty of opportunities to deal with them later.
"Woo... hahaha..."
"Good thing I had foresight..."
"That old man Oden is too formidable; we are no match for him..."
Burgess's Physique was very strong; being hit by Oden's heavy punch and Thousand Mountain Strike only caused him Pain all over. That was all.
This also indicated that Burgess's strength already rivaled that of an Admiral; he only appeared a bit weaker because he encountered an opponent as strong as Oden.
"Ah... as expected of a man with a bounty of 1.5 billion..."
"This is fate..."
The two fled back to their ship in a panic, reported the relevant intelligence to Blackbeard, and stated their view that they were currently no match for the Akatsuki Organization.
Blackbeard was not annoyed upon hearing this and told the two that they could return.
Burgess and Auger escaped, but Apoo was not so lucky.
Apoo was now half-dead and lying on the side, and Hawkins was also severely wounded. The reason he was still alive was that Reno was contemplating whether to kill him or not.
In the previous battle, both Hawkins and Apoo displayed impressive combat strength, so they fought with all their might. Now that Reno had control of the situation, he had to consider the bigger picture.
Reno chose not to kill the two because he was unsure of Pain's attitude and feared creating too many enemies for the Akatsuki Organization.
Reno considered it carefully and finally decided to imprison the two first, and let Pain decide their fate after the incident.
"Lucci, Kaku..."
"No need to kill them; just knock them out and control them."
Hawkins ultimately chose not to resist and allowed himself to be knocked out because he understood that, for now, being knocked out was the best outcome.
Water 7. Former site of Junk Island.
The great battle here had not yet ceased; the fighting continued... To be continued...