"You bastard!"
Zephyr gritted his teeth and roared, leaping up with all his might. He raised the mechanical arm in his hand, where the three split fingers were torn and a light began to gather in the center.
"Smashing Cannon Attack!"
The mechanical arm emitted a strong cannon attack, almost forming a beam of light shooting straight through.
A year had passed, and the technology seemed to have changed, making this mechanical arm known as the 'Crusher' even more powerful.
"Thunderbolt!"
Crash!
The dark sky responded to Sage's voice with a black-red thunder, striking down fiercely on the cannon attack and exploding a giant cloud of smoke.
Quickly, the smoke was blown away by the fierce wind, revealing Sage's figure.
"When it comes to using external power, I'm better than you. Wind Blade!"
With a sneer, he flicked a finger to the side, sending out a sharp wind blade that cut open the head of a neo-Navy soldier.
"Sage brat! What exactly are you trying to do?"
Zephyr stepped forward, flying towards him. The mechanical arm pulled back and slammed down heavily.
This powerful attack was firmly caught by a hand, exuding a Haki like black flame. The palm didn't even fully grasp this large mechanical arm but left a gap on the surface.
Sage slightly raised his head and said with a smirk at Zephyr, "Times have changed, old man."
Bam!
The spread fingers gripped strongly, and the inside of the mechanical arm exploded, parts and steel falling away, exposing Zephyr's prosthetic limb.
"Now, I don't even need to take it apart forcefully. One move is enough!"
The hardness of seastone was something he couldn't deal with, but this mechanical arm was not something he was encountering for the first time. He had taken it apart once last year.
This time, by using Haki to penetrate those junctions was enough. Everything has a Secret Hole, and with his current power, this contact was enough to dismantle such a bulky thing as a mechanical arm!
The moment the mechanical arm fell off, Sage grabbed Zephyr's prosthetic limb, pulling it toward him while his other fist hammered into Zephyr's abdomen, causing his body to hunch over.
Zephyr gritted his teeth, just about to fight back, but before he could even clench his fist, Sage slashed his hand like a knife into Zephyr's shoulder, the heavy blow numbing half his body.
Slap!
The hand blade chopped horizontally across Zephyr's neck, even with Haki defense, he still received a heavy blow, causing his hunched body to straighten upward.
The leg he wanted to lift was blocked by a knee, and Sage seized the opportunity to charge in close, ramming his shoulder into the chest of the taller Zephyr.
Crack!
Boom!
A crisp bone-breaking sound was heard as Zephyr flew backward like a cannonball, crashing into the ground and creating a crater.
Sage stood upright, a look of pity in his eyes, "You look like a worm now."
"Cough, cough, cough!"
Curled up in the pit, Zephyr, akin to a bent worm, clutched his chest and coughed violently.
Just one year and everything is different.
"Your asthma hasn't worsened, the same as last year. So has your will weakened to the point where you can't even suppress an illness?" Sage said.
"Zephyr-sensei!"
Ain, who was attacking while running, exclaimed. Just as she was about to move forward, a sudden cold flash aimed directly for her neck.
The threat of death instinctively halted her movement, her pupils even started to dilate, and everything around seemed to slow down, including the two-finger width thin sword rapidly approaching in her dilated pupils.
Soon, she saw many things.
Her homeland devastated by pirates in her childhood, the time she joined the Navy as a teenager, the training ship torn apart by a guy with a crescent-shaped Whitebeard, leaving only her and the other newbie, Binz. Growing up, out of respect for Zephyr-sensei, she followed him after he left the Navy...
Everything flashed by quickly like a revolving lantern, making Ain understand what was going to happen.
She was going to die...
"Lily, let her pass."
Just as the cold flash was about to reach, a voice suddenly echoed in Ain's revolving lantern world. In that moment, her dimming world suddenly brightened.
The cold flash halted, circling around her neck, as Lily twirled the white lightning into a sword flower, her charging body spinning in place, holding her sword at an angle.
This allowed Ain's vision to return to normal. She quickly ran into the pit, supporting Zephyr, and took out a portable respirator from her waist to help him. After releasing a mist, his violent coughing improved significantly.
"I know you."
Sage looked at the woman with long blue curly hair and said:
"You seem to have a good ability, one that can reverse the time of objects, right? Try it out, this old man is useless now, give him a younger body."
Ain pursed her lips, watching Sage warily, but shook her head, "Zephyr-sensei's Haki is too strong for me."
"Ha! Then your ability development is lacking," Sage laughed.
He remembered the woman's ability, it seemed to reverse the touched object's time by eleven or twelve years. Among the countless abilities on the ocean, it was one of the outstanding ones.
But abilities need the right host.
A time-reversing ability indicates a strong desire within the person to return to the past, and they often think about it.
It might not be fitting for others.
With that thought, he flashed into the pit.