"Controlling lightning, is it?"
From within the thunderbolt as thick as a barrel, Nusjuro's calm voice echoed. The skeleton centaur, with black flames and sparks coiling around it, revealed half its body from the lightning. At its waist, Kitetsu I was drawn, slashing upward, emitting a chilling cold aura, forming a Soaring Slash, swiftly aiming at Sage above.
This slash directly merged into the lightning, completely unaffected by it. As it was unleashed, even the wind froze, causing a momentary stillness around Sage, making him slightly sluggish.
"Cold aura?"
Sage adjusted his stance, quickly recovering, extending one hand to intercept the incoming slash from below.
Poof!
The slash emanating cold aura brushed past his palm, seemingly causing no harm, but the strange cold aura turned into frost, rapidly spreading over his entire hand and extending towards his wrist.
"Not ordinary freezing, different from Kuzan's... freezing life itself, is it? I see, Netherworld Cold Qi."
Sage shook his wrist, the frozen hand turning into shattered ice crystals, unable to spread further.
"Why don't you try one of mine too?"
The hand that shattered the ice crystals quickly clenched into a fist, the flame wheel behind him radiating even more intense flames, a wisp of which flew onto his fist, igniting a fireball. Sage raised his fist and struck downwards.
"Fire Fist!"
Boom!!
As the thunderbolt as thick as a barrel dissipated, a pillar of flame poured down, engulfing Nusjuro's body.
The flames spread like waves, forming a circle on the ground and expanding outward, turning the earth into a sea of fire.
The centaur's figure quickly rushed out of the flame pillar, stepping through the sea of fire. The flames around it extinguished under the effect of Netherworld Cold Qi, with black flame clouds emanating from the scorched areas, rapidly healing. Just as it was about to continue its attack, a shadowy figure appeared above it.
"Too slow!"
Sage revealed a sinister smile, punching directly at Nusjuro's head. The restrained Haki, which was fifty times compressed inside, burst out with the punch, reducing the skeleton centaur to a shattered mess with just one blow.
As bones scattered across the ground, black flame clouds reignited, forming a dense black mist enveloping Sage as he descended. Within the mist, Nusjuro reappeared behind him, his glasses gleaming coldly, sword held diagonally, emitting cold aura, slashing at the back of Sage's neck.
Nusjuro's forehead bulged with veins, gritting his teeth, "Die!"
Even though he could regenerate, the pain from having his insides shattered by Haki persisted throughout his body.
Was this the same pain that Saturn once suffered?
"I told you, you're too slow!"
Without even turning back, Sage saw the reflection of the black blade in the black mist, closer to his face, noticing the nearly torn smile on his lips as the blade passed through his body.
Shadow Clone!
Shadows appeared around Nusjuro, all twirling their arms in unison, aiming to strike the centaur's body.
"Hundred Ghosts Assault Purgatory!"
But just as the fists were about to hit Nusjuro, the ground beneath the shadows suddenly turned into a domain of flowing sand, with a massive sandworm emerging from below, lifting Nusjuro a hundred meters into the air to evade Sage's attack.
"Insect-Devouring Hell!"
The sandworm emitted a deep sound, and the surrounding domain of flowing sand extended numerous sandy tendrils, grasping at the shadows.
Bang!
The shadows vanished instantly, leaving only the true body, Sage, launching into the air, reaching high altitudes.
However, as soon as he reached the high sky, Nusjuro, who was lifted a hundred meters high, began to descend rapidly by stepping on air with the horse legs of his lower body, the Kitetsu I in his hand flashing as a Black Blade, executing a horizontal swing.
"Frost Beak!"
The cold aura from the blade, with that swing, turned the space below into a frozen lake, with icy fissures rapidly spreading outward, freezing a patch of the sky completely.
"Oh?"
Sage flashed to the side, watching as the glistening ice surface appeared near his face, following through by shaking off the ice crystals forming on his body surface.
"Nice teamwork, but..."
He pressed his left hand against his right palm, raising his legs, launching a black and red beam upwards, shattering the ice crystals along its path and blasting into Nusjuro above.
"Think you can defeat me with that? You're far from it! Annihilation Slash!"
The shockwave engulfed Nusjuro, sweeping away the surrounding black mist, while Sage, like a meteor, descended rapidly, landing in front of the sandworm that had just emerged from the ground.
Seemingly sensing Sage's presence through Observation, the sandworm, incarnated by Peter, opened its huge mouth, trying to swallow the tiny figure above in one gulp.
"Eat? I'll let you eat to your heart's content!"
Sage sneered, clasping his hands together, his concentrated Haki pouring into the sandworm's body in a burst of black light.
"Great Red!!"
Boom!!
The already massive sandworm expanded and exploded like a balloon, creating a gigantic mushroom cloud. The island quaked as if an earthquake had struck, with five deep fissures radiating outward from the mushroom cloud's center, seawater gushing through the cracks and spreading around.
Within the mushroom cloud, the enormous sandworm disintegrated into fragments, scattering across the island.
"Hohohoho!"
Successfully landing a hit, Sage surged upwards, flashing before Nusjuro, who had just reformed from the Haki Shock, not giving him a chance to react. Another Great Red slammed into the centaur.