Bang! Bang! Bang! Tongues of fire spewed forth. The whistling sound of bullets tearing through the air was particularly ear-piercing in this silent night.
"Gum-Gum... Balloon!"
Luffy took a deep breath, inflating his body into an exaggeratedly huge ball, intercepting every single bullet shot toward the group.
"Let's attack together, Curly-brows." Zoro clamped Wado Ichimonji between his teeth. "I don't know why Sherlock suddenly went on a drunken rampage, but we just need to knock him out."
Looking back to ensure Nami and the others were safe, Sanji nodded with a grim expression. "To dare attack a lady... even if he's in an unconscious state, it is unforgivable!"
Whoosh! Whoosh! Two incredibly fast figures dashed out from behind Luffy, charging through the hail of bullets toward Sherlock, who wore a look of madness.
The distance between the two sides shortened instantly.
Sanji leaped up, his durable black leather shoe kicking toward Sherlock's chest with astonishing force.
"Poitrine Shoot!"
Flipping the blades of his three swords, Zoro crossed his hands in front of his chest.
"Three Sword Style: Oni Giri!"
—Mirror Reflection! Ripples appeared in the air in front of Sherlock.
Bang!
A loud noise like muffled thunder resonated through the air. The wind pressure generated by the violent collision gouged a large crater into the beach, filling the air with sand and dust.
Sanji and Zoro's attacks stopped abruptly one meter away from Sherlock, and then both were knocked back by an inexplicable, surging force.
The two landed somewhat awkwardly. Looking at the unscathed Sherlock, their expressions grew even uglier.
"Reflecting attacks? What a cheap ability," Sanji said with a bitter smile, shaking his numb right leg. "Seriously, having Sherlock as an enemy is a real headache."
Indeed, the Mirror-Mirror Fruit ability, under Sherlock's development, was simply a cheat code.
For melee attacks against the Sorcerer who had activated Mirror Reflection—unless the power gap was immense—the result would be "damaging the enemy by 800 but hurting oneself by 1000," even if their attacks exceeded the reflection limit.
"This isn't good. He's lost his reason now, but we can't attack with full force," Zoro said, frowning deeply. "I remember Sherlock saying his Fruit ability consumes a lot of stamina and isn't suited for prolonged battles. Let's just slowly wear him out."
Sanji nodded in agreement.
Seeing that Nami and the others had retreated to a safe place, Luffy shrank back to his original size. He ran between Zoro and Sanji to confront Sherlock face-to-face.
The atmosphere instantly became extremely oppressive, making it hard to breathe.
One vs. Three!
Sherlock seemed to realize bullets were ineffective, so he dispelled the musket mirrors. With a wave of his right hand, over a dozen high-explosive bomb mirrors the size of bowling balls emerged behind him, flying in unison toward the three.
BOOM!!! A massive mushroom cloud rose into the sky, fire radiating in all directions. Terrifying energy vented wildly, and a visible shockwave swept outward, carrying rolling thick smoke.
However, this seemingly devastating explosion achieved nothing.
"Gum-Gum... Rifle!" A roar came from the smoke, followed by a fist spinning like a drill breaking through the haze, blasting toward the Sorcerer who wore a sinister smile. At the same time, Zoro and Sanji rushed out of the smoke, retaliating with slashes and kicks respectively.
"Three Sword Style: Tiger Trap!"
"Concasse!"
—Mirror Reflection!
Bang! Another violent collision. But this time, aside from the three flying back, Sherlock also stumbled. His face turned pale; clearly, the combined strike of the three gave the Sorcerer a hard time.
Standing straight, Sherlock gently spread his hands. With a thought, the pitch-black eyes behind his lenses showed no trace of emotion.
"Mirror Entity!"
Swish! Swish! Swish! ...
Ripples appeared behind Sherlock like disturbed lake water, slowly revealing hundreds of silver knight longswords.
"Double Mirror Fusion!"
Whoosh... The floating sword mirrors didn't change in shape, but their aura surged, becoming sharper and keener, faintly emitting a soft, precious glow.
At this moment, Sherlock extended his right hand forward, the corners of his mouth curving into a cold and eerie smile.
"Unlimited Blade Works!"
The hundreds of knight longswords trembled slightly, emitting a pleasant hum, then shot toward Luffy's trio with exaggerated momentum and a tooth-aching whistling sound.
It was truly an earth-shattering battle. Even fighting one against three, due to the Sorcerer's bizarre fighting style and the fact that Luffy's group couldn't fight with full force, it looked like a winner wouldn't be decided anytime soon.
"Luffy! Sanji! Zoro! Sherlock!"
Watching the four fighting in the distance, the blue-nosed reindeer cried out anxiously, "What on earth is wrong with Sherlock? Why did he suddenly start attacking his crewmates!"
"Chopper, calm down!" Even though his own legs were shaking uncontrollably, Usopp pretended to be calm to comfort the little reindeer.
"You have to believe in Luffy and the others. They'll be fine!"
Violent explosions, the sound of clashing metal, and angry roars continued without pause. Nami's fair cheeks were full of self-blame. "It's all my fault. If I hadn't asked Sherlock that question, he wouldn't have suddenly turned out like this..."
"Lisanna, silver hair, Sarsalian..." Nico Robin lowered her head, thinking calmly. Suddenly, a spark flashed in this intelligent woman's mind.
(Combining the traditions of the Sarsalian family and the Celestial Dragons' sickly obsession with bloodlines... I understand. I understand what happened with Sherlock's sister!)
Robin turned to look at the black-haired, bespectacled man in the distance who still handled the siege of Luffy's trio with ease.
(Although you usually appear calm on the surface, deep down in your heart, you're quite unwilling to accept being separated from your sister, aren't you? Otherwise, you wouldn't become like this just from a mere mention of it.)
(You... couldn't be a legendary "Sister Complex," could you?)
The charming woman closed her eyes and shook her head helplessly. As she gained a deeper understanding of the Sorcerer, Robin felt that Sherlock was actually quite an awkward person.
(Perhaps you need someone to confide in, Sherlock. After all, keeping things bottled up can make you sick.) Thinking of this, Nico Robin made a silent decision.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the four were fighting inextricably.
"Hey! Sherlock, stop it!" Dodging a slash from a knight sword by a hair's breadth, Luffy shouted loudly at Sherlock, who stood motionless. "Why did you suddenly turn like this?!"
"If you stop now, I'll share a quarter of my meat with you tomorrow!" The idiot captain looked serious.
Honestly, for Luffy—a top-tier glutton—to offer to give up food, and his favorite roast meat at that, showed that this Straw Hat idiot truly wanted Sherlock to return to normal.
But his incredibly ridiculous words nearly made Zoro and Sanji trip and fall.
"Luffy! You idiot!" Sanji, who narrowly avoided being stabbed by a longsword, cursed loudly. "Don't waste your breath on him, he can't hear you right now."
Crack! A flash of blade light, and a mirror image of a knight sword broke in two and slowly dissipated in mid-air. But immediately after, dozens more chilling sword mirrors emerged behind Sherlock, their sharp points aimed straight at a certain green-haired swordsman whose expression changed drastically.
(Damn it, if I'm Three Sword Style, what does that make him? Hundred Sword Style?)
Zoro had black lines on his face. Even with his superb swordsmanship, facing so many fully automatic knight swords for the first time gave him a massive headache.
However, just then, a frantic roar from Usopp came from the distance.
"Luffy! Zoro! Sanji! Watch out above your heads!!!"
Luffy and the others hurriedly broke free from the entanglement of the knight longswords and looked up, instantly stunned.
"What a huge bomb!" Luffy exclaimed.
Sanji realized instantly. "Damn, were the attacks just now all stalling tactics? This was the killer move he was preparing in secret!"
"..." Zoro remained silent.
A giant black bomb was floating high in the sky. If not for the white timer attached to it, it would have been impossible to see clearly in such a dark night.
—Mirror Mirror: Super Gigantification!
With the activation of Sherlock's Fruit ability, the already massive bomb became even more exaggerated, growing almost to the size of the Going Merry.
"That bomb is..." Nami was stunned for a moment, then covered her mouth in shock.
"That is the super bomb Crocodile planned to use to wipe out both the Royal Army and the Rebel Army back then. I didn't expect Sherlock to have recovered it," Robin answered calmly. As the former Vice President of Baroque Works, she was all too familiar with this giant time bomb.
"The blast radius of that bomb is 5 kilometers, and now it's been enlarged by Sherlock... We'll probably be blown to smithereens. I wonder how far the pieces of our corpses will fly."
"Don't say such terrible things so calmly!" The Cowardly Trio screamed in unison, then collapsed to the ground as if drained of all strength, looking completely hopeless.
With such an exaggerated blast range, they had nowhere to run on this deserted island!
Sighing, Nico Robin looked once again at Sherlock in the distance, her beautiful face showing none of the fear a normal person should have when facing death.
(I didn't expect this pirate crew to be wiped out by their own strategist. This guy with the glasses is really...)
(Wait, glasses?)
Robin froze. She suddenly realized something.
(I remember he really cherishes those non-prescription glasses... At Rainbase, Sherlock once said his glasses were his treasure. Could it be...)
—Dos Fleur.
With falling petals, a slender arm suddenly sprouted from the Sorcerer's body. But this time, the target wasn't Sherlock's neck, but the silver-rimmed glasses on his nose!
Sherlock, who was focusing on controlling the giant bomb, only felt a blur before his eyes. Instinctively turning his head, he found his glasses being thrown violently into the distance by a hand. His face, originally full of madness, instantly turned panic-stricken. Ignoring the bomb entirely, he frantically ran toward where the glasses were falling.
But what he didn't notice was that the place where the silver-rimmed glasses were falling was exactly the natural enemy of Devil Fruit users—the sea.
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