The executives of the Nightfall Pirates watched Redyat with sharpened focus. None of them knew what exactly had happened before this moment, yet the atmosphere made one thing painfully clear. He had come as an enemy.
The air grew heavier. More crew members hurried in from the surrounding woods, among them Baccarat, Daz Bonez, Clemons, and several other formidable fighters.
"Do not come any closer. Get some distance. None of you can intervene in what is about to happen," Wallace warned, his voice low as he swept a stern glance over the gathering pirates.
"But...!" Clemons started to protest until Daz Bonez grabbed his arm and tugged him back.
"Save it. We would just get in the way," Bonez said.
He was right. Even from a distance, they could still sense the lingering weight of Gar's earlier transformation. His monstrous strength had once forced all of them to fight together just to restrain him, and that had only been when Gar was fully conscious.
Yet even then, Gar had fallen. They had not seen how the battle ended, but Redyat's untouched posture told the whole story. He had dealt with Gar effortlessly.
A gentle breeze passed through the clearing, sweeping fallen leaves across the forest floor. The tension hung thick and unmoving. The battle was inevitable, yet neither side had taken the first step. Waiting only made the pressure worse.
Finally, Laffitte moved. Bat wings spread from his back as he shot forward like a streak of crimson light, drawing his staff-sword in midair. Since joining the Nightfall Pirates, Teach had entrusted him with the Ancient Zoan known as the Night Blood Bat Fruit, an ability that amplified Laffitte's vitality, speed, and stealth to terrifying extremes.
Blood shimmered briefly in the air. Laffitte appeared above Redyat and struck three times, the air slicing from the force of his murderous thrusts.
Redyat's form blurred. He vanished, leaving nothing but a fading afterimage. His speed completely eclipsed the assault.
But Laffitte did not stop. Thanks to the heightened echolocation and sharpened hearing granted by his Zoan form, he read Redyat's trail. He flickered behind Redyat, staff-sword ready to pierce through.
Redyat's kick was already on its way toward him.
The angle changed at the last instant. Someone appeared on Redyat's flank, intercepting the blow. It was Pito, fully transformed and baring razor-edged cat claws as she tore forward with feral speed.
Redyat avoided Pito's strike with ease and drove her kick into Pito's waist, blasting her backward.
Pito rolled, dug her claws into the earth, and launched forward again.
The others joined in. A muted gunshot cracked from somewhere deep within the trees as Van Augur fired, the bullet slicing through the air toward Redyat's skull.
Redyat leaned aside while simultaneously facing Wallace's charge. The bullet skimmed past his cheek, sending a loose strand of hair drifting down.
Bone blades thrust toward Redyat, Kaguya's strike coming from the side. Overhead, Laffitte and Pouf descended with synchronized precision, aiming at Redyat's vital points.
Laffitte's staff-sword gleamed with a thin red sheen, his speed pushed to its limit. Pouf's blade carried a soft glow that hid a lethal intent.
Another shot whistled in from Van Augur.
"Molten Steel Fist!"
Wallace hurled his blazing, molten-coated fist toward Redyat. Pito's claws cut forward. Nelson hovered nearby, sword raised and waiting for a window.
Their combined assault struck in the same breath.
Redyat swept his long sword against Wallace's molten fist.
Clang.
The impact forced Wallace back two steps. His arm trembled violently. Redyat's strength surpassed his own by a wide margin.
The sword strike rolled upward into two sudden flashes of purple light as Redyat's blade intercepted both airborne attackers. Pouf and Laffitte felt their arms numb from the sheer force, their weapons nearly slipping from their grip.
Kaguya's bone spikes shot forward next, only for Redyat to catch them in his left hand. Haki coated his palm, preventing the microscopic bone fragments hidden within the spikes from invading his body.
Nelson appeared behind Redyat and drove his sword forward as Pito attacked from the front.
Another sharp clang rang out.
Nelson froze. His sword struck Redyat's back as if it had struck iron. The blade did not leave even the faintest scratch.
Pito's claws fared no better. Armament Haki wrapped Redyat in an impenetrable shell.
Redyat smiled and spun. Two rapid kicks flew out, too fast for any of them to fully react.
Only Pito sensed danger in time, leaping back twenty meters and avoiding the blow.
The others were not as fortunate. Wallace and several more were sent crashing through trees. Pouf twisted midair to regain control. Laffitte slammed into a trunk hard enough to split it. Nelson avoided collision only by using his ability repeatedly to flicker across the forest.
Kaguya endured the full brunt, his body covered in bone spikes that formed a solid armor. The kick shattered them instantly. Bond-hard protection broke like brittle shells under Redyat's power.
He dug his bone blades into the soil to stop himself from being thrown farther.
In just a few exchanges, they were overwhelmed. Redyat had not even broken a sweat.
Teach had sparred with them the same way countless times. The similarity was unmistakable.
Teach always trained them like this, forcing them to fight him together so they would experience what a higher tier of power felt like and never stop climbing.
By Teach's own evaluation, the combined might of the Nightfall Pirate executives was strong enough to bring down a Marine Vice Admiral.
Strength. Speed. Haki. Redyat eclipsed all three.
"How is that possible? Wallace and the others cannot do anything to him," one pirate whispered from the distant treeline.
They had obeyed Wallace's earlier command to keep distance, yet the outcome was unmistakable even from afar.
Clemons clenched his fists. "Sister Baccarat, can you tell if they are in danger?"
Baccarat watched quietly. "Do not worry. They should not be in mortal danger," she said, offering a soft smile that did little to hide the worry beneath.
She could sense their luck decreasing, but not catastrophically. That suggested a spar more than a killing match.
What unsettled her more was Redyat.
Her Lucky-Lucky Fruit had no effect on him. She could not absorb even a sliver of his luck. That level of disparity had only occurred with Teach, who used Haki to block her ability.
But Redyat did not know her power. He should not have known to defend against it. So how could he feel or anticipate such an intangible force?
Her eyes widened further. She looked again.
Teach and Redyat shared the same fate line. Equal in fortune. Equal in danger. Equal in strength. That was what frightened her most.
Unseen by the others, a faint purple glow flickered deep within Redyat's pupils. He stood still, observing something unseen, lost in some unreadable thought.
Wallace and the others paused, startled by his dazed expression, but none of them wasted the chance.
Nelson flashed forward. Appearing behind Redyat, he swung his sword with brutal precision.
Redyat countered instantly with a backhand slash.
At the same instant, Nelson clenched his teeth and activated his true objective.
Redyat vanished as Nelson's space swallowed him whole.
Inside the distorted plane, Redyat examined the collapsing dimension around him. Spatial pressure pressed against him, but it was nowhere near enough to overwhelm him.
He raised his sword and slashed the space itself. It cracked open like brittle glass, then slowly began repairing itself.
Redyat leapt cleanly into the rift.
Nelson coughed a mouthful of blood as the backlash hit him. His entire body went numb. His ability's flaw always punished him brutally whenever someone escaped by force.
He reappeared a hundred meters away, barely standing.
The moment he vanished, Redyat reemerged in the clearing.
Pito and the others had already closed in. A single second was enough for all of them to reach him.
Redyat sensed everything. Dodging was impossible in this compressed moment.
He did not need to dodge.
Armament Haki flooded over his body, turning him into a black iron fortress.
Every attack bounced off harmlessly.
Redyat struck back. His sweeping kick blasted them away like brittle twigs.
Wallace cratered into the ground. Pito, Laffitte, Pouf , Nelson, Kaguya and Van Augur all hit the earth or trees in violent arcs.
The outcome had not changed once.
A few minutes later, the formerly unstoppable executives were left panting and bloodied, barely standing.
Van Augur leaned against a tree, staring blankly at the sky after exhausting every bullet he had. No matter how he aimed, Redyat always avoided the shot with effortless ease.
Pouf crouched on a branch, catching ragged breaths. Laffitte licked the blood from his lips, his hands trembling.
Kaguya, Wallace, and Pito had been targeted more heavily but remained conscious thanks to their monstrous vitality.
They had tried everything. They had not landed a single meaningful blow.
Yet they still tried to stand.
Redyat lowered his sword and turned toward a tree on the far side of the clearing.
"Aren't you going to come out?" he asked, smiling slightly.
No one had sensed him. Not even Van Augur.
Teach stood on a branch, watching silently.