Four sharp white bones struck Kankani in the next instant. Two punched through his right upper arm, slicing into flesh before splitting bone. A third drove deep into his lower abdomen. His body trembled under the shock, yet he held on. The final two spikes hit his steel gauntlets, punching through the metal and lodging into his arms.
Before he could react, Kaguya was already upon him. Two bone blades slid smoothly from Kaguya's own body as he advanced, his expression steady, his movements precise. Kaguya never allowed his opponents even a second of breathing room. In battle, he fought with perfect clarity and zero hesitation.
A machine designed for killing.
Kankani understood that pulling the bone spikes out would only worsen his condition. He raised his fists despite the agony ripping through him, meeting Kaguya's relentless onslaught head-on. His gauntlets were already covered in cut marks, and his body had gained several deep wounds. Even so, Kankani continued searching for a chance to counterattack.
He failed to notice that every wound and bone spike carried traces of Kaguya's bone matter. It seeped into him like a living substance, spreading through blood and tissue, waiting for the moment Kaguya commanded it.
Kankani finally saw an opening and drove a punch straight toward Kaguya's face. Kaguya twisted to the side with fluid grace. For a man built leaner than Kankani, Kaguya possessed far greater flexibility, as well as monstrous instincts honed through countless battles.
As Kaguya dodged, a bone spike sprung suddenly from his shoulder, angled precisely for Kankani's arm. The spike pierced his arm cleanly.
"Bone Armor: Pierce." Kaguya's voice was calm as he seized Kankani's arm with one hand.
Pain exploded through Kankani's body and he recoiled reflexively, but Kaguya yanked him forward. After witnessing the Bone-Bone Fruit's abilities, Kankani already knew that any technique with a name was dangerous.
A wave of sharp bone spikes burst outward from Kaguya's body. Their points aimed for Kankani's torso. Kankani reacted with pure survival instinct, wrenching himself backward hard enough that his arm tore free. He lost the limb, but he avoided being shredded alive.
Even Kaguya paused for a moment, surprised by such decisive brutality.
But Kankani's fate had already been sealed.
As he staggered back, trying to regain his breath, his spine stiffened. He froze in place. A white sheen spread over the wound on his abdomen, bone matter growing across his skin. At the same time, the spikes embedded in his arm and gauntlets dissolved into his body completely.
Kaguya manipulated every bit of bone he had inserted into Kankani, controlling their growth from within.
Kankani coughed violently, blood spilling from his mouth. His wide eyes filled with horror as his body stopped obeying him. He looked down, trembling, just in time to see a sharp bone spike burst through his chest from the inside, driven straight into his heart.
His body collapsed lifelessly. The battle was over.
Nearby, Pito fought Sinclair with much less effort. She flickered constantly around him with graceful, agile speed. Her claws occasionally sliced across his body, drawing blood. Sinclair struggled to keep up, his reactions far too slow and his movements too heavy.
Despite fighting him, Pito's eyes seemed unfocused. Her attention drifted toward Teach's battle deep inside the palace. The ground trembled with each exchange between Teach and Jones.
Pito's divided focus enraged Sinclair. Feeling insulted, he gripped his greatsword with both hands. He had survived countless life-and-death battles and believed he understood how to punish those who underestimated him.
Because Pito followed the same fighting rhythm repeatedly, Sinclair gradually adapted. When her claw came again, he dodged ahead of time and shouted, "Die, brat!" His blade swung with everything he had, aimed straight for her exposed side.
Pito blinked back to full awareness, faintly surprised yet calm. She slipped aside in a clean movement, her claws extending as she prepared to counter.
Sinclair had no chance to react. His own momentum was too heavy, his swing too committed. Pito vanished from his line of sight for a split second. She used Soru instinctively, her body bending and weaving like it weighed nothing.
In that moment of crisis, something awakened in Sinclair. His instincts, sharpened through years of battle, pushed him to the limit. He saw Pito's movement clearly for the first time. His body responded before his mind caught up, pulling back the heavy sword and smashing it sideways into Pito.
Her arm snapped up reflexively to block, yet the force still sent her flying more than twenty meters. She flipped, landed on her feet, skidded back, and straightened slowly.
Kaguya watched from the side, already finished with his battle. Pito remembered that she had been splitting her focus between Sinclair and Teach, and now she was behind.
Her Observation Haki spread out like a dome over the palace, picking up the positions of every crewmate and every battlefield. Many of the Nightfall Pirates had already finished fighting and were gathering to witness Teach's final clash with Jones.
Pito exhaled with slight annoyance. "I will deal with you first."
Her slender frame lowered. Her legs tensed like coils, a faint sound crackling from the pressure. Despite her petite build, Pito possessed monstrous strength and explosive power. Life Return only amplified her abilities further.
A faint red aura surrounded her. This was the manifestation of her Observation Haki's strange magnetic field, a pressure that induced fear and negative emotion in anyone caught within it. Teach had studied this phenomenon, noting how Pito's simple nature made her malice unusually potent.
If her strength grew, such malice could destroy the mental defenses of most foes.
"Kuroko's Dance." Her voice was soft and cold.
Sinclair froze the moment he heard it. His heart pounded wildly as fear swallowed him. The red light shimmered around Pito's body, and the killing intent grew sharp enough to feel.
She vanished. The speed pushed her beyond visibility for normal eyes. Her movement cut straight through Sinclair before he even understood what happened.
His arms tore off at the shoulders, and two deep claw marks opened across his neck. Blood spilled. His body wavered, then toppled.
Pito blinked in mild surprise at the technique's sheer force. Even so, the result aligned perfectly with her expectations.
Inside the palace, the clash between Teach and Jones raged on. The battlefield had become a wasteland of shattered stone and torn earth. No one dared come within one hundred fifty meters of them.
Teach dodged Jones's massive tentacles, striking back with claws and kicking out huge Rankyaku waves twenty meters long. Jones used his enormous tentacles to block the attacks. Despite the gashes Teach inflicted, Jones's size and monstrous regeneration gave him a massive advantage.
Every wound on Jones's tentacles split open cleanly, then mended soon after. No blood flowed. Only flesh parted, then sealed again.
The true battle was far from over.