Bang!
The sea-stone-tipped bullet sliced through the air.
And just like that, Redfield was gone.
Augur's eyes went wide. His Observation Haki flared up, sensing an intense wave of danger. Behind him!
He spun around, swinging Senriku like a battering ram.
But it was too late.
Redfield's closed umbrella slammed into his ribs.
CRACK!
The impact shattered the stillness around them. Augur was sent flying sideways, crashing through a massive mangrove tree before hitting the ground hard. Blood sprayed from his mouth.
Using the stock of his rifle to prop himself up, he fired blindly from the dirt.
Bang!
Redfield merely tilted his head, the bullet whizzing past his silver hair.
Bang!
With a flick of his wrist, Redfield deflected the second shot with the tip of his umbrella.
Augur clenched his jaw. He executed a quick burst of footwork, leaping backward, desperate to re-establish his sniper's distance. Twenty yards. Forty yards. Eighty yards.
He raised Senriku.
And then Redfield vanished again.
Clang!
The umbrella collided with the barrel of Augur's rifle. Metal shrieked under the strain, and Augur nearly lost his grip, stumbling back as he stared at the heavy dent now marring his weapon. His eye twitched in anger.
"You've damaged my rifle," Augur hissed, his voice dropping to a chilling whisper.
"Does that mean something?" Redfield asked, his tone calm and collected.
"It means everything to me."
Redfield lunged forward. Augur ducked just in time to avoid the umbrella's point.
The air pressure from the strike carved a trench into the forest floor, splintering the trees behind them.
Augur rolled through the dust, firing twice in quick succession. Redfield sidestepped both shots with effortless ease.
Augur turned and bolted. He needed a hundred meters. If he could slip into the thick fog of the island, Senriku could finally do its job. He had nearly met his end in close combat against Gerrard; he wouldn't make that mistake again.
He blurred through the trees, glancing back. The path behind him was clear.
He turned his head forward—and froze in place. Redfield was strolling right beside him, keeping up effortlessly, not even breaking a sweat.
"Your form is a bit off," Redfield remarked casually.
Augur swung the butt of his rifle at him. Redfield caught it with a single, gloved hand. Not wanting to get into a struggle, Augur quickly let go of the rifle, pulled a flintlock pistol from his coat with his left hand, and fired it point-blank at Redfield's face.
Bang!
Redfield leaned back just in time, letting the bullet whiz past. Augur followed up with a heavy kick aimed at the old man's chest. It felt like kicking a solid wall.
Redfield didn't budge an inch.
Instead, he shot out his hand, grabbing Augur by the ankle and swinging him around like a ragdoll. Augur crashed through two ancient trees, the wood splintering on impact.
For a long moment, Augur lay in the dirt, coughing up blood.
Pato flapped frantically through the smoke, landing on his chest. "Chi! Chi! Hey, get up!"
"I am... huh, did that bird just talk?" Augur wheezed, his glasses cracked, blood trickling down his brow. His coat was torn at the shoulder, and every breath felt like shards of glass in his lungs.
Redfield calmly stepped through the haze.
Augur picked up Senriku. The scope was shattered, the stock splintered, and the barrel was warped.
"Why does everyone go after the rifle?" Augur muttered, genuine venom creeping into his otherwise flat tone.
Redfield stopped a few steps away. "Maybe you should think about getting a sturdier weapon."
"I'd prefer to take your head instead."
Redfield raised an eyebrow, his crimson eyes narrowing. "Your weapon is wrecked. Your bones are broken. Your ammo is gone. Yet your spirit remains unbroken. Why is that?"
Augur aimed the broken rifle. "Because fate hasn't written me off yet."
Bang!
Redfield deflected the shot without even looking. "A commendable delusion."
The old pirate moved. Augur's Haki sensed the trajectory, but his battered body couldn't keep up. He twisted his torso, allowing the umbrella to smash into his shoulder instead of his skull.
The impact sent him sliding across the ground. Redfield wasted no time, launching a relentless flurry of precise, blinding strikes.
Left. Augur ducked.
Right. Augur parried with Senriku, the wood splintering under the pressure.
A thrust aimed at his chest sent blood spraying from Augur's mouth, knocking him backward onto the earth.
He lay there, gasping for breath.
Redfield leaned casually against his umbrella, looking down like a judge passing sentence. "The era of Roger birthed absolute monsters. Men who could command the seas, topple kingdoms, and reshape the world with just their presence."
Augur spat blood onto the grass. "And where... did you fit in?"
"I stood alone," Redfield replied, his tone stripped of arrogance, carrying the heavy weight of undeniable truth.
"And yet, I walked alongside them as an equal."
Roger. Whitebeard. Golden Lion. And Patrick Redfield. A lone wolf who needed no crew to stand toe-to-toe with the gods of the sea.
Augur's hand slipped into his coat. Three rounds left. He loaded them into the chamber by feel alone.
Redfield observed him. "Still at it?"
Augur pulled himself to his feet, raising the battered weapon. "Still."
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three shots rang out in a heartbeat. Redfield moved like a ghost between them. The first shot went wide. The second was deflected by his umbrella. The third...
Redfield paused, glancing down at his sleeve. A small, clean tear marred the fabric of his coat.
He looked back at Augur. "Impressive."
Augur lowered the empty gun, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "Clearly not enough."
Redfield raised his umbrella, the tip aimed squarely at Augur's throat. "No. But better than most."
Augur kicked Redfield in the chest and rolled back, creating some space between them.
Suddenly, Pato let out a sharp cry and pulled a large feather from his own wing. "Chi!" He thrust the feather into Augur's hand, then kicked a fallen leaf toward him.
Augur stared at the bird, utterly perplexed. "What on earth is this?"
"Write on it!" Pato shouted in a panic. "Write something that'll blow him away!"
Augur blinked, his icy demeanor cracking as disbelief washed over him. "You can actually talk?"
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT RIGHT NOW!" Pato yelled.
Redfield's expression darkened, a flicker of real anger breaking through his calm exterior. "Pato... you'd give your power to a stranger? To a pirate?"
The tanuki-bird flared his wings protectively in front of the injured sniper. "He fought for me!"
Redfield's gaze turned frigid. "How disappointing."
"Come on, hurry!" Pato urged.
Augur glanced at the feather, then at the leaf.
If the talking bird was right, he couldn't whip up a weapon to take down a legend in an instant.
But a distraction?
With swift precision, Augur traced a word onto the leaf.
Suddenly, the leaf burst into a brilliant violet mist. The matter expanded, solidifying into cold iron, gears, and a black-powder fuse.
In mere moments, a compact, heavy-duty hand cannon was cradled in Augur's hands.
"Let's see if fate has a sense of humor," Augur murmured.
Redfield lunged.
Augur squeezed the hefty trigger.
BOOM!
A thunderous blast reverberated through the entire forest. Redfield's eyes widened as he had to pivot mid-air.
The massive cannonball whizzed past his hip, crashing into a giant mangrove tree behind him. The trunk exploded into a shower of splinters, causing the enormous tree to tilt and crash down, sending a massive cloud of debris and dust into the air.
Augur didn't waste a second. He grabbed Pato by the scruff of his neck, turned, and vanished into the blinding fog.
As the dust settled, Redfield landed gracefully on a fallen log. He could have chased after them. His Haki still sensed the faint, fading aura of the sniper.
But he stayed put.
He raised his hand, staring at his wrinkled, liver-spotted skin. His grip trembled slightly before he clenched it into a fist.
"I have grown slow," Redfield murmured, his voice bitter.
In his prime, a parlor trick from a Devil Fruit wouldn't have forced him to dodge. In his prime, no sniper would have left this forest alive.
Time was the one enemy he could not read, and it was stealing everything—his speed, his strength, his youth.
His crimson eyes burned into the mist. "Pato... you cannot run forever."