"That damned light-speed bastard!!! How dare he screw this god over!!!"
Enel's furious roar was still echoing across the dock when the icy killing intent rolling in from the sea sharpened—like a spear of solidified frost—locking onto him with absolute precision!
It was obvious that Hawk-Eyes had redirected all of his rage (and humiliation) onto this loudmouthed "god" who was still clutching the incriminating evidence.
The instant the small boat touched the shore, Hawk-Eyes' figure vanished!
Not through elemental transformation—
But through sheer, terrifying leg strength.
His body launched forward like a cannonball, and the wooden boat beneath him cracked open with several sharp fissures from the recoil alone!
Almost simultaneously, Enel's Observation Haki screamed a warning. Without thinking, lightning exploded around his body as he attempted to disperse into electricity and pull away.
However—
A massive pitch-black slash appeared in front of him as if it had teleported there!
The strike was so fast it surpassed lightning's own reaction speed, and worse—it had perfectly predicted the trajectory of his elemental escape!
Before the blade even arrived, the extreme compression of the slash's wind pressure was already tearing painfully at Enel's skin!
"What?!" Enel's pupils shrank violently. With no time to dodge, he could only coat his golden staff in Armament Haki and block with everything he had!
CLANG—!!!!!!
A deafening collision of metal erupted!
Enel felt an unimaginable force surge through the golden staff, as if a mountain moving at full speed had slammed into him head-on!
His Haki-coated arms groaned under the strain. His body was completely uncontrollable as he was cleaved backward, smashing violently into a pile of newly stacked construction materials behind him!
Rubble exploded outward in every direction!
Hawk-Eyes didn't pause for even an instant after landing the blow.
He touched down without a sound. The massive black blade Yoru felt weightless in his hands as he rotated it slightly. With a subtle shift of his footwork, his silhouette blurred once more!
Enel had barely struggled up from the ruins when his vision flickered again—the black figure was already upon him, like a specter.
Gripping the sword with both hands, Hawk-Eyes brought the enormous blade straight down in a brutally simple vertical cleave!
No flourish. No tricks.
Only pure speed, raw power, and an absolute will to cut through anything in his path!
Enel roared, pushing his lightning to the absolute limit. His body erupted into electric light as he tried to retreat backward at full speed while unleashing chaotic lightning to interfere!
But Hawk-Eyes' Observation Haki was clearly on an entirely different level!
Mid-swing, the vertical cleave subtly adjusted its angle. The tip of the blade traced a bizarre arc through the air, still biting straight toward Enel's vital point!
Shrrrk!
Even with an extreme last-second dodge, Enel's chest was still sliced open by the razor-sharp sword aura. A long gash split his skin, fiery pain ripping through him as a thin line of blood seeped out.
"Bastard!" Enel exploded with fury, hammering his golden staff against the thunder drums on his back. "Two hundred million volts—Thunder Dragon!!"
A ferocious lightning dragon roared into existence, jaws wide as it lunged to swallow Hawk-Eyes whole!
Facing this violent assault, Hawk-Eyes' gaze remained calm. He didn't even step back.
Instead, he began to move the black blade Yoru before him.
With swordsmanship so exquisite it bordered on the unreal, he constructed an absolute defensive sword curtain—one so tight not even a drop of water could pass through!
The massive black blade seemed almost alive in his hands. Every block, every redirection, every slash was executed with perfect timing and flawless control!
The rampaging Thunder Dragon crashed into the sword curtain—
And was forcibly shredded and diverted by the dense lattice of blade light!
Countless fragmented lightning serpents were flung outward, blasting craters across the dock as they detonated—but none of them could harm Hawk-Eyes in the slightest!
He even advanced forward through the Thunder Dragon's remaining energy.
Step by step.
Steady. Unwavering.
Each footfall pressed down on Enel's psyche like a crushing weight!
Enel frantically unleashed lightning spears, thunder beasts, and every form of violent attack he could muster, trying to drown his opponent in sheer destructive force.
But Hawk-Eyes' swordsmanship had already reached the realm of perfection.
Cleave. Cut. Lift. Thrust.
Every movement was stripped down to its most efficient form.
There were no unnecessary flourishes—yet each action dissolved Enel's onslaught at the lowest possible cost, all while continuously probing for a counterstrike.
This was the true might of the world's greatest swordsman.
No fancy techniques.
Only swordsmanship refined to its absolute, unreachable peak!
"He's completely different from that Kuja woman… this man has no openings at all. His mind is terrifyingly calm—I can't read him, can't predict anything…
Swordsmanship… can really reach this level?" Enel grew more shaken with every exchange!
He realized his greatest pride—his speed—was being heavily suppressed by Hawk-Eyes' all-seeing Observation Haki and flawless footwork!
And every seemingly simple counterattack forced him into a frantic scramble.
He could only rely on elementalization to evade passively—but the gaps between transformations, the moments where Haki defense faltered, were being steadily compressed… seized… exploited!
Only now did Enel truly understand—
This swordsman was nothing like any opponent he had faced before!
This wasn't an enemy you could overwhelm with brute force or bizarre abilities.
This was a man who had honed both technique and power to their absolute limits—a true sovereign standing at the pinnacle of swordsmanship!
A swordsman with top-tier technique and Haki was the natural nemesis of someone like him, who relied on Devil Fruit powers!
Especially when—
Shhk!A terrifyingly condensed flying slash silently split through the residual lightning in the air.
Enel desperately dispersed into electricity to dodge the main body of the attack—but the edge of the slash grazed his arm!
"Gah!" He cried out as a sharp, unmistakable tearing pain ripped through his limb.
Elementalization… didn't fully avoid it?!
BAM!
In the very next instant, Hawk-Eyes seized the brief hesitation caused by the pain and surged forward!
The sword hilt smashed into Enel's abdomen like a sledgehammer!
"Ghk—!" Enel felt his organs shift violently as agony and suffocation slammed into him all at once.
The lightning around his body collapsed instantly. He doubled over like a shrimp and was blasted backward once again, crashing deep into the ruins and kicking up a cloud of dust.
This time—
He didn't get back up immediately.
As the dust slowly settled, Hawk-Eyes stood there with the massive black blade Yoru in hand.
His breathing was steady. His gaze remained cold and unchanged.
As if that brutal, high-intensity battle had been nothing more than a warm-up.
The gap in strength—
Was already painfully, unmistakably clear!!!!
...
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