Looking at Yemu before him, his whole body wrapped in a flowing layer of Armament Haki like a suit of clothing, with nine scorching fire dragons coursing across it,
the certainty on Captain John's face finally disappeared.
"What is this feeling?!"
He had only put his blade away, yet it felt as if the shackles on this kid's body had been removed.
Meeting Yemu's cold gaze, John felt as though some savage beast had just been let loose.
In that instant, he sensed an extreme danger.
But just as Yemu was confident, John, as one of the dozen or so strongest men on the seas, though still a bit below a monster like Whitebeard, was not the kind of man who would show fear before a mere youth. On the contrary, the killing intent in his heart only deepened.
Just as the kid had said earlier, with the strength Yemu was showing now, perhaps this really was the weakest he would ever be. If John did not deal with him here and now, then even with the Cloud-Cloud Fruit in hand, such a powerful Logia, John, already approaching old age, had no confidence that he could defeat him in the future.
And though he hated to admit it, while his swordsmanship was indeed far superior to the kid's, after fighting this long, aside from that last strike, he had not dealt Yemu any truly serious damage.
Even now, with blood still flowing from the boy's chest, it did not seem to have affected his fighting ability in the slightest.
And because of that strange Haki-wrapping power, the bleeding had already begun to slow.
"So it's the gap in Devil Fruit usage?"
John understood the reason without even thinking.
Yemu's swordsmanship was crude, but with the help of flames, even that rough style had become nimble. And that scorching heat was so intense that even John did not dare touch it carelessly.
Fortunately, after this stretch of battle, he had also begun to gradually grasp the Devil Fruit power he now possessed, so...
"Four Heavenly Pillars of Cloud!"
In an instant, John began to elementalize. Countless clouds poured out from his body and fell around the remains of Warship Island, forming four massive cloud pillars that seemed to hold up the sky.
Each of those four cloud pillars contained a different power: ice, wind, lightning, and rain.
And as John raised his twin blades high, the four cloud pillars seemed to resonate with his body.
Visible currents of ice, wind, lightning, and rain began gathering onto his weapons.
Having done all that, John's excitement surged.
"What an incredible power. The power of a Devil Fruit!"
Feeling that control over the weather itself, he became sure of victory once more.
Not far away, Yemu, seeing this, had to admit it too.
The ability this Devil Fruit displayed exceeded his expectations.
Then the second round began...
In an instant, as if by mutual understanding, both men kicked off the air at the same time with a sound like an explosion and shot toward each other again.
John had already sensed that once this kid cast aside the restraints of swordsmanship, he had become far more dangerous.
But when they actually clashed again, John still found something unbelievable.
"Phantom Sword!"
The same familiar attack came again, a dense web of blade-light slashing toward Yemu.
But this time, Yemu, completely protected by Armament Haki, did not even bother dodging. He let the slashes hit him head-on.
"How is that possible..."
John had not used his full strength with that strike. It was still only a probe. But it was still a Grand Master's slash, and the blade carried the internal destruction power of his strongest Armament Haki.
And yet even that had failed to break through Yemu's Haki defense.
"Hey... hey... that's just absurd. In that case..."
"Falling Star!"
A meteor-like slash shot straight at the incoming Yemu.
And John saw something even more unbelievable.
"Get lost!"
Yemu raised his fist high. Nine black-and-red fire dragons gathered around it, then he smashed out a punch with all his might.
"What?!"
John's full-power slash was blown apart by a single punch from Yemu.
With a thunderous blast, Yemu burst through the exploding shockwave and appeared right in front of him.
Stunned, John only had time to bring his twin blades across his body in a simple guard.
But even so, the moment Yemu's fist struck,
he felt an utterly irresistible force pass straight through the blades and into his body.
For an instant, it felt like his whole body had been thrown into chaos. He could not even use elementalization.
"Boom..."
John's body was sent flying like a cannonball.
But even then, Yemu's attack did not stop. He closed the distance at high speed, clearly intending to finish him off completely.
"You've got to be kidding me... This kid... that kind of physical strength is practically on the same level as that freak Newgate..."
That blow had shaken John badly.
But in the instant the punch landed, he had also seen through something.
Why had this kid suddenly stopped fearing his slashes?
"So that's it. In the middle of battle, by making his Haki flow, he changes the thickness and intensity of the Haki in different parts of his body, using it to temporarily boost both defense and destructive power. And he can also use something similar to Haki emission to instantly increase his explosive force?"
Even John had to admire the ingenuity of this technique called Demon Bind.
It reminded him of the Haki technique unique to the samurai nation of Wano, Ryuo.
But...
As John spun rapidly, dispersing the tremendous force and steadying himself, he also realized the weakness of the technique.
It was undeniably powerful, but it consumed a tremendous amount of Haki.
"How long can your Haki keep that up?"
With that thought, he looked at the rapidly approaching Yemu.
John swung his twin blades, and the ice, wind, lightning, and rain within the four cloud pillars around him began spinning at high speed.
"Four Cloud Beasts!"
As John brought his twin blades down, the sky overhead changed drastically.
Yemu looked up to see the powers of ice, wind, lightning, and rain take shape as four roaring beasts. With their jaws wide open, they swallowed him whole.
In an instant, the four cloud beasts merged into one, and within that mass of cloud, the powers of ice, wind, lightning, and rain poured down on Yemu without restraint.
The sky flashed with every kind of light.
Seeing that, John finally let out a breath.
"That should burn through a lot of his Haki."
But before he could feel relieved for more than a few seconds,
flames suddenly burst out from the lightning-filled clouds. A massive fireball appeared, blazing like a sun. Its scorching heat evaporated all the moisture, devoured every surrounding cloud, and illuminated the whole pitch-black world.
And at the center of that fireball, Yemu appeared, staring coldly at John as he said,
"Did you forget? I'm a Logia user too, and my flames are stronger than yours."
As the words fell, the giant fireball suddenly began to spin and compress, condensing into a rolling sphere of fire like molten lava, nearly black-red in color.
"Great Flame Rasengan!"