On the island's coastline, as a wave of air exploded, two figures separated abruptly in the dust.
“Hahahaha! How exhilarating! This is too exhilarating!” Kozuki Oden's wooden clogs clattered.
He acted like a madman, gesticulating wildly, even letting out strange 'oh oh oh' cries in his excitement.
Gern stood on the fractured rock formation not far away, black blade eight desolations slowly rotating in his hand, the blade humming with high-frequency vibrations.
At the same time, Oden's wild figure was reflected in his pupils as he calmly analyzed in his mind:
“Three types of Haki, Voice of All Things, monstrous physique... If it were the Oden who would later go to the ultimate island with Roger and be dubbed 'unbeatable,' I would have no chance of winning right now.”
The sea breeze swept through the gunpowder smoke. Gern slowly raised his hand, unbuttoning his Marine cloak and letting it flutter in the wind.
Then he tightened his grip on the hilt, pale particles re-condensing on the blade: “But the current Kozuki Oden has only been at sea for a year; his strength is, at most, limited to approaching Admiral-level….”
“Since that’s the case…” Thinking this, Gern suddenly looked up, a red light flashing in his eyes.
“I'll use you as a whetstone… to test where my limits lie!!”
Before his words even fell, Gern's Haoshoku erupted again. Dark purple lightning arcs coiled around his entire body like mad snakes, and the ground beneath his feet cracked inch by inch.
The dark purple Haoshoku exploded outwards in a ring, centered on Gern, like a volcanic eruption.
Oden, who was about to charge over, suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes, beneath his triangular sideburns, wide open.
“Haoshoku?!” Oden’s wild laughter froze on his face. “There’s one in the Marine too?!”
Immediately after, in the next second, he let out an even more excited cry: “Interesting!!”
At the same time, his Haoshoku also erupted, and crimson air currents fiercely collided with Gern's purple lightning in the air.
“Crack… snap!” Amidst the teeth-gritting cracking sounds, Oden’s Haoshoku aura was actually suppressed.
“What the hell…” Oden staggered back two steps, a look of shock appearing on his face for the first time.
“This guy’s Haki aura… is actually stronger than mine?!”
While Oden was momentarily stunned, Gern seized the opportunity, his figure instantly lunging forward. black blade eight desolations drew a pale arc of light: “Heaven Quake: Instant Slash!”
Where the blade passed, space shattered like glass, and the high-frequency vibrating slash went straight for Oden’s throat.
Oden reacted extremely quickly, crossing his two swords to block.
“Clang!” The deafening clang of metal collision was immense, and a visible shockwave spread out in a spherical shape.
The ground beneath his feet collapsed with a roar. His arm muscles bulged, yet he was still pushed down by this single slash.
“You, what immense strength!!” Under the heavy pressure, Oden laughed even more wildly: “But, it’s a good strike!”
Oden used the recoil to spin sharply, raising his two swords to deflect Gern's slash, then counter-attacked with a backhand strike.
“Oden Two-Sword Style: Reverse Scale!” The two swords drew a perfect black-red arc. Gern's Observation Haki warned him, and he quickly leaned back.
A thin line of blood spurted from his left cheek—he was only a hair's breadth away from having half his head sliced off.
“It’s not over yet!” Oden’s offensive came in a storm, his two swords transforming into countless afterimages: “Oden Two-Sword Style: Wild Cherry Blossoms!”
The two swords swung, and the attacks swiftly swept towards Gern.
Gern's pupils constricted at the sight. Eight Desolations danced in front of him, forming an impenetrable barrier.
Each time the swords clashed, pale particles would reflect part of the impact, but Oden’s slashes were simply too dense.
One blade light broke through his defense, tearing a wound on his left shoulder.
“I can’t fight a swordsman up close!” Gern, knowing he wasn’t skilled in swordsmanship, seized an opportunity to leap high into the air, plunging his blade downwards into the ground.
This triggered a torrent of eight-directional shockwaves. The ground split open like petals, engulfing all enemies within the range.
Seeing this, Oden decisively retreated, but when he jumped into mid-air, Gern’s figure had already vanished from his original spot.
“When did he…!” Oden’s Observation Haki captured Gern’s aura, and he glanced sideways.
He saw Gern, semi-elementalized, condensing in front of him. Gern hardened his left fist with Armament Haki, and vibrating particles compressed to the fist’s tip.
“Black Tremor: Meteor!” Gern unleashed a punch, and Oden, unable to react in time, took a direct hit to his side.
With a shattering sound, Oden’s entire body twisted, then his body ascended high into the sky, tumbling like a kite with a broken string, blood splattering from the corner of his mouth.
However, just as he was about to break through the clouds, a black-red lightning flash suddenly appeared in his vision.
It was Gern, who should have been on the ground, appearing above him again at an even faster speed!
“You…”
“You have even less chance in the air!” Gern’s right arm completely transformed into flowing vibrating particles.
Dark red Armament Haki formed spiral patterns at his elbow joint, spreading throughout his entire arm.
Oden’s pupils contracted violently. He saw the opponent’s splayed fingers, like the talons of a predatory bird, grabbing towards his face, carrying high-frequency vibrations that distorted space.
“This is bad!!”
The moment his Armament Haki-hardened fingers clasped Oden’s jaw, Gern’s entire right arm muscles suddenly swelled threefold: “Black Tremor: Heaven’s Fall!!!!”
An impact wave comparable to a meteor strike exploded between the two. Oden’s samurai topknot immediately came undone.
His hair danced wildly in the violent airflow, and his body plummeted from high altitude like a meteor.
The air was compressed, producing a piercing roar, and his kimono ignited with crimson flames from the high-speed friction, trailing a long fiery tail.
“Whoosh—Boom!!!”
Oden slammed heavily into the center of the Deserted Island. The ground shattered like fragile thin ice, and terrifying shockwaves spread out in a ring.
Mountains within several hundred meters collapsed in an instant!
Crushed rocks, wood splinters, and clods of earth were shaken high into the sky, and dust surged up like a tsunami, obscuring the sky.
“Ugh wah!” Oden violently coughed up a large mouthful of blood, his back deeply sunken into the ground.
The rock layer beneath him was forcibly smashed into a meteor crater tens of meters in diameter, with spiderweb-like cracks spreading wildly.
Oden’s fingers dug deeply into the ground, trying to prop himself up, but his entire skeleton felt as if it were falling apart, and his internal organs churned from the impact.
His vision blurred for a moment, but very quickly, gritting his teeth, the blade of Enma plunged deeply into the ground, supporting him as he slowly stood up.
“As expected of a vibration similar to Bai Ji’s, it really hurts… However, it’s my turn next!!”
........
Just as Gern was catching his breath, a startled cry suddenly erupted.
“Oden Two-Sword Style…” In the deep pit, Oden let out a loud laugh, and a violent slash erupted from underground.
Immediately after, he stomped his foot, the ground exploded, and his figure shot towards Gern like a cannonball.
As his two swords swung, black-red slashes poured down like a torrential rain: “Chaotic Blades!!!”
This time, Gern was knocked back to the ground. Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, he said coldly, “Your physique really is monstrous.”
After speaking, he tightened his grip on Eight Desolations, and the blade glowed with a pale light again, rushing upwards!
Facing Oden's attack, Gern neither dodged nor evaded. black blade eight desolations rotated in his hand, and vibrating particles formed an invisible barrier, shattering all of Oden's slashes.
At the same time, he clenched his left hand into a fist, and high-frequency vibrating pale particles condensed at the peak of his fist.
As he unleashed a punch, space shattered like a mirror. Although Oden's Observation Haki predicted this strike, Gern's vibration ability still caused his movements to pause slightly.