It happened too suddenly.
Caught completely off guard, Ares was yanked straight toward Rocks. The moment Rocks' palm touched his body
"In front of me, all abilities are meaningless."
Rocks' expression twisted into a vicious snarl. His eyes, overflowing with Haki, radiated the unshakable conviction of a man who believed himself invincible.
Before Ares could even react
Rocks punched.
The air screamed as a devastating force traveled down his pitch-black arm, slamming into Ares' abdominal muscles. His fist sank deep into the wall of hardened muscle.
Boom!
Ares shot out like a cannonball, smashing through the castle wall and plummeting dozens of meters from Skull Castle.
He crashed into the ground like a meteor, raising a towering cloud of dust.
Rocks stepped to the shattered edge of the wall and leapt down. Like a giant hawk diving through the wind, he landed and said coldly,
"Ares… On Beehive Island, there is no one absolutely no one who is allowed to challenge my authority."
He strode toward the settling dust.
Inside the dust cloud
"What ability was that…?"
"How bizarre."
The instant Rocks' hand touched him, Ares felt his Azure Dragon Fruit vanish as if it had been sealed away entirely.
He pressed his hand against his abdomen. Rocks' fist had left a deep imprint there, accompanied by a sting he had long grown numb to.
He rose from the crater and stepped out of the shadows, looking at Rocks with a burning, stubborn determination.
"I only want to take back my crewmate."
"Stubborn fool." Rocks scoffed, his eagle-like eyes sweeping across Ares' half-healed wound. "Your body is indeed monstrous. That punch should've seriously injured anyone else but on you it barely counts as a scratch."
"But there is no one in this sea whom I, Rocks, cannot defeat."
As he spoke, black smoke began swirling behind him, rising like a dark column of flames.
It pierced upward like a black blade stabbing through the heavens.
Rage surged in Rocks' eyes. Even if Ares bowed his head now, Rocks would not relent.
He was the captain of the Rocks Pirates
and today he would remind the world what that meant.
In the blink of an eye
The rolling black smoke condensed into a colossal dragon of darkness. Its form twisted like a king of the abyss, shrouded in murderous intent, its vast body hovering over the battlefield.
Its rotating eyes were twin spirals of pure darkness, as if they could swallow all things.
Ares looked up at the behemoth ten meters tall, a mountain of shadow and felt a pressure unlike anything he had ever experienced.
His muscles bulged, blood roaring through his veins like raging rivers, pounding through his body as if eager to explode into every limb.
"Dark Dragon Kill!"
Rocks' voice crackled with killing intent.
The dragon dove, jaws opening wide, its rows of razor-sharp black fangs rushing toward Ares to swallow him whole.
Buzz
Ares' arms flushed blood-red, glowing like molten iron. His veins swelled like coiled red serpents dancing beneath his skin, showcasing overwhelming power.
"Crimson Armament Red Dragon Strike!"
He threw a punch. The air around his fist imploded, sucked inward by the sheer force.
His fist struck the dragon's head with earth-shaking impact.
But in that instant, Ares felt his strength being devoured absorbed, crushed by some strange power. His blow weakened by several degrees before being completely halted.
Then the dragon's jaws clamped around his shoulder.
Clang!
The sound was like metal grinding. Ares' body was far too tough tough enough that even the blackened power of darkness could not pierce him immediately.
Ares' brows flared like twin blades. With arms thick as pillars, he grabbed the dragon's neck like a pair of iron clamps.
His blood surged wildly, veins twisting beneath his swelling muscles like ancient tree roots.
"Break !!!"
The dragon thrashed madly like a snake grabbed by the seven-inch.
Its tail whipped out, generating a storm of force.
Boom!
The strike landed, but Ares stood unmoved as immovable as a mountain.
Seeing this, Rocks' eyes flashed with a rare hint of caution.
"This guy's physical durability far exceeds my expectations. If Linlin's body is flexible defensive steel, then this man's body… is absolute iron."
Rocks bent his knees, kicked off the ground, and shot forward like a fired arrow.
As he flew, black smoke churned around his palm, forming a swirling dark vortex.
His voice was icy as a blade.
"Let's see if that body you've honed for years can withstand my darkness."
"Darkness Devour!"
Ares, still gripping the dragon, sensed Rocks closing in. He spun his body like a top, using the dragon as a massive whip and lashing it toward Rocks.
Forced to dodge, Rocks leapt back, landing on the dragon's spine. In a few bounding steps, he raced straight toward Ares again.
Ares couldn't free his arms in time so he kicked.
"Flying Slash Rankyaku!"
His leg sliced through the air, unleashing a dazzling arc of cutting force. The slash was razor-sharp, singing through the wind like a divine blade.
Not only did it contain the precision of Rokushiki's Rankyaku
it also carried the swordsmanship he'd absorbed from Golden Lion Shiki.
Refined, merged, perfected.
A technique born from making his own body the blade.
"What terrifying battle instinct… This man truly has no weak points," Rocks thought, fighting Ares seriously for the first time and finding himself impressed despite everything.
He raised his fist, hardened it in Armament Haki, and punched toward the incoming slash
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, you like the story? Wow, who knew. Go ahead, drop a review and throw some power stones maybe I'll be motivated to keep going.
The story's already ahead on Patron. Go there if you want to catch up faster!
[email protected]/_theon
Change @ to "a"