"Tsuno Tokage (Horn Blade Shadow)"
Enraged beyond reason, Gecko Moria twisted his shadow into a spear.
It burst from the ground and shot straight toward El.
Just as El had predicted.
In fact, the angrier Gecko Moria became, the weaker he looked in El's eyes.
El had never feared an opponent growing stronger through rage. Even if anger gave a temporary boost, it was nothing more than a minor increase—utterly insufficient to bridge the gap between them.
No matter how much Moria struggled, there was no possibility of him defeating El.
A calm opponent was troublesome.
A calm mind shifted constantly, adapting to the situation, thoughts changing again and again.
For someone like El—who could read thoughts—such fluid thinking required real attention.
But an enraged opponent?
Their thoughts became simple, linear, predictable.
To El, dealing with someone like that was effortless.
He had already seen Gecko Moria's intention—to use Tsuno Tokage (Horn Blade Shadow).
Knowing the exact trajectory, El merely tilted his head slightly, letting the shadow spear graze past him.
At the same time, he smoothly sheathed his sword.
Then—
Shave (Soru).
In an instant, El vanished.
With an explosive burst of short-distance speed, he appeared directly in front of Gecko Moria—
So fast it looked like teleportation.
Looking up at the nearly seven-meter-tall giant, El's crimson eyes—beautiful like rubies—turned ice-cold.
With a single, fluid draw of his blade—
He unleashed a Flying Slash (Tobu Zangeki).
The slash was twice Gecko Moria's height, ripping through the already-ruined castle in a straight line.
This time, Gecko Moria was blasted clean out of the castle, his massive body sent flying by the ten-meter-tall slash.
El could have gone further.
He could have carved a deep, permanent wound into Moria's body—
Crushed bones.
Aggravated organs already on the brink of collapse.
But he didn't.
Because El's goal was clear:
Obtain the black blade Shusui
Recruit Perona, so the Hollow-Hollow Fruit would remain in use
And for that—
Gecko Moria could not die.
To locate Shusui, El needed to read Moria's memories.
And Perona—raised by Moria since childhood—regarded him as a father-like figure.
If El killed Gecko Moria, Perona might still join out of fear…
But her heart would be filled with hatred.
A distorted heart was not the kind of companion El wanted.
If he wanted hatred, he could simply kill her and take the Devil Fruit.
The reason El chose to recruit Perona was the same reason he accepted the three girls—
Her heart was still pure.
She did not emit an aura that repulsed him.
So now, holding the absolute advantage, El began to deliberately restrain his strength.
He fully sheathed his sword and no longer maintained a combat stance—
Only dodging attacks that came too close.
"Doppelman (Silhouette)!"
After enduring the Flying Slash and the pain, Gecko Moria immediately manipulated his shadow.
It twisted, stretched, and transformed into an exact replica of himself.
Then—
Moria vanished.
What remained was only the shadow double.
BOOM!
"Urgh—!"
Even so, the real Gecko Moria—who had just swapped positions—
Spat out another mouthful of blood.
Because El was already there.
At blinding speed, El appeared beside him.
Clenching his fist, he drove it hard into Gecko Moria's stomach.
This was the inevitable result of fighting someone who could read your thoughts.
Every move you intended to make—
Every escape—
Every trick—
Was already exposed.
Unless one possessed future-sight Observation Haki, fighting El at the same level meant being forced into a completely passive position.
"Predicting the future… you little devil—!"
Gecko Moria stared at El in horror.
"How old are you…?! How can you have this level of Observation Haki?!"
To Moria, El's mind-reading appeared no different from future sight.
Ordinary Observation Haki could, at best, sense attacks.
But shadow-swapping involved space itself—something normal Observation could never track.
Yet El followed him perfectly.
Which meant only one thing in Moria's mind:
El's Observation Haki had already reached an extremely high realm.
"As expected of a great pirate who once fought a Yonko," El said calmly, admiration in his tone.
"Even after being beaten this badly, you still have the strength to ask questions."
Then his expression sharpened.
"Since that's the case…"
"I'll have to increase the pressure."
"And let you experience the second trump card I only realized not long ago."
The moment El finished speaking—
He disappeared.
With no Observation Haki actively deployed, heavily injured, and already panicking, Gecko Moria's heart sank.
He didn't know what El's second trump card was.
But he knew—
It was absolutely not good news.
Almost on instinct, Moria swapped places with his shadow again, desperate to escape.
In his haste, he forgot two things:
Why he had just vomited blood
And that El was not someone to underestimate just because he looked young
"Spear of Elbaf."
El's voice echoed like a divine verdict.
Gecko Moria had just reappeared and was about to summon his shadow again—
Planning to use Shadow's Shadow Box, a defensive technique—
When—
BOOM!
A fist appeared out of nowhere.
A fist so small that Moria could have crushed it with two fingers.
It slammed straight into his belly.
Instantly, Gecko Moria's massive abdomen caved inward, deforming like a compressed trampoline.
But this time—
The "trampoline" failed.
The surrounding air suddenly became unbearably heavy.
In the next heartbeat, it turned violent.
Compressed air erupted outward, forming a shockwave no weaker than Hakoku Sovereignty, completely engulfing Gecko Moria.
This time—
He couldn't endure it.
His body was hurled away like a fallen leaf, swept mercilessly by the raging wind.
A huge, translucent white beam burst forth, tearing through the castle walls, obliterating tombstones and splintering trees outside.
When it surged onward, it even ripped apart the sea of flames that had yet to fully fade.
With this single punch—
El demonstrated what it truly meant to be called an innate monster.
He had always referred to himself as an innate swordsman.
But swordsmanship was only one of his talents.
El's goal was to become the strongest in all aspects.
As Dr. Kureha once evaluated—
El was an innate martial arts master.
It wasn't that El was bad at unarmed combat.
He simply preferred the sword.
PS :
Tsuno Tokage (Horn Blade Shadow) – Gecko Moria's shadow spear technique.
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