Outside the great forest, at the watchtower:
"Hey, brothers, wake up!"
Following Lanli's instructions, the Lieutenant Colonel, who had fled to this place, looked at the watchtower's devastated interior and the severely injured marines lying everywhere. He felt both relieved and anxious at the same time.
The relief came from the fact that the situation here was better than expected; although the watchtower had suffered an extremely brutal attack and almost all equipment inside was rendered unusable, the Marines' lives were, at the very least, not in immediate danger.
It wasn't hard to guess that the other four bases were probably in a similar state. Moreover, he had already reported the news of the attack on Arashit Island to Headquarters.
But this was also the source of his anxiety.
"The nearest reinforcements from the surrounding seas will take at least half a day to arrive, and they'll only just make it. And even if they do get here, can we really help in a battle of that level?"
Murmuring softly, he turned his gaze toward the center of the distant great forest.
At that moment, from deep within the forest...
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
"Clang!"
Deafening explosions and grinding impacts roared like thunder, piercing the air even from such a great distance. With each collision, he saw a massive tree in the Arashi Forest collapse violently, kicking up enormous clouds of dust.
From time to time, gigantic slashing waves shot out of the forest toward the sky, tearing the dust apart.
There was no doubt about it.
This was a level of combat the Lieutenant Colonel had never witnessed before.
"Can Rear Admiral Lanli win?" He whispered to himself.
"Win? I can't."
Inside the forest, Marine Rear Admiral Lanli had already reached this conclusion in his heart while locked in a fierce battle with Roy.
"So this is an Ancient Zoan Devil Fruit user..." He muttered inwardly.
He had long heard his mentor, Vice Admiral Yamakaji, speak of how troublesome users of the Ancient Devil Fruit were. Among the famous Seven Warlords of the Sea, there was one who was renowned precisely for possessing an Ancient-type ability.
According to Yamakaji... facing that man was like facing the savage wilderness of the ancient world itself.
Lanli hadn't fully understood those words before.
But now, he did.
"Boom!"
A violent tearing sound split the air, it was a massive tail. Lanli barely managed to swing his great blade in defense.
"Volcano Style: Explosive Slash!"
Haki and raw power erupted at full force.
In the next instant, however, it felt as though he had been struck head-on by a mountain; his body was blasted backward uncontrollably.
"Boom!"
His crashing body gouged open the ground, and massive trees toppled along his path, testifying to the terrifying impact.
Lanli felt as though another rib had broken.
"How many is that now...three? Or four?"
He used his sword to prop himself up and swallowed the blood that was about to spray from his mouth. His ragged breathing made it clear that he was in extremely poor condition.
Then, he raised his eyes to look at his enemy.
That monster stood not far away.
On the tail of its over-three-meters-tall massive body was a wound he had just inflicted: a shallow gash.
But at that moment...
"...!"
Lanli could clearly see the flesh and membrane at the edges of the wound rapidly repairing themselves. In just a moment, the bleeding gash had faded into a faint red mark.
This was exactly what gave Lanli the greatest headache and filled him with despair.
"Vitality, stamina, speed, defense, strength... We're not even on the same level."
Even though the opponent hadn't used Haki, and perhaps he couldn't, or perhaps he simply didn't want to.
Even though Lanli himself had already pushed his Haki and swordsmanship to their limits.
The true gap lay in the very nature of life itself, the vitality granted by an Ancient Devil Fruit was simply too terrifying.
So…
"My training still isn't enough… If Yamakaji Sensei were here in person, maybe he could cut this thing down." Lanli silently thought to himself.
"In a normal fight, I have no chance of victory. So… I can only bet everything on the next strike."
He had already made his decision.
At the same time…
"This Devil fruit really is freakish. No wonder any random Ancient Devil Fruit user can at least become a 'Flying Six' or even one of the 'Three Disasters' in the Hundred Beasts Pirates."
Roy, meanwhile, was making almost the exact same observation.
That's right.
This battle with Lanli was, in itself, a deliberate choice, Roy was using this fairly powerful Rear Admiral as a whetstone to adapt to his new abilities. And as the fruit's owner, he understood better than anyone just how powerful the Wind God Winged Dragon Fruit truly was.
"My base combat ability and Rokushiki aren't weak. Combined with this Devil fruit, I'm already close to Vice Admiral–level combat power."
Roy arrived at this conclusion internally.
Of course, considering how absurdly wide the power gap within the Vice Admiral tier could be, this assessment was actually rather conservative.
"Not to mention, I also have… hm?"
However, just as Roy was about to continue analyzing and summarizing, something stirred in his heart…
That Zoan Devil Fruit user's instinctive sense of danger made him look toward Rear Admiral Lanli.
At this moment, Rear Admiral Lanli slowly walked out of the drifting dust and at some point, the great odachi in his hand had already been sheathed.
He lowered his body, his right hand gripping the scabbard, his eyes sharp enough to cut.
"Is it time to decide the outcome?"
Roy naturally understood his opponent's intention, the man was clearly planning to settle everything with the next strike.
So…
"Very well. I've pretty much adapted to the Wind God Winged Dragon Fruit's power anyway. It's about time to end this." Roy muttered inwardly, then fixed his gaze on Rear Admiral Lanli.
At that moment…
"Bang!"
Lanli's hand clenched tightly around the hilt, his breathing heavier than ever.
"Huff!" "Huff!" "Huff!"
With each breath, Haki slowly wrapped around his body as all his strength gathered into a single point.
At this instant, his presence was like a volcano compressing just before eruption.
"If you encounter a powerful enemy, it's naturally a crisis, but it can also be an opportunity. Gather your momentum and bet everything you have on a single strike. Focus the mind, concentrate the will, condense it into one, this is called 'Focus State'."
In his ears, the voice of his mentor, Vice Admiral Yamakaji, seemed to echo once more.
Then…
"Bang!"
In the next instant, brilliance erupted like a volcanic explosion!
It was a slash, an unprecedented slash!
Its speed and ferocity far surpassed any blade Lanli had swung before, tearing through the air itself. Where it passed, countless surrounding trees were split cleanly in two in an instant, massive clouds of dust exploding violently in its wake.
"When the heart moves, the blade is drawn. When heart and intent become one, this is 'Iaijutsu'."
At this moment, Lanli felt satisfied.
Because this was the strongest strike he had ever unleashed.
"Volcanic Flow · Iaijutsu Slash · Yamakaji!"
And at this very instant, even within Roy's beastified vertical pupils, a flicker of surprise appeared.
The slash passed through.
"Pshk!"
The rooster-masked head, armored in overlapping dragon scales, silently separated from the neck!
A single strike… decapitation!
At last, Lanli let out a breath.
"I won."
He slowly collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air, feeling as though even the smallest movement of his body was unbearably difficult.
But then…
"That slash wasn't bad."
The suddenly spoken words nearly stopped Lanli's heart.
"Wh…"
He turned his head in disbelief and then, he witnessed a sight he would never forget for the rest of his life.
Within the devastated forest, sunlight filtered down peacefully.
And Roy's severed head, still wearing the rooster mask was breaking apart into countless tiny, flowing golden particles of light.
Then…
"Buzz!!"
Those scattered fragments of light began to converge, rapidly gathering back toward the headless body.
Within the dazzling radiance, the outline of a head reformed.
In just moments, Roy's form was completely restored. However, Lanli could now clearly see the changes upon him.
Golden bands of light, infused with Haki wrapped around Roy's entire body, and even the dragon claws in his hands gleamed with radiant golden brilliance.
The forest fell into dead silence while Lanli's gaze turned vacant.
He stared at the unbelievable figure before him, something utterly beyond the limits of ordinary language.
"A Zoan Devil Fruit user… using elementalization!?"
His still-functioning mind replayed the impossible scene he had just witnessed. After such a long battle, he had been almost certain that Roy was a Zoan-type Devil Fruit user.
But what he had just seen… He had seen it before in the Marines.
It was astonishingly similar to the Logia abilities of Admiral Kizaru. And so, he was forced to arrive at what was nearly the only possible conclusion.
"You're… a Mythical Zoan?"
Only the rarest Devil Fruits across the entire sea… the Zoan · Mythical Type could possess such unfathomable power!
And immediately after came another realization.
"That means… during our fight just now, you weren't even using your full strength?"
If the opponent truly was a Mythical Zoan user, then this conclusion was inevitable.
Terror surged through Lanli's heart.
He had confidence in his own strength, below Vice Admiral rank, he believed he wouldn't lose to anyone in the Marines. Yet now, this mysterious attacker had defeated him without even going all out.
"Y-you… who are you?" He tried to ask.
Then he saw the dragon's claw slowly raised before him.
"Buzz!!"
Golden light gathered within the claw—and in the next instant, it erupted.
"Bang!"
And just like that, Lanli lost consciousness.
"Who am I?"
Before his awareness faded completely, he seemed to hear the calm yet confident voice of his opponent.
"My name is 'Youji(Rooster).'"
(End of Chapter)
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