On Reef Island, the sea breeze howled, carrying a salty, fishy scent.
Rayleigh slowly took off his shattered glasses, his golden hair swaying without wind, and a heart-pounding sharpness burst forth from his pupils.
Then, he casually tossed them into the sea; the lenses traced a silver arc in the sunlight before being swallowed by the surging waves.
“Warm-up’s over.” Rayleigh flicked his wrist, and a long sword, similar to a rapier, traced a crescent moon in the air.
“Next… don’t say I’m bullying the weak!” Before his words faded, Rayleigh’s figure blurred abruptly.
“Completely different style from Oden!” Gern’s Observation Haki was fully active, yet he only caught a wisp of an afterimage at the edge of his vision.
Immediately after, black blade eight desolations instinctively swept upwards, precisely meeting a dark sword light that struck from below.
“Clang!” Amidst a deafening explosion, the reef beneath Gern’s feet shattered.
In an instant, Rayleigh’s sword tip changed angles seven times consecutively upon contact, and each change precisely struck the weak points in black blade eight desolations’s defense.
Kozuki Oden’s swordsmanship was mostly broad and sweeping, while Rayleigh’s was precisely pure technique and speed!
“So fast!” Gern’s pupils constricted.
This was not merely a simple slash, but a killing move that perfectly integrated the swordsmanship of a great swordsman with advanced Soru techniques.
After barely parrying, Gern’s right leg suddenly retreated half a step, and his left hand clenched into a fist, condensing vibrational particles, and he smashed it towards Rayleigh!
“Whitebeard’s move!” Rayleigh blocked with his sword, and the clash between his weapon and the vibrations was evenly matched, shattering the air.
“Bang! Whoosh!” After separating, Gern rapidly retreated, using the recoil.
Rayleigh stuck to him like a shadow, seemingly strolling leisurely, but in reality, each step landed precisely in the gaps of Gern’s breath transitions.
The long sword in his hand, imbued with Haki, transformed into a sky full of black light, sometimes like a torrential downpour, sometimes like a venomous snake spitting its tongue, in short, giving no opportunity at all!
“Can’t open up space.” Gern muttered to himself, black blade eight desolations dancing into an impenetrable barrier.
But Rayleigh’s sword always found the most subtle angles to penetrate; one changing sword tip even grazed his cheek, drawing a line of blood.
.........
Dozens of water columns suddenly erupted from the sea surface.
Gern suddenly spun and slashed horizontally, black blade eight desolations, imbued with vibrational particles, erupted with a ten-meter-long pale white blade light.
“Sky Tremor · Shattered Realm!”
Rayleigh, however, sidestepped in advance as if predicting the future.
The blade light grazed his chest, carving a hundred-meter-deep gully in the distant sea.
At the same time, the recovery lag Gern released caused Rayleigh’s eyes to gleam fiercely, and his long sword suddenly counter-slashed upwards from below at an ergonomically impossible angle.
“It seems you’re truly not good at swordsmanship, Navy brat.”
“Chh!” A line of blood bloomed on Gern’s chest.
Had he not instantly elementalized the vibrational particles to virtualize his vital organs, that sword strike would have disemboweled him.
Immediately after, black blade eight desolations suddenly flew out of his hand, and then Gern spun in mid-air, delivering a flying kick that transformed into a swirling black light, striking towards Rayleigh’s face.
Rayleigh lightly flicked his sword, precisely hitting the guard.
The Black Blade, which should have been deflected, suddenly accelerated as if defying the laws of physics.
The vibrational thrust Gern secretly applied made this surprise attack impossible to guard against.
“Interesting.” Rayleigh chuckled, tilting his head back, the sword tip grazing his nose bridge, cutting off a few strands of golden hair.
But this movement also caused him to lose his balance for the first time.
Gern seized the fleeting opportunity, took a step back to gather strength, hardened his right fist with Armament Haki, compressed vibrational particles to the fist’s tip, and unleashed a punch.
“Supreme Ripple Fist!!”
Facing this move, Rayleigh twisted his waist in mid-air, holding his long sword inverted and pressing it down.
With a loud “Clang,” the sword bent into a dangerous arc, and he floated backward using the force.
His toes lightly tapped the wave crest, and the sea surface immediately showed a hundred-meter-diameter spiderweb-like crack!!!
“As expected of the future Pirate King’s first mate.” Gern panted, recalling the Black Blade, sweat mixed with a little blood dripping from his jaw.
Staring at Rayleigh, who was twenty meters away and showed no signs of fatigue, he suddenly grinned: “As expected of Roger’s right hand.”
“Heh.” Rayleigh performed a sword flourish, the sea breeze making his open shirt flap loudly.
“There are no more than ten people on the sea who can withstand a hundred moves from me when I’m going all out.”
........
On the deck of the Oro Jackson, Buggy excitedly waved his fists, his red nose appearing even more vibrant due to excitement.
“Hahaha! Did you see that? Mr. Rayleigh completely suppressed that Marine!” He laughed triumphantly, hands on his hips, then turned and winked at Shanks.
“What ‘Heaven Tremor Gurn,’ he’s still being cut back step by step in front of Pluton, isn’t he? In a little while, Mr. Rayleigh will easily deal with him!”
“That’s right, that’s right!” Jabba, with a pipe in his mouth, grinned: “Buggy’s right, Rayleigh’s swordsmanship is no joke.
That Navy brat has some skill, but he’s still a bit lacking in the end.”
However, just as Buggy and Jabba were laughing with their arms around each other, Shanks stared intently at the distant Reef Island, his brows tightly furrowed.
His gaze did not miss Gern’s subtle adjustments after each retreat from a slash, nor those eyes that remained as calm as ice.
“No…” Shanks murmured softly, “Although Mr. Rayleigh is suppressing Gern, that’s only because Gern’s swordsmanship isn’t refined enough.”
“Huh?!” Buggy suddenly turned his head, looking displeased, “Shanks, you haven’t been scared silly, have you? Mr. Rayleigh is a great swordsman!
Didn’t you see? To attack Mr. Rayleigh, that guy even kicked his sword out as an attack method just now!”
Shanks shook his head, his tone solemn: “Precisely because Mr. Rayleigh is a great swordsman, and Gern’s swordsmanship is clearly inferior to his.
Yet, even so, Mr. Rayleigh still hasn’t been able to truly gravely injure him… that’s the real problem.”
Buggy was about to retort when a deep, hoarse voice suddenly came from the back of the deck.
“Red Hair brat is right.”
Hearing the sound, everyone turned and found that Bullet had managed to sit up, and although his chest was still sunken, his eyes had regained their sharpness.
“That Marine…” He stared intently at the battlefield, a cold sneer playing on his lips: “He hasn’t even used his full strength yet.”
Buggy’s eyes widened: “Bullet?! You haven’t had your brains knocked out, have you? That guy clearly…”
“Shut up, Clown.” Bullet coldly interrupted him, his gaze like a knife, “You don’t understand true combat at all.”
Buggy’s face flushed, choked, and just as he was about to erupt, Roger’s voice suddenly came, instantly quieting the entire deck.
“Rayleigh…” Roger crossed his arms, rarely without a smile, but instead frowned slightly.
“You can’t get tied down, otherwise… it will be very troublesome.”
.......
On Reef Island, Rayleigh’s sword tip once again tore through the air, forcing Gern to block horizontally.
Amidst the explosive clang of metal, Gern’s boot soles plowed two deep marks into the rock.
“You guy.” Rayleigh’s voice was calm and sharp, “Are you adapting to my combat rhythm?”
Gern’s lips curled into a cold smile, black blade eight desolations suddenly vibrated, and dark purple Haoshoku wrapped around it.
“Very careful observation, ‘Pluton’.” Before his words faded, he activated ‘Quake Flash’ and his figure suddenly blurred and disappeared.
“It’s that instant flash move he used on Bullet!” Rayleigh’s pupils slightly constricted; his Observation Haki couldn’t detect the person anymore!
“So that’s what Bullet felt like at the time?” Rayleigh murmured, his sword-gripping hand tightening slightly.
The next second, space collapsed into a point of dazzling white light, and Gern suddenly appeared above Rayleigh like a white torrent.
Holding the sword with both hands, he unleashed a full-strength downward slash, releasing a spherical vibrational explosion the instant the blade touched him.
“Sky Tremor · Shattered Realm!” A single slash descended.
“Boom!!!!” The entire Reef Island disintegrated under the power of the vibration, huge cracks spreading like a spiderweb, and the sea surface was churned into monstrous waves by the violent impact.
Rayleigh’s figure flickered among the collapsing rocks, his sword light cutting through falling boulders, but his brows furrowed even tighter.
Gern’s fighting style had completely changed!
No longer a swordsman barely parrying, but…
The true “Heaven Quake”!