On the sea between the two Deserted Islands, Marine warships stood like a steel forest.
The soldiers' breathing almost froze, their eyes fixed on Deserted Island No. 2!
In the center of the Deserted Island, Gern and Borsalino separated after another clash.
“Hmph!” Gern's Marine boots plowed two deep furrows in the scorched earth.
Then, he pulled at the cloak button with his left hand, and with a gentle tug, the white cloak fluttered to the ground like a fallen flag.
“Looks like I have to get serious now!” Gern raised his eyes, his fingertips caressing the bandages wrapped around black blade eight desolations.
The bandages suddenly trembled, spiraling apart from the hilt to the tip of the blade, transforming into gray-white fragments suspended in the air.
The pitch-black blade was completely exposed, its dark red patterns dazzling under the sunlight.
Kizaru stood thirty meters away, his green knitted cap long since blown away by the air currents, revealing his messy curly hair, and his eyes, visible for the first time beneath his sunglasses, narrowed.
“This is really troublesome~” Kizaru slowly drew out his words, but his hands slowly emerged from his pockets.
“Do you really have to force me to get serious?”
“You old salted fish.” Gern flicked his wrist, shaking the blade. “You better stay serious from now on.”
Seeing this, Kizaru also smiled slightly, golden light exploding at his feet, and he transformed into a beam of light, soaring into the sky: “In that case…”
He hovered a hundred meters in the air, his hands crossed over his chest.
“Then make some contribution to my three-month vacation! Gern-kun!!”
“Yata no Kagami!” The sky suddenly flashed.
Hundreds of light bullets poured down from the clouds, a golden downpour covering the entire Deserted Island.
The Marines on the spectating warships collectively lost their voices!
This was not a demonstration match at all, but the scale of an annihilation battle!
“Heh heh.” Gern sneered, black blade eight desolations suddenly plunged into the ground: “Heaven Tremor - Earth Rumble!”
“Boom—Crack!!” The moment the blade touched the earth, white shockwaves exploded in a ring.
The ground rose up in a ten-meter-high wave of earth like a giant beast turning over, and amidst the flying sand and stones, every particle of dust vibrated at a high frequency.
The light bullet swarm shattered one after another in the shockwave, golden fire rain collided with the gray-white shockwave, and the ground sank three inches amidst the roar!
“This ability…” Kizaru hovered in the air, his pupils behind the lenses slightly contracting.
When the smoke and dust cleared, Gern stood in place, his blade still plunged into the cracked earth.
Hearing Kizaru's words, Gern looked up, his lips curled into a grin: “Is it scary?”
Then he slowly pulled out black blade eight desolations, his right hand slightly open, vibrating particles condensing.
“Something even scarier is yet to come!!”
As he finished speaking, Gern's five fingers on his right hand suddenly spread open, and dazzling pale light burst from his fingertips.
“Heaven Quake · Split!”
“Whoosh!” Five parallel spatial cracks instantly tore through the atmosphere, and shockwaves, like invisible blades, cut through everything in their path.
Rocks, trees, and even the air disintegrated into dust amidst the high-frequency vibrations, and five deep furrows, several meters deep, were plowed into the Deserted Island's surface, extending straight towards Kizaru!
“Oh my~” Kizaru's Observation Haki frantically warned him, golden light swirling in his pupils.
“It would be very uncomfortable if I got hit.” His body transformed into photons in advance and scattered, the five slashes passing through the afterimage.
They neatly cut the giant rocks of the cliff a hundred meters behind into six sections, the collapsing rock wall raising a sky-obscuring cloud of dust.
On the spectating Marine warship, Onigumo's six swords clattered to the ground: “This is way more effective than a normal slash, isn’t it?!”
In the smoke and dust, Gern's figure had already disappeared.
“Whoosh!” Sonic booms exploded one after another across the Deserted Island, as Gern, using Quake Flash, moved at extreme speed through the particle flow, leaving afterimages with each flash.
Kizaru had just reassembled his body a hundred meters away when the cold light of an attack from his left was reflected in his sunglasses.
“Too slow compared to light~” He chuckled softly, his body once again transforming into photons.
He reappeared above Gern, then rotated 360 degrees, concentrating a flash of light at his toes.
Suddenly, a golden flash from a light-speed kick came from a completely opposite direction!
“Sorry, my Observation Haki is stronger than yours.” Gern pushed upwards with one hand at the last moment: “Quake Wall · Flawless Sphere!”
“Buzz!” Countless white tremor rings intertwined to form a spherical barrier. The moment Kizaru's light-speed kick hit the barrier, high-frequency vibrations geometrically rebounded the impact!
“What?!” A thin crack appeared in Kizaru's sunglasses, and he was sent flying backward, the cuff of his golden suit tearing with a ripping sound.
“Whoosh!” The spectating Marines collectively stood up, and Gion's nails dug deeply into her palms: “He can even rebound Colonel Borsalino's light-speed kick?!”
Kizaru adjusted his posture in the air, his toes slightly rotating.
“Does it hurt?” He had barely recovered when Gern's low roar suddenly came from the ground: “After all, the action and reaction forces are opposite, especially at the speed of light.
And you didn't elementalize just now.” black blade eight desolations slashed upwards with full force, and the moment the blade touched Kizaru—
“Boom, crack!!!” A spherical tremor explosion turned the ground within a fifty-meter radius into a giant wave.
The space beneath Kizaru's feet violently twisted, and he was sent floating into the air by the shock!
“Got you.” Gern's figure appeared like a ghost directly above him, the dark red patterns on black blade eight desolations had completely turned black, and Armament Haki lightning leaped along the blade's edge.
“Not good!” Kizaru's pupils suddenly contracted.
“Sky Tremor · Shattered Realm!” The downward-slashing black blade eight desolations descended with the might to shatter space!
At the critical moment, golden light surged from Kizaru's palm—Ame no Murakumo Sword!
“Clang!!” The deafening explosion as the sword of light collided with the black blade echoed through the sky, and the shockwave tore a huge circular hole in the clouds.
The two rapidly descended in a struggle of strength, the energy bursting from the point of impact between their blades causing the center of the Deserted Island to become concave like a bowl!
“Clang! Clang! Clang!” The moment they landed, the two had already exchanged dozens of blows.
Each collision between the sword of light and the black blade exploded with dazzling sparks, and the unadorned duel left the spectators speechless!
“Your swordsmanship…” A sword materialized by an ability couldn't withstand Armament Haki, so Kizaru suddenly stepped back half a pace, parrying a diagonal slash with Ame no Murakumo Sword, “Who did you learn it from?”
“Self-taught, commonly known as just wildly hacking!” Gern grinned, his blade suddenly changing its move to an upward thrust, the shockwave pushing the light sword half an inch away.
The Glint-Glint Fruit's speed advantage was very strong, but in close-range explosive clashes, Gern's Heaven Quake held the advantage!
“Vibration, so troublesome~” Kizaru sighed, but his figure suddenly blurred, creating distance and his own advantageous space.
Immediately, ten golden beams of light burst from his fingertips, forming a net that covered all of Gern's vital points!
Seeing this, Gern directly threw black blade eight desolations away, crossing his hands in a triangle in front of his chest, forcibly vibrating the space in front of him.
“Reflecting Mirror · Tremor Void Prism!”
“Crack!” High-frequency vibrations temporarily twisted the space into shape, preventing light from passing directly through.
In just an instant, Kizaru's rays were refracted into a sky full of golden rain!
“Swish swish swish!” The refracted light beams blasted dozens of lava craters into the edge of the Deserted Island, and the mast of a spectating Marine warship was grazed, instantly vaporizing into green smoke.
“What the hell!” Yamakaji's cigar dropped onto his pants, “He can even distort light?!”
“Tsk tsk tsk!” Kizaru hovered in mid-air, the lenses of his sunglasses already shattered.
At the same time, his suit had become battle-damaged, but he smiled even more dangerously: “It seems this three-month vacation really won't be easy to get~”
Gern caught the falling black blade eight desolations, the shockwaves vibrating the surrounding dust into powder: “It's still not too late to surrender, Senior.”
“Oh, I can't do that~” Kizaru clasped his hands together, dazzling golden light condensing in his palms, his eyes shedding their laziness and gradually sharpening.
“Gern-kun, have you ever been hit by a light-speed combo?”
“Yata no Kagami · Light-Speed Corridor!” Countless light mirrors generated in the air.
Kizaru's figure infinitely refracted between the mirrors, and in an instant, hundreds of golden afterimages attacked from all directions!