A bold, confident voice swept across the area in an instant. Coupled with Ares's increasingly overwhelming Conqueror's Haki, it shook hearts and minds, leaving many people wavering on their feet.
Seeing Ares for the first time, Sukiyaki's expression trembled with shock.
"This guy's physique… isn't it a little too outrageous?!"
"It looks like Fukurokuju didn't exaggerate at all."
"No… Ares's body is even more terrifying than I imagined!"
One glance was enough to tell there wasn't a trace of fat on him. From head to toe, he was nothing but bulging muscle.
His tendons gleamed as if polished with oil, reflecting a blinding white sheen under the sunlight.
"This guy…" Shimotsuki Ushimaru recalled the rumors he'd recently heard. "I heard his dream is to forge his own body into a Supreme Grade blade…"
His mind shook.
And after hearing Fukurokuju's report before, Ushimaru was now completely certain.
Ares truly intended to forge his own body into a named blade.
That thought immediately made him think of…
the Amatsuki clan's blade-forging craftsmanship.
He couldn't help clicking his tongue.
"This monster Ares… did he take the Amatsuki forging methods and apply them to his own body?"
"To temper his physique to this extent… all these years…"
"What in the world has he gone through?!"
It was beyond imagination.
Standing much closer, Kozuki Oden felt it even more clearly the violent, ferocious pressure rolling off Ares like a flood of beasts.
Oden's face sank. His body tensed. His eyes locked onto Ares as he spoke in a low, determined voice.
"Ares… I won't lose like last time."
"This time…"
"I'll show you the true Oden Two-Sword Style!"
He drew the Great Grade blades at his waist Enma and Ame no Habakiri.
Flame-like Haki surged along his arms, wrapping around the blades. At the same time, the steel darkened, turning pitch-black.
Ares merely glanced once, then sighed with obvious regret.
"What a pity."
"Still not forged into black blades, huh?"
"…!" Oden froze for a split second, then his fighting spirit erupted. "Hey so what if they're not black blades yet?!"
"Are you looking down on me?!"
"You got it," Ares replied flatly.
Oden's face darkened. Heat surged up his cheeks.
There were countless eyes watching.
And Ares actually said it out loud right in front of everyone that he looked down on him.
Enough was enough.
The flames on Oden's twin blades burned even fiercer. Wearing wooden geta sandals, he dropped low and rushed forward like a ninja skimming the ground.
In a blink, he appeared in front of Ares.
He sprang upward, crossing both swords overhead and bringing them down in a single savage arc.
"Oden Two-Sword Style: Gun Modoki!"
Ares's core tightened. His waist and abs drove the motion, his shoulders and arms surging with a rippling roar of muscle.
His thick arm swung out like a naginata, wide and domineering, cutting across the air with crushing force.
"Unarmed Style: Sweep Through the Host!"
Clang!
The instant Ares's forearm collided with Oden's blades, the sound rang out like steel striking steel.
The impact was so violent Oden's expression changed on the spot.
His body flew sideways.
His geta scraped the ground with a harsh, piercing screech, carving two long trenches into the earth as he was blasted backward over a hundred meters.
Ares stood there calmly.
"You've improved a lot compared to a month ago."
"But it's still not enough."
Oden's growth surprised Ares slightly. His talent really was outstanding.
But inside Wano, Oden had simply fought too few real battles.
He'd been trapped in a well, mistaking the sky above him for the whole world.
Until Ares appeared and smashed that illusion to pieces.
And under that blow…
Oden began to grow at frightening speed.
Oden felt his arms go numb. The raw force in Ares's strike nearly shattered his Armament Haki.
Once again, he tasted just how terrifying Ares truly was.
"This guy… he's not even serious, and he's already this frightening."
"The gap is still enormous!"
Oden inhaled, forcing himself to steady his breathing. Then he pounced again like a tiger, turning into a yellow streak flashing across the land.
"Oden Two-Sword Style: Togen Totsuka!!"
He unleashed his strongest move again, face twisted with ferocity.
"This time, I'll definitely break through your body!"
Ares remained calm, still wearing that expression that said he didn't even have Oden in his eyes.
A layer of Haki-flame instantly cloaked his arms.
Then he raised both hands together.
"Unarmed Style Togen Totsuka!"
The moment Oden saw it, his mind exploded.
"What?!"
Ares's legs detonated with monstrous power. His body launched like a rocket
and he appeared behind Oden.
Pshhk!
Pshhk!
Oden's clothing tore apart. He remained frozen in his cross-blade stance, but blood gushed like a spring from multiple wounds across his body.
He was grievously injured.
Yet what thundered through his mind wasn't pain.
It was the image of Ares using Oden's own self-created technique.
A tidal wave slammed through Oden's heart.
"How… how is that possible?!"
"How can he use my Oden Two-Sword Style?!"
"And the power… the power is even greater than mine?!"
Thud.
Oden's body tipped forward and collapsed.
Bare skin met the ground, and an icy chill seeped into him
cold as his heart.
"Lord Oden!!"
"Lord Oden!!"
Kin'emon, Raizo, Izo, and the others burst forward at once.
Kin'emon immediately hoisted Oden onto his back. They fled in a sorry state, rushing him away for treatment.
…
Silence.
A dead silence fell over everything.
Everyone had been stunned beyond words by the sheer, crushing domination Ares displayed.
Kaido grinned wide.
"Wororororo ! I'll give him credit for his guts…"
"But he really doesn't know his own weight."
"When this is all over, I kind of want to fight that Oden guy myself."
King's eyes were wide with worship.
"It ended that fast…"
"Ares-brother didn't even use his Devil Fruit ability…"
"So strong…"
If he could become that strong one day…
then the name of the Lunarians would blaze across the seas again.
And Ares-brother had even moved two islands over, turning them into training grounds.
Right now, they had already begun fighting the "human imitators."
Ares had said it clearly
Blind training alone couldn't compare to the sharpening that came from real battle.
Each of them had top-tier talent.
Ares had no intention of letting them become someone else's stepping stone in the future.
Oden's crushing defeat came so suddenly that it caught everyone completely off guard.
Sukiyaki's pupils shrank. His voice trembled with fear and shock.
"Oden… Oden…"
"This…"
"He lost that easily?!"
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