No matter how violently Scourge of the Progenitor spun, it could not break free of Griffith's grip.
The two different alloys of bio-metal, each equally unyielding though of differing composition, ground against each other with savage friction. Heat built to terrifying levels, searing both Griffith's metal arms and the trident's head until they glowed red-hot, blazing like a miniature sun.
Taking advantage of Mars' outburst, Nuwa and Athena regrouped.
Athena's arms shuddered, sending her Chaos Chain-Blade into a high-frequency vibration. Like a pair of living serpents, the chains writhed forward and coiled around the two metal arms that held her weapon. Spirit energy poured into the links, fueling the flames burning along them until they blazed hotter still, threatening to melt the enemy's grasp.
Nuwa snapped her wrist. Spirit energy locked all the hidden clasps within her soft whip, transforming it into a hard flail. Moving too fast for the eye to follow, she jabbed for Griffith's upper-body weak points all at once.
But Griffith, unhurried, drew a gleaming western longsword with his right hand of flesh and blood. With it, he wove a dazzling curtain of sword-light before him.
Even such intense motion did not disturb the rest of his body; his head still lolled loosely as at the very start, limp and lifeless.
And though Athena's spirit flames looked ferocious, they likewise failed to inflict any real damage.
"What a Fourth Demon King!"
Seeing the Mythic Squad's assault falter—and about to be overwhelmed by Griffith's counterattack—Roya could not help but marvel at Griffith's terrifying combat instincts.
While Nuwa's squad was locked in crisis, on the other side Whitebeard and the others fared no better against Gars.
According to plan, Whitebeard was to assault head-on, drawing most of Gars' focus, while the others struck opportunistically.
After all, with that door-sized sword strapped to his back, even powered by bio-metal's force, Gars could never swing it as nimbly as an ordinary blade. So long as they pressed him from multiple angles at once, his massive weapon shouldn't have been able to cover every gap.
But when Whitebeard's Murakumogiri, Cut descended, blazing with spirit-forged blade aura, they realized just how wrong they had been.
The giant sword in Gars' left, metal-clad hand was nothing less than art in simplicity.
With one upward lift—nothing more—it sealed off every trajectory Whitebeard's slash could possibly follow.
And the spirit blade-aura Whitebeard prided himself on, the force that should have torn through matter itself, vanished the instant it touched the black sword. Like a stone cast into the sea, it left not even a ripple.
At the same moment, Kaido's spiked club roared toward Gars' exposed flank. But his body shifted with machine-like precision, one half-step sideways and back—no more, no less—slipping entirely behind his own sword's edge.
Kaido's strike missed by a single millimeter. One more and it would have crushed through his armor—but that single millimeter, behind the giant blade, might as well have been an unbridgeable gulf.
Squard came slashing in from the other side, wielding a newly-forged longsword. His strikes blurred into a storm, over a hundred cuts in the span of a breath, weaving an inescapable net of steel to seal off Gars' avenues of retreat.
But Gars only pivoted sharply on his toes in the void, spinning his whole body with measured speed. His giant sword swept Kaido's club aside while colliding edge-first into the heart of Skuyard's blade-net.
The web collapsed instantly. Squard was flung away like a ship rammed broadside by a warship's prow, sent spinning helplessly through space.
Whitebeard's heart clenched. His confidence in victory crumbled.
Others might not know, but he was deeply familiar with Skuyard's blade work. That "net" of a hundred strikes was no mere flurry—each blow carried force enough to rival Kaido's full-swing mace.
And yet, against Gars' seemingly effortless rotation, it had shattered like reeds before a storm, leaving Squard hurled away in ruin.
Gars completed his spin, resuming the same posture as before: sword strapped across his back, spine bent slightly, head lowered.
The red glow in his eyes flared brighter—filled with battle fury, yet cold and mechanical, exuding a crushing, contradictory pressure.
Kizaru and Aokiji exchanged uncertain looks. Neither knew how to attack him.
Because of their Devil Fruit powers, neither possessed a true weapon. Even after fusing Haki with their abilities, their fighting styles revolved around overwhelming energy blasts.
But clearly, such attacks were useless here. Whitebeard's spirit blade aura had been swallowed whole; their energy barrages were even weaker.
And if they tried to close in for melee? In sheer fighting skill, even Squard could trounce them both together. How could they possibly stand against Gars?
In that instant, their old habits of battlefield shirking surged back, itching to seize control of their "strategy."
Kaido swung his club once more, smashing toward Gars' neck. Through spirit transmission, he barked at Whitebeard: "Old man, think of something! This bastard's tougher than we guessed!"
Whitebeard's Murakumogiri Cut had just been parried again. He growled back: "There is no trick. We can only press him harder and harder—either he slips first, or we run out of spirit energy. Trust me, from what my instincts tell me—you do not want this guy to seize the initiative. If we fail to suppress him, we're done for!"
Kaido, Kizaru, and Aokiji all received the transmission. None doubted Whitebeard's intuition; they felt the same dreadful certainty themselves.
In the distance, Squard steadied his spin, righted himself with an energy burst, and streaked back into the fray.
Kizaru and Aokiji's eyes lit up simultaneously. They realized just how far behind they were in adapting to combat with the subspace-powered mecha.
They quickly aimed the twin energy cannons mounted on their shoulders, locking onto Gars' head.
Through spirit-sense, they relayed: "Hold him down for just one second—we'll blast him apart with the cannons!"
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