"Boom—"
Huge waves swept in. Ren raised his head, looking at the fleet hovering in the air!
The figurehead of the largest ship in the fleet was a golden lion's head, its majestic appearance inspiring fear.
But what could truly bring fear was not the ship, but the leader of this fleet—the Flying Pirate Admiral, the Golden Lion, Shiki!
"This guy is still so annoying, doing something like this as soon as he arrives." Kaido wore a hemp robe. He didn't want to be discovered by the Golden Lion yet. It would be best if none of those great pirates noticed him.
"That's just his personality." Ren was in a state of fully receiving Okami no Kami's soul, not worried about being seen through by Shiki. However, both were still shocked—Shiki, this guy, upon arriving at the island—no, to be precise, before even landing on the island—had already issued a group taunt to everyone on the entire island.
Even Shutenmaru and his group stationed on the north side of the island received special attention. If Shutenmaru wasn't much stronger than before, just that greeting alone would have been enough for his men to suffer.
Although Shiki had suffered setbacks at Ren's hands these past few years, he ultimately hadn't received any major blow, so his personality hadn't restrained itself. Upon arriving, he immediately attacked the Marines and pirates stationed on the island without discrimination, with the Marines being specifically targeted.
Zephyr was so angry that the Haki within his body was about to burst out, but ultimately he didn't rashly make a move against Shiki.
His strength was that of a fairly standard Admiral-level fighter, still half a step behind Shiki. If it came to a one-on-one fight, it would still take Garp and Sengoku to fight Shiki to a draw.
Sengoku naturally didn't need to be mentioned—he himself possessed the Conqueror's Haki that could rule the world, and had mastered Conqueror's Haki coating. As the future Fleet Admiral of the Marines, he wasn't the trash who couldn't even defeat Luffy.
And Garp was even more exaggerated. Ren actually didn't know if Garp had Conqueror's Haki. It was very possible that Garp himself had the potential for Conqueror's Haki, but because he didn't have the will to become a "king" in his heart, he hadn't awakened it.
However, for him, whether he had Conqueror's Haki or not didn't matter at all, because his Armament Haki was simply extraordinarily powerful.
Since Shiki occupied the sky, his mobility had always been strong. Yesterday those great pirates were still having a Den Den Mushi meeting, and today Shiki had already arrived at Skoll Island ahead of them.
Upon arriving, he gave everyone a show of force. The surging seawater was carried into the sky by his ability, then crashed down with tremendous force, as if trying to submerge Skoll Island's coast.
What was interesting was that Shiki's Devil Fruit ability could actually control seawater—this almost violated the Devil Fruit's weakness to seawater. However, Ren could also see that this kind of control couldn't be maintained for long.
This was why in the future movie, Shiki clearly had Luffy trapped in a water ball, yet unnecessarily used Dead Forest and Amatsu Kiri to cut the seawater apart.
Not because he had become senile, but because his ability wasn't sufficient to maintain long enough to drown a person.
Otherwise, that earlier greeting wouldn't have been just waves.
"Water Twist!" Garp flew up into the air, pressing his one remaining hand toward the incoming waves! The rotating power immediately guided the wave's flow, gathering that portion of waves into a sphere, following the momentum to shatter a stretch of waves!
On the other side, Shutenmaru also didn't show any weakness. With a single slash, he cut apart the water's surface, then used dense sword energy to shatter the waves!
"Zehahahaha, quite capable, I remember it was you two who cut off John's foot." Shiki had his back to the sun, slowly floating down like a deity.
His attire appeared to have a Wano style to it, though he himself had no connection to Wano.
"So, how about it? Want to come follow me?"
Four Emperors meeting, first poaching the right-hand man—although Shiki wasn't a Four Emperor, he still followed this fine tradition.
However, this was hard to say. Who knew if Shiki in this era would still charge into Marineford for Roger's sake? Looking at the current situation, his obsession with Ren and Inazuma might even surpass Roger.
"Shut up, Shiki! There's no way I'd follow a guy like you. It seems the lesson Lord Narukami gave you wasn't enough!" Shutenmaru was soaked by the seawater pouring down. Behind him, a line of advance squad captains watched with eager eyes!
Over these years, Shutenmaru's combat strength had definitely reached the level of Katakuri or King thirty-five years later. However, his talent had limits, and now he had essentially reached his peak.
As for Garp, he had lost an arm, so he was a notch below.
This level of combat strength barely gave him the qualification to verbally disrespect Shiki. However, Shiki didn't quite agree with the "lesson" Shutenmaru mentioned.
It was true that he hadn't gotten the better of Ren back then, but Ren hadn't beaten him either!
As for the rout of those useless subordinates, was that his fault? It was clearly because those people were too useless!
"What a stubborn guy." Shiki said, shaking his head. He didn't continue to attack. If it were anyone else, that would be one thing, but now the Flying Pirates and Inazuma—not to mention burying the hatchet, at least on the surface their relationship had eased. Shiki was also a big spender after all.
Ren didn't reject Shiki at the door like he did with John. After all, business was business—as long as they paid honestly, that was fine. John was targeted because he had wounded Shutenmaru and Yukiko.
Shutenmaru was alright; as a man, he didn't really care about the scars on his body, even considering them a glory of his valor in battle.
But Yukiko was different. Although her scars were on her back, Ren could still sense that sometimes she was quite bothered by them. The proof was that Yukiko rarely went to the hot springs anymore.
"That bastard Shiki!" Perospero looked somewhat disheveled. Blocking the waves wasn't that difficult for them, but since they were Devil Fruit users, they didn't look too presentable. Not only were they soaked through like drowned rats, but that weak, floppy feeling all over was also quite annoying.
"How dare this guy attack everyone on the island! If only Mom had arrived yet..."
"Just bear with it. Precisely because Mom hasn't arrived yet, we don't have any say in the matter right now." Katakuri saw things very clearly. Back in the days on Rocks' ship, Charlotte Linlin couldn't completely guarantee their safety. Now she was still on her way to Skoll Island, so naturally Shiki didn't need to hold back.
Let alone just a greeting like this—even if he actually killed someone, as long as it wasn't one of them children, Charlotte Linlin wouldn't turn against Shiki.
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