At the same moment, Raiver teleported into the air behind Imu, his Black Dragon Blade wrapped in Haki slashing down with immense speed!
But Imu's powerful Observation Haki had already predicted this. One of his spider legs, also shrouded in black energy, shot out like a venomous dragon, precisely blocking Raiver's strike.
Another leg seemed to teleport, piercing through the void from behind Raiver, aiming straight for his heart!
The angle was treacherous, the timing ruthless—a perfect killing move!
Raiver's pupils contracted. At the critical moment, he activated his ability!
"Voidification!"
His body instantly became blurred and transparent, as if merging with the surrounding spatial layers.
The deadly black spike passed right through him, as if piercing an illusion, leaving Raiver's physical form completely unharmed.
A flicker of surprise crossed Imu's eyes.
Clearly, Raiver's spatial-based defense method was somewhat unexpected.
"Gurararara... Rocks, you can't have a fight without me!"
On the other side, Whitebeard laughed heartily as he leaped dozens of meters into the air, raising his Cloud Cutter high above his head.
The white halo of Tremor Waves and crimson Haki surged like a torrent, converging at the blade's edge.
With a fierce roar, he brought it down with all his might!
This strike carried the power to shatter space itself, intending to cleave both Imu and the earth beneath him in two!
Imu extended another spider leg, blocking horizontally in mid-air.
BOOM—!! CRACK!
Upon impact, space fractured like glass, countless white cracks spreading as crimson lightning and black mist clashed violently once more.
The shockwave expanded spherically, reducing the nearby remaining structures to dust.
Golden Lion and Charlotte Linlin no longer hesitated, joining the battle simultaneously!
Golden Lion unleashed a flurry of slashes with his twin swords, sending golden Sword Qi from all tricky angles toward Imu.
Charlotte Linlin swung her Emperor Sword Napoleon, releasing a massive Sword Qi infused with thunder and flames.
For a moment, five top-tier experts besieged Imu alone!
Facing all five, Imu wielded his spider legs—infinitely extendable, incredibly tough, and imbued with terrifying Haki and venom—with both offensive and defensive prowess.
The spider legs stabbed, swept, entangled, and parried, deflecting all five attackers' assaults. At times, they even launched sharp counterattacks, forcing the others to dodge or block.
The battle seemed intense, but Raiver's heart sank.
He keenly noticed that only Rocks' attacks could damage the spider legs Imu used to block.
His own strikes, along with those of Whitebeard, Golden Lion, and Charlotte Linlin, caused minimal damage even when they hit Imu's main body or the legs.
Any damage was instantly repaired by the surging black energy.
"This monster's Haki defense and regenerative ability are too strong!
Aside from Rocks, our attacks can hardly inflict effective damage!"
Raiver used Voidification again to evade a venomous stab from a spider leg, teleporting to the edge of the combat zone and shouting to the others:
"We must combine our strongest techniques! Only then might we shatter his defense completely and deliver a fatal blow!
Otherwise, we'll just exhaust our stamina and Haki for nothing!"
Rocks forced back two spider legs with a single slash, his eyes flashing with ferocity as he instantly understood Raiver's meaning: "Makes sense! Then let's concentrate our attacks together!"
"Agreed!" Whitebeard, Golden Lion, and Charlotte Linlin immediately comprehended.
The five moved with perfect synchronization, simultaneously retreating to create distance, forming a semicircle around Imu at the center.
Their Haki began rising without restraint, Conqueror's Haki shooting skyward and completely tearing apart the cloud layers.
Rocks struck first, compressing his peak-level Conqueror's Haki and masterful Advanced Armament Haki to their limits.
He wrapped them around the black blade that had accompanied him through countless battles.
His arm muscles bulged as he brought down the sword:
"Abyssal Curse—!!!"
Next was Raiver.
He fused his Conqueror's Haki, Advanced Armament Haki, and the repulsive force wave derived from the Space Fruit that "repels everything," concentrating all three into the edge of his Black Dragon blade.
Pouring all his strength into it, he executed a diagonal slash:
"Myriad Calamity Black Dragon Slash · Zenith—!!!"
The Sword Qi left the blade, rapidly expanding and taking shape, ultimately transforming into a colossal black dragon wreathed in crimson lightning.
The dragon roared, shattering space wherever it passed as it charged straight toward Imu!
Whitebeard took a deep breath, raising his Cloud Cutter high.
White Tremor Waves and crimson Haki converged at the blade like a vortex, causing the air within a hundred-meter radius to wail in distress.
Eyes wide with fury, he brought down the weapon with tremendous force:
"Space Rupture—!!!"
A massive, highly condensed crescent-shaped Wave Cut shot forth!
At its core was an intensely compressed Tremor Wave, surrounded by violent crimson Haki.
Wherever the Wave Cut passed, space fractured with countless radial white cracks.
Golden Lion Shiki's wild hair danced as he crossed his two swords before his chest.
His immense Sword Intent, Conqueror's Haki, and Advanced Armament Haki surged to their peak, golden Sword Qi swirling around him like a storm.
With a furious roar, he swung both swords simultaneously:
"Lion's Might: Wave Slash—!!!"
Two massive crossed golden Sword Qi erupted, quickly merging and transforming in mid-air into a golden lion!
The lion charged through the air, opening its enormous maw as it pounced downward!
Charlotte Linlin channeled all the power of Sun Prometheus and Thundercloud Zeus into Emperor Sword Napoleon.
The blade burned with flames and crackled with lightning.
Gripping the sword with both hands, she unleashed a thunderous giant Sword Qi shockwave with mountain-splitting, sea-severing force:
"Might Country—!!!"
The colossal Sword Qi—a fusion of flame, lightning, and Haki—tore through the sky, heading straight for Imu's head!
Five slashes representing the world's peak destructive power traced five trajectories of annihilation through the air, all aimed at Imu at the center!
BOOM—!!!!
A massive, blinding pillar of light erupted from the explosion's epicenter, piercing heaven and earth as it swallowed Imu whole!
ZZZZTT—!!!
The dazzling radiance consumed all vision as a terrifying spherical shockwave expanded in all directions.
Every substance it touched instantly vaporized!
Pangaea Castle, that ancient structure, was completely flattened like paper under the residual force of this devastating combined attack.
At the very core of the explosion, Imu was utterly annihilated beneath this convergence of the five peak powerhouses' strongest attacks.
As the light gradually faded and the aftershocks slowly subsided...
Nothing remained at the center of the devastated crater.
"I-Is it... over?" Golden Lion asked hopefully.
Yet as the words faded, black mist began materializing from thin air, rapidly gathering, multiplying, and churning.
In the blink of an eye, countless tendrils of darkness coalesced into a squirming mass of shadowy insects.
The shadow stretched and took shape...
The next moment, Imu stood completely unharmed before them once more, fully transformed into the Ushi-oni Form!
"How is this possible... What kind of monster is this?!" For the first time, Charlotte Linlin's face showed genuine shock.
Rocks' expression darkened to the extreme. He instantly made a decision and turned to Raiver, barking sharply:
"Raiver, organize the retreat! The four of us will keep her pinned down!"
Raiver immediately understood Rocks' meaning.
Imu's earlier indiscriminate burst of Conqueror's Haki had already knocked out all members of the Pirate Crew except the Officers.