Chapter 342: The Conveyed Message
Axel looked at Jonathan's seemingly harmless smile and suddenly grinned.
Before the encirclement could fully tighten around him, he moved.
And just as he had said before, his first target was Jonathan.
Jonathan's expression changed.
There was no time to think.
His body reacted on instinct.
Armament Haki coated both fists, turning them pitch-black as he prepared to meet Axel head-on with everything he had.
"Too slow."
Axel crossed the distance in an instant.
"Too slow."
A hundred meters vanished beneath two steps.
"Too slow."
Before Jonathan could properly adjust, Axel's hand was already on his arm.
The touch looked almost gentle.
The effect was anything but.
Jonathan's blood surged violently through his body.
His expression tightened.
Something was interfering with the forces inside him.
Blood flow twisted.
Pressure changed.
His own body seemed to turn against itself.
Jonathan forced himself to move.
His leg snapped outward.
"Rankyaku!"
A razor-sharp blade of compressed air tore toward Axel at point-blank range.
At the same time, Jonathan drove two fingers toward Axel's hand.
"Shigan!"
Axel did not dodge.
The Rankyaku struck him.
So did Jonathan's Shigan.
Neither accomplished what Jonathan wanted.
Crack!
The finger he had used for Shigan bent backward under the returned force.
Jonathan's eyes widened.
A fraction of a second later, his own Rankyaku came screaming back at him.
He twisted aside.
Too late.
Slash!
The returning blade of air tore across his leg.
Blood sprayed.
A deep wound opened from the reflected attack.
And the real danger still had not ended.
Jonathan could feel heat building inside his blood vessels.
Not ordinary heat.
Pressure.
A violent burning sensation spread through him, as though the vessels themselves were about to rupture.
For perhaps the first time in the fight, Jonathan's calm expression vanished.
Damn it.
How do I break away?
Light gathered in front of him.
Jonathan immediately recognized it.
His tense expression eased slightly.
Kizaru materialized behind Axel.
Light blazed around the Admiral's leg.
Then he kicked.
Boom!
The strike landed squarely against Axel's side.
Observation Haki had warned Axel.
But Kizaru's speed left no time to avoid it.
Axel's hand slipped from Jonathan's arm.
His body was forced several steps sideways before he stabilized himself.
Kizaru did not escape the exchange untouched.
The force of his own kick came rushing back through Axel's Reflection.
The Admiral immediately dispersed into light, allowing the returned impact to pass through his elementalized body.
Jonathan used the opening without hesitation.
He leapt backward, creating dozens of meters of distance.
His eyes remained fixed on Axel.
Then he spoke sharply.
"The intelligence is outdated."
Kizaru glanced toward him.
Jonathan flexed his damaged hand.
"Armament Haki doesn't stop that ability."
Axel rubbed his waist.
Numbness still lingered where Kizaru had kicked him.
That old man's speed and explosive power really were troublesome.
Naturally, Axel refused to admit anything aloud.
"People improve."
He looked toward Kizaru.
"But Borsalino..."
Axel tilted his head.
"Are you getting old?"
Kizaru's brow twitched.
"Or were you never human to begin with?"
Axel gave him a mocking look.
"Why do your attacks keep getting weaker?"
Kizaru reformed completely.
"You still have an unpleasant mouth."
His voice remained slow and lazy.
"I wonder if you'll still talk like that after we arrest you."
Axel smiled.
"You can ask me after you manage it."
"I don't think you will."
Kizaru's eyes narrowed behind his glasses.
"Is that so?"
He looked around the battlefield.
"I think your chances of leaving are rather poor."
Axel followed his gaze.
The Pacifistas had already completed their formation.
Jonathan had also recovered enough to fight again.
And now that the Vice Admiral knew better than to engage Axel recklessly at close range, catching him a second time would be much harder.
Kizaru was right.
Escaping would not be easy.
In a true one-on-one fight, Axel did not believe he could defeat Kizaru.
Here, it was not even close to a one-on-one.
An Admiral.
Jonathan.
Sentomaru.
Pacifistas.
Marines positioned around the battlefield.
Worse, Axel's body was already beginning to deteriorate again.
The previous battles had placed enormous pressure on him.
Every heavy impact, every burst of Calculation Power, every violent adjustment inside his body added another burden.
His limbs had only recently recovered.
The rest of him remained unstable.
He looked calm.
He was not.
Still...
It was not time yet.
Axel tapped one foot lightly against the ground.
A small movement.
Almost childish.
Like someone impatiently stomping once.
Jonathan noticed immediately.
His eyes sharpened.
"What did you just do?"
Axel looked at him.
Kizaru also became more alert.
With Axel, even the smallest movement could hide something dangerous.
He had controlled entire masses of seawater earlier without making any obvious gesture at all.
Axel silently cursed Jonathan.
What an irritating man.
Then he shook his head.
"Nothing."
Jonathan waited.
Axel stretched his waist slightly.
"The man in yellow kicked me hard enough to leave my body numb."
He gestured toward Kizaru.
"I'm just dispersing the force."
Jonathan's expression remained unreadable.
"Is that so?"
Axel knew better than to continue.
The longer he talked, the more opportunities Jonathan had to draw information from him.
So Axel moved instead.
Again.
Straight toward Jonathan.
Jonathan's face darkened.
Why me again?
He had no time to complain.
Kizaru intercepted immediately.
Light flashed.
The Admiral appeared directly between them.
Axel shifted direction.
His movement became irregular, breaking sharply from one trajectory into another despite his speed.
Ordinary inertia seemed irrelevant.
Kizaru matched him.
His elementalized body allowed similarly unnatural movement, and his speed remained superior.
Even with a slight delay in reacting, he still closed the gap.
Light met wood.
Bang!
Ama no Murakumo crashed against Axel's wooden sword.
The ground split.
Stone shattered.
Dust and debris exploded outward.
The impact tore through the battlefield.
Sentomaru was the first to break through the shockwave.
He came in from behind Axel.
His massive axe descended with brutal force.
Boom!
The blade struck Axel's back.
Sentomaru immediately regretted it.
The entire force rebounded.
His expression twisted.
It felt as though he had struck himself.
Combined with the shockwave already tearing through the area, the reflected impact hurled Sentomaru backward.
His feet gouged long trenches through the ground.
He was pushed dozens of meters away before finally stopping.
Axel caught the opening.
His free hand moved.
Kizaru's force shifted.
The pressure from their clash twisted beneath Axel's control and transformed into a cutting wave of compressed force.
It shot toward Sentomaru.
Sentomaru's eyes widened.
"Damn!"
He threw himself aside.
The yellow-tinted slash tore past him.
Boom!
It struck the thick wall of Navarone Fortress.
The reinforced structure split apart.
Sentomaru stared at the destruction, sweating.
Kizaru's expression became increasingly irritated.
Having his own attack redirected toward an ally was becoming tiresome.
He parried Axel's wooden sword.
Then raised one leg.
Light concentrated around it.
This time, the glow did not appear for an instant.
It gathered.
Compressed.
Built power.
Axel's Observation Haki screamed a warning.
Kizaru's leg flashed.
A fully charged light-speed kick was already coming.
....
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