Water 7, South District: Inside the Alternate Dimension.
Behind a shimmering green "Air Door" forced open from nothingness, the CP9 assassin Blueno was stumbling. His usually stoic, ox-like face was contorted with a rarity: pure, unadulterated horror.
As a Doa Doa no Mi user, this green sub-dimension was his sanctuary. No matter how strong the foe, they couldn't touch a hair on his head once he stepped behind the threshold. But tonight, the sanctuary had been breached.
A dense, swarming "sandstorm" of red and blue flesh had permeated the cracks of the door, flooding his private world.
"When I was killing people on the Grand Line, you were still a calf sucking milk! You think you can play spatial assassination with This Great Man?"
Buggy's raspy, mocking voice echoed from hundreds of directions at once. It was a 360-degree taunt, whispering in Blueno's left ear one second and shouting from the right the next.
"Tekkai: Sai!" Blueno roared, his heavy fists smashing into the void. Each punch carried enough force to shatter steel, but they passed through the thumb-sized fragments of drifting meat like a cannon firing at mosquitoes.
Then, the counter-strike. In Blueno's blind spot, a section of forearm and a hand snapped together with a mechanical click. Sharp hidden blades popped from the finger rings.
Slash!
The blades carved a deep, bone-gritting gash across Blueno's shoulder blade. He swung around wildly, but the hand disintegrated back into fine mince before he could connect, vanishing into the red whirlwind.
Blueno grit his teeth. Maintaining the Door-Door dimension consumed massive stamina. If he stayed here, he wouldn't even need to be killed—he would simply exhaust himself to death fighting a ghost.
"I have to go back to reality and end this now!"
Blueno pulled outward, forcibly withdrawing from the green light. He reappeared in the damp, cold ruins of the timber warehouse.
"Got you!"
The moment his feet touched the soil of the real world, Buggy's laugh rang out. A few inconspicuous red scraps that had hitched a ride on Blueno's back through the Air Door snapped together.
Clack!
A fully formed right hand, its fingers wearing Sea Stone rings, dug firmly into Blueno's lower back just as his Tekkai deactivated.
The cold, draining essence of the sea seeped into his blood. Blueno's pupils dilated; it felt as if his spine had been turned to lead. He collapsed like a pile of boneless mud, unable to twitch a finger.
In mid-air, Buggy's body reassembled with a series of wet, rhythmic thuds. He stood over the fallen agent, pulling a bright red glass marble from his pocket.
"In the art of backstabbing, I am the ancestor of this sea. You stupid ox."
Buggy tossed the marble. The Special Buggy Ball.
BOOM!
A terrifying orange-red mushroom cloud punched through the warehouse roof. High-temperature flames swallowed the building, and Blueno was sent hurtling through a brick wall, buried under tons of burning debris. Buggy simply dusted off his coat, bringing the battle of wits to a fiery, decisive end.
The Breakwater: The King of the Land vs. The Lord of the Sky
Outside the city, the great sea dam was screaming. The concrete foundation groaned under the weight of two monsters.
Genn, the CP0 captain, stood amidst a trench he had plowed with his own feet. His ox-bone mask was shattered, revealing a face of grim determination. On his chest sat a deep purple fist print.
"I have to go all out," he hissed.
A black flame-cloud, the mark of a "forbidden" power, began to coil around his neck like a physical scarf. His muscles surged, his skin hardening into something denser than diamond.
Ancient Species, Ushi Ushi no Mi, Model: Great Horned Black Bull—AWAKENED!
In a puff of white-hot steam, his wounds began to knit. The purple bruise on his chest filled out, the pain smoothed over by the near-instantaneous recovery of an awakened Zoan.
"It's useless!" Genn's voice hummed like a war drum. "Even with Haki that penetrates armor, it's a drop in the bucket for an awakened beast! I will win this struggle of attrition!"
Ace stood firm against the howling wind, his dark red trench coat snapping. "Awakened? I suppose CP0 wouldn't be the 'strongest shield' without a few tough nuts."
Ace's back arched. His blood began to roar with the sound of ancient drums.
Suddenly, a pair of magnificent wings unfurled from his shoulders—not of feathers, but of solid, high-temperature red-gold flames. Scale-like embers layered down to his wrists like ancient jade armor. The heat was so intense it turned the falling rain into a blinding fog of steam.
The Vermilion Bird wings swept out, creating a sonic boom that tore the earth.
"You want to compare stamina and recovery with me?" Ace laughed, his right fist pulling back, coated in ink-black, shining Haki. "Sacred Fire: Fist Bone Impact!"
"Six Powers Secret Technique: Steel Head King Chariot!" Genn roared, lowering his massive black horns and charging like a living locomotive.
KABOOM!
The heavens shook. Two monster-level forces locked in a primal struggle.
Ace's wings vibrated, turning him into a blur of red-gold light. His fists, wrapped in Ryuo and high-temperature fire, rained down on Genn's vitals like a meteor shower.
Genn didn't dodge. He took the hits—punches that could melt steel—relying on his unreasonable awakened vitality to stay upright. He lunged forward, swinging his thick arms and black horns in a peerless counterattack.
The breakwater began to collapse into the sea. Rocks were ground into powder by the intersecting waves of flame and Haki. No footwork. No retreats.
In the cold night rain, the Mythical Creature and the Awakened Beast entered the purest, most tragic stage of combat: Trading blood for blood.
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