Pale Justice!
After Frank’s Zanpakuto released its Shikai, its appearance changed from a previously Western-style knight’s sword into a weapon combining firearms and blades—a weapon blending two elements!
The gun-blades were silver-gray, with a relatively simple overall design featuring large-caliber barrels and sharp blades, prioritizing everything for optimal combat.
And the overall appearance of the gun-blades continued their pre-Shikai look, still retaining ordinary and unpretentious characteristics, without a single shred of redundancy.
“Two guns?”
Lord chuckled and said, “That’s so like you, but I didn’t expect it to be a paired-type Zanpakuto!”
A paired-type Zanpakuto was found in only three instances throughout the entire Soul Society.
Without exception, the users of these three paired-type Zanpakutos were all Captain-level, and even among the Captains, they were part of the very powerful batch!
Eighth Division Captain Shunsui Kyoraku’s Zanpakuto—Katen Kyōkotsu.
Thirteenth Division Captain Jūshirō Ukitake’s Zanpakuto—Sogyo no Kotowari.
As well as Kurosaki ichigo’s reforged Zangetsu!
“Hahaha—”
Frank laughed heartily and said, “Like it? Even if you like it, there’s no way I’m giving it to you!”
“That won’t be necessary.”
Lord laughed in response, “My blade isn’t bad either.”
“Watch out!”
Frank suddenly raised his hand, and the very instant the voice left his lips, the trigger had already been pulled!
When a person was speaking happened to be the exact moment when their mental guard was most relaxed!
For Punisher, the combat style was never bound by rules and restrictions, with the ultimate goal being to kill the opponent!
Frank wasn’t worried about killing Lord, because judging from the situation of the Spiritual Pressure just now, he was clearly at an absolute disadvantage; if he wanted to win, he could only rely on a sneak attack!
Boom!
The gun-blade let out a huge roar, resembling the roar of a Beast, spitting out blazing flames and pushing a metal bullet out of the rifling!
Swish!
The bullet’s muzzle velocity was extremely fast, even piercing through tens of meters of air as if completely without resistance, shooting straight toward Lord!
“Too slow~”
Lord smiled indifferently, then took half a step forward and slashed out fiercely with his Zanpakuto!
Kendo: Blade Pressure!
Visible Spiritual Pressure was condensed onto the blade, and then, aiming at that bullet, he swung his blade down with force!
Clang—
The blade split the bullet, splashing countless sparks flying everywhere!
Lord, who thought it was over, suddenly saw a strange, inexplicable smile curl up at the corner of Frank’s mouth, and immediately cursed inwardly that it was bad!
Click~
From inside the split bullet came a sound similar to a spring-loaded mechanism, and immediately afterwards, countless steel needles ejected out like a pear blossom in a rainstorm!
Swish, swish, swish!
Shunpo: Utsusemi!
Lord flicked his ankle, and his entire body instantly vanished from the spot, leaving behind only a coat!
Puff, puff, puff!
The countless exploding steel needles pierced through the coat, leaving dense holes like a Hive!
Lord gasped at the sight, thinking to himself that Frank played too dirty; what would happen if those hit his own body?
“Did he dodge it?”
Frank narrowed his eyes slightly, memorized Lord’s footwork from just now, and then raised the gun-blade in his right hand, saying, “This time, I’ll speed up the bullet!”
Bang—
This time, the bullet was at least three times faster than the previous one, arriving in front of Lord in the blink of an eye!
“So fast!”
Lord let out a soft exclamation of surprise, but his body remained unhurried, holding his Zanpakuto horizontally across his chest to block this shot!
Clang!
Impacted by the enormous inertial force of a bullet with triple the muzzle velocity, even with Lord’s physical fitness, he was still inevitably pushed back a step.
“Accelerate!”
Frank shouted coldly, not giving Lord the slightest time to breathe, and fired eighteen shots in succession from his right-hand gun-blade!
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The eighteen bullets roared, tearing through the air with visible gunfire, attacking in various arcs through the air!
“Is this curve shooting?”
Lord’s expression was somewhat peculiar.
If he remembered correctly, this should be an ability of the Alliance, right?
Was this Frank’s own ability, or the ability of the Zanpakuto?
But there was no time to think too much right now.
The eighteen bullets, following a trajectory beyond ordinary human comprehension, traced a huge arc in the air, surrounding Lord like a fishing net!
“Got him!”
Frank’s eyes narrowed slightly; previously, no one had ever been able to escape this move of his!
“Still, you’re too green.”
Lord’s gaze condensed slightly as he smiled indifferently and said, “Frank, this childish level won’t be enough to defeat me.”
With that said,
The Zanpakuto was unsheathed, transforming into countless blade lights!
The speed of the consecutive slashes was so fast that it could no longer be captured by the naked eye, as if cutting off all eighteen bullets in an instant!
“I guessed as much.”
Seeing the bullets split apart, far from panicking, Frank said with full confidence, “Unfortunately, Lord, you forgot that my bullets aren’t just mere bullets!”
Click!
After the eighteen bullets split open, the familiar mechanical sound rang out once again!
Boom, boom, boom!
Centered on Lord himself, a violent explosion suddenly occurred within a radius of several meters around him, mixed with poison gas, flames, steel needles, and other attacks!
“Did I win?”
Frank carefully observed Lord’s condition inside the smoke, but suddenly felt a chill attack him from behind!
It was him?!
The previous attack didn’t succeed!
Clang~
The gun-blade clashed with Kamishini no Yari!
“You really are fine!”
Frank looked at Lord, who was completely unharmed, and gritted his teeth in anger as he spoke.
“Isn’t your ability a bit too much?”
At this moment, Lord was also caught between laughter and tears, and suddenly felt a trace of curiosity regarding Frank’s Zanpakuto ability.
Eighteen bullets could actually have eighteen different effects.
Could the ability of that Zanpakuto be to alter the structure and attributes of bullets?
“You’re no slouch either!”
Frank grinned and said, “To actually dodge that move!”
“Thanks for the compliment.”
Lord smiled with narrowed eyes, completely suppressing Frank with the strength of just one hand alone; the latter was almost on the verge of kneeling!
Frank gritted his teeth and endured bitterly; his spiritual power was completely inferior to Lord’s, and his physical stamina couldn’t compare either, leaving him heavily suppressed!
“Is it over?”
Lord felt a little disappointed.
“If this is all the extent of it, it seems your hope for revenge is still far off.”
Although Frank’s Zanpakuto ability looked quite flashy, in reality, it was quite ordinary!
It neither had Kido-type additions nor slash-type bonuses; merely changing the attributes of the bullets made this ability genuinely somewhat tasteless.
“Is that so?”
Frank suddenly smiled bizarrely, “Lord, combat isn’t just about looking at each other’s strength; the most important thing is intelligence!”
“Oh?”
Lord raised an eyebrow and asked with curiosity, “What other intelligence is there?”
Frank abruptly took a step back, widening the distance between them, and raised the gun-blade he held in his left hand, which he had never used before.
“The left hand!”
Lord instantly realized that Frank had always used his right-hand gun-blade, but had never once used his left-hand gun-blade!
Could it be…
That the gun-blade on the left hand had other abilities?
Just as Lord was thinking, he saw Frank raise his left-hand gun-blade, aim it at his own heart, and then flash a smile.
“Lord,”
“The Shikai of Pale Justice has two parts. One of the guns is called ‘Justice’, which can customize the additional attributes of the bullets according to my will, as you just witnessed.”
“And the other gun is called ‘Pale’, which can grant me some extra abilities.”
“For instance—”
Bang!
A gunshot rang out, and a blood-red bullet surged into Frank’s chest!
“Until death do us part!!!”
Frank raised his head, his eyes completely blood-red, his spiritual power boiling and exploding all over his body, showing faint signs of a Breakthrough!
“Its function is only one!”
“To maximize all of my attributes to the extreme, and within the duration, no matter what kind of injury I sustain, I can continue to fight!”
“Okay!”
This was very Punisher.