The snow and wind on Drum Island were much lighter than three days ago.
Rector stood on the castle’s terrace, looking down at the Devil Fruit in his hand.
On the dark purple skin, spiral patterns outlined the shape of a wide-open mouth; it was indeed the Munch-Munch Fruit.
But the other Commoner-Commoner Fruit hadn’t been found, and even the Ox-Ox Fruit was nowhere to be seen.
It seemed he had come at the wrong time.
However, relying on armed deterrence really worked.
Mobilizing the whole island to search for three days yielded results.
If he had searched by himself, goodness knows when he would have found it.
Rector’s gaze suddenly turned to the distant sea.
Lightning flashed fiercely around his body, and his aura climbed steadily, like a volcano about to erupt.
On the hazy sea in the distance, a huge Marine warship was cutting through layers of waves and sailing over.
The hull was tall and sturdy, its three thick masts piercing straight into the gray sky, and the canvas was filled with sea wind, snapping loudly.
The Marine flag at the top of the mast fluttered in the wind, representing the most powerful military force on this vast sea.
A figure stood at the bow.
His sturdy physique stretched the purple suit into exaggerated lines, and his neat short purple hair swayed slightly in the wind.
He draped a Marine Vice Admiral’s Justice cloak over his shoulders, which billowed backward in the wind, a cold and stern light shining in his eyes.
It was none other than the Marine Vice Admiral, the man known by the moniker Black Arm Zephyr and praised as having the strongest Armament Haki among the Marines, also the teacher of countless future Marine elites—Black Arm Zephyr.
“Stand by here.” Zephyr’s deep voice echoed across the deck.
The muscles in his legs tensed, and stepping on the Moonwalk, he soared into the air, his figure rapidly climbing upward.
Rector watched Zephyr rising into the air, his eyes filled with excitement.
If the one who came was that freakish powerhouse who only hit people in the head, he would turn around and run.
But since Zephyr had come, he instead wanted to test the strength of this man who had climbed all the way to the position of Admiral relying on Armament Haki and martial arts.
The moment lightning crackled, Rector placed the Munch-Munch Fruit on Zeus’s back, transforming himself into a bolt of lightning and charging toward Zephyr in the air.
“Brat, you’re the first newly-set-sail pirate who hasn’t run away upon seeing me.”
The muscles in Zephyr’s arms swelled violently, directly bursting the sleeves of his suit.
Deep black Armament Haki flowed over his arms like water, giving off a metallic luster.
The moment the black halo lit up, Zephyr’s figure vanished from the spot, leaving only a continuous string of sonic booms in the air.
When his figure appeared again, he had already blocked Rector’s forward path.
“Black Arm: Meteor Strike!”
A smile curled the corner of Rector’s mouth, and the lightning around his body abruptly tore through the canopy of the sky.
He pulled one arm back, the lightning in his palm churning and roaring.
“Divine Heavens: God-Slaying Spear!”
Countless snake-like bolts of lightning gathered in his palm, entwining and compressing each other, emitting a sizzling explosion sound.
The lightning was compressed to the extreme, condensing into a dazzling silver-white spear.
The air around the spear shaft was torn and distorted.
The instant the spear tip collided with the fist, the air abruptly emitted a deafening sonic boom.
The air compressed to the extreme in front of Zephyr’s fist formed a transparent air wall.
The instant it collided with the lightning spear, wrapped in heavy Armament Haki, a blinding white light exploded in mid-air, dazzling people so they couldn’t open their eyes.
The thick clouds in the sky were violently blown open into a huge hole by the shockwave.
The sea below was pressed into dozens of meters high walls of water, spreading outwards, causing the warship to tilt in the waves.
The Marines on the deck hurriedly grabbed things around them to prevent being thrown off the warship.
Zephyr’s second-in-command stood steadily in the center of the deck, his feet seemingly rooted, remaining completely motionless no matter how the ship swayed.
“Everyone hold steady!” Zephyr’s adjutant shouted loudly, “The opponent’s strength is not weak; don’t lose your footing!”
But how could the soldiers have ever witnessed such a terrifying collision scene?
Their faces were as pale as paper, and their calves were trembling.
“Th-This…
Is this really a power that humans can dish out?”
High above Drum Island, the biting cold wind wrapped in crushed snow rampaged, and turbulent airflow churned within the clouds.
The black flowing light of Haki and the silver-white lightning turned into two giant dragons tearing through the canopy of heaven, colliding and chasing each other within the clouds.
Every collision tore a huge gap in the thick clouds.
Rector’s body flashed with dazzling lightning, his figure so fast it left only an afterimage, dragging a long arc of lightning behind him, drawing striking silver lines in the dim sky.
Zephyr’s figure was like a moving mountain.
Every step in the air caused the air to explode with muffled sounds, and he closely pursued the lightning step by step.
“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh—!!”
Rector raised his hand and waved it, dozens of condensed lightning arrows shooting out from his fingertips, pouring down from the sky like a dense arrow rain.
The scorching high temperature instantly evaporated the surrounding snow particles.
The tiny electric arcs emitted by the lightning arrows intertwined, weaving a dense web of electricity shot toward Zephyr.
“Brat!
Stop running!
Face the judgment of the Marine!”
Zephyr’s whole body muscles tightened and bulged, his legs kicking twice in the air, his figure suddenly accelerating, and the Armament Haki covering his double fists condensed into a black cross luster.
“Shatter for me!!!”
“Crack!
Crack!”
Zephyr threw both fists out simultaneously, the wind of his fists tearing through the air and emitting a harsh explosive sound.
The lightning arrows collided with his Haki-wrapped fists and were instantly shattered.
His fists lost none of their momentum, smashing straight toward Rector’s face.
“Hey!
Do you Marines have some kind of bad taste or something?!
Why do you always hit the face?!”
Rector’s pupils shrank abruptly.
The fist wind carrying heavy Haki compressed the surrounding airflow into distortion, smashing down overhead like a heavy canopy of heaven.
He didn’t dare to take it head-on.
The lightning spun, and his figure was forced to dodge downward.
An arc curved the corner of Zephyr’s mouth.
Facing a flying ability user, the safest method was to force the opponent to the ground.
He was a pure martial arts powerhouse.
Relying on Moonwalk to stay airborne for a long time consumed stamina much faster than an elementalized flying ability user; ending the fight quickly was the best strategy.
“Brat, honestly come back with me to stand trial!”
Zephyr’s fists wrapped in Armament Haki began to vibrate at a high frequency, shaking the air in front of his fists into layers of ripples, forming clearly visible undulations.
The derivative ability of Armament Haki developed by Zephyr—Shockwaves—utilized the penetration power of Armament Haki to the extreme while tearing apart the enemy’s attack.
“Black Arm: Shock Shatter!!!”
“Hum—!!!”
As the low shout fell, Zephyr shot up like a black meteor charging against the lightning.
Wherever he passed, circles of naked-eye-visible ripples were shaken out of the air.
“Divine Heavens: Ninefold Heavens!!!”
Furious lightning tore through the clouds, and nine huge holes exploded successively within the thick clouds.
Lightning gathered frantically in the holes, condensing into nine churning seas of lightning suspended in the sky.
Nine different weapon shapes slowly condensed within the nine seas of lightning, and the extreme high temperature evaporated the surrounding clouds into white mist.
“Fall!!!”
“Crack!”
Rector pressed down with a single palm, and nine lightning weapons smashed down with a world-destroying momentum.
The dazzling lightning instantly illuminated the sky of the entire Drum Island.
Zephyr didn’t dodge or evade, his body crashing straight into the sea of lightning composed of the nine pillars of lightning.
The dazzling lightning directly smashed toward the sea surface, blasting nine huge holes in the ocean and kicking up dozens of meters high waves.
The whirlpool formed by the backflow of seawater inside the holes continuously squeezed the warship, and the keel made an unbearable cracking sound, as if it would break at any moment.
“What a suicidal fellow.”
Rector looked at Zephyr, who was completely swallowed by the lightning.
This level of lightning could instantly melt rocks into magma or even vaporize them directly.
The high temperature Zephyr directly faced was enough to pierce his heart and brain.
“Brat, with just this bit of skill, you want to kill me?
Far from it!”
Zephyr’s angry roar forcibly drowned out the thunder.
The next second, a figure covered all over in pitch-black Haki rushed out from the sea of lightning, punching a huge gap through the entire sea of lightning.
His entire body was crimson red, resembling a piece of red-hot iron, but his fists were pitch-black and glossy, carrying a suffocating sense of oppression.
“Suppress for me!!!”
“Bang!!!”
With a violent shout, Zephyr’s heavy Haki-wrapped fist smashed solidly onto Rector’s face.
Rector’s entire face was distorted from the blow, and his body rapidly ascended toward the sky out of control.
Blood flew out along the corner of his mouth, condensing into beads of blood in the air.
His vision instantly began to turn white, his brain spinning dizzyingly.
The impact of this punch almost knocked him unconscious.
“Crack—!!!”
“Crack—!!!”
With a crisp sound, lightning rapidly crawled all over his emerging skin, gathering into a cluster of lightning above his head.
His originally unfocused pupils refocused, his right hand rubbing his throbbing head as the scene before his eyes slowly cleared up.
“Asshole!
Who did you Marines learn this from?
You only hit the face?!”
Rector exerted force from his waist and abdomen, twisting fiercely.
His right leg instantly elementalized while simultaneously covered with a layer of Armament Haki.
“Thunder Storm: Sky-Breaking: Chaos!!!”
His right leg swung out sharp blades of lightning, instantly filling the entire sky.
“Six Styles?”
Zephyr’s pupils shrank sharply, and he hurriedly crossed his arms in front of his chest to block the descending lightning blades.
Stepping on the air, he retreated repeatedly, his eyes filled with disbelief.
“The Six Styles aren’t only something you Marines can use.”