Boom!
Akainu’s fist collided with an orange-red beam, causing the air around them to tremble violently.
Only after a long moment did the orange-red light finally dissipate.
Akainu raised his head and stared gravely in the direction the attack had come from.
“Gadile Yuri.
Your Armament Haki is finally starting to look decent,” Akainu said with a grin.
Three years ago, Yuri had indeed awakened Armament Haki.
He had even been capable of coating his coins with it.
But in Akainu’s eyes, Yuri’s Armament Haki back then had been little more than amateurish child’s play.
If Yuri hadn’t been firing from a kilometer away, giving himself plenty of time to gather and coat the coin with Armament Haki, then at close range, Haki at that level would have been almost no different from having none at all.
Back then, its greatest purpose had simply been to protect the coin from melting too quickly while traveling at supersonic speeds.
In Akainu’s words, Armament Haki that crude was only embarrassing to show off.
It couldn’t truly be applied in actual combat.
But now, things were completely different.
Akainu could clearly feel the power of the Haki coating this coin.
It had already reached a respectable level.
Still, it wasn’t enough to frighten him.
Reaching this level of Haki after three years of training was certainly impressive, but not enough to truly amaze Akainu.
There were quite a few people in the Marines who could accomplish something similar in that amount of time.
But Gadile Yuri’s greatest strength had always been his Devil Fruit.
Now that his Armament Haki had reached a level where it could be properly applied in battle, combining it with his Devil Fruit ability could produce unexpectedly terrifying results.
That was why Akainu’s expression had become somewhat grave.
Boom!
Boom!
Boom!
Just as Akainu destroyed one Railgun, three more orange-red beams shot toward him simultaneously.
“Hmph.
The same technique won’t work on me,” Akainu said with a cold smile.
As he spoke, he threw three punches in rapid succession.
Invisible waves of Armament Haki surged from his fists and knocked all three Railguns away.
“The Railgun may be fast, but against a true powerhouse, its attack pattern is too straightforward.
That’s its weakness,” Akainu said.
Over the past few years, Akainu had often thought about how to counter Yuri’s Railgun.
Eventually, he reached a conclusion.
Yuri’s Railgun was incredibly fast and tremendously powerful, but it had one major weakness.
Its trajectory was too direct.
It traveled in a straight line.
And although the Railgun was extremely fast, it hadn’t reached a speed so overwhelming that Akainu couldn’t react at all.
By using Observation Haki to sense and predict the Railgun’s trajectory in advance, he could redirect it with carefully applied force.
Of course, actually accomplishing that was anything but easy.
Neither the speed nor the destructive power of the Railgun was something just anyone could withstand.
And to do what Akainu had just done, knocking away several Railguns at once, required not only highly advanced Observation Haki but also Ryuo-level Armament Haki.
Otherwise, even if someone could predict the trajectories of the Railguns, there would be no way to deflect all of them simultaneously.
“Leave the other members of the Gadile Pirates to you.
I’ll personally take down Gadile Yuri,” Akainu ordered after knocking away the Railguns.
“Yes, Vice Admiral Sakazuki!” his Rear Admiral adjutant responded.
Akainu didn’t even wait for him to finish.
His body had already shot toward the deserted island.
“Change course.
Target the Gadile Pirates,” the Rear Admiral ordered after Akainu disappeared.
The Marine fleet immediately changed direction and headed toward the opposite side of the island, where the Gadile Pirates were located.
…
“Judging by the time, the battle on Barro Island should have started by now, right?” Sengoku asked Tsuru at Marine Headquarters.
Barro Island was the deserted island where Yuri was currently located.
“By now, it should have,” Tsuru replied.
“Still no intelligence from that side?” Sengoku asked.
“Not yet.
But with Sakazuki’s strength, there shouldn’t be anything to worry about,” Tsuru said.
“True.
With Sakazuki’s strength, I shouldn’t be worried.
But for some reason, I can’t shake this uneasy feeling today.
Ever since Roger ushered in the Great Pirate Era, far too many unexpected things have happened.
And Gadile Yuri disappeared completely for more than three years.
No one knows how much stronger he’s become now.
He’s the most terrifying rookie to emerge since the beginning of the Great Pirate Era,” Sengoku said.
Big Mom, Kaido, King of the Beasts, and even the Red-Haired pirate currently making a name for himself in the New World weren’t true rookies.
Yuri, on the other hand, was a genuine newcomer who had risen entirely after the dawn of the Great Pirate Era.
Sengoku regarded him as the strongest rookie of this era.
…
Meanwhile, on Barro Island.
“You really came charging in aggressively.”
Yuri had formed a floating throne out of iron sand and sat upon it, watching Akainu rapidly approach.
“At last, we meet again, Gadile Yuri.
This time, I’ll definitely throw you into Impel Down.
That’s where you belong for the rest of your life,” Akainu said coldly as he used Moonwalk to rapidly cross onto the deserted island and stared at Yuri sitting on his floating throne.
“Hahaha!
You want to capture me?
Then go ahead and try.
Who knows?
Maybe this island will become your grave instead,” Yuri said with a laugh.
As he spoke, powerful electrical currents erupted across his entire body.
“Scorching River Great Eruption!”
“Iron Sand Fist!”
After more than three years, Yuri’s Iron Sand Fist once again collided head-on with Akainu’s Great Eruption.
The instant the two attacks crashed together, both Yuri’s and Akainu’s expressions changed.