The pirate boss is nowhere to be seen, having vanished into thin air. His clothes and even his sword are invisible.
"Look out, he hasn't gone anywhere, he's still here, lurking nearby," Arashi warned.
Sure enough, before long, a voice reverberates in everyone's ears.
"Remember it well, boy, as it will be the last thing you do. I am Absalom, the one who ate the Clear-Clear Fruit." The pirate declared, all while even his shadow is hidden from sight.
Sear's wide-open eyes wildly scour the surroundings for any sign of the man. He recognized the name: Absalom, but can't dwell on it at the moment.
Next, suddenly, in an unexpected turn of events—
Slash!! Cut!! Sear puts a deep cut on his own palm with a swift motion.
Even the pirate is astonished. "Self-harm? Have you gone mad, or is it that you have simply given up? Well too bad, I don't accept surrenders when I am pissed."
Not responding to the remark, Sear merely smiled like a maniac as blood oozed out from the wound, then in a split second, he directly went into action.
Tracking the voice with his keen ears, he created a picture of the invisible man's approximate position in his head and charged at the unsuspecting foe.
The exact spot for the strike could have been a hurdle, but having thought of this beforehand, Sear spreads his fingers wide and simply flays his bloody palm at the spot where the man likely stood.
Innumerable drops of blood spray and splatter on the enemy, who's taken aback and confused.
Subsequently, metals collide with a powerful clank as the two engage each other with their blades.
Absalom, although caught off guard for a second, also doesn't happen to be a slouch. He overcame the initial flurry of strikes, relatively unhurt.
The blood marks that Sear made on his clothes were visible for a few seconds before disappearing like everything in contact with the man.
Sear hadn't lost the initiative either. He couldn't afford to.
Without any means to protect himself against an invisible opponent, he would be just about completely helpless, akin to a sitting duck.
Therefore, taking that into consideration, like a hungry wolf, he neither yields a moment of respite nor a slight opening to counterattack for Absalom, who, having already made multiple unsuccessful attempts to slip away from the boy's reach, was at a loss.
Each time the man tried, Sear would swiftly close in the distance.
In time, as the fight drags on, Absalom starts sweating bullets, completely helpless against the unending volley of strikes from this unknown teen before him.
'Somebody this capable in this insignificant island?!' Absalom is unsure what to make of the boy.
In this moment of profound loss, he starts to fret for his life. Distracted—reaction speed slowed. Taking advantage, Sear's kukri moved at an impossible angle.
In an instant, a slightly unfocused mind in a heated battle is all it took. That slight inaction provided ample gap for the blade to slip right in, leaving a long gash on his face.
Everything happened so timely that just a fraction of a second later, when Absalom came back from the stupor, he was already injured. "Ahhhhhh!!!"
The cut remained visible to plain sight for a while, just a streak of blood suspended mid-air. Though again shortly after, it completely vanished, exactly as it had appeared.
Meanwhile, Sear continued to handle the exchange like a champ. Capitalizing on the opportunity, he intensified the assault before the pirate could regain his composure and retaliate.
Absalom, now sober from the shock, has alarm bells ringing inside his head nonstop.
He refocuses his attention on combating the boy with all his strength.
And so, with some miracle, he narrowly succeeds in escaping the metaphorical chokehold, despite those earlier setbacks.
In the aftermath, as the two fell back to a neutral position, the result of the short clash couldn't be more clear.
Coming out, though Absalom survived the flurry of attacks, it nonetheless shook his dumb arrogance. What's worse are his injuries, for instance, the long gash on his face.
The kukri, having put many cuts on the man, had fresh blood sticking to it. Rubbing it on his sleeves, Sear cleans those few ounces of blood.
Holding a glinting blade afterward, he declares; "You asked why I cut my palm? Listen... this blood gushing out from my palm is a sacrifice to my beloved blade Hibutsu and an omen of your inevitable slaughter by my hands."
"Hmph, getting cocky are we?.. Fool, you must think you can keep finding me with my voice, or is it that you believe spraying that blood on me will work again? It's useless now. I am constantly moving around from place to place. Luck won't help the second time. Hahahahah!!"
"We'll see about that."
Sear charges on with full force, but the blade cuts nothing but air.
—Sure enough, the pirate told the truth.
His every attempt to catch the man is to no avail. The situation has turned extremely precarious.
Absalom, on the other hand, wouldn't let this opportunity slip. Utilizing a rapid hit-and-run tactic, he forces the boy into a corner.
Fortunately, Sear narrowly blocks or dodges the strikes to his vital parts but also isn't able to do much else. If he lets this continue, blood loss from the numerous cuts alone could pose fatal.
Even with his heightened senses, having not yet been able to tap into haki—Observation Haki in this case—he isn't truly confident in being able to defend against something that can't be seen, not the trajectory of the blade nor its distance from his neck at any unforeseen moment.
While bracing for yet another attack, his mind races as the two hunks of steel clash in the background—something needed to change.
Like the momentary darkness of an eclipse, the predicament that Sear was in could also only last so long.
Having found a flash of insight—
"Guess I have to go all out. It's a bit risky but what choice do I have?!"
"Radiant Sun Dance..."
He's about to unleash the true power of his breathing arts.
Up until now, he had avoided utilizing the technique to its maximum extent, due to having incomplete control over it.
He takes in a deep breath and exhales what looks like steam from his mouth.
His skin turns reddish. Liquids in his pores start evaporating.
Each and every breath becomes more refined and predictable, not even remotely erratic. His heart also picks up a rhythm. Blood flow smoothens and the rate at which his heart pumps blood accelerates.
Muscles contract and become solid like rock, yet he steadily avoids all the incoming strikes, becoming both flexible and robust at the same time.
Mind focused, eyes, ears — all together, five of his senses work in unison. He hears even the faintest noise of footsteps while his eyes observe the occasional dust being raised due to it.
Time and again, the invisible blade misses its target, as if two opposing magnets are in combat.
Whenever the blade nears, Sear takes a step back to avoid it.
It's like his feet predict the next move before his mind.
Next, Sear instantly closes the gap and thrusts the tip of his kukri. Absalom uses all his strength to block it with his saber. His hands become numb from the impact and he nearly loses his footing.
'What is happening? Can he see me?' Absalom questioned reality while reeling from the impact.
Sear, with renewed vigor, kept pouncing at him.
During this critical moment, Absalom is again indecisive, flinching at imminent danger. He staggers and makes a mishap...
Sear's kukri finds its prey, almost like it has a pair of omniscient eyes — showing no mercy, it went on to slice into the man's face. A chunk of flesh is separated.
"Aughhhhh!!"
Absalom gives out a terrific wail...
Even still, Sear doesn't stop.
Using this opening, he launched straight at the man and threw a diagonal slash.
A infamous pirate from Grand Line is left with neither the ability nor the opportunity to pose any sort of threat.
—Alas, the Devil Fruit ability was undone. At the same time, Sear stopped his assault. Absalom also became visible to plain sight again.
Thus his miserable condition is revealed.
Just at a glance, the results of the battle is striking. Notably, Absalom's nose — or the lack thereof — having been completely chopped clean from his face.
—In its place, a fountain of red gushed out. Utterly horrific to behold.
"Guess I fulfilled a canon event, huh!!" Sear has an awkward smirk on his face.
In the story, already prior to Absalom's first appearance, the lower portion of his face had been replaced and stitched with that of a lion's face instead. It's sort of a mystery how it led to that.
The amusement on Sear's face doesn't bode well with the noseless man.
"Y-You—"
Gasping for air, he tries mumbling words, but then gets quiet in an instant.
The blood on Sear's kukri — his own blood — instills a kind of primal fear in him.
Being out of his mind, he hastily scurries backwards on his hind legs in an attempt to escape the vulnerable situation.
Catching sight of his severed nose flung to the side in the process, he scrambles to it before carefully grabbing it with a handkerchief and swiftly putting it in his coat pocket.
The whole time, Sear kept an eye on him.
Unlike the pirate, he appears calm on the outside, yet inside he's suffering the consequence of using the Radiant Sun Dance.
Done securing his nose, Absalom asks Sear a question that's been gnawing at him.
"H—How could you attack me when I was invisible?"
Thud!
Before Sear answered, the pirate weakly fell to his knees.
Crimson blood spurts from the wound on his chest — the short burst of adrenaline that gave him strength had run dry.
"Blood!! It was your blood. You can make it disappear, but what about the scent?"
As he speaks, Sear is vigilant enough to hide his pain from the man.
"Also, once you started running and sweating, the repulsive smell — it was bad enough that even the blood was unnecessary. Not to mention there's also that."
Sear replied while masking his ragged breath beneath a calm expression.
"That?"
?? Question marks appear on the pirate's face. He speculates all kinds of things.
'By that, could he mean haki? Does he know how to use it? But how's that possible when even I, who went to the Grand Line, have only ever heard rumors?'