Bang, bang, bang! Boom—!
Dull impact sounds and the roar of flesh colliding echoed continuously through the relatively secluded "Underworld" of Elbaf, startling many giant creatures living there into flight.
Bang!
Following an exceptionally loud clash, Charlotte Linlin's dragon claws—covered in white scales and shimmering with a cold luster—locked onto Gerd's downward-swinging giant blade like the sturdiest of pincers.
At this moment, Gerd's arm muscles were clearly defined, veins bulged on her forehead, and her face was flushed red from the sheer effort, yet she could not force the blade forward another inch.
"This won't do! Gerd!" Charlotte Linlin's gaze sharpened. "Strength alone isn't enough! The strength of your Haki is still far too lacking!"
As she spoke, the dragon claws gripping the blade suddenly exerted force, pulling the straining Gerd toward her. Gerd stumbled, leaving her front wide open.
Simultaneously, her other dragon claw had already formed a fist. Clear muscles were etched onto her snow-white arm, and top-tier Armament Haki, so black it reflected light, instantly covered her iron fist!
"Crushing Strike!"
With a sudden twist of her wrist, the fist stirred the air into a wailing sound. The iron fist, condensing terrifying power like a giant cannonball fired from a barrel, ruthlessly slammed into the Armament Haki defense Gerd had hurriedly layered over her waist and abdomen!
Click!
Gerd's Armament Haki held for less than half a second before shattering into pieces like fragile glass!
Immediately after, the fist's force, imbued with penetrating power, poured unreservedly into her muscular waist and abdomen, leaving a clearly visible, dark fist print.
"Ugh—!"
Gerd let out a muffled groan as her massive body flew backward under the tremendous force, snapping several ancient black trees of the Underworld in succession before finally coming to a halt amidst a cloud of dust and wood chips.
By now, a month had passed since Charlotte Linlin and her group arrived at Elbaf. Having nothing better to do, they spent this time conducting combat training in this relatively harsh Underworld environment.
"Linlin! Don't forget, there's still me!"
Just as Charlotte Linlin knocked back Gerd, a sudden whistling sound erupted from behind her!
Ripley had leaped into the air at some unknown moment, her giant axe wrapped in pitch-black Armament Haki. With the momentum to split mountains and shatter stone, she swung it down ruthlessly from on high!
"When facing an opponent stronger than you, a sneak attack is a good choice!" Charlotte Linlin said without turning her head.
"But, don't shout a warning!"
As she spoke, her long, powerful dragon leg rose high like a bolt of white lightning. With a clean, decisive, and violently beautiful spinning kick, she accurately struck the side of Ripley's giant axe!
Clang—!
Sparks flew! The trajectory of the axe's swing was forcibly kicked off course, grazing past Charlotte Linlin's Dragon Wings.
Almost simultaneously, a white dragon tail, moving like a steel whip and leaving afterimages, lashed heavily against Ripley's chest and abdomen!
Snap!
With a crisp crack, Ripley felt a surge of massive force. Her blood churned, and she was sent flying backward, crashing heavily onto the ground and plowing a shallow trench.
"Of course, even if you hadn't made a sound, the result wouldn't have been any different," Charlotte Linlin added flatly, flicking her dragon tail.
"Linlin is so amazing! Linlin is so beautiful!"
At the edge of the battlefield, Gloriosa sat on a flat rock, her hands clutching her heart and her eyes full of worshipful little stars, looking every bit the little fangirl.
It wasn't that Charlotte Linlin hadn't thought about having her join the sparring, but Gloriosa refused no matter what. Her reason was incredibly firm—she would absolutely, positively never raise a hand against Lady Linlin.
Charlotte Linlin deactivated her dragon form, returning to human shape. She walked over to Gloriosa and picked up a piece of fragrant, giant roasted meat from the nearby grill, taking a large, unceremonious bite.
On the other side, Gerd and Ripley limped back, supporting each other and grimacing in pain.
Their faces were somewhat pale; clearly, Charlotte Linlin's attacks just now had been quite hard to bear.
"Linlin, you've changed!" Gerd said, viciously tearing into the roasted meat in her hand as if she were biting Charlotte Linlin herself, while glaring at her with a deeply resentful look.
"You never used your full strength in sparring before, but today you actually used a skill on me!"
Charlotte Linlin remained unfazed, talking nonsense with a straight face:
"That wasn't my skill, it was Zephyr's! So in a sense, it was Zephyr hitting you. If you want to blame someone, go blame him."
Gerd gave Charlotte Linlin a massive eye-roll, not bothering to argue further, and focused on the food in her hands to quickly replenish her spent stamina.
Ten years of sailing and warfare had long since allowed the girl-hearted Gerd of back then to grow into a reliable warrior whose maturity matched her appearance.
"Linlin, speaking of which," Ripley said from the side, rubbing the burning dragon-tail whip mark on her abdomen as she raised a question,
"What model is your 'Dragon-Dragon Fruit' exactly? Why is it that you don't even need oxygen after transforming? And my paralyzing toxin is completely ineffective against you?"
During the battle just now, she had used her ability to replace the air around Charlotte Linlin with highly concentrated neuroparalytic gas. Under normal circumstances, the target would quickly lose their fighting capacity.
Even with Charlotte Linlin's inhuman physical constitution, she had stumbled slightly in her human form. But once she transformed, all negative states disappeared instantly. She didn't feel like a biological creature at all—what kind of creature doesn't need to breathe? It completely defied common sense.
"Well..." Charlotte Linlin took a bite of meat and smiled vaguely,
"It's a secret."
Mainly, there was no way to explain it. Was she supposed to tell them it was a "Honkai Beast" template from another world, essentially closer to an energy lifeform or a conceptual creation? Even if she told them, they wouldn't understand.
"You really do have a lot of secrets~" Ripley glanced at the nodachi always hanging at Charlotte Linlin's waist, then thought of the other two blades that appeared and disappeared from time to time, her curiosity growing even stronger.
Just then—
Vroom!!! Boom—!!!
Two massive, violent bursts of Conqueror's Haki, filled with the aura of a king, erupted without warning from somewhere in Elbaf's Overworld!
The terrifying pressure even reached clearly into the Underworld, causing the surrounding giant beasts to let out terrified wails and scatter in flight.
The clouds in the sky seemed to be stirred by an invisible force, and the faint echo of muffled thunder could be heard.
"This Haki... has Rocks arrived?" Ripley immediately stood up, looking toward the source of the pressure with a solemn expression.
"Yeah, it's him." Charlotte Linlin put down her food, her brow furrowing slightly as she carefully sensed the two clashing Conqueror's Hakis.
"However... this kind of reckless, murderous collision doesn't seem like the way old friends should greet each other? Something's wrong, I'm going to take a look!"
As she finished speaking, the giant blue Dragon Wings on her back unfurled. Amidst swirling lightning, her figure turned into a bolt of swift electricity, breaking through the gloom of the Underworld and racing toward the site of the Haki eruption.
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