However, Aiden, who was trapped in the middle of this deadly situation, showed no panic at all.
He slowly closed his eyes and pushed his Observation Haki to the limit.
The deafening roars around him, Shiki's shouting, and the crashing waves all seemed to grow distant.
The world became quiet.
In that silence, a faint red light began to glow under his eyelids.
At that instant, Aiden saw it.
He saw several seconds into the future.
He saw a small gap in the path of the water lion on the left, caused by a change in air pressure.
He saw a floating rock on the right that was about to break apart among the falling rocks.
He even saw a brief opening above him, created by the collision of the two lions.
Among the countless paths of death, there was only one path to survival.
Aiden snapped his eyes open, and red light shone in his pupils.
It was the exact moment the eight giant beasts were about to close in and crush him completely.
"Zzt!"
Aiden moved.
In Gion's eyes, Aiden instantly turned into a bolt of blue lightning that shot off at an incredibly strange angle.
"Whoosh!"
He did not retreat.
Instead, he charged straight at the largest rock lion in front of him.
"You've got a death wish!" Shiki grinned.
He controlled the giant rock mouth and made it snap shut.
The Haki-covered rocks bit down like a giant grinder.
But just 0.1 seconds before the impact, Aiden twisted his body in a strange way and slipped through the tiny gap between the two giant rocks like a fish.
Then he kicked off the flying rocks in midair to gain speed.
His body drew a sharp Z-shaped path through the sky as he narrowly dodged the giant claw of the water lion striking from the side.
Fast. Too fast.
That was not something a normal human should have been able to do.
Every dodge happened right at the edge of the attack.
It was as if death was brushing past his skin.
Every movement perfectly used the slight delay and the blind spots Shiki had while controlling such massive objects.
The killing move Shiki was so proud of could not even touch the edge of Aiden's clothes.
"What?!"
Shiki, standing on top of a lion's head, stared with his eyes wide open.
"Future Sight...?" Shiki scoffed, but his voice turned serious. "Even in the New World, there are very few monsters who can train their Observation Haki to this level. I didn't expect you to reach it at such a young age!"
"No wonder you're so arrogant. You really do have some talent!"
"Got you."
At the moment Shiki was shocked, a blue flash of lightning broke through the heavy layers of defense.
Like a ghost, Aiden suddenly appeared right in front of him.
The distance between them was less than five meters.
The crimson longsword in Aiden's hand was giving off a sharp screech that hurt the ears.
Using the Rumble-Rumble Fruit to control magnetic fields, Aiden made the half-melted metal sword vibrate at high speed.
The blade became blurry, and heat waves rose in the air from the friction.
"Taste this!"
Aiden roared and swung the sword.
"Cheap tricks!!"
Shiki felt the danger at once.
He did not have time to change his move, so he raised his right leg and pushed both his Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki to the limit to block the strike.
"Zzzzz!!!"
When the two weapons met, they did not bounce apart.
The high-frequency crimson longsword bit into Oto like a mad chainsaw.
Sparks burst out like a fountain.
Shiki's Haki defense, that black armor that normally looked impossible to break, actually let out a cracking sound as it reached its limit.
The muscles in Aiden's arms bulged as he suddenly pushed forward with all his strength.
"Creeeeeak!!"
With a painful grinding sound, the crimson sword tore through the Haki defense and cut a deep wound into Shiki's right leg where Oto was attached.
"Ugh!"
Shiki groaned, and the sharp pain slowed his movements for a moment.
But at the same time, Aiden's makeshift melt-sword finally reached its limit.
It had been forced together in a hurry, and it could not handle a clash of this level together with the high-frequency vibration.
The second after it broke through Shiki's defense,
"Boom!!!"
the crimson longsword exploded.
It shattered into countless pieces of burning metal and blew apart at zero distance between the two men.
"Boom!!"
Molten iron and sharp fragments flew everywhere.
Driven by the remaining force, they struck Aiden and Shiki like a shower of shrapnel.
Both men were blown back by the massive shockwave.
Aiden turned into a current of electricity in midair, reformed his body, and landed steadily on the ground.
The burning metal and sharp fragments passed straight through his elemental body.
They hit the ground with a hiss, but they did not leave a single mark on him.
As a Rumble-Rumble Fruit user, pure physical damage and high heat meant nothing to him.
On the other side, Shiki also steadied himself.
Even after taking an explosion from that close, Shiki still remained calm.
A Haki barrier blocked most of the damage.
Only the edges of his clothes were burned, and his wild golden hair still moved fiercely in the wind.
He looked down at Oto on his right leg.
The blade was still sharp and undamaged.
"Whew..."
Shiki let out a breath and stared hard at Aiden.
There was now caution in his eyes.
This brat... is too crazy!
Shiki wiped the black soot from his face and grinned.
"You even blew up your own weapon just to leave a mark on me? Now you don't even have a blade in your hand. How are you going to fight me?"
Aiden ignored the mockery.
He looked down at the burned sword hilt by his feet, then gave it a quick kick and sent it flying into the sea.
"As expected..."
Aiden shook his head, sounding a little disappointed.
"A weapon made in a hurry like that is just too weak. It can't last long in a fight at this level like a graded sword can."
Shiki had no intention of giving Aiden another chance to make a sword.
He slammed his hands together, and veins bulged on his forehead.
"Rumble rumble rumble!!!"
The eight lions that Aiden had dodged earlier instantly merged again under the power of the Float-Float Fruit.
They turned into a giant hand, ready to crush the ant in its palm.
There was no space left in the world to hide.
Shiki's roar boomed through the chaos.
"Brat, let's see how you dodge this time!"
Facing this unavoidable killing move, Aiden slowly lowered his hands.
He let the wind blow through his black hair.
He let the destructive shadow swallow him completely.
Then he slowly looked up at Shiki in the sky.
It was exactly noon.
The clouds above Merveille had been torn apart by the battle, and the burning sun shone down without anything blocking it.
But the light coming from Aiden was even brighter than the sun.
Countless bolts of white lightning began to surge out from every cell in his body, wildly gathering over his skin.
The air filled with a terrifying noise, like ten thousand birds crying out at once.
"Boom!"
The clouds that had been torn apart began to gather again.
This time, Aiden was pulling them back by force.
Aiden snapped his eyes open.
His dark pupils had turned into blinding white lightning.
He looked at Shiki, and though his voice was not loud, it cut through the tsunami and exploded in Shiki's ears.
"Who said I was going to dodge?"
Aiden slowly raised his right hand and grabbed at the air, as if he were seizing all the lightning in the sky.
To Be Continued
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