The moment his words fell, the muscles in his arms instantly swelled—a qualitative change brought about by Partial Beast Transformation.
Black and red intertwined patterns emerged on the skin of his arms as bone density sharply increased and muscle fibers realigned, tripling his strength in an instant!
This was one of the abilities of the Qiongqi Fruit: Partial Beast Transformation.
While maintaining a human form, it allowed a specific part of the body to revert to the primal state of the ferocious beast, granting extreme power and defense.
With force applied at his wrists, the blade pressed forward and slashed down abruptly.
Whoosh—!!!
A hundred-meter-long vertical blade aura tore through the Repulsion Barrier as if crushing dry weeds and smashing rotten wood!
Like a hot knife slicing through butter, the massive blade aura forcibly split Raiver Sky's Almighty Push right down the middle.
The severed repulsion field lost its integrity, its energy structure collapsing and dissipating into nothingness in an instant.
Yet the blade aura continued its relentless descent, aiming straight for Raiver Sky's head!
Raiver Sky's pupils contracted slightly.
At the moment the blade aura was about to strike, his figure flickered—a Space Jump.
He instantly teleported to a spot three hundred meters above the sea.
The enormous blade aura swept past empty air and struck the sea surface below.
The ocean was cleaved open, forming a terrifying chasm over thirty meters wide, bottomless, and extending several kilometers.
The seawater was split apart, the cut as smooth as a mirror.
The water on either side of the chasm was blocked by an invisible force, unable to merge back together for a time, creating a "Sea Canyon" leading to the abyssal depths.
However, Kleist's Observation Haki had already locked onto Raiver Sky's presence like a shadow.
The moment Raiver Sky teleported, Kleist's Observation Haki captured the trajectory of the Space Fluctuation and predicted his imminent landing point.
He had already anticipated where Raiver Sky would appear, darting forward like lightning to deliver another slash!
This strike lacked the exaggerated spectacle of the previous one but was more condensed and deadly.
The blade was aimed at the Space Coordinates of Raiver Sky's emergence.
No matter from which direction Raiver Sky appeared, this slash would land on him.
The instant Raiver Sky materialized, his Space Perception warned him of danger.
He didn't even have time to see where Kleist's blade was coming from and could only teleport again.
His figure vanished, reappearing five hundred meters away.
But Kleist clung to him like a persistent shadow, his blade light descending once more.
Raiver Sky had no choice but to evade again.
This cycle repeated as Kleist chased Raiver Sky across several square kilometers of sea, slashing dozens of times.
Each strike accurately predicted Raiver Sky's teleportation trajectory, each missing by a hair's breadth.
Raiver Sky just wanted to say: Disaster is always one step behind me!
After dozens of high-speed teleportations and predictive slashes, Kleist's breath finally grew slightly ragged:
"Slippery brat!"
He halted, his chest heaving slightly.
Though his stamina remained ample, the consecutive dozens of extreme predictions and strikes had taken a significant toll on his mental energy.
Especially with his Observation Haki fully activated, every second was burning through his mental focus.
As for Raiver Sky on the other side, his condition was far from relaxed either.
Continuously using Space Jump, each teleportation required precise coordinate calculations to evade Kleist's predictive slashes, placing immense demands on computational power and reaction speed.
The mechanism of Space Leap was: instantaneous short-distance teleportation through willpower, accurately landing at any designated point within sight!
At this moment, Raiver Sky realized this couldn't continue.
For someone who mastered space, there was no such thing as "heaven never seals off all exits"—wherever he wished to go, the path lay beneath his feet.
No matter how powerful Kleist was, he couldn't block the entire space, nor could he maintain such high-intensity prediction and pursuit indefinitely.
Raiver Sky could indeed leave at any time.
But doing so would mean mission failure.
He knew clearly that if he kept evading, he would never complete the system-assigned task of "Engaging a Marine Admiral in Direct Combat."
He had to take the initiative!
However, Kleist's Advanced Armament Haki was overwhelmingly powerful, integrating both offense and defense.
Even if Raiver Sky used Ryuo to break through defenses, it was difficult to inflict fatal damage.
Then... the only way was to fuse Advanced Armament Haki with Conqueror's Haki Coating, elevating his Haki to the next level!
The best method to defeat Haki was to use stronger Haki.
These were words Rocks had once spoken.
Thoughts flashing through his mind, Raiver Sky tightly gripped the Supreme Grade Sharp Blade "Black Dragon."
Advanced Armament Haki compressed to its limit once again enveloped the blade.
He had to thank Kleist for personally demonstrating how to compress Armament Haki to its extreme moments earlier.
By observing the aura around Kleist's blade, Raiver Sky gained deeper understanding of Ryuo application.
The blood-red fiery aura surrounding the blade danced ominously.
But this time, the aura's form became more condensed, more restrained, almost completely adhering to the blade, leaving only a burning light trail along the cutting edge.
Within that light trail converged sharp Sword Intent and formidable Ryuo.
Raiver Sky charged forward—not teleporting, but executing pure linear assault.
He wanted frontal collision.
He wanted to test his theory.
A horizontal slash swept out!
The blade cut through the air, tracing a perfect crescent arc.
Where the arc passed, space fractured into fine cracks resembling black spiderwebs spreading through the air.
As the Marine's supreme combatant, Kleist had perfected both swordsmanship and Haki.
Facing Raiver Sky's direct charge, he showed no fear, instead flashing a hint of appreciation in his eyes.
No more running?
Good.
Then let's decide this head-on.
He swung his blade to meet the attack, also executing a horizontal slash.
Two blades, two slashes, collided in the void.
BOOM——!!!
This was the explosive roar of energy annihilation.
Two powerful Advanced Armament Haki forces violently clashed, erupting into colossal waves across the sea.
The shockwaves swept outward like a storm, completely dispersing the clouds in the sky to reveal the azure firmament.
At the collision's epicenter, Raiver Sky and Kleist reached a stalemate.
Where the blades met, electric sparks wildly erupted.
Crackling and exploding through the air with piercing sizzles.
This was the energy discharge phenomenon generated by clashing Advanced Armament Haki.
Neither would yield, both continuously channeling their Advanced Armament Haki.
At this moment—
A fierce light flashed in Raiver Sky's eyes.
Now was the time.
An overwhelming pressure erupted violently, bursting from the depths of his being!
This was tyrannical power!
Crimson lightning radiated outward, crackling and sizzling through the air.
The monarch's pressure abruptly transformed heaven and earth!
Bolts of thunder struck the sea surface—the discharge phenomenon caused by Conqueror's Haki interfering with electromagnetic fields.
Schools of fish floated belly-up in the sea, their souls rendered inert under the impact of Conqueror's Haki, falling into a state of suspended animation.
Every living creature within several kilometers trembled in fear.
Kleist, who had been confronting Raiver Sky, was forced back several steps.
Not by physical force, but by sheer Haki pressure.
Conqueror's Haki!
And this was no ordinary Conqueror's Haki—it had already reached an advanced level!
The strength of Conqueror's Haki is directly related to the user's "capacity."
The greater the capacity, the stronger the Conqueror's Haki.
Capacity is something difficult to improve through training alone; it's mostly innate or achieved through countless trials and tribulations.
Damn it... where did this monster come from?!