Suddenly, a red light flashed in Klocke Dahl's eyes, and he immediately shifted to the side.
Whoosh!
A sword blade stabbed out from the ground where Klocke Dahl had been standing moments before. The slender blade pierced several meters into the air before finally stopping.
The sword blades Lafayette had extended weren't limited to two.
There was a third blade.
The first two blades had merely served as a distraction, allowing the third blade to emerge unexpectedly from beneath the ground.
"Sand Clone!"
"Desert Crescent!"
The scattered grains of sand rapidly gathered.
While Lafayette was attacking Klocke Dahl from the front, another "Klocke Dahl" suddenly appeared behind him.
Just like when he had fought Kaito before, the moment this sand clone appeared, its right arm immediately transformed into a sharp blade of sand and slashed fiercely toward Lafayette.
Boom!!!
The sand blade struck the enormous paper wall.
Lafayette's Observation Haki was clearly quite impressive. He had sensed the attack from the "Klocke Dahl" behind him and instantly created a paper wall to defend against it.
During the collision, however, the sand blade didn't tear the paper wall apart.
It wasn't because the sand blade lacked sharpness.
Rather, it carried an entirely different kind of attack.
The moisture within the paper wall was rapidly absorbed.
The paper quickly dried, withered, and turned into powder.
However, because the paper wall had successfully blocked the attack, Lafayette gained enough time to react.
Before the sand blade could launch another attack, Lafayette had already swept away at high speed.
Even before retreating completely, he threw out a spiral gun.
The spiral projectile pierced straight through the sand clone and blasted it apart.
"Desert Sword!"
"Requiem: Dawn Song—Aurora Burst!"
The battle continued.
The sandstorm gradually began to dissipate, but the fight was far from over.
Seeing his sand clone destroyed, Klocke Dahl immediately threw out a sharp blade of sand.
The sand blade tore through the ground as it advanced, leaving a deep trail behind it.
Lafayette, who had already sensed the attack with Observation Haki, decisively thrust his sword forward.
A gun-shaped Slash Wave shot out.
Boom!!
The sand blade and Slash Wave collided violently.
Although a large amount of sand was blown apart by the impact, the Desert Sword ultimately prevailed.
It broke through the Slash Wave and continued toward Lafayette with its remaining momentum.
Lafayette lightly touched the ground with his foot and nimbly dodged the incoming sand blade.
At the same time, he condensed another spiral gun in his left hand.
The weapon was wrapped in Armament Haki.
He hurled it toward Klocke Dahl once again.
Suddenly, something resembling tentacles emerged from behind Klocke Dahl.
A massive claw formed entirely from sand reached out and grabbed the incoming spiral gun.
The spiral gun rotated rapidly, drilling a large hole through the enormous sand claw.
But in the end, it still failed to break free.
The sand claw closed tightly and crushed it.
"Desert Greatsword!"
Suddenly, a massive sand sword erupted from the ground behind Lafayette.
Its speed was far greater than that of the sand clone's previous attack.
Poof!
Lafayette's Observation Haki detected it immediately, and he dodged at once.
But he was still a step too slow.
The paper armor covering his body was torn apart, leaving a bloody wound across his waist.
Lafayette immediately created a strip of paper while retreating farther away.
He wrapped it around the wound like a bandage, stopping the bleeding.
A succession of enormous sand blades came crashing toward him.
Klocke Dahl's offensive continued wave after wave, leaving Lafayette almost no opportunity to breathe.
He could only dodge or block with paper swords.
As the sand blades continued sweeping across the battlefield, Lafayette gradually fell into a disadvantage.
He was being completely suppressed by Klocke Dahl's relentless offense.
Lafayette's Haki is still a little lacking.
If his Haki were stronger, he could probably hold out longer.
Still, being able to fight Klocke Dahl to this level is already very impressive.
On the high platform, Kaito watched the battle between Lafayette and Klocke Dahl with satisfaction.
As for Klocke Dahl...
His strength had indeed improved compared with before, but that was all.
If he fought Kaito again, he would still be defeated easily.
Klocke Dahl was making progress.
But so was Kaito.
Not to mention anything else, the addition of the Explosive Fruit and the Light-Light Fruit had already greatly increased his overall strength.
The battle continued.
Although Lafayette's performance had been excellent, there was still a gap between him and Klocke Dahl.
In the end, he was defeated by Klocke Dahl's continuous barrage of sand blades.
However, Klocke Dahl, despite winning, wasn't happy.
Instead, his expression was somewhat gloomy.
The reason was simple.
He had overestimated himself.
Watching a battle from the sidelines was obviously different from experiencing it personally.
Klocke Dahl had thought that he would defeat Lafayette easily.
The reality was completely different.
Although he had defeated Lafayette, it had definitely not been an easy victory.
On the contrary, he had been forced to put in considerable effort and had even suffered an injury in the process.
This result was something he had never expected.
It also placed considerable pressure on him.
Even without counting Kaito, if Klocke Dahl wanted to take control of the War Pirates, he needed enough strength to suppress Lafayette and everyone else.
But he had already struggled this much against Lafayette alone.
What about the others?
After Klocke Dahl's victory over Lafayette, the battle was still not over.
Another challenger stepped forward.
It was Smoker.
As a Logia Devil Fruit user, Smoker was obviously unwilling to accept Klocke Dahl's dominance.
The two immediately began fighting.
"The battle for the fourth position will now begin..."
Facts proved that even among Logia users, there could be a huge gap in strength.
Although Smoker had improved considerably after learning Haki under Kaito's guidance, he was still far behind Klocke Dahl.
To be precise, Smoker's strength was still below Lafayette's.
As a result, he was quickly defeated by Klocke Dahl.
After Smoker lost, no one else stepped forward to challenge Klocke Dahl.
Thus, Klocke Dahl successfully claimed the fourth seat among the Four Heavenly Kings.
With Luo announcing the result, the competition for the final seat of the Four Heavenly Kings officially began.
Mangu grabbed the mace resting beside him.
Without saying a word, he stood up from the high platform.
He leaped down.
His enormous figure descended into the center of the martial arts arena like a shooting star.
"It's Mr. Mangu! Mr. Mangu is finally taking the field!"
"Come to think of it, none of the brigade captains have fought yet."
"Isn't that normal? We're competing for the Four Heavenly Kings right now. Although the brigade captains are powerful, they all know they have little hope of competing for these positions. They're probably waiting for the next round, when the Eight Tribes positions are contested."
"I wonder who will challenge Mr. Mangu. He's far too strong."
When Mangu appeared on the battlefield, the crowd immediately erupted into cheers.
Many of them looked at him with admiration and respect.
Mangu had long since established himself as one of the strongest members of the War Pirates.
His silent arrival alone was enough to make the atmosphere of the entire martial arts arena change.
The competition for the final seat of the Four Heavenly Kings had begun.
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