One Piece: A Warlord's Path

BOOM—

RUMBLE!

High above the battlefield, Gutte was sent hurtling through the air. Blood burst from his mouth before his body slammed into the ground with a deafening crash, carving a deep crater on impact. Then, like a ragdoll, he bounced, rolled dozens of meters, and finally skidded to a halt, his broken form barely clinging to motion.

"Hahhh—"

Aeridar straightened up and exhaled a long, steady breath.

"Nice work, kid. Now it's my turn, Yasakani no Magatama!"

From above, Borsalino transformed into a radiant, four-pointed burst of light. In a flash, he unleashed a torrential barrage of glittering light bullets down toward the ground below.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom—

The assault rained down like a divine punishment, engulfing half of Grove 53's coastline in a blinding storm of explosive light. The ground cracked and crumbled beneath the relentless bombardment, trees incinerated, dirt churned, and everything in its path was ravaged.

"So over the top… Logia users really are monsters," Aeridar muttered, squinting into the dust storm stirred by the barrage. He couldn't help but be in awe. A strike like that... he himself couldn't manage anything close.

If Borsalino wanted to, he could likely flatten an entire city by himself. In the context of modern warfare, he alone was more devastating than an entire air fleet.

After a relentless three or four minutes of sustained fire, the glowing star that was Borsalino finally ceased. He drifted down in a beam of golden light, landing beside Aeridar.

By now, the entire coastline was wreathed in thick, rolling smoke. Only after a long pause did the chaos begin to settle, allowing for the devastated terrain to come into view.

"Oi, oi, oi... You went way overboard! You trying to sink the whole damn island?" Aeridar said dryly.

The once-beautiful coastline had been reduced to utter ruin. Trees were reduced to smoldering ash, the earth upheaved and torn, the land fractured like a shattered mirror. The destruction resembled the scene from the original story, back when Borsalino kicked down one of those colossal Yarukiman Mangrove trees with a single blow.

"My~ my~, sorry about that. Might've overdone it a bit~." Borsalino chuckled, rubbing the back of his head with a sheepish smile.

"Is that guy still alive?" Aeridar asked, turning his head.

"Eh... who knows?" Borsalino shrugged, nonchalant.

A few moments passed. The dust hadn't fully cleared, yet a wavering silhouette appeared in the haze.

"He's… still standing?" Aeridar's brow furrowed in surprise. After weathering such a divine-scale assault, the man still had the strength to rise?

"What the hell?! That didn't kill him? What a freak…" Borsalino whistled in disbelief, though a note of unease crept into his voice.

SWOOSH—

BOOM!

Before Borsalino could even finish, Aeridar's feet erupted with explosive force. He launched forward like a black comet, so fast a white shock ring bloomed around him—the signature cloud of a sonic boom. Wind blasted outward, scattering dust as he vanished toward Gutte in a flash.

"Ahh~ what a kick. That leg strength is insane," Borsalino muttered, glancing down at the ground where Aeridar had stood. Two crater-like footprints were left behind, surrounded by spiderweb cracks etched deep into the earth.

CLANG!

The clash of metal thundered across the island as a visible shockwave exploded outward, ripping up the earth. A furious maelstrom of wind and pressure tore across Island 53, sweeping everything in its path.

"We—we're gonna be blown away!"

"Hey! What the hell's happening out there?!"

"Damn it! Are these guys even human?!"

"Run! Get away! We'll be caught in the crossfire, those are monsters fighting!"

The tempest ripped through the land. Marines and pirates alike were flung aside like leaves in a storm, fleeing in panic. Even the likes of Strawberry and Jig knew better than to stay in that hellish zone, they withdrew deeper inland without hesitation.

"Terrifying, really… two damn monsters," Borsalino muttered, his "Justice" coat whipping in the gale. Stones pelted his body, though they harmlessly passed through his Logia form.

In the center of the storm, a figure drenched in blood stood, one arm braced against the incoming blow of a powerful punch. Gutte, now sheathed in a layer of jet-black Armament Haki, held a black blade in hand as he blocked Aeridar's strike. The sheer pressure of their clash had collapsed the ground beneath them, leaving behind a crater over ten meters wide, the earth fractured like it had taken a meteor strike.

"Damn… you really are a monster," Gutte grunted through gritted teeth, blood dripping down his face.

"You're one to talk," Aeridar shot back, visibly annoyed. "You took that kind of beating and you still managed to coat your whole body in Haki? What the hell are you made of?"

It was true. Gutte's entire body radiated Armament Haki, but the extent of his injuries told a brutal tale. His chest was caved in, ribs shattered, likely damaging his heart and internal organs. His abdomen was split by a slash several centimeters deep, and his body was riddled with bloody holes, dozens of them, likely left by Borsalino's Yasakani no Magatama.

To still be standing after all that, and to fight with this level of force… That wasn't a man. That was a monster in a man's skin.

Suddenly, Gutte shoved Aeridar back with brute force, and followed up immediately with a devastating sword slash.

SHRIP—

The ocean split. The air rended. Gutte's invisible sword wave sliced the sea clean in half for a moment, parting it with the sheer force of his attack.

FWIP—

A gleam of light shot overhead. From the sky, Borsalino appeared again and kicked downward—a beam of concentrated laser light erupted from his foot, lancing straight toward Gutte.

BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—

Gutte slashed upward once more, sending the laser scattering. The beam fragmented, splintering outward in a dozen directions and blasting new craters into the ruined earth.

Then the true clash began.

The three of them were locked in a relentless battle—blades slicing, shockwaves exploding, and lasers raining from above. Slashes split the air and sea alike; torrents of seawater surged skyward with every strike.

Even a casual flying slash from Gutte tore across the full length of Grove 53, leaving a gaping wound in its terrain. A single laser blast from Borsalino gouged out massive craters—some ten meters wide, others stretching past thirty. And those cylindrical shockwaves? They didn't just break the ground, they punched straight through the island's crust, blasting deep into the seabed.

Amidst the chaos, even Aeridar, clearly the weakest of the three, couldn't avoid injury. One of Gutte's blade strikes tore into him, leaving a brutal wound across his side.

But Gutte wasn't invincible either. He hadn't yet reached the level of a Marine Admiral or one of the Four Emperors. Facing off against an Admiral and a Warlord of the Sea at the same time, even he couldn't escape unscathed.

Again and again, he was wounded.

Lasers tore through his body. Shockwaves crashed into him head-on. And blow by blow, his once-indomitable frame began to falter under the sheer weight of overwhelming power.

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