"But you can't deny it—most gangs and pirates are bad. Without the Navy to keep the seas in check, you should know better than anyone what chaos would reign out here. Pirates, no matter how you dress them up, are still pirates."
Having served in the Navy for decades, Syrons had seen it all—bloodshed, corruption, darkness, evil... none of it was new to him.
He was no fool. Syrons knew about the rot within the Navy itself. He'd even personally handled corrupt officers who'd gone astray. But he still clung to his justice. If a few words could make him feel guilty, then everything he'd done as a Marine would've been for nothing.
"Where there's light, there must be darkness. Light begets shadow, and extreme light will always breed darkness. Just as extreme darkness gives rise to light," Aeridar said calmly, tilting his head. His eyes sparkled with something unreadable. "So if you must... think of me as the light born from that darkness—a counter to your so-called righteous light."
Verbal sparring? Aeridar wasn't about to lose that. Sweet talk, bluffing, ideological ranting—he was a master. Raised in the explosion of the 21st-century internet age, he'd grown up in a time when words could destroy lives. In a battle of wits, some of his peers could talk you into jumping off a building. If a few of those guys got dropped into the world of Naruto, their "Talk no Jutsu" would put Naruto Uzumaki himself to shame.
"Heh... 'light within darkness'? 'Corrupt light'? You've got guts, brat! What, you planning to overthrow the World Government next?" Syrons sneered, voice dripping with sarcasm.
Aeridar blinked. "Overthrow the World Government?" He scratched his head. "Eh... sounds like a pain. Was just talkin', really. Didn't think you'd take it so seriously."
Syrons' eye twitched. Several veins popped on his forehead.
"You little bastard!" Enraged, Syrons narrowed his eyes and shifted his stance. His legs twitched, then in a blur, he vanished from sight.
"Still comes down to fists in the end," Aeridar muttered. His brow arched, and he leaned back just in time. Then he punched upward.
A visible ripple of air surged upward, a pale ring-shaped shockwave bursting forth.
Above him, Syrons appeared, his powerful frame suspended in midair.
Seeing the wave rush toward him, Syrons kicked the air sharply.
A white ring of compressed air exploded beneath his foot, propelling him aside and cleanly out of the blast's path.
Even as he floated mid-air, Syrons raised his hammer-like right arm. Then, with terrifying force, he slammed it down.
It struck nothing, but it felt like it smashed something solid. An invisible burst of force erupted in all directions, violently tearing through the air itself. The shockwave screeched like a banshee.
Black Hammer: Void!!!
Feeling the air twist and roar overhead, Aeridar's expression shifted. He didn't try to block it. Instead, he launched a concentrated burst of force beneath his feet. The explosive propulsion blasted him nearly a hundred meters away in a flash, gouging a crater into the sandstone floor beneath him.
A devastating eruption followed. The impact tore open the land, collapsing the ground into a massive sinkhole. Winds howled outward in every direction, ripping up the surface itself. Dust filled the air, and shards of rock sliced through the battlefield like bullets. Even the dense sandstone was pierced through by the flying debris.
Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom...
Aeridar, using Geppo, burst skyward, white rings of compressed air popping under his feet as he climbed fast.
"What the hell is this brat doing now?!" Syrons snapped, stunned. The kid had outflown him. He was now above Syrons' position in the sky.
"You want to throw punches? Fine!" Aeridar roared. "Triple-Layered Impact Cannon!!!"
With a bellow, Aeridar's right arm shot back. Veins bulged, muscles coiled like dragons beneath his skin, a terrifying force building.
The air trembled. A monstrous surge of pressure exploded outward as if a storm had been summoned in an instant. The air twisted violently into a colossal, pale white cylindrical blast, and came crashing down toward Syrons.
"What the hell kinda nonsense move name is that—?" Syrons started to scoff, but his Observation Haki kicked in, screaming warnings. His scalp went numb. His instincts shouted Don't block that!
If he couldn't block it, he'd dodge.
Both of Syrons' legs morphed into hammer-like weapons. Then—
White rings flared beneath his feet as he blasted himself sideways with frightening speed, faster than before.
Rokushiki: Hammer Geppo!!!
Like thunder splitting the sky, the attack collided with the earth.
The shockwave tore a new crater into the battlefield, kicking up yet another cloud of dust, earth, and stone. A blinding wall of grey engulfed everything.
Both fighters dropped from the sky at the same moment.
As the dust finally began to settle, the battlefield revealed the aftermath: a newly formed crater nearly five meters wide, its depth shrouded in darkness.
On opposite sides of the pit, Aeridar and Syrons panted heavily, staring each other down.
"Hah... hah... You brat," Syrons growled, fury burning in his voice. "Looks like Impel Down won't be your future after all. Guess I'll just have to kill you right here."
That wasn't just a threat. Syrons had realized something, this kid wasn't someone he could subdue and drag in alive. If he didn't go all-out now, he'd lose.
"Scary words, geezer," Aeridar replied, brushing dust off his shoulder. "But I'm the only one walking out of here today. Don't worry, I'll make sure what's left of your corpse gets delivered to the Navy. Can't promise it'll be in one piece though."
There was no way Aeridar was going to Impel Down, that hellhole beneath the sea. The only person to escape it, the legendary Golden Lion, had to saw off his own legs.
If Aeridar got thrown in, the next real shot at escape wouldn't come until Luffy and Blackbeard stormed the place... and by then, everything would be over.
His dreams? Shattered. His crew? Probably scattered or dead.
Worse, he might get dragged into the Paramount War and caught between the Navy and Whitebeard's forces. Then it'd be straight back to Impel Down, if he survived.
Yeah... no way in hell.
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