66. 7 Swordsmen of Mist

A while after leaving Kirigakure, Zoro suddenly stops and stands still on the tree branch. Then sometime later, some figures suddenly surround him and he's not surprised at all.

"I don't think I forgot to bring my things in the village, so what's the reason for Kirigakure's 7 Great Swordsmen to chase me all the way here?"

The ones who follow Zoro since he left the villages are the 7 Swordsmen of Mist. They have been following him from the same distance until he stops just now.

None of them say anything until the fat guy, Fuguki Suikazan, the current owner of Samehada talks. "We are here by the order of Mizukage. Ninja Hunter Zoro, Kirigakure is inviting you to join us."

"Oh? Really? But you don't sound sincere with your invitation. I even feel you are unhappy right now."

"Of course, we are. I don't know what Mizukage is thinking, but there's no way we'll accept an outsider to join our village even if you are known to be strong." The guy with marks around his mouth, the current owner of Kubikiribocho, Jozu Biwa says it with much annoyance.

"Heh, I like your honesty. Then I will be honest too. I will never join your village or any other hidden villages no matter how much they'll pay me. Accepting jobs is a different matter, but there's no freaking way I will join any hidden village. Sorry but, I like my freedom, so you can return now." Zoro shoo them with his left hand.

"Well, that's too bad. But we're sorry too. We are instructed to bring you back no matter what. Thanks to you, we lost a very important man. The guy you killed was actually one of our best spies who is sent out of the village to gather information. We put a bounty on his head to make other villages believe that he is not one of ours anymore so he could gather information more easily. But you ruined it by killing him. So I guess Mizukage wants you to compensate for it by joining our village." It's now Jinin Akenbino who talks, the guy who uses the axe and hammer.

"Oh, so that's how it is. How stupid. If you really didn't want him to be killed, then you shouldn't place a bounty on him in the first place, and an S-Rank bounty at that. You should blame your stupid plan, not me. I'm just doing my job to get some pennies to feed myself, you know." Zoro shrugs his shoulders while smirking.

"I see. Then you give us no choice. We'll just drag you back to our village forcefully. Just so you know, we aren't good at holding back, so we might accidentally kill you." Jozu smirks while pointing Kubikiribocho at Zoro.

"Wow, how scary," says Zoro without any hint of fear.

The 7 swordsmen hold their mystical swords and get ready to fight Zoro who already unsheathes his swords too. He coats his swords with Armament Haki from the beginning because his opponents are the infamous 7 Swordsmen of Mist.

"You know, as a swordsman, I've always wanted to fight all of you. I want to see just how good the most infamous swordsmen of the ninja world are."

"You will see it soon." The masked guy with the needle sword, Kushimaru Kuriarare says it mockingly before he suddenly charges at Zoro.

He runs at a high speed and then he suddenly throws his long needle sword at Zoro. His throw is very strong and the sword flies very fast. It flies toward Zoro's chest and the 7 swordsmen are just watching while grinning.

But their grins freeze when the needle sword, Nuibari hits Zoro. The sword usually pierces through its targets' bodies and Kushimaru will catch it behind the targets.

There is a thin wire attached onto the sword, so the targets will be "sewn" by him. This sword is really just like an enlarged needle because it's shaped and has the same function as a needle.

But this big ass needle can't even pierce through Zoro's body. After all, Zoro deflects it by pushing it aside easily using Enma. Nuibari just moves through his right side after being pushed aside.

If this is the past Zoro, then he would block it with his sword or most likely block it with his chest that is coated with Armament Haki because the needle sword would be flying too fast for him.

But for the current him who has trained his speed diligently, Nuibari's speed is not a problem. His deflection is still not the best because he still can't make a smooth deflection like when Mihawk deflects bullets, but it's already much better than in the past.

The Mist Swordsmen now takes Zoro more seriously. They previously thought that he wasn't a difficult opponent for the 7 of them, but he shows that he really has the skill to support his reputation.

They don't dwell on it for too long and start attacking again. The short guy with the axe and hammer, Jinin charges to attack.

He jumps and swings the big axe down at Zoro who blocks it with just a sword. Zoro uses Sandai Kitetsu to block the axe because he is using Enma to block another attack that comes from the other side.

Fuguki who uses Samehada is attacking from behind while Jinin attacks from the front. So Zoro turns his body to the right, blocks Jinin's axe with Sandai Kitetsu in his left hand, then blocks Samehada with Enma in his right hand.

"Blocking my blade with just 1 hand, how foolish." Jinin smirks before he slams the big hammer at the axe's blunt side.

This move is strong enough to split his opponent's weapons in half and even defeat them. It's also strong enough to destroy giant rocks or split the ground.

That's why Jinin says it's foolish for Zoro to block his axe with just 1 hand. But he is also foolish enough to underestimate Zoro's strength.

Jinin's attack doesn't even bend Zoro's left arm even though he uses most of his strength. Zoro's form is still the same and nothing happens to his sword as well.

Instead of his body or his sword, it is the ground that gets destroyed because of the strong attack force. Fuguki is forced to retreat because the ground collapses, so he can't stand well there.

"I heard that your weapon, Kabutowari is known to have the best offensive power and can break through any defense. But it seems to be an exaggerated rumor seeing how it only has this much power. Or maybe you want to say something like you only use 1% of your true power? Well, I'm waiting for those 99% then."

Zoro doesn't even attack and only says that. Yet Jinin retreats without a second thought. He is still in disbelief that his attack doesn't even make Zoro budge even though he was using a serious attack just now and Zoro only uses 1 hand.

Not only that, Zoro also blocks Fuguki's Samehada with another hand. None of them has ever witnessed anyone strong enough to stop 2 of them with a hand each since they became the 7 top swordsmen in their village.

"The 7 Swordsmen of Mist are only this much? If each of you are only this strong, then it is very disappointing. Well, now I understand why you are the 7 Swordsmen. You need to fight together to look strong because each one of you is weak."

Zoro's insult isn't even that annoying, but the 7 swordsmen are still pissed by it. Each of them are not only cruel but also arrogant and think very highly of themselves.

They have very high self esteem, so being called weak if they don't fight together really ticks their nerves. Ironically, they are moving together to attack Zoro right after that, which only proves what Zoro says.

The first one to arrive is Raiga, the man who uses the lightning swords, Kiba. His swords strike Zoro from above with powerful lightning covering them.

Zoro deflects the swords to the side, making the lightning bolts hit the ground instead. Because the swords are pushed the sides, a big opening is created. Zoro uses it to attack Raiga with Wado Ichimonji in his mouth.

But then, the current user of Hiramekarei tries to attack Zoro from behind, forcing Zoro to stop attacking Raiga. Zoro slides his right foot to the back before spinning his body while swinging his swords to the sides.

His moves create a rotating slash that expands like a circular saw. It pushes back Raiga and the Hiramekarei user.

Fuguki swings Samehada at the rotating energy blade. He tries to absorb its chakra using Samehada to stop it. However, Samehada can't absorb the energy blade's chakra, so Fuguki gets pushed back.

"WHAT?! SAMEHADA CAN'T EAT IT?" Fuguki and the other swordsmen are surprised by what happens.

Zoro just smirks because now he can finally confirm his theory. Chakra absorption techniques can't be used on his energy blades because they aren't made of chakra, but pure swordsmanship that utilize physical power and haki if Zoro coats his swords with haki.

Unless he coats his swords with chakra, his energy blades won't even have a very small amount of chakra to be absorbed by tools or jutsus that can absorb chakra.

Although he still needs to be careful to not let those tools and jutsus to be used directly on his body because then they can absorb the chakra in his body directly, which will surely weaken him.

So he still needs to avoid getting hit by Samehada because not only can it absorb his chakra, its backwards spikes can also shred his skin. But for now, he wants to insult the 7 swordsmen.

"As I thought, each of you is trash."

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Chapter 86. Saving a Child

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