Chapter 278: The Usual Battle Rhythm

Adrian let out a soft 'hmm', raising his left hand and examining the distinct lines on his palm, flexing his fingers lightly.

"Something feels off..."

Just now, that face-to-face blast of the Ghostly Cannon should have directly sent the Golden Lion Shiki plummeting into the sea below.

Using the sea's absolute restraining power against Devil Fruit abilities, it should have rendered this old lion with severed legs powerless, drowning his unfulfilled ambitions in the ocean!

This was Adrian's planned outcome.

It was also one of the future scenarios he had foreseen!

But for some reason…

Despite being hit, Shiki used his Float-Float Fruit ability to continually alter his falling trajectory, ending up on the island where Adrian had previously fought Shanks!

This is what's off!

Adrian clearly remembered that before Shiki appeared, Shanks hadn't yet been rescued from the island's cliffside!

In other words...

By some twist of fate, Shiki ended up near the heavily injured, unconscious Shanks!

"Could this be that [Advanced Luck Aura (Pseudo)] at work again?"

"Just like how the Pirate King on Onigashima got knocked down three times, even if he fell into the sea, his subordinates would always rescue him, allowing him to regain his strength and continue fighting..."

"The main point is, this is the first time my [Future Sight] Kenbunshoku Haki has failed!"

"Is that old yellow bastard planning to escape with the island and that golden leek? Wouldn't that mean I've lost out big time?!"

Fortunately, the future didn't unfold as Adrian had feared.

With a surge of mysterious, profound devilish power, a massive spike shot up from the island below, piercing through Adrian's body.

Simultaneously, the Golden Lion, now high in the sky, let out a wild, rock-splitting laugh.

"Jihahahaha!"

"I couldn't defeat Roger back then because Roger had his destiny!"

"If I can't even take down a rising rookie pirate like you, what face do I have to make the world feel pain and terror again?"

Two blindingly bright white streaks of light shot out from Shiki's body, hurtling towards Adrian like shooting stars!

Adrian swiftly raised the Nidai Kitetsu in his hand, positioning it in front of him to block the brilliant lights.

On closer inspection, the two streaks of light were clearly the famed swords [Oto] and [Kogarashi] that Shiki had taken out from his leg!

Clang!

The three renowned blades clashed, producing an intense sound and sending sparks flying in all directions.

Adrian exerted slight force with his arm, swinging the Nidai Kitetsu to push Oto and Kogarashi back simultaneously.

The two swords spun freely in the air for a moment before flying back into Shiki's hands.

"Did you really think that just because I had these swords stuck in my legs, I couldn't draw them anymore?"

With swords in hand, Shiki exuded an aura of dominance.

"Jihahahaha! It's not like they're the big ship's wheel stuck in my head!"

Thanks to the Float-Float Fruit, Shiki remained completely unrestrained in his movements despite losing his legs.

Holding Oto and Kogarashi, Shiki rapidly charged towards Adrian.

With the release of the swords from his legs, Shiki's strength, at least in terms of swordsmanship, had returned to a somewhat world-class swordsman level!

Adrian, intending to gauge Shiki's swordsmanship, swung his sword to meet his attack.

The three legendary blades clashed once more.

Golden Lion Shiki flashed a cunning smile. While maintaining power with his right hand wielding Oto, his left hand with Kogarashi struck out, aiming at Adrian's vulnerable abdomen from an extremely tricky angle!

Adrian frowned slightly and had to retreat, swinging his sword to block.

But at that moment, the Oto in Shiki's right hand attacked again.

Just having fended off Kogarashi's assault, Adrian had to raise his sword to block once more.

Shiki's hands wielded Oto and Kogarashi, displaying a dizzying array of sword techniques.

Despite using his full Observation Haki, Adrian could only manage to protect himself.

This was not the same Shiki from before.

Facing a world-class top swordsman, Adrian could feel himself gradually falling into a disadvantage in this swordfight.

"Truly a legendary swordsman..."

As a swordsman himself, Adrian naturally understood the principle of 'The longer the defense, the more likely the mistake'.

Using his future-sight Observation Haki.

When Adrian blocked Shiki's Oto once more, he grabbed the opportunity to activate his ghost abilities and, using the Ghost Warrior's skills, instantly put some distance between himself and Shiki.

Though unsure how White Ghost vanished, Shiki immediately used Observation Haki to lock onto Adrian's position, slashing toward him!

For Shiki, White Ghost was also a rare opponent that required serious attention.

Facing that wave, Adrian didn't block it head-on but used the Ghost Warrior's ability to dodge again.

Shiki slashed again, and Adrian dodged again.

This went on for several minutes.

Shiki sent out another flying slash, frowning slightly.

"Ghost brat, how much longer are you going to keep dodg—"

However.

Before he could finish his sentence, the words were swallowed back as a thousand-handed white Buddha statue appeared out of void.

Adrian wasn't a masochist, and this wasn't a peaceful, injury-free sword duel.

Knowing he couldn't match Shiki's sword skills, he naturally had to compensate in other ways!

Adrian, long accustomed to using his ghost fruit abilities in combat, felt more at home now with this familiar battle rhythm.

The white Buddha spread its thousand arms, suddenly unleashing a series of dazzling, deep ghost energy cannons, blasting toward Shiki in the sky.

"Lion's Thousand Slice Valley!"

Faced with such an attack, Shiki didn't dare be careless. Having just taken a direct hit from a ghost energy cannon, he knew well the power of those blue energy beams.

Shiki swung both hands, sending out golden, dazzling flying slashes to meet the ghost energy cannons in the air.

Boom—

A series of explosions rang out from the sky, with roaring shockwaves sweeping across.

"Is that all?"

Shiki mocked as he looked at the now silent Thousand-Handed White Buddha.

"Is that all? It's far inferior to Sengoku's Golden Buddha!"

Adrian raised an eyebrow, ignoring the system alert about the S-level challenge mission exceeding the maximum time limit, and continued to drive the Thousand-Hand Buddha, bombarding Shiki with ghost energy cannons.

"…"

Seeing the ghostly blue light approaching again, Shiki felt like he was choking on a mouthful of blood, unbearably frustrated.

"Jihahahaha!" Shiki forced a laugh.

"Let's see how many more of those high-energy blasts you can fire!"

"White Ghost, if you think you can wear me down like this, you're gravely mistaken!"

"Lion's Thousand Slice Valley!"

Ignoring Shiki's crude taunts, Adrian calmly continued to control the Thousand-Hand Buddha, relentlessly bombarding Shiki with ghost energy cannons.

The last self-important guy met his end already.

This old, crippled lion who escaped from the deep-sea prison, where does he get his confidence?

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