Chapter 98

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Chapter 98

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Seeing Max being so calm, Blackbeard was nervous at first. But knew that Max was always calm, which freaked him out sometimes. 

People should get angry and be clear about their emotions… on the other hand, the man facing him seemed like an emotionless machine. Nothing seemed to disturb him.

'Creepy bastard.' Thought Blackbeard before a whirlpool of darkness brought Max towards him. 

This time he was ready, even with his missing arm he would kill the young man in front of him today.

Max suddenly smirked, even as his feet dug on the ground as he was forcefully dragged. 

"Thanks," he said thankfully. "Blackbeard, you have been quite useful. The distraction you made blinded everyone else." 

He paused for a second and his face became emotionless again. 

"You have to die now."

Black didn't like this at all. Max always had something prepared, that was a lesson he learned the hard way. So while he still had a confident smile on his face, Blackbeard was on the lookout for any surprise attack. 

Eventually, Max was unable to hold himself back and his body was forcefully flung toward his open palm.

Baam!

He karate chopped Max straight in the neck intending to break it. But instead Blackbeard winced, it felt like he didn't hit flesh but sturdy metal. His bones even shook, feeling like they would break.

Max still seemed emotionless and just kept looking at Blackbeard with dull eyes. This pissed him off, and he kept plummeting Max to the ground, using the most advanced form of Haki he could.

Yet Max's emotionless expression didn't change. Hell, he didn't even seem to be taking damage. Instead, he… seemed almost bored. 

**

And it wasn't far from the truth either. Max, using his Observation Haki, predicted where Blackbeard's attacks would land and used his high leveled Armament Haki to block the hits at the last second.

This strategy didn't work against Whitebeard at all, the old man would kill him in one hit if he wasn't using his Awakened Form. The difference in attack power was just overwhelmingly different. But Blackbeard was different, his fruits didn't have the same attack power as the Quake-Quake Fruit.

Finally finishing plummeting Max on the ground, Blackbeard breathed heavily, but Max still laid down on the ground looking at him straight in the eye.

"Is that it?" Asked Max, now the boredom he was feeling seeped out of him, making it very clear. It annoyed Blackbeard to no end, but he still felt his heartbeat heavily. 

'How the hell is this possible?! Not too long ago he was barely able to keep up with me. Yet now he stands here like a mini Kaido.' Blackbeard became stressed at this, currently, he didn't have any ability that seemed to pierce Max's defenses. But then he suddenly stopped, realization dawned on him. 'What about the seastone dagger?'

He had a dagger just like that hidden behind him.

Fwish!

With incredible speed, he pulled it out and aimed it at Max who even at the change of events seemed bored. Blackbeard was ecstatic, it seemed like his opponent hadn't realized that the knife was a seastone one.

It was impossible to develop complete resistance to Seastone when you were a Devil Fruit user. Because as soon as an object with a high enough purity of seastone touched a Devil Fruit user, all their power would be taken from them and their bodies would weaken.

But Blackbeard saw something impossible today. Max grabbed the seastone knife between his two fingers just before it touched his chest.

****

-Max POV-

Life Return was a beautiful skill. I loved the darn thing, not only did it allow me to build up a perfect body. But it even allows me to shed my skin and harden it, creating armor around me. Now I had created a small hard surface around my fingers, which seemed like they were touching the Seastone Dagger, but that was far from the truth.

"H -How is that possible?" Even Blackbeard seemed shocked by it. Well, this was a trick that I had prepared just for cases like this, though it isn't a real power and more like a magician's trick. 

If the dagger stabbed into me, then I would be finished. I was just faking having some unreachable power. 

Seeing his surprise, I was sure that Blackbeard was now unable to use Observation Haki as well as he normally would. Sometimes battles could develop into mental warfare, especially at high levels, it gave me that one slip up that I needed from my opponents.

The hits Blackbeard landed on me did damage me. But it wasn't bad enough to make me bleed due to Tekkai, and Life Return can be used to mend up small injuries.  Essentially the image was that I wasn't injured at all and even seemed bored. It wasn't the truth, but the truth didn't matter.

Blackbeard had been shocked. And honestly, just how weakened was Whitebeard to get taken down by this guy during the canon timeline? Though I guess over a dozen cannonballs, hundreds of bullet wounds, and hundreds of stab wounds will weaken even the mightiest of men.

But still, the conclusion I came to was that Blackbeard was not at a Yonko's level. Even Katakuri could probably defeat the current Blackbeard. 

I guess it was a little illogical of me to expect Blackbeard to be as strong now as he would be in two years. By then he would have had the Quake Fruit's power at his disposal.

With that in mind I charged forward.

Confuse the enemy mentally and cloud their mind. Then in one fell swoop destroy them. That was my strategy most of the time. Why? Because it worked. Most of the time the enemy would be finished in one hit due to my strong and usually critical hits. I rarely want easy on anyone. Of course, those exceptions where I went easy would be those sparring sessions against Negan or Raynare… even then sometimes… well, holding back wasn't something I bothered doing.

*

Fwish!

Blackbeard's face was stuck in a shocked expression as his neck slid down, having been cut by my claw in an instant. 

Seeing it, I also grabbed the body and pummeled it until it became a paste of meat. I even burst Blackbeard's head. This was all done to make sure that this man didn't survive no matter what.

After I butchered him, my body was covered in blood and the dome of darkness had dissipated, allowing me to use my Devil Fruit.

I was covered in blood, my white marine coat had turned red now. But I didn't mind it at all, having gotten rid of Blackbeard had made the future a little safer. For me of course, but not for others.

I was going to take over Blackbeard's role as an unofficial ruler of Whitebeard's territories. That was the plan of course, and sometimes they don't go as intended. But if I could play my cards right, then everything should be okay.

Suddenly a giant quake hit the island, bringing me out of my thoughts. It was like a warning for me to not dream too early. Because when things go bad, they usually go catastrophically bad.

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