Blackbeard, who had just obtained the power of the Shun Shun Fruit from Wang Zhi, was at a moment when his ambition was rapidly expanding.
Having successfully achieved his goal and possessed two fruits, he naturally wanted to quickly make a name for himself in this world. The Mihawk attacking him was the best stepping stone for him to consolidate his reputation.
The world's greatest swordsman.
If he could capture and kill Mihawk of the New Navy, his name would instantly resound throughout the entire ocean.
And it was precisely because Blackbeard had such thoughts in his mind that when he saw Mihawk joining the battlefield, Blackbeard not only did not feel the slightest fear or timidity, but was extremely excited instead.
"Thief, hahahaha!!"
Bursts of laughter came from Blackbeard's mouth.
Mihawk's attack speed was very fast. In just a blink of an eye, the blade of Black Knife Ye appeared in front of Blackbeard.
Blackbeard didn't move until Mihawk's blade was within inches of his nose.
Teach's pot-bellied body inevitably gives people a feeling of slow movement, but at this moment, Blackbeard's figure suddenly disappeared in front of Mihawk.
"Disappeared again!"
Aramaki, who was watching the battle from a distance, was shocked by the scene and had a deeper understanding of Blackbeard's devil fruit ability.
Teleport.
It really is teleportation.
It is completely different from the high-speed movement technique of the Navy's Six-Style "Shave", and it is also different from the extremely fast elemental displacement ability such as the Thunder Fruit and the Flash Fruit.
The Blackbeard before him had completely achieved a spatial jump, a true teleportation. Whether it was captured by the naked eye or perceived by his Observation Haki, Aramaki had no way of discerning Blackbeard's movements.
"Thief, hahaha!"
A light laugh suddenly sounded in Mihawk's ears, and Blackbeard, who had just disappeared from his sight, appeared beside him the next moment.
When Mihawk turned his head to look beside him, Blackbeard's big hand had already grabbed Mihawk's neck.
However, Mihawk's reaction was also extremely quick while rushing forward. Although he was a beat slower, the long sword in his hand quickly retreated the moment Blackbeard's breath appeared. At the same time when Blackbeard reached out to grab his neck, the blade of the Black Knife Night had already blocked Mihawk's body.
"clang!!!"
Blackbeard formed his five fingers into claws and slammed the black knife's blade hard. The huge force directly forced Mihawk back in mid-air.
Mihawk held the sword in both hands and flew back. The boots on his feet rubbed against the ground violently, leaving two long scratches on the ground.
Blackbeard, who has mastered the ability of instant teleportation, is unpredictable in his whereabouts. Even someone as strong as Mihawk cannot use his Observation Haki to predict his next move.
After just one round of fighting, Mihawk already felt how difficult Blackbeard was.
However, in the same way, the smile on Blackbeard's face disappeared after he failed to hit the target, and he looked solemn.
Although Mihawk didn't know from which direction Blackbeard would attack him, his hard power was superior to Blackbeard's. The moment Blackbeard appeared and attacked, Mihawk had a moment to react.
For a swordsman of Mihawk's caliber, this split second of reaction time was enough for him to mount an effective defense.
It is obviously impossible for Blackbeard to deal with Mihawk the same way he dealt with Aramaki.
The ability of the Shun Shun Fruit is indeed incredibly fast when helping Blackbeard to move. Even Kizaru's Pikachu Fruit and Sabo's Thunder Fruit are probably no match for Blackbeard's Shun Shun Fruit.
This is a battle between strong people, and victory will not be determined by whoever has the faster movement speed.
Blackbeard does have an advantage, but this advantage may not necessarily translate into victory in front of Mihawk.
Blackbeard's strange ability also made Mihawk concerned. After a brief thought, Mihawk raised the long sword in his hand and slashed directly at Blackbeard in the distance.
The green sword energy was released directly and hit Blackbeard in just a moment.
Dark acupoints!
This time, Blackbeard did not use the power of the Shun Shun Fruit to dodge. Instead, he faced the slashing attack with a punch in the air. Deep darkness spread out from his fist and soon formed a small black hole in front of him.
At the moment when the slash came, the structure around the small black hole just shook slightly, and then swallowed up Mihawk's slash completely.
"liberation!"
Blackbeard then swung his left hand horizontally, and the deep darkness, like an ink brush, wrote the word "one" in the space in front of him.
The next second after the "I"-shaped black hole appeared, a slash flew out from the dark space and shot quickly towards Mihawk in the distance.
The power of this slash was exactly the same as the slash that Mihawk had used to attack Blackbeard before. The two were no different except for the difference in direction.
Mihawk's pupils shrank slightly as he looked at the incoming slash. He swung his sword from bottom to top, directly slashing at the incoming slash, forcibly deflecting the counterattack towards the sky.
“Buzz!!”
The terrifying slash penetrated into the sky, directly dispersing the clouds above the battlefield.
"The slash I release will become his counterattack against me."
"It can only be close combat."
Blackbeard, who possesses the abilities of two devil fruits, is very difficult to deal with. Long-range attacks like slashing have no effect on Blackbeard at all. Whether he uses the Shun Shun Fruit to dodge or the Dark-Dark Fruit to receive and counterattack, there is no problem.
At least from this aspect, Mihawk did not see any obvious flaws in Blackbeard.
If you want to kill this pirate, I'm afraid the ultimate method still requires close combat.
However, fighting Blackbeard in close combat carries huge risks. Before Mihawk arrived at the battlefield, he saw the series of actions that Blackbeard took to capture Aramaki. The strange darkness might not just absorb the opponent's attacks and release them back.
Even Mihawk wasn't sure if he could escape from that darkness if he were entangled in it.
Mihawk would never put himself in such danger unless it was necessary.
Although he has been revered as the world's greatest swordsman, Mihawk has never underestimated any strong person in the world.
Even the Great Pirate King of Beehive Island hadn't been able to escape from that darkness, so Mihawk naturally wouldn't be completely sure that he could guarantee that he wouldn't be affected by that ability.
Considering this, Mihawk's actions became more cautious.
However, he had no intention of giving up. Attacking the Beehive Island was part of their new navy's plan. In addition to the two strong men, him and Huangmu, the new navy also dispatched the powerful forces of its headquarters to deal with the Beehive Island.
In addition to the commander of the battle, Mihawk also knew that Yoriichi Tsugikuni was also closely watching this battlefield.
So due to some accidents, the biggest opponent of their new navy changed from Wang Zhi to Blackbeard Teach in front of them, but Mihawk has already felt a strong threat from Blackbeard. It goes without saying that Kuzan and Yoshikazu Tsugakuni must be paying attention to Teach at this time.
Even if it's just to allow his companions to obtain more information, Mihawk will never give up.
What's more, Blackbeard's strange ability has already aroused Mihawk's interest.
In his opinion, Blackbeard is already worth killing!
After deciding to use close combat as the main method, Mihawk no longer hesitated. He lightly swung the long sword in his hand and flew towards Teach again.
Mihawk was very powerful, and Blackbeard had already realized his intention. Seeing that Mihawk was trying to close the distance between them in this way, he wanted to stop Mihawk from getting closer to him.
A darkness spread out from under his feet. With Blackbeard as the center, the area of nearly 100 meters around was shrouded in this darkness.
The first thing Blackbeard did was to block all possible places where Mihawk could stay.
For a pure swordsman like Mihawk, keeping his feet rooted to the ground is very important.
Because only in this way can the swordsman's sword be swung freely according to his own will. A swordsman with empty feet cannot wield the sword freely.
Unless one has the ability to truly float, even if one masters the Lebu, one can only stay in the air for a short time, and the limitations are very great.
In a battle between strong opponents, this limitation of Moon Step means weakness.
After doing all this, Blackbeard felt a little relieved. He raised his head and looked at Mihawk with a smile on his face.
He was very satisfied with his idea.
Arrogance and pride are the underlying character of the pirate Blackbeard.
However, Mihawk ignored Blackbeard's actions and just glanced at the dark ground below. Mihawk kicked the air with one foot and actually accelerated in the void, rushing in front of Blackbeard again.
With a flash of the blade, Mihawk came in front of Blackbeard and slashed directly at Blackbeard's neck.
"Hey, hey, hey, you don't think I'm dodging because I'm afraid of you, do you?"
Blackbeard took a half step back, standing on the ground with his front and back feet crossed, and then stretched out his hand, and the hand with powerful Armament Haki actually fell directly in front of him, using his flesh and blood body to receive Mihawk's attack.
The moment a pair of bare palms touched the blade, the domineering auras of Mihawk and Blackbeard collided with each other. A strong air wave quickly spread out in all directions with the two of them as the center, stirring up flying sand and rocks, and making it impossible for bystanders to open their eyes.
Blackbeard actually blocked Mihawk's attack head-on. This sudden scene made Mihawk stare slightly, with surprise in his eyes.
Although Mihawk did not use the Haki in this attack, his Armament Haki is not something that everyone can match.
I thought that people like Blackbeard were just relying on the power of their fruits to fight me, but I didn't expect that this unknown pirate in front of me would have such attainments in Haki.
Even if Blackbeard abandons his devil fruit ability, he can still be considered a strong man just by relying on his powerful domineering aura.
Blackbeard, who has been lurking beside Whitebeard for many years, is obviously no ordinary person.
People who are ambitious in themselves will naturally not put all their bets on being able to find the Dark-Dark Fruit.
Teach is also a diligent practitioner in private on the Whitebeard Pirates' ship. Although he has never shown his strength in front of the crew, there is one thing that everyone ignores.
That is Teach, who has lived on Whitebeard's ship since he was a child. He has been able to fight with the crew and survive until now for so many years, not relying on the crew's protection and luck.
A little further away.
Yoshiichi Tsugikuni, who was closely watching the battlefield, also showed a look of surprise when he saw Blackbeard blocking Mihawk's attack.
Domineering is one of the important criteria to measure the strength of a strong person.
Tsugikoku Yoshiichi guessed that Detichi might have a good Haki ability, but he did not expect that the other party's Armament Haki could be comparable to Mihawk's.
However, the surprise on Ji Guoyuan's face quickly disappeared because he thought of something.
That is, in the original time and space, Blackbeard Teach had a conflict with Red-haired Shanks. At that time, he had not yet obtained the Dark-Dark Fruit, nor had he killed Captain Thatch and escaped from the Whitebeard Pirates.
When Red-Haired Shanks went to the Whitebeard Pirates' ship to warn Whitebeard to retreat to Ace, Blackbeard had already left three scars on the corners of his eyes.
Even when Ace was still a newcomer who had just set sail, when he, as an older brother, went to meet Shanks to thank him for taking care of Luffy, he already had those three scars on his face.
All signs indicate that Blackbeard is an unfathomable person.
Even if the opponent has not obtained the power of the Dark-Dark Fruit, he is definitely a strong man who cannot be underestimated.
Today, Blackbeard's fruit ability and Haki have grown to top levels, and his fighting power can even compete with Whitebeard back then.
Although Mihawk may not have used his full strength, Yoshikazu Tsugakuni had a vague feeling that Mihawk might not be able to defeat Blackbeard alone.
Even if he could defeat the opponent, it would be absolutely impossible to keep Blackbeard on Beehive Island.
"Kuzan, don't let your men go to the island until the outcome of that battlefield is officially decided."
"I'll get over there first. I'm afraid Mihawk won't be able to defeat his opponent anytime soon."
Thinking of this, Tsugikoku Yoshiichi had already made up his mind. After giving Kuzan a few instructions, he jumped lightly and flew out from the deck. Then his figure quickly turned into a afterimage and quickly disappeared from Kuzan's sight.
Blackbeard is powerful and ambitious.
Such people pose a far greater threat to world stability than pirates like Wang Zhi who live in seclusion in a corner.
The opponent's ability to teleport also made Yoshiichi Tsugakuni feel uneasy, and he planned to kill the opponent by surprise. If he let Blackbeard escape this time, it would probably be impossible to execute this pirate next time.
Even Yoriichi Tsugakuni did not have the confidence to defeat Blackbeard in a one-on-one fight.
"Teleportation."
"What a troublesome ability!"
"This ability must have been taken from Wang Zhi. No wonder Wang Zhi was able to escape from my hands back then."
(End of this chapter)
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