Chapter 261: Volume 2 – Chapter 163: You Don’t Even Know Swordsmanship!

Hey, hey, hey—are you serious right now?!

Idiot!!

Watching the massive hurricane in Dragon's hand swell even larger, Daren's eye twitched uncontrollably. He couldn't help but curse inwardly.

"Hahahaha!! Let's go!!"

By now, the towering wind column had been compressed to its limit. Dragon threw his head back with a wild laugh, stepped forward, and hurled the monstrous green hurricane straight at Daren!

Hurricane Roar!!

The colossal storm erupted instantly. Once released from Dragon's palm, it surged out like it had lost all restraint, expanding with terrifying speed. The eye of the storm spun faster and faster, turning into a whirlwind of destruction.

Buildings lining the street, towering several meters tall, were instantly devoured at the slightest touch—torn apart and shredded in the swirling gale.

The roaring hurricane ripped through everything in its path. The ground buckled and heaved like stormy waves. Street signs, lamps, bricks—all were sucked skyward and flung high into the air, rain splashing in thick sheets as debris tore through it.

A storm like a natural disaster was bearing down on him!

Crack... crackle...

Even with the hurricane still dozens of meters away, Daren felt an overwhelming pressure slam into him. The wind was already so fierce he could barely stand, as if he'd be blown away any second.

The ground beneath his feet splintered with deep, spreading cracks.

"What a lunatic..."

Staring at the absurd scale of destruction, Daren couldn't help but curse with a grin.

But his eyes blazed with unshakable fighting spirit, like flames roaring to life.

A smirk full of defiance tugged at the corner of his lips.

How strong was Dragon right now?

Admiral-level?

Daren wasn't sure.

But one thing was clear—if he wasn't already at Admiral level, then he was without a doubt the closest person on the seas to it!

Trained by two legends, Zephyr and Garp. A genius capable of developing the powerful Ryusoken martial arts. Add to that one of the most elite Logia-type Devil Fruits...

From the intel he and Sakazuki had gathered during their brief alliance, Daren was convinced: Dragon's strength was at least equal to Sakazuki's—maybe even a notch above.

And what about Daren himself?

Even he didn't know how strong he'd become.

Maybe now...

He looked up at the oncoming storm—this raging force that tore through everything in its path—and let out a sharp, fearless smile. Wind whipped his black hair as his eyes blazed like twin beacons.

"Time to find out."

He suddenly raised his hand to the side.

A sharp streak of black light came shrieking from the distance, stopping firmly in front of him.

A black hilt. A blade etched with ghostly markings that pulsed like cursed fire...

Enma.

The moment Enma appeared, the air around it froze under the weight of its demonic aura, turning cold and heavy.

"Alright then... show me what you've got."

A crimson gleam of madness flickered in Daren's eyes as he gripped Enma's hilt.

Rain poured in sheets.

The storm loomed, darkening the sky.

In that instant...

It became clearly visible to the naked eye—

One strand after another of deep purple-black light emerged silently from within the storm, like eerie fireflies, swirling out of Daren's body.

They coiled through the air like serpents of darkness, stirring the howling wind.

As if endless streams of Armament Haki had taken form, each strand wove and surged toward the blade of Enma, wrapping around it with crackling energy.

"Ahhh..."

Daren let out a low, bestial growl, his eyes bloodshot and wild. The veins bulging on his muscular arms writhed like centipedes under his skin.

In that moment, standing with sword in one hand, he looked like a warrior defiantly facing down a raging storm.

Enma, like a ravenous beast, devoured his Haki with reckless hunger, releasing a ghostly, chilling aura that twisted into a visible vortex.

The storm was shut out completely.

It was like ghostfire set ablaze!

"That's... a cursed blade!!"

From afar, Dragon's eyes went wide with shock.

"Daren, what the hell are you doing?! You don't even know how to use a sword!!"

He stared in disbelief, mouth agape.

Even he felt a jolt of dread at the amount of Haki Enma was absorbing. But what left him most baffled—Daren wasn't a swordsman. Yet he pulled out a cursed sword and poured his Haki into it like a lunatic.

What was he trying to do? Swing it like a club?

"Who says you need to know swordsmanship to use a sword?"

Daren, who had kept his head slightly lowered like he was enduring intense pain, slowly looked up. His eyes blazed with savage madness.

Suddenly, he let go of Enma.

Lifting his chin with defiance, his cloak whipped violently behind him in the wind.

"Shoot it, Enma."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Dragon's pupils contracted sharply—he felt it.

Boom!!

A massive magnetic field exploded outward, propelling the cursed black blade forward like a cannon shot!

The resulting burst of air ignited into a blinding orange-red electromagnetic shockwave. Enma's speed instantly rocketed to its limit.

In Dragon's trembling gaze, Enma—wreathed in a vortex of purple-black Haki—pierced straight into the heart of the towering hurricane!

A single point shattered the whole storm!

What should have been a stalemate ended in an instant. The massive storm suddenly detonated, releasing a shockwave that shattered the glass and walls of buildings across a radius of nearly a kilometer.

The eye of the storm—gone!

Enma's strike destroyed it completely, like a surgeon's scalpel cutting into the storm's strongest yet most vulnerable core, snuffing it out in one clean blow!

Then—

With a sharp slash of wind,

Enma became a streak of black demonic light and surged forward, crossing hundreds of meters in a blink.

The speed was so fast it was as if it vanished into the void.

Dragon's eyelids twitched hard. His Observation Haki surged to its peak. He transformed his hands into dragon claws and lunged forward.

"Ryusoken!!"

Clang!!

A sound like a meteor crashing to earth erupted in the air as the impact exploded outward in a shockwave.

In front of him, Enma was gripped tightly in Dragon's three-fingered claw, sparks flying madly from their clash. A drop of cold sweat rolled down Dragon's forehead.

Then, suddenly—his pupils shrank.

He had seen something unreal.

A nearly imperceptible fine line...

Gradually appeared—emerging and spreading out across the cluster of buildings around them.

If anyone had looked from high above at a diagonal angle, they would have seen a terrifying scene unfold—

From where Daren had stood, a massive fan-shaped zone had extended outward...

All the buildings within that kilometer-wide arc—

Sliced cleanly in half like blocks of tofu.

Split neatly through the middle.

The cut surfaces...

Smooth as mirrors.