Following Akainu's roar, another kind of rain fell from the sky.
A rain of magma fists.
Terrifying magma fists descended from the heavens, indiscriminately attacking and destroying everything below.
Whether flat land or houses.
Whether civilians or pirates.
The earth was instantly scarred and covered in black smoke under this rain.
The roar of explosions, the sizzling of flames, the screams of people...
The capital suddenly... became lively.
Tch!!!
Blood splattered from his arm, but Akainu ignored it.
His magma-fied fist swung fiercely, smashing into the pirates in front of him.
The battle intensified.
Facing a dozen powerful pirates with bounties exceeding 500 million, including Ranzuki, even as a Vice Admiral with near-Admiral level strength, even with the powerful offensive capabilities of the Magma-Magma Fruit, even with his powerful Armament Haki and Observation Haki…
[tl/n: I believe i made a mistake in the last chapters, as i described Akinu's strength as being in the admiral level and being a candidate for the fleet admiral, but he was still a vice admiral with strength already on part with an admiral. He's yet to be appointed as an admiral. I thought he was promoted during the timeskip, hence my previous mistranslations. I apologize.]
Akainu's situation became increasingly difficult, with more and more wounds appearing on his body.
He was like a male lion surrounded by a pack of wolves.
And within this wolf pack, there was also a hidden, terrifying tiger.
Even though he was unmatched in one-on-one combat, he was being worn down.
"Akainu, your journey ends here."
Ranzuki spoke, blood flowing gently on the pitch-black kunai in his hand.
Logia Devil Fruit users were indeed powerful, even invincible to a certain extent.
Because to deal with Logia users, only Seastone and Haki could be used.
And the Haki needed to be strong enough to inflict damage on Logia users who could elementalize.
Akainu was not only a Logia user but also someone who had developed his Devil Fruit abilities to a certain degree. He had roamed the seas for many years and possessed terrifying battle experience.
If it weren't for Ranzuki, a hidden expert among the crowd, these pirates would have had to pay a much higher price to make Akainu so battered.
Even so, Akainu had already killed two powerful pirates with bounties over 400 million during this battle.
The number of ordinary pirates killed by his previous Ryusei Kazan was countless.
"Even if I die here, I will drag you all down to hell with me!" Akainu roared, frantically attacking the pirates surrounding him.
At this point, Akainu also understood that this time... he might really not be able to escape.
"Tsk tsk tsk, I never thought that the ruthless Marine Akainu, who shook the seas, would fall in this nameless place." Charlotte Perospero spoke; he was quite a chatterbox.
"Nameless place? The place where a Marine Vice Admiral falls, how could it remain a nameless place?"
"That's right, after all, you are the infamous Akainu!"
Boom!
The battle continued.
Another punch, the scorching magma shattered the city wall with a single blow, but Akainu's attack missed.
This was his umpteenth missed attack, perhaps the tenth, perhaps the twentieth, or the fiftieth.
From the moment Jack attacked and he counterattacked, two or three hours had passed.
This wasn't a long time; logically, Akainu should still be at his peak.
Because to become a Marine Admiral, Akainu was not only strong in his Devil Fruit ability but was also quite strong in his physical body.
With his physique, even in a evenly matched battle, he could last for several days.
Just like in the original manga, Akainu and the similarly powerful Aokiji fought for ten days for the position of Fleet Admiral.
But unfortunately, this battle was not evenly matched from the beginning.
Because in this battle, there was someone like a bug, Ranzuki.
It might be difficult for others to injure Akainu, but it was different for Ranzuki.
He could not only seize every opportunity to injure Akainu but also amplify the effects of these opportunities.
At this moment, there was a small but constantly bleeding wound on Akainu's kidney.
Not only his kidneys but also other vital parts of his body bore the mark of Hozuki Ranzuki's handiwork.
It was a secret technique of the Hozuki clan, a method of leaving a special kind of water infused with chakra inside the enemy's body to cause damage.
This silent attack on Akainu's body, even with Akainu's powerful physique, was ultimately difficult for him to recover from.
Moreover, Ranzuki would occasionally use genjutsu to attack Akainu. As a result, even with Akainu's iron will, he felt deeply exhausted at this point.
This exhaustion came not only from his body but also from his spirit.
He had only been fighting for a few hours, but his spirit felt as if he had been fighting for several days.
"Huff... huff... huff..."
Gasping for breath, Akainu looked at the pirates surrounding him, gritted his teeth, and attacked again.
The pirates surrounding Akainu weren't stupid either. They all knew that Akainu seemed to be at the end of his rope. There was no need to fight him head-on; as long as they kept him engaged, Akainu would die.
Therefore, the pirates focused more on defense, aiming to wear him down.
Even Jack had reverted to his human form.
Bang!
A gunshot rang out, and blood splattered.
It was a sniper in the shadows. In Akainu's current state, they had no reason to miss.
"Damn it, that almost hit me!" A pirate yelled in dissatisfaction, but after seeing the gunshot wound on Akainu, his dissatisfaction turned into delight.
"Hahaha, nice shot!"
In the distance, a sniper revealed a cruel smile and aimed at Akainu in the crowd again.
Bang!!!
Another shot, but Akainu dodged it by elementalizing.
"How many times can you dodge?!"
Bang!!!
"I can't believe that Akainu is actually going to fall... He's someone who earned the title of Admiral before even officially becoming one!"
An unknown captain spoke with a complicated expression, looking at the already crumbling tall figure.
"Hmph, serves him right!" The crew member beside him said, looking at the battered Akainu with satisfaction in his eyes.
They were pirates!
Moreover, they were almost hit by Akainu's Ryusei Kazan just now and almost died!
"The world is going to be shaken. I wonder if the Marines will go to war with these powerful pirate crews."
"Probably not. After all, one pirate crew is one thing, but these are three of the most powerful pirate crews in the New World! The Marines suffered heavy losses in the last incident with the God. If they attack several pirate crews at the same time, they might not be a match for them."
"Anyway, the seas are going to be chaotic again."
"Cough!"
Coughing up blood, Akainu gasped, letting the blood flow from the corner of his mouth.
He was indeed at the end of his rope, completely exhausted.
Especially mentally, he didn't know why, but he felt abnormally tired. He really wanted to just lie down, close his eyes, and let himself be slaughtered.
But his strong will prevented him from doing so, keeping him fighting.
Fighting his last battle as a Marine.
Boom!!!
Lightning continued to flash, and the heavy rain continued to fall.
Rainwater flowed down Akainu's face, washing away the blood from his wounds.
The ground beneath his feet was already crimson...
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