The mushroom cloud rising in the sky was dazzling, overshadowing the brilliance of the sun. Cracked layers of rock formed canyons, and then a terrifying shockwave swept through all directions.
Bang!
The aircraft were blown askew, and the Marine soldiers who regained their senses quickly pulled up to higher altitudes, avoiding the residual effects of the attack.
When a Sea Top-Level Logia Ability user made a move, a large area could hardly be considered safe.
The veteran soldiers who had experienced the era of the Three Admirals had the most say in this matter. They repeatedly instructed their comrades to stay away from the battlefield and leave the space to the two combatants.
With one strike, Rowen remained calm.
The frontal killing power of the Super Electromagnetic Cannon was unmatched. Back when he hadn't reached Awakening, even the strongest like Kaido had been pierced through the skull by a single blow.
Nowadays, the power of the Super Electromagnetic Cannon is even greater, and the outcome of being hit head-on is obvious.
But there was a premise!
"Don't tell me this is also the work of Kami-e?"
Shuā!
The gray-brown robe fluttered in the wind as Dragon appeared beside Rowen, smiling faintly. "With the Hurricane-Hurricane Fruit, indeed."
The wind was everywhere.
It was a Logia power that could monitor space more effectively than Rowen's Thunder God mode.
While thunder had a density issue that prevented it from observing minutiae, wind didn't have such limitations.
Because it was gas itself, any foreign object could be detected by Dragon in the first instance.
Paired with the Light Spirit Body formed by Rokushiki · Kami-e, Dragon could always anticipate the enemy's moves. Without this ability, how could he compete against someone like Masked Zero and end up evenly matched?
Whirlwind Leg!
As the words fell, Dragon stepped into the Void, sweeping his right foot horizontally.
In an instant, a powerful storm formed, and the rapidly flowing airflow manifested as blade-like cuts, sweeping toward Rowen.
The ground stones were stirred up by the hurricane and immediately crushed into powder.
Gungnir!
The hurricane was just a feint. The real attack came from the Dragon hidden inside.
Rowen's Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki) was exquisite, and he immediately noticed this, choosing to engage from a distance.
"Don't even think about running!"
Dragon narrowed his eyes, surprised by the consequences but quickly changing tactics. A dense barrage of meteor guns tore through the storm like a fierce rainstorm, but he moved like a swallow weaving among the tempest, avoiding them one by one.
Dragon Sky Strike!
Using the Light Spirit Body, Dragon rushed in front of Rowen. His fingers formed into claws, and a thick layer of Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki) covered his palms, emitting a sharp and solid aura that made one's scalp tingle.
Being able to train a powerhouse like Sabo, who could fight with the military of a kingdom at the age of 17, Dragon's martial prowess was not to be underestimated, aside from his Devil Fruit abilities.
He and Rowen were quite similar.
Anyone who underestimated them as useless without their Devil Fruit abilities would surely suffer a great loss.
"The Revolutionary Army's Dragon Claw Fist?"
"A claw honed to challenge the dominance of Smash?"
Rowen recognized the origin of this move, a smirk forming at the corner of his mouth.
"Too bad..."
Super Electromagnetic Cannon!
In an instant, Rowen clenched his fist and struck fiercely.
The accumulated current around him formed a stance where nothing could exist except thunder, and as he moved, the thunder found its outlet, gushing out.
Boom... Rumble!
A circular shockwave of explosions surged outward, and amidst the explosive bangs, a figure descended like a shooting star, plunging straight into the ground.
Thud!
Rumble...
Thousands of tons of white gravel erupted like a fountain, rising into the sky, and Dragon fell into a spider-web-like depression nearly a hundred meters in diameter, his expression filled with astonishment.
"You...!"
In the clash just now, he had won, but he had also lost.
He won in terms of power, fracturing Rowen's right fist with his smash, but lost in terms of effectiveness because, for Rowen, a fracture was nothing at all.
Instead, facing the terrifying force of waves upon waves of attacks, he was punched away.
An exchange where the opponent willingly trades injuries for injuries was Rowen's favorite situation.
Awakening Technique - Heaven-manipulating Thunder God - Drums of Heaven!
Boom!
The twelve-faced, hundred-meter-high pure thunder drums spread out in a circle, making the enormous aircraft seem tiny before the thunder drums. When the thunder drums appeared in the sky, Dragon was suddenly surprised.
A large-scale move was the favorite method of combat for Logia users!
But being the target, that was definitely not a good thing!
Logia users couldn't harm each other without attribute restraint, but being attacked and dispersed, the Elementalization body would have no strength to counterattack until the body was recombined.
In their level of combat, even a momentary distraction could tilt the balance of victory, let alone such a huge opportunity as being dispersed.
Especially when both sides had astonishing speed, the possibility of wasting opportunities was close to zero!
Sensing the thunderous power spreading in the air, Dragon knew that Rowen had activated his Devil Fruit Awakening, so he didn't hold back either. A vast and vigorous stream of air surged violently, and a rapidly rotating hurricane-light sphere appeared in his palm.
Awakening Technique - Storm Guide!
Poof...!
The hurricane sphere flew out from his palm and blinked into the sky.
As the first sound of the thunder drum was struck, the wind sphere instantly exploded, forming a vast... no, a huge space filled with the hurricane.
Boom!
The dim sky, covered in dark clouds, suddenly lit up, and before the thunder could shatter everything below, the even more pervasive airflow suddenly reversed, creating a terrifying pulling force that drew all the currents into it.
The wind generated by the airflow could move everything, annihilating the thunder and lightning in the world.
Both of them had maximized the characteristics of their Devil Fruits, with wind and thunder dancing together. At this moment, the world changed color, and all things fell silent!
As the sky flashed with lightning and the wind howled, the vast and mighty power of nature rendered everyone speechless.
Thud!
Thud!
Thud!
The Drums of Heaven continued to resound, and with each strike, the devastating thunder net made the hurricane tremble violently, teetering on the edge of destruction.
But even so, as the hurricane rolled, the post-Awakening power of the Devil Fruits eroded each other, and a large amount of thunder was sucked into the hurricane, being destroyed first.
The rather embarrassing reality was...
Thunder, compared to any other Logia Devil Fruit, couldn't compete in endurance.
Because the moment thunder appeared, it was already on the verge of annihilation.
It was a momentary magnificence, a fleeting moment. This made thunder the most destructive among Logia but also made its endurance bottom of the barrel.
"Only Awakening can confront Awakening, Sensei was right."
Rowen furrowed his brow slightly as he saw this. After calculations, he realized that his Drums of Heaven needed to be struck ten times to completely shatter the hurricane vortex. The remaining two strikes wouldn't pose much of a threat at all.
The power of "Fusion" after Devil Fruit Awakening was Dragon's greatest reliance. With this unscientific but mystical power, Dragon astonishingly managed to create a mutual erosion effect between the hurricane and thunder, which were completely unrelated phenomena.
Awakening Technique - Silent Vacuum!
Suddenly, Rowen felt the world quiet down.
It was a strange sensation, where all the noise on the bustling battlefield abruptly disappeared, and the only sound he could hear was the movement of his blood coursing through his body, the sound of his organs pulsating, crystal clear.
*Cough...*
A laborious cough and there was no sound from the outside world, only the buzzing in his ears.
Rowen felt a tingling sensation spreading through his body. When he looked down, he saw his skin rapidly turning purple and swelling, his capillaries bursting one by one, making him look like he had gained two rounds of weight.
"A vacuum state!"
Rowen instantly understood what was happening.
Dragon had used his Devil Fruit ability to create a world without air around himself.
Different from what Caesar Clown had demonstrated in the original work with his Gas-Gas Fruit, where he simply "pushed aside" the air, creating an area devoid of oxygen.
Dragon, on the other hand, used the power of the wind to forcibly "suck out" all the gas in this area!
While Caesar Clown could only create a vacuum around himself, Dragon could do it from kilometers away, creating a vacuum out of thin air.
Hurricane-Hurricane Fruit, he truly took it to the next level!
(End of this chapter)
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