B jumps and spins in the air while Zoro charges forward. Their swords start clashing when B drops on Zoro.
His attacks are fast and unusual because of his acrobatic movements. B is very agile despite having a big and muscular body.
But Zoro can keep up with all of B's attacks that come from unpredictable angles. Zoro even uses the hilts of his swords to defend because B's 7 swords are not easy to handle.
B even throws his swords sometime and picks them up again with smooth movements. It's a very impressive thing to see and it makes Zoro become more excited.
But it's not just Zoro who is impressed by his opponent's skills, B is also impressed by Zoro's skills. He still can't land any attack on Zoro's body even a little.
Not only that, they keep pushing each other back and forth, showing their equal power and skills, which surprises even Raikage who watches this spar from afar.
"Now it's clear how he could kill those 2 criminals alone. It's also clear that he isn't a samurai. I've seen some samurai fights, and he doesn't look like them. His skills, he got those from battles."
The Fourth Raikage is really impressed by Zoro's skills. But that's it. He knows that if B goes all out, then Zoro won't stand a chance. At least that's what he thinks.
"Your 7 sword-style is really interesting. I've learned a lot from you. Until this day, you are surely the strongest opponent I've ever faced after my master."
Zoro slashes the swords in his hands upward in a cross shape. It's a powerful attack that even sends B flies back quite far. B is obviously surprised by the sudden burst of power.
"Fuuuu~, now let's start for real."
After exhaling the air in his lungs, Zoro suddenly flows his chakra into his swords. B seems excited and he also flows his chakra into his swords.
The difference is, B's chakra turns into lightning, so his swords are covered by lightning while Zoro's swords are just covered by basic blue chakra.
But Zoro doesn't care and he doesn't seem worried at all. Instead of thinking about the difference in how they use chakra, Zoro puts more effort to stay focused.
They clash again, but now their attacks are getting stronger and faster. B's attacks are getting more unpredictable. They come from all sides as he moves around everywhere, even from Zoro's back.
But Zoro can block, dodge, and parry all B's attacks. He even dodges very narrowly before countering. It's like he can see every attack and have time to think of proper responses.
Well, Zoro is using his Observation Haki at full power. He puts all his concentration in this fight and his Observation Haki can sense all of B's attacks.
Thanks to B's speed and unpredictability, Zoro's Observation Haki is getting stronger as they fight. No one has ever pushed him this far, so his growth is getting stimulated strongly.
But as B gets more serious, some attacks start hitting Zoro. All of them just cause small cuts on the skin because Zoro can react to all of them. It's just that B is much faster than him now, so he can't defend everything perfectly.
However, all those attacks that pass through don't disrupt his focus at all. The lightning on B's swords are zapping Zoro when they touch him, but he still moves normally as if he doesn't feel them at all.
Instead of a painful expression, Zoro shows an excitement instead. Even B starts to shudder when he realizes that he is fighting a battle maniac who doesn't care about injuries and only wants to win.
That short moment of B losing concentration gives Zoro a chance to attack. He slashes with the sword in his mouth, aimed at B's neck. But B responds at the last moment and jumps back to dodge the sword.
Zoro doesn't have any intention to stop and charges forward at high speed.
"Santoryu: Oni Giri!" (3 sword-style: Ogre Cutter)
B widens his eyes and his whole body suddenly gets covered with red bubbling chakra as he tries to block Zoro's swords with his swords. But Zoro's attack actually still blows B quite far, surprising the spectators.
"He actually can send B in Tailed Beast chakra mode flying!?"
"I heard he has great physical strength, but not to this extent."
"Should we put him on our watch list, Raikage-sama?"
"Yeah, keep watching him, but don't agitate him. There's no need to make him our enemy as long as he doesn't oppose us. An independent bounty hunter with that level of power like him can be useful for us, after all. Besides, he is from the Land of Iron, a neutral country. We should avoid getting on their bad side if we can."
They continue to watch the fight. After all, for them, this is also a good chance to know the level of fighters from the Land of Iron.
Zoro might not be a samurai, but he is still someone from that country. If he can be this strong, then they think the samurais can be even stronger than him.
It's valuable information for them because they never really know about samurais. If they suddenly have a conflict with the Land of Iron , then this information will be very useful, at least that's what they think.
Meanwhile, Zoro doesn't care even if they see all his skills. He is just getting excited to go all out after a very long time.
On the other hand, B is quite perplexed. He was actually being blown away and his swords were also thrown off by that attack.
Currently, B is covered with reddish bubbling chakra. He has 4 chakra tails behind him and then another 1 grows.
'So he has gained control over the 8-Tails, huh?'
Just when Zoro thinks of that, B suddenly charges forward with his right arm extended to the side. Zoro's eyes widen as he raises his swords to block B's attack.
"Lightning Release: Lariat!"
B's Lariat hits Zoro's swords and sends him flying very far. Zoro crashes to a big boulder and breaks it apart. That Lariat was very powerful and Zoro couldn't stop it.
The spectators think that the match is over, but then Zoro suddenly comes out of the rubble. He has dirt all over his clothes and body, but they don't see any injury.
"Impossible!"
"H-How? He doesn't even look hurt."
The 4th Raikage looks at Zoro seriously while the others are voicing their disbelief. He saw what Zoro did to protect himself from B's Lariat.
When B's Lariat hit him, Zoro's chest and neck suddenly turn metallic black. Then when he was about to crash onto the boulder, his whole body turned metallic black too.
B also saw what happened clearly because he was the closest to Zoro when that happened. Both of them know that black thing must've been the one protecting Zoro's body just now.
"A defensive ninjutsu? Ya fool! Are you a shinobi~?"
"Shinobi? Me? Haha, no. My master just learned a few tricks here and there. I guess that can be called a ninjutsu, but my Master and I would never call ourselves ninjas just because of it. Neither ninjas or samurais. We are just swordsmen who follow our own paths. But really, I never thought your attack would be that strong. Even my swords couldn't handle it."
Zoro looks at his swords that have been shattered by B's Lariat. He has just repaired those swords a while ago, but now they have been destroyed already.
They weren't very high-quality swords to begin with and he has been using them for years. So they have been accumulating damage. But he thought he could still use them for a year or two.
"Uh, oh, sorry about that."
B doesn't even rap and just apologize for breaking Zoro's swords. He already started calculating how much money he would need to buy new swords for Zoro.
"Don't mind it. I have expected them to break soon because I've used them for a few years."
Zoro also made a mistake by not covering his swords with his Armament Haki. He was surprised by B's fast attack, so he could only cover his body with Armament Haki to defend himself.
Zoro still wants to fight. He already has swords ready to replace those 3 swords. But Torao stops him because if he continues, Zoro will really go all out even though it doesn't benefit him now.
'You've already shown them enough. If you show them more, you will just make them wary of you. Let's just stop here while they still think nicely of you.'
'Sigh, fine. I want to test my limit, but being on a hidden village's bad side this early is not good. Well, at least I can get a glimpse of Jinchuuriki's power, so it's not all that bad. Besides, now they owe me money to buy swords, hehehe.'
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Chapter 55. Enemies
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