From his position high in the sky, Wood had a clear view of the situation unfolding between Doflamingo and Corazon. He hadn't expected that his kick would so coincidentally send Doflamingo crashing right in front of Corazon and Law.
Wood was, to put it mildly, irritated by Corazon's actions. According to their prior agreement, once Corazon lured Doflamingo to this location, Wood would hand over the Op-Op Fruit as payment. But Corazon had apparently agreed only on the surface, while secretly planning to grab the fruit for himself.
"Is it just me, or do people in this pirate world have an inflated sense of their own intelligence? Or do they all just have a death wish? First, Diaz Barrels tried to play both sides and got himself killed. Now Corazon is pulling the same stunt!"
Even as Wood muttered his frustration, in the next moment, he activated the power of his Divine Heart. By sacrificing a portion of his life force, he amplified his speed to several times its normal limit, turning the standard "Shave" technique into what could only be described as a "Super Shave."
In the blink of an eye, Wood closed the ten-kilometer distance between himself and Doflamingo, appearing before him just in time to intercept the wires aimed at Corazon.
Both Doflamingo and Corazon were stunned by Wood's sudden appearance. The speed he had just displayed was far beyond what any human should be capable of.
But when Doflamingo noticed the glowing runes on Wood's chest, his expression shifted to one of realization.
Like most people, Doflamingo assumed that the power of Wood's Divine Heart was the result of some Devil Fruit ability.
Indeed, what human could achieve such impossible feats without the aid of a Devil Fruit? After all, these powers from the depths of the sea could even grant immortality.
And what else but the power of a Devil Fruit could cause a human's chest to glow?
Doflamingo's nearly invisible wires clashed against Wood's blade, sparks flying from the friction. To prevent his strings from being cut again, Doflamingo had reinforced them with Armament Haki.
But just as Doflamingo was confident that this time he wouldn't be overpowered, a terrifying force shot through his arm and into his body. The overwhelming pressure crushed him, sending him flying with even less resistance than before.
Since Wood had already activated the power of his Divine Heart, he wasn't holding back. That single strike had been amplified several times by the Divine Heart, and it would have been a miracle if Doflamingo could have withstood it.
As Doflamingo was sent hurtling backward, Wood decided not to waste any more life force. He dashed forward in pursuit, determined to end the battle quickly.
"Head toward the center of the island and stay out of the way!" Wood snapped as he rushed past Corazon and Law.
Wood was still frustrated with Corazon's deviation from the plan, and his irritation was evident in his tone. Despite both being undercover Marines, Wood wasn't particularly close to Corazon. If not for the mission's condition that Corazon had to survive, Wood might not have even bothered to expend life force to use the Divine Heart to intervene.
After all, if Corazon had been killed just now, it would have been his own fault. Wood had clearly stated before that he would give Corazon the Op-Op Fruit as a reward.
But Corazon couldn't know what was going through Wood's mind, so he wasn't to blame entirely.
Corazon had been in the Navy far longer than Wood and understood all too well that if the Op-Op Fruit, a highly valuable Devil Fruit, fell into the Navy's hands, even the generous Fleet Admiral Sengoku would be unlikely to allow it to be used to save a child suffering from Amber Lead Syndrome.
So from the start, Corazon had assumed that Wood's promise was an empty one, that the reward was something he'd never actually receive.
That was why Corazon had taken the risk to try and steal the Op-Op Fruit before Wood and Doflamingo's battle concluded.
"Corazon, why did he save us even though we deceived him?" Law asked, his young voice tinged with confusion.
Having grown up among the Donquixote Family, Law was familiar with the ruthless ways of pirates. He couldn't understand why Wood had come to their aid.
Was it just because of their previous cooperation? But could pirates really be trusted to honor agreements?
Corazon knew that Wood wasn't truly a pirate, but an undercover Marine. However, he couldn't share this classified information with Law. Instead, he followed Wood's advice and used his Devil Fruit powers to slip away with Law once more.
Meanwhile, Doflamingo, who had been kicked into the trees by Wood, was in far worse shape than before. Despite coating his wires in Armament Haki, they had still been severed by Wood's blade.
Not only had his wires been cut, but now Doflamingo had a deep, bone-revealing wound slashing across his chest.
Seeing Wood rapidly closing in on him again, Doflamingo gritted his teeth against the intense pain and raised his hands once more.
"Spider's Web!"
From his hands, Doflamingo shot out countless strands of spider silk, quickly weaving them into a web in front of him.
This web, created by the power of Doflamingo's String-String Fruit, was as sharp as the threads of his "Birdcage," capable of slicing through metal with ease.
The Spider's Web offered a degree of defense, and if an enemy was foolish enough to charge straight into it, they could easily find themselves cut to pieces by the sharp threads.
Based on the strength of the sword slashes Wood had unleashed earlier, Doflamingo had confidence in the defensive capabilities of his Spider's Web.
But what Doflamingo didn't realize was that the Wood he faced now was completely different from before.
"Hyakki Yagyō Sword Style: Two-Sword Technique – Jorōgumo!"
The Jorōgumo, a spider demon with the body of a spider and the face of a woman, was a master of spinning webs.
Wood's cursed sword, Tenku, and his other blade, Asatsuyu, moved in a blur, slashing the air at high speed. In moments, a large, square web of crisscrossing slashes formed in front of Wood, surging toward Doflamingo like a deadly net.
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P/S: If you are interested, you can read up to chapter 330+ at p@treon.com/Betek and change @ to a