The Greatest Disgrace in Marine History-Chapter 219 - 121: Flying… Flying Sword?

Gulp...

As the sea before her remained "split" for a full three seconds before slowly folding back together, Toki involuntarily swallowed hard, her lips parted slightly in astonishment.

"What... kind of sword technique was that...?"

Unable to contain her awe, she turned her head. Seeing Darren beside her—gasping for air, his face withered and pale—she hurried forward with concern, supporting him by the arm.

"That sword technique's called 'Brute Force Makes Miracles.'"

Darren managed a weak tug at the corner of his mouth. With barely any strength left, he tossed the black demonic blade aside and collapsed onto the ground, panting like a fish out of water.

Beads of sweat, thick as beans, streamed down from his forehead, body, and arms. His lips were dry and tinged with a bluish-purple hue. A thin trace of blood slowly oozed from the corner of his mouth.

"Mr. Darren... you're coughing blood..."

"I'm fine. Just overexerted myself."

Darren's trembling fingers lit a cigarette, which he placed between his lips and took a long, deep drag.

An unprecedented wave of weakness surged from every cell and muscle in his body. He could barely even stay upright.

It was worse than pulling a ten-day all-nighter while partying nonstop.

He instinctively checked his physical data.

Physique: 9.361 (78.712)

Strength: 7.11 (70.001)

Speed: 8.099 (70.391)

Armament Haki: 0 (33.012)

Conqueror's Haki: 51.001

Darren: ...

Dark lines appeared across his forehead.

The numbers in parentheses represented his normal stats when healthy. The numbers before them—his current state.

Every stat had plummeted to unprecedented lows... except for Conqueror's Haki, which remained unchanged.

And Armament Haki? That had dropped straight to zero!

To put it simply—he had been completely drained.

With that thought, Darren glanced at Enma lying on the ground, his eye twitching slightly.

That sword... was terrifying.

As for the destructive power of that slash he'd just unleashed—he wasn't all that surprised.

After devouring so much of his Haki and nearly exhausting all of his stamina, it was only natural that Enma had exploded with a strike on the level of a top-tier swordsman.

"It's just... kind of a waste."

Darren exhaled smoke and swept back his messy hair.

After all, he wasn't a swordsman. He didn't know the first thing about sword techniques.

To burn through that much Haki and stamina just to slice open the sea... was a terrible return on investment.

This brought him to the question of energy efficiency.

For instance, if the goal was to destroy a Marine warship—Darren could do that with his bare hands, without even using Haki, and still put on a dramatic display of brute force.

But if he used a sword? He'd have to dump tons of Haki into it and swing like he was hauling firewood just to get the same result.

True swordsmen, by contrast, could channel the same amount of Haki—and produce exponentially greater results.

That was the essence of swordsmanship.

"But... now that I've got a blade like Enma, maybe I should consider picking up sword training?"

The thought had barely formed before Darren shook his head and dismissed it.

He had very little aptitude for swordsmanship. That had been proven multiple times back in North Blue.

As Sakazuki once said—if Darren tried to walk the path of the sword, it would be "nothing but a waste of time."

And Darren trusted Sakazuki's judgment.

Before receiving the Magma-Magma Fruit, Sakazuki had been a powerful swordsman in his own right.

His assessments were never wrong.

Darren's true strength lay in the deadliest kind of close-quarters combat.

That fact had been made clear through years of blood-soaked experience—and over time, he'd developed his own personal style of martial technique.

To abandon that now for swordsmanship would be the height of stupidity.

Still...

Darren waved a finger—and a faint arc of electricity crackled between his fingertips. fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

Enma slowly rose from the ground and hovered in the air.

Maybe it was an illusion, but Darren felt like, after that intense "release," Enma's resistance and hostility toward him had lessened slightly.

He stared at the "Hell-Destroying Demon Blade" before him. A sly, playful grin tugged at his lips.

"Who says you have to be a swordsman to wield a sword?"

He curled his finger.

Whoosh!

Enma flashed into motion—a streak of black light that blasted through the air and shot into the distant forest.

The demonic blade became a blur of shadow, piercing through the woods in a frenzy, manifesting as countless overlapping sword strikes.

A second later—

Enma returned, hovering quietly at Darren's side.

Then—

In Toki's widening eyes, a strange sound echoed from deep within the trees.

On the trunks of towering ancient trees—so wide that several men together couldn't encircle one—immaculate slicing marks appeared. The top halves of the trees slowly slid along the cuts, tilted, and then crashed down with groaning thunder!

A cloud of dust burst into the air. Smoke and debris surged outward in a storm.

And before them—

The forest within a hundred meters had been completely leveled, reduced to nothing but smooth, clean-cut stumps still rooted in the earth.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!"

Darren couldn't help but burst into triumphant laughter.

I'm not training swordsmanship...

I'm training flying sword arts, damn it!!

The thrill surged in his chest, momentarily dispelling the weakness weighing on his limbs.

He leaned back, letting his body sink into the sun-scorched beach. A sea breeze danced over his skin. Sunlight bathed his face. And a smirk curved his lips.

His idea had been right all along.

If his strike on the Moby Dick had been a moment of spontaneous brilliance, then this experiment had confirmed his theory.

It worked.

Compared to using ordinary metal or coins, switching to a legendary sword had boosted the power of his metal manipulation attacks by at least fivefold.

Of course, a big part of that came from Enma being one of the 21 Great Grade Blades, carrying innate sharpness and penetrating power.

After all, it was the very blade that had once wounded Kaido.

If he'd used a standard-issue Marine saber, the result would've been nowhere near the same.

And if he coated such a blade with Armament Haki—the power could rise even further.

The only downside to this "Magnetic Sword Control" was its high demands on Devil Fruit mastery—and the strain it placed on stamina. Darren had to constantly and precisely control the sword's flight path and edge orientation.

But was that really a flaw of the magnetic sword technique?

No.

That was Darren's flaw!

A blaze of madness ignited in his eyes.

And this was only Enma!

What if...

What if he could collect all twenty-one of the Great Grade Blades? No—what if he could lay his hands on the Supreme Grade Twelve?

Just picture it.

With a simple raise of his hands—

Dozens of legendary blades hovered behind him in the air.

All cloaked in Armament Haki, turned jet black, and then hurled forward by a violent magnetic field—at speeds several times the sound barrier...

"Shit!"

"If I'd known, I'd have gone all out and taken that Ame no Habakiri too!"

Darren's eyes burned red as he grit his teeth in frustration.

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To be continued...