Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Phoenix’s Lament

With a thunderous impact, a violent tremor rippled before Chu Yi before Marco had even finished speaking.

It was the shock of the Asura Golem.

In his fight with Marco, Chu Yi did not dare show the least contempt. Though he appeared to be in peak condition, in truth he could only draw on eighty percent of his strength against Marco.

He must not forget that, besides continuously using the power of the Frozen Fruit to keep “Diamond” Jozu sealed in ice, he was also still mending the shattered sky of Fish-Man Island.

Even during his battle with “Diamond” Jozu, Chu Yi could not withdraw his freezing power; he had to keep Fish-Man Island under constant repair. How much more so now, while fighting Marco?

Thus, to ensure his abilities could continue to function, Chu Yi could not afford to be injured. If the Frozen Fruit’s power were to falter even briefly, the entire repair plan for Fish-Man Island could fail.

The Asura Golem that always hovered behind Chu Yi was precisely the trump card he used to keep himself from taking damage.

But who could have foreseen it...

Marco’s Armament Haki was truly formidable.

Coiling Armament Haki around his fist, he had seized the instant when his Phoenix Blue Flame was reviving him and had just barely withstood Chu Yi’s strike of Divine Gravitation. He then closed in and smashed that Haki-wreathed fist into the Asura Golem that had manifested around Chu Yi, unleashing a horrifying roar of shock and vibration.

“Such powerful Armament Haki. As expected of the future first division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates.”

“A fist coated in Haki to that degree... I’m afraid...”

“My Asura Golem can probably endure only three blows at most!”

Seeing faint cracks begin to form on the surface of the trembling golem, Chu Yi’s expression hardened. He quickly continued evading with a flash-step, never expecting that after landing his blow, Marco would not press the advantage.

The reason was simple enough...

Marco had also been somewhat surprised that his fist had failed to break through Chu Yi’s Asura Golem defense.

That earlier strike had already pushed his Armament Haki to its limit; coating his fist with Haki to such an extent also placed a burden on Marco himself.

Back when he was with the Whitebeard Pirates, Marco had won over “Diamond” Jozu through his mastery of Armament Haki, and only then had Jozu obediently listened to him.

Yet the same blow that even Jozu’s diamond body had difficulty resisting was blocked just as easily by Chu Yi’s Asura Golem.

His pupils constricted slightly, and the smile on Marco’s face gradually vanished, replaced by a grave look.

He had to take this more seriously.

“Three moves. I must settle that boy within three moves.”

“Otherwise...”

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the battle between Mihawk and Vista had already reached a fever pitch, and Vista was on the verge of being overwhelmed by Mihawk’s ferocious assault.

If the two men from the Whitebeard Pirates both lost to Chu Yi and Mihawk, and he himself could not quickly finish Chu Yi, the Whitebeard Pirates’ honor would surely suffer.

Marco’s face grew even more somber. As he concentrated on the exchange with Chu Yi, a glint suddenly flashed through his eyes.

“That aura is...”

“Observation Haki!”

The moment that glint flashed in Marco’s eyes, Chu Yi sensed a familiar presence.

Observation Haki.

It was clear that Marco intended to lock onto Chu Yi with Observation Haki. That way, even if Chu Yi could move at high speed with flash-step and avoid direct confrontation as much as possible, Marco could still use the subtlety of Observation Haki to predict Chu Yi’s movements, take a shortcut, and launch his assault.

As expected...

Almost the instant Marco’s Observation Haki locked onto Chu Yi—

A booming sound rang out.

Marco kicked off the ground and, with two bursts of acceleration, relied on his Haki prediction to swiftly catch the figure Chu Yi had moved with flash-step.

The next second, another explosion sounded.

Marco’s Haki-wreathed fist slammed once more into the defense of Chu Yi’s Asura Golem.

Although Marco’s two Haki-coated punches had struck different points, unlike hitting the same place twice, the Asura Golem nevertheless bore the burden of damage much like Jozu’s diamond armor had its limit. After Marco’s second blow landed, spiderweb cracks spread across it, as if it might shatter completely at any moment.

If Chu Yi had not reacted quickly enough to seize the opening between Marco’s punches and bring down the Blade of Asura in time, unleashing a strike of Cold Wind to slow Marco’s attack...

Then Marco’s third blow would not merely have shattered Chu Yi’s Asura Golem defense.

It would have defeated Chu Yi outright.

Moreover, what truly made it difficult for Chu Yi to fight Marco was not only Marco’s overwhelming use of Haki.

After Cold Wind fell, frost spread across Marco’s body. By combining swordsmanship with the Frozen Fruit, Chu Yi had indeed slowed his defeat.

Yet Chu Yi’s Cold Wind had only bought him a few seconds.

Because just as Marco’s body was covered in frost and on the verge of freezing...

Phoenix Blue Flame returned once more.

With the regenerative power of the Phoenix Blue Flame, Chu Yi could only watch helplessly as the frost on Marco’s body vanished in an instant.

“Damn Phoenix Blue Flame. That power is simply beyond reason!”

“It feels like no matter what fruit ability I use, Marco can always rely on Phoenix Blue Flame to escape his predicament. This... this power...”

“If only it were mine!”

With a powerless cry in his heart, Chu Yi truly felt that Marco’s Phoenix Blue Flame was like an unbreakable barrier.

And if Chu Yi wanted to obtain the Phoenix Blue Flame ability, he would have to complete Marco’s awakening material collection quest.

The cruel irony was that Marco’s awakening material quest required him to injure Marco, creating a dead loop with no way out.

Even after using the awakened ability Divine Gravitation three times, along with swordsmanship and the Frozen Fruit, he still could not manage to wound Marco.

In the brief few seconds created by Cold Wind, Chu Yi took a deep breath, then drew the Blade of Asura into his body. He pressed his palms together, preparing to use the awakened ability Gravity Domain for a third time and first reverse his own disadvantage.

So Marco’s offensive was that ferocious?

Very well.

Then he would see just how fast Marco could still be under the oppression of two hundredfold Gravity Domain.

Boom.

Without another word, the moment Chu Yi joined his hands, Gravity Domain MAX erupted.

In an instant, a full two hundred times the force of gravity crashed down. Marco, his face stern, showed a flash of surprise, then felt his body grow heavier and heavier. Even trying to accelerate with the strength of his legs had become terribly difficult.

And as Chu Yi pushed the Gravity Domain to its absolute limit, his transformed Asura form saw the Asura Eye at the center of his brow slowly opening.

It was the sign that Chu Yi was driving his fruit power to the utmost. In Chu Yi’s own words, it was a natural phenomenon.

Yet as the Asura Eye at his brow opened of its own accord and a demonic vertical pupil fixed on Marco, what scene appeared within that eye?

Through the Asura Eye, Chu Yi clearly saw that as Marco came under the pressure of the Gravity Domain, a phoenix wreathed in azure flames gradually formed above Marco’s head.

“Is that... Marco’s fruit ability?”

Chu Yi was baffled as to why the phoenix image only appeared when he looked at Marco through the Asura Eye.

But just as he was equally astonished by the image reflected within the eye and interested in the phoenix above Marco’s head...

All at once!

The Asura Eye at Chu Yi’s brow burst forth with brilliant purple light.

Then, following that radiance from the Asura Eye, it not only enveloped the phoenix image above Marco’s head, but as the purple glow spread, a golden leopard shadow suddenly appeared, roaring as it lunged and bit into the phoenix blazing with azure fire.

As the phoenix’s mournful cry rang out, azure flames suddenly sprang up with a whoosh from the Asura Golem behind Chu Yi, which had already begun to crack.

It was...

Phoenix Blue Flame!