Boom!
Whitebeard strode forward, his cloak billowing violently.
Gripping his massive naginata with both hands, he brought it crashing down toward the oncoming wave of Conqueror’s Haki, its overwhelming force seeming capable of splitting the heavens.
BOOM!!
The naginata struck an invisible wall.
The collision erupted like a thunderclap, deafening everyone nearby.
Crackling arcs of Haki burst into the air like fireworks.
The next instant, the invisible Haki barrier shattered like a spiderweb under the impact.
The resulting shockwave exploded outward, forcing everyone watching to stagger backward.
Lucas had never expected a mere Haki clash to stop Whitebeard, the strongest man of the old era.
Watching the rapidly descending blade reflected in his eyes, Lucas slowly exhaled before raising his head.
Everyone present stiffened.
It had been a long time since anyone had faced one of the Four Emperors so calmly.
Yet...
Lucas still showed no intention of making a move.
Was he frozen in fear?
The thought had barely crossed their minds when a brilliant golden radiance burst from Lucas’s body.
In an instant, it condensed into a colossal Thousand-Armed Guanyin nearly eight meters tall.
Before Whitebeard’s naginata could reach him, the golden deity moved first.
Thousand Hands Catching the Blade!
Dozens of gigantic golden palms shot forward to seize the descending weapon.
The unexpected sight stunned everyone.
The earlier Haki clash had already exceeded their expectations. They had assumed the Marine Admiral would finally be forced to fight seriously.
Instead, Lucas still stood calmly in place, pulling yet another unbelievable trick.
"Hmph! Petty tricks!"
Whitebeard snorted.
The muscles in his arms bulged as he poured even more power into his swing.
The golden hands shattered one after another as though made of paper.
The gleaming blade continued forward with unstoppable momentum, cutting through everything in its path as it bore down upon the golden Guanyin.
"Wrath."
Lucas quietly uttered a single word.
The golden Guanyin instantly turned crimson, transforming into a wrathful Vajra.
As the naginata closed to within a few meters, countless fists erupted like a raging storm, hammering relentlessly toward the blade.
The sudden change made everyone’s hearts tighten.
Many stared in disbelief.
Whitebeard—the strongest man in the world and foremost among the Four Emperors—personally taking action against a younger generation fighter should have been the greatest honor imaginable.
Anyone else would already have panicked and counterattacked with everything they had.
Yet Lucas remained motionless and composed from beginning to end.
Perhaps no one else in the world could remain this calm.
More importantly...
His endless stream of techniques kept overturning everything they thought they knew.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The countless fist strikes were smashed apart by Whitebeard’s naginata.
As violent explosions engulfed the battlefield, Lucas revealed his true intention.
He had never expected these flashy techniques to stop Whitebeard.
Everything he had done so far served only one purpose—
To create the perfect opening.
Besides...
He had never intended to clash with Whitebeard head-on.
If not for the ten-million-Berry Performance Bonus, he wouldn’t have gotten involved in this mess in the first place.
"Brat! You’ve got plenty of tricks," Whitebeard laughed loudly. "But if you think that’s enough to stop me, then you’re underestimating Whitebeard!"
His naginata tore through the crimson light.
Yet the moment it broke through—
Lucas finally moved.
If the Whirlwind Iron-Cutting Hand represented the ultimate offense...
Then the Flowing Water, Crushing Rock Fist represented the ultimate defense.
Like flowing water, it formed an absolute defensive domain capable of dispersing even the mightiest impact.
Flowing Water Formation!
Armament Haki surged around Lucas’s right arm.
As his fingers curled into claws, the surrounding wind intertwined with the Ryuo flowing over his hand.
The scene that unfolded shook everyone present.
A black torrent of Ryuo surged upward, meeting Whitebeard’s descending naginata head-on without yielding an inch.
BOOM!!
Two overwhelming bursts of Conqueror’s Haki collided once again.
The explosion sent hurricane-force winds roaring straight into the heavens.
The deck beneath them shattered first, unable to withstand the monstrous impact, splitting apart in every direction like a giant spiderweb.
The surrounding pirates were forced to retreat again and again, barely able to breathe under the overwhelming shockwave.
Once everyone finally regained their footing amid the raging winds, they hurriedly looked back toward the center of the deck.
They desperately wanted to witness the newly appointed Marine Admiral being utterly crushed by Whitebeard.
But the instant they looked—
Their eyes nearly burst from their sockets.
"What...!"
"He... he stopped it! That brat caught Pops’ attack with one hand!"
"No! Look at the sky!"
"The heavens... they’ve split apart!"
"The clash of their Conqueror’s Haki actually split the sky!"
"How is this possible?! Weren’t all of that brat’s techniques destroyed? How could he possibly catch Pops’ naginata with one hand?!"
"..."
The entire battlefield exploded into chaos.
Even Gion and the others, watching through a Den Den Mushi from over a nautical mile away, stood frozen in shock.
Whitebeard’s devastating assault had nearly stopped their hearts.
Yet what they witnessed completely overturned everything they believed.
Neither Gion nor Chaton had ever personally seen Lucas fight.
But they had never imagined that the moment he made his move...
It would be this terrifying.
He had caught Whitebeard’s blade...
With his bare hand.
There probably weren’t many people in the world capable of such a feat.
"That kid really is incredible."
Benn Beckman drew on his cigar, his expression unusually solemn.
"It’s not just his abilities or his judgment—even his battle instincts are almost monstrous."
"He knew from the very beginning that Whitebeard wasn’t fighting at full strength."
"So he deliberately used one technique after another to gradually weaken Whitebeard’s attack..."
"...until it reached the point where he could catch the blade barehanded."
"Facing the strongest man of the old era, even the slightest mistake—or a single moment of hesitation—would’ve cost him that arm."
Everyone fell silent.
Before hearing Benn Beckman’s explanation, they had already thought Lucas’s feat was unbelievable.
Now they realized...
It was even more astounding than they had imagined.
If any one of them had been in Lucas’s place...
They doubted they could have accomplished it.
Almost instinctively, several people turned to look at Red-Haired Shanks’ missing left arm.
In their minds...
It was the perfect example of what happened when someone failed to catch a blade barehanded.
Otherwise...
How else could he have lost an arm?
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