One Piece: Blue Scale Admiral

Kizaru retreated, flew into the air, pointed at Ryder below, and a thick golden laser beam shot out from his fingertip toward Ryder.

Ryder swung his demonic sword, Dragon Spine, unleashing a crimson blade of light that intercepted the incoming laser beam in the sky.

"boom!"

Flames and light rose up, creating a huge mushroom cloud in the forest.

Amidst the deafening explosion, Ryder's wide cloak transformed into two fleshy wings, flapping heavily as he vanished through the flames, instantly closing in on Kizaru and slashing down at him with his sword once more.

An incomparably sharp slash erupted from the demon sword in his hand. The Conqueror's Haki lightning, filled with destructive power, shattered the laser shot fired by Kizaru. With a cry of alarm, it cut his body in half at the waist, turning it into countless balls of light that exploded.

"You scared me to death, Earl! You almost killed me!"

Countless orbs of light converged at the top of a burning tree, revealing Kizaru's terrified expression.

He tilted his head to look at Aramaki standing at his feet and complained, "What are you doing? Aramaki, come and help me. I can't handle this old guy by myself. He's the famous Lone Red, a fierce man who can fight the entire Roger Pirates all by himself."

As he spoke, he reached up and touched the bloodstains on his face, looking with lingering fear at Ryder, who had sprouted a pair of bat wings from his back.

Ryder brought the blood-stained demon sword to his lips, licked it, and a look of intoxication appeared on his face, as if the wrinkles on his face had lessened considerably. He stared intently at Kizaru: "Kizaru, didn't you say you don't bleed? Then what is this?"

"Is it possible that it was urine?"

Aramaki's words silenced both Kizaru above and Ryder in front of him.

Sensing the combined killing intent from both the enemy and allies, Huang Mu quickly chuckled dryly, then charged forward, heading straight for Ryder.

"Hehe, Kizaru, don't mind me, I was just kidding."

As he charged forward, he shook countless plant seeds off his body.

The seeds fell to the ground and immediately burrowed into the soil, absorbing nutrients and growing wildly, turning the surrounding hundreds of meters into a lush forest in the blink of an eye.

Countless plant roots danced wildly, entangling Ryder in a massive, overwhelming attack.

Ryder parted his lips, revealing four gleaming white fangs, veins bulging on his forehead, and glared angrily at the charging Wild Shepherd.

"You impudent brat! I'm going to kill you and suck your blood dry!"

"I don't have any blood in my body, are you going to suck my wood too? You eighty-year-old ghost, why don't you just die already? Do you think you're some kind of long-lived giant? Forbidden and stern! A natural prison!"

Huang Mu drew his long sword from his waist and slammed it into the ground. Instantly, countless aerial roots, vines, and plant stems roared into the sky, converging from all directions. Their tips, wrapped in dark, domineering energy, shot towards Ryder.

Ryder neither dodged nor evaded, allowing his body to be struck by the countless spikes that were being fired at him.

Before Huang Mu could rejoice, Ryder's body exploded with a bang, releasing a cloud of black smoke.

"What?" Huang Mu was shocked. How come he didn't know that Ryder was a Logia-type Devil Fruit user?

Black smoke billowed and countless black bats with flapping wings flew out of the smoke like a flock of crows, rushing towards Huang Mu.

Unsure of the situation before him, Huang Mu dared not be careless. He manipulated countless energy roots beneath his feet to rise up, enveloping his body and blocking the oncoming black bats.

The bats squeaked, bared their white teeth, and pounced on the twisting and waving vines and aerial roots under the watchful eyes of Kizaru and Aramaki, biting them with their mouths.

Huang Mu was taken aback, wondering what these bats were up to.

"They've turned into bats! Isn't this Gecko Moria's ability?" Aramaki was puzzled. At the same time, he made a lightning-fast move, manipulating the plants wrapped in Haki to form a large net, catching several bats. He picked them up and examined them, finding that these bats seemed no different from real bats.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his palm. Looking down, he saw that the black bat he had caught was unusually ferocious, opening its fangs and biting his hand.

Those seemingly tiny bat teeth easily pierced through the imposing armor covering his hands.

A suction force emanated from the bat's mouth, and Huang Mu immediately heard a familiar gurgling sound—the sound of sucking liquid and swallowing, which he knew all too well.

It was the bat in his hand that was sucking his blood.

"Is this the Red Earl in disguise? He looks quite weak."

Huang Mu clasped his hands together and grabbed the bat in his hand. With a casual squeeze, he flattened the bat.

However, the dead bat did not leave behind a corpse; instead, it turned into black smoke and drifted away between his fingers.

"Wait! Something's not right!"

Just as Huang Mu was about to carefully search for Ryder's true form, he felt his life force being continuously sucked away by an invisible force.

He looked up in astonishment and saw hundreds of black bats in the plant forest he had created, biting the roots, aerial roots, vines, and flowers, swallowing them with their red eyes.

As the bats swallowed, Huang Mu felt like a leaky water bag, his life force constantly draining away.

This feeling was something he had always inflicted on others; Aramaki had never imagined that one day he would personally experience it from a victim's perspective. He was immediately horrified and hurriedly shouted at Kizaru:

"Kizaru! Help me! This madman is draining my life force!"

"Huang Mu, are you here to make things worse?"

Without Aramaki saying anything more, Kizaru had already sensed that Ryder's life force, which had been gradually weakening due to exhaustion, was rapidly increasing, even more vigorous than before.

He crossed his arms and fired countless orbs of light at the hundreds of black bats that were frantically biting and surrounding Ryder, accurately blasting each black bat into black smoke.

Wisps of black smoke converged like rivers flowing into the sea, rapidly coalescing into Ryder's form.

At this moment, Ryder's wrinkles were smoothed out, and his appearance became incredibly young again, as if he had returned to the age of seventeen or eighteen, almost the same as Rorschach.

His aura was also vigorous and energetic, completely unlike what one would expect from an eighty-year-old.

He licked his blood-red lips, revealing four fangs, and grinned wickedly, "Hehehe, not bad blood. My power has been fully restored. Now, it's your turn to die!"

"Court Sword Dance! Wings of Icarus!"

Wide, blood-red bat wings unfurled behind him with a whoosh, and crimson lightning crackled and shot into the sky from the longsword in Ryder's hand as he raised the sword and slashed vertically.

"boom!"

The terrifying Conqueror's Haki surged out like a storm, shattering all the plant roots in front of Huang Mu along with the massive blood-red slash, cutting right up to his eyes.

Sensing the vigorous life force emanating from Ryder, Huang Mu's face contorted in rage, and his body swelled wildly, transforming in the blink of an eye into a pitch-black tree giant tens of meters tall. He even opened his chest and embraced the terrifying slash that Ryder was unleashing.

He staggered backward more than ten steps before stopping.

"Damn bastard! That's my life force! How dare you absorb my life force? Lone Crimson, I'll kill you!"

"Unleash! The curse of nature!"

Wild Shepherd, with a huge wound bursting out of his chest, roared, as if triggering something. Ryder's expression suddenly changed, and he groaned as his clothes exploded, his skin and blood vessels bursting. Plant roots and aerial vines sprouted from his body.

More and more plants and trees sprouted wildly from Ryder's body, stretching it larger and larger until it finally exploded with a bang, turning into countless black smoke and black bats.

"The Eight-Foot Jade Curved Jewel!"

Seeing this, Kizaru leaped high into the air, crossed his arms, and unleashed a barrage of light, bombarding the scattered bats.

Countless explosions of fire rose into the forest. Under Kizaru's suppression, Aramaki charged fiercely into the depths of the explosions and flames, roared, and stretched out his huge tree-tufted hand to fiercely grab a black bat that was flying around.

A fierce glint flashed in the black bat's eyes. It swelled and grew larger, transforming into an old nobleman with a weathered appearance. It then swung its sword at Huang Mu's wrist.

Huang Mu's wrist was cut open, and blood gushed out like a waterfall, but he didn't care. He still grabbed Ryder's body, lifted him high, and slammed him to the side.

Ryder was initially taken aback, then his expression changed drastically as he caught a glimpse of a massive red shadow flashing past out of the corner of his eye.

"Boom!"

The next instant, a huge arm, as if a pillar of heaven had collapsed, slammed into his body with its elbow.

On that bent elbow was a crescent-shaped, jet-black bone spur.

With a soft thud, Ryder's entire chest and abdomen were pierced by the dark bone spike wrapped in terrifying magic, almost cutting him in two.

Various organs and flesh were squeezed out of his body and turned into charcoal by terrifying lightning.

Despite having his chest pierced and being draped over Rorschach's arm, Ryder was still alive.

He stared at Luo Xia with his cloudy, old eyes.

"you you……"

"What are you looking at? This time you won't have the chance to go back to Impel Down to retire, Your Excellency the Earl."

Rorschach smirked and swung his right arm, throwing his body off the spikes protruding from his elbow.

"Firebreaks!"

A jet-black longsword was gripped by an extended hand, and like a whip, it slashed at Ryder, who was thrown into the air, cutting him in two at the waist.

"Hahaha, become my nourishment, solitary red!"

Huang Mu laughed loudly, and countless vines and aerial roots shot out from his body, whistling as they pierced into Ryder's body, which had been cut in half, frantically sucking away his life force.

Kizaru landed slowly and looked behind Rorschach.

"Ryder is dead, now it's the devil's heir's turn, isn't it?"

He scratched his head, puzzled, and said, "Huh? Come to think of it, what were we here for again?"

Chapter 758 A Trembling Rebirth

"Is it just my imagination? I have a feeling that this Ryder is a bit weak."

Looking at the two parts of Ryder's corpse that had been drained by the wild shepherd, Rorschach stroked his chin and muttered to himself.

Aramaki exclaimed in astonishment, "What did you say? This is weak? Did I hear that right? This old guy's swordsmanship is stronger than Kizaru's, his Observation Haki allows him to foresee the future and hear others' thoughts, his Armament Haki is stronger than mine, he has mastered Conqueror's Haki Entanglement, and he can even absorb blood to restore his stamina. Even with Kizaru and I working together, we couldn't defeat him in over ten minutes. In the end, it took the combined efforts of all three of us to finally take him down. Is this considered weak?"

"Yes, it counts. Why wouldn't it?"

Rorschach nodded noncommittally.

On the surface, Ryder's performance on Soft Island was indeed not bad, and could even be considered formidable.

But who is he?

The famous Lone Red, a legendary figure from the old era who could single-handedly contend with the Roger Pirates and the Whitebeard Pirates, and a man who could defeat the Commander-in-Chief Kong in a one-on-one fight.

By then, Ryder had already begun to age.

He has clearly eaten the Mythical Zoan type Vampire Fruit, which allows him to regain his youth and return to his prime by drinking blood.

Yet he died so easily.

If it were Whitebeard in his prime here, although he would still be no match for three Marine Admirals at the same time, don't forget that there's also that guy Barrett here.

Whitebeard is fighting two against one against Kizaru and Aramaki. Kizaru might be fine, but Aramaki is definitely doomed.

Redfield, who was said to be on par with Whitebeard and Roger, died without inflicting any serious injuries on Kizaru and Aramaki. This made Rorschach suspect that the old man might have some kind of clone.

The Vampire Fruit is, after all, a Mythical Zoan type. It can't just have the function of sucking blood to restore stamina. Otherwise, its performance would be even worse than Shiryu's Blood-Blood Fruit.