The natural system started off strong, but the navy finally reached its peak!

The Black Blade Eight Desolations, carrying the power to destroy everything, burst forth with a dazzling light like the sun from its dark red cracks, and slashed down towards the restrained Hawkeye!

In that moment of crisis, a resolute glint flashed in Hawkeye's eyes.

He actually let go of his left hand that was holding the knife!

At the same time, using the force of Gern's pull, his body slammed forward, his right elbow wrapped in top-level Armament Haki, and smashed into Gern's chest like a heavy hammer!

A close-range strike obtained by abandoning one's sword!

Gern hadn't expected the other party to be so decisive, and the force with which he gripped the wrist faltered.

Boom! The elbow strike landed squarely on his chest. Even with Armament Haki defense, it still caused his blood to surge, and the downward momentum of his blade slowed down.

In that instant, Hawkeye's freed left hand gripped the falling black sword, Night, once again.

Using the recoil from the impact, his body flew backward, while at the same time the blade flashed upward and slashed at Gern's abdomen!

The shift between offense and defense happens in the blink of an eye!

Gern took a step back, and the Eight Desolations had no choice but to switch from offense to defense.

"clang!!"

The two separated again, standing opposite each other, slightly out of breath.

Above the ruins, only the howling of the wind blowing through the dust and the two people's gradually calming but still heavy breathing could be heard.

"Sorry, I also know a little bit of physical combat."

Looking at Hawkeye, Gern cracked his neck, making a soft clicking sound, and a more excited smile spread across his face.

"Alright... I haven't had enough yet anyway, but I don't know if you can handle it!"

Chapter 278 "Disaster"

Hawkeye's current strength, while formidable, is certainly not at its peak. He can only be described as having the ability to fight, but absolutely no chance of winning!

After a brief respite, Gern's aura suddenly changed.

The previous hint of probing and appreciation vanished without a trace, replaced by absolute pressure.

The air began to tremble, and tiny pebbles defied gravity, slowly floating into the air before silently turning into dust.

Gern slowly raised the black blade, Eight Desolations, in his hand.

The dark red cracks on the blade surged violently like lava, and the high-frequency vibrations no longer produced a piercing hum.

“Mihawk.” Gern’s voice was calm, yet carried an undeniable authority, like a divine pronouncement.

"I have already experienced your swordsmanship."

Now, experience what... a 'natural disaster' truly means.

The moment the words left his mouth, Gern moved!

Instead of the exquisite movements he used before, he simply raised the Black Blade Eight Desolations above his head.

However, this simple action triggered a dramatic change in the world!

"Boom!!"

Centered on him, the entire island, and even the surrounding sea, began to tremble violently!

The earth trembled as if being sieved, and huge cracks, starting from beneath Gern's feet, spread wildly outwards like a black python, tearing at everything in their path!

In the distance, terrifying waves tens of meters high surged up on the sea, and the clouds in the sky were churned by an invisible force.

A huge vortex was formed, with the center of the vortex directly facing Gern below, who was holding a knife!

Hawkeye's pupils contracted sharply, and a strong sense of crisis made every nerve in his body tense up instantly!

Without hesitation, he held the Black Blade Night in front of him, unleashing his full power of top-tier Armament Haki, transforming himself into an indestructible form like obsidian!

He knew that without doing this, he couldn't defend against it!

Gern swung his knife.

The movements even appeared somewhat slow, as if the blade were incredibly heavy.

But as the Black Blade Eight Desolations fell, the space around the blade visibly twisted, folded, and shattered!

Countless fine black spatial cracks spread like a spider web!

"Heavenly Tremor - Yet Tremor to the Soul!!"

There was no dazzling blade light, only a pure, all-consuming darkness, accompanied by a hum that made everything tremble, like a collapsing sky, crushing down on Eagle Eye!

The range of this attack was so vast that it covered almost all of Hawkeye's possible dodge routes!

Hawkeye gritted his teeth, choosing to fight to the bitter end, because he knew he could not back down!

Once we retreat, our momentum will be lost, and we will be completely swallowed up by this overwhelming attack!

"Ah!!!" He let out a roar that was not human!

The Black Blade Night erupted with an unprecedentedly brilliant green light, no longer a condensed thin line.

Instead, it transformed into a massive green slash that soared into the sky, fiercely meeting the crushing darkness head-on!

"Break for me!!!"

The next moment, the darkest, destructive power of the shock collided violently with the most dazzling slash!

At the center of the collision, a dazzling white light engulfed everything!

What followed was a devastating shockwave that spread outwards in a ring!

Wherever it passed, everything was flattened, shattered, and annihilated!

The white light subsided slightly, revealing a huge, deep crater at the center of the collision!

Hawkeye knelt on one knee at the bottom of the pit, his hands gripping the black sword Night, which was stuck in the ground, barely managing to avoid being blasted away.

His clothes were torn, revealing a strong but blood-stained body. Blood kept spilling from the corner of his mouth, and his arms, which were gripping the knife, were trembling violently. His tiger's mouth was already a bloody mess.

He blocked it!

With the dignity and strength of the world's greatest swordsman, he withstood this earth-shattering blow!

But before he could catch his breath, Gern's figure had already descended from the sky!

Gern gave his opponent no chance to recover at all, and his fighting style completely changed from parrying his moves to unleashing a frenzied outpouring of absolute power!

No matter your skills or expertise, before absolute power, you can only obediently defend!

"Again!" Gern roared, raising his Black Blade Eight Desolations once more. The shockwaves on the blade were so intense that they seemed to tear space itself apart before he slashed down fiercely!

"Heavenly Tremor - Collapse of the Boundary!"

Hawkeye's pupils contracted, and he mustered a strong aura, swinging his sword to parry!

"Clang!" The ground beneath his feet suddenly cracked, and he sank several meters again!

The immense force shook his internal organs as if they had shifted, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood!

"It's not over yet!" Gern's voice was like the pronouncement of death, his blade flashing relentlessly.

He then leaped into the air, his left hand stroking the Eight Desolations Blade, causing vibrating particles to surge forth.

What was a full-force attack for the young Gern back then has now become a casual move!

"Heavenly Tremor - Void Rift!"

A horizontal slash! A twisted, crescent-shaped, pure white shockwave tore through the earth.

Hawkeye was forced to tumble and dodge in a sorry state, and the spot where he had been standing was slashed open into a bottomless abyss!

"Flash!" Gern appeared behind Hawkeye like a particle condensing and flashing, raising his hand to thrust!

The blade tip, imbued with extreme vibration and domineering power, struck Hawkeye's chest like a falling black star!

Hawkeye narrowly dodged to the side, the tip of the knife grazing his chest.

The resulting wind pressure tore a bloody gash in his solid chest muscles, and a distant rocky hill behind him silently turned to dust!

……

Next, Gern unleashed his full power, each swing of his sword causing the heavens and earth to tremble, each strike carrying the terrifying power to shatter mountains and split seas, destroying everything!

He no longer pursued technique, but instead launched overwhelming attacks with absolute power and range!

In his hands, the Black Blade Eight Desolations truly became a deadly weapon that brought natural disasters!

Hawkeye was in an extremely passive situation! He could only rely on his Observation Haki and his unparalleled swordsmanship and footwork to barely dodge and parry through the gaps in countless devastating attacks!

With each clash of swords, he felt as if he were being struck head-on by a prehistoric beast; his arms ached and went numb, his internal organs trembled, and his injuries continued to accumulate!

His sword remained sharp, and with each parry or counterattack, he precisely targeted the weakest points in the Eight Desolations' power.

Occasionally, he could even launch a sharp counterattack during the gaps in Gern's attacks, leaving a few shallow bloodstains on Gern's body.

But this was utterly incapable of turning the tide of the battle!

Gern's offensive was like a tsunami, each wave stronger than the last, seemingly without end!

"What's wrong? The world's greatest swordsman!" Gern's voice rang out amidst the roar.

"Is this all you can do?!" With that, another powerful slash followed!

Hawkeye parried the blow head-on with his sword, but was sent flying backward, his feet carving two deep furrows in the ground. He felt a sweet taste in his throat and vomited blood again.

He knelt on the ground, supporting his body with the knife, breathing heavily, sweat mixed with blood dripping from his chin.

His short, black hair was damp and stuck to his forehead, making him look slightly disheveled. He then raised his head.

Looking at the figure in the distance enveloped by black and purple arcs of electricity and shockwaves

Feeling the almost hopeless gap in power, a near-fanatical smile slowly crept onto his lips.

"What...exciting power..." he muttered to himself, gripping the black sword Night tightly, his knuckles turning white from the excessive force, yet his grip remained unusually steady.

Mihawk then slowly stood up, ignoring the agonizing pain coursing through his body, and raised the Black Blade Night horizontally, its tip once again locking onto Gern.

"But as I said... my sword is not yet broken!"

His imposing aura, far from diminishing under the overwhelming force, remained undiminished.

An ultimate sword intent, capable of severing everything and even splitting "natural disasters" in two, soared into the sky!

Chapter 279 What is 'Disaster'?

Gern was slightly taken aback when he saw the indomitable, even more intense fighting spirit in the other's eyes, and then burst into laughter.

"Good! Very good! That's exactly how it should be!" The black blade Bahuang in his hand emitted a pleasant hum, seemingly excited to have encountered such an opponent.

“Then, the next strike…” Gern dragged Bahuang behind him, the tip of his blade slicing across the ground.

However, unlike the violent omens that had previously shaken the heavens and earth, this time, an extremely eerie silence suddenly descended, sending chills down one's spine.

It was a deathly silence where sound was detached and everything stagnated.

The Black Blade Eight Desolations caused air-shaking cracks on its body, its light changing from the pale white that initially shattered space.

It quickly faded to a deep blue, eventually transforming into a pale blue that seemed capable of freezing the soul!

The buzzing sound emitted by the high-frequency vibrations also suddenly changed, transforming from a destructive roar into an extremely sharp hiss that almost exceeded the limits of human hearing.

The air around the blade no longer distorted, but instead, like fragile glass, it revealed countless fine, ice-crack-like air cracks!

But the changes didn't stop there!

The pale cracks in the air rapidly deepened in color, quickly transforming into a deep, cold, and seemingly freezing blue... a deep, dark blue!

"This is..." Hawkeye's hair stood on end instantly!

That wasn't the fear of facing destructive power, but a more primal fear of facing absolute "stillness" and the end of all things!

He felt the temperature of the surrounding air plummeting at an incredible speed, his breath instantly freezing into ice crystals, and even the flow of blood and the circulation of domineering energy within his body seemed to slow down!

"What...is this?!" Hawkeye was horrified as he looked at the power that shouldn't have appeared on Gern.

"I gained a lot of insights from my fight with Kuzan back then, especially regarding 'stillness'."

Gern slowly raised his head, his voice calm yet carrying a chilling intent that seemed to freeze everything.