One Piece: The Legend of Beasts

As the bandages slowly fell off the man, Azrael finally saw his true face.

A dark green tights with lightning patterns painted on it perfectly outlined his slender and well-proportioned figure. On top of his head was an oval silver helmet, which perfectly explained why his head was wrapped in bandages. Although there were tiny cracks on the surface, it did not affect the normal operation of the mechanical arms fixed on both sides.

At this moment, the man stood there motionless and cold, like an unchanging stone statue. His originally handsome face became extremely hideous and distorted, and his dark eyes shot out endless hatred and murderous intent, staring at Azrael. If someone was stared at like this, I'm afraid they would never be able to sleep peacefully at night.

Azrael didn't know how many lives he had taken in his life, so he had already prepared himself mentally for his enemies to come to him. However, when he saw this person, he still showed an expression as if he had seen a ghost. It was the kind of horror that only comes from seeing someone who was thought to be dead suddenly appear in front of you.

The young man in front of him was the one who had been severely injured by him during the attack on Beehive Island. His injuries had long since healed. He was a pirate with a bounty of 510 million on the government's wanted list, "Decomposer" Uno.

"It's you, kid... Remember you should have been killed by me..."

Drops of sweat oozed from his forehead and slid down his cheeks. But Azrael was completely unaware of it. He just kept looking at the man in front of him and muttered, his voice trembling slightly with undisguised disbelief.

"I will not die before I punish you with my own hands."

As if seeing through the doubts in Azrael's heart, Uno slowly raised his slender right arm, pointed his five fingers at the pale face full of astonishment, and said word by word, "Even if it costs my own life, I will send you to hell! All of this is for the people you have killed so far!"

When he said the last few words, familiar scenes emerged in his mind, as if they happened yesterday. When a little girl with a purple mushroom-like head and an innocent-looking girl with a chestnut braid and a face like a ripe apple flashed before his eyes, the boy's eyes contained an unprecedented pain, and then the pain instantly turned into a rage that was enough to burn everything in the world, burning fiercely, devouring the little tenderness left in his heart.

Azrael quickly came to his senses and looked at him for a long while, then suddenly revealed a trace of contemptuous smile: "I've heard this old-fashioned rhetoric so many times that my ears are almost callused. The so-called hell is just a way for the weak to comfort themselves. If they don't do this, they won't be able to comfort their fragile hearts~"

At this point, he hooked up a slender finger and slowly slid it down along the cold and sharp back of the giant sickle, his eyes narrowed slightly, as if he was feeling the slippery and sticky texture of the blood on the surface, and he said slowly: "Besides, without the trump card of poison, you have missed the perfect opportunity to defeat me. It's really ironic when you think about it~"

Uno listened to his sarcastic words quietly, his expression calm without causing any disturbance. He took off the glove on his other hand and threw it aside casually, saying calmly, "Same here. You didn't bring your trump card, the seastone, with you either. This is fair to both of us."

Azrael's expression changed, and he sneered several times, saying, "You are absolutely right. No matter who kills whom, the one who is eliminated has no right to complain."

When the fingertips left the back of the knife, strands of blood began to ooze out from the tip of the sickle, gradually spreading down along the blade, and instantly covering the entire sickle. The blood on the blade moved back and forth like an earthworm, as if it was given life, making people feel an indescribable disgust and weirdness from the bottom of their hearts.

Facing this powerful enemy who almost killed him and whose full abilities he still could not figure out, Uno's face became more solemn than ever before. He did not dare to slack off in the slightest. He observed his opponent's every move with full concentration. His palms were covered with a layer of light green film, and he was ready to strike at any time.

He knew very well that once he was controlled by hatred, anger and other emotions in a life-and-death battle, he would be exposed to fatal flaws if he was not careful. Therefore, he had to keep his head calm at all times. Even if the enemy and his own strength were very different, there was still a glimmer of hope for victory, even if that hope was almost insignificant at the moment...

"Great! I don't know how long it's been since I met a prey whose body didn't tremble when seeing me take action!"

Azrael waited until the other person's facial expression changed and licked his lips. His eyes flashed with excitement and cruelty. He looked even crazier than a beast that would devour anyone it chooses. "When you see my true level, I sincerely hope that you can still maintain this attitude!"

Amidst wild laughter, Azrael swung the sickle in his hand violently, and blood-red arcs shot out from it, carrying a sound that was so sharp that it almost broke the eardrums, and swept towards the thin figure like an overwhelming force.

Seizing the initiative has always been what Azrael is best at and what he likes to do the most. No matter how strong or weak the enemy is, the momentum has already taken away 70% of the advantage.

However, he didn't know that his opponent was also waiting for the opportunity to make a move.

With a whoosh, Uno's figure disappeared like a ghost. The blood moon that lost its target fell like a torrential rain, leaving countless huge crisscrossing gullies on the grass. The originally beautiful sea of ​​flowers also became devastated, with almost no intact place.

At the same time, Azrael suddenly felt a gust of wind coming from behind him. As if he had already predicted the enemy's next move, the young man just sneered slightly, and immediately turned his wrist, and the scythe suddenly turned 180 degrees. Without thinking, he swung it back and slashed it horizontally, with a speed as fast as lightning and a force strong enough to cut off the opponent's head with one blow.

Unexpectedly, the moment the sickle slashed out, there was no sense of hitting a real object, and it completely hit nothing. Azrael thought to himself that something was wrong, and hurriedly leaped to the side, but he was still a step too slow. With a "bang", Azrael felt an unbearable pain in his waist, and his whole body flew out like a kite with a broken string. Before he landed, a dazzling green stream of light streaked across a series of winding trajectories, like a python quickly shuttling through the jungle, and in an instant it caught up with Azrael who was flying dozens of meters away.

Seeing that green light getting closer and closer, as if it would touch his back in the next second, at the critical moment, Azrael's body reacted more sensitively than his brain. His body turned sharply in mid-air, and the unstoppable sickle turned into a blood-red arc of light, striking towards the young man who was only a few inches away from him like lightning.

Uno's body, which was as straight as a stick, seemed to float like a thin piece of paper, cleverly avoiding the fatal blow. The blade almost passed by his tights and slid to his left side in an unexpected direction. A short curved knife appeared in his hand and stabbed straight at Azrael's carotid artery.

By chance he saw the blade glowing with a pale green light, which was obviously poisoned. Azrael didn't think about it anymore, and quickly raised the scythe to block it in front of him. However, he didn't expect that this was still a feint. The dagger in Uno's hand suddenly turned in mid-air and attacked his ribs like a snake. Azrael was startled, and it was too late to continue blocking. He only heard a "puff" sound, accompanied by blood flowers blooming in the air, and a long gash was cut on his abdomen!

“Guuuu…!”

Azrael groaned in pain, and while he was bending over to cover his abdomen, Uno's left hand reached out like lightning and placed it squarely on the blade of the giant sickle. With a series of cracking sounds, the giant sickle, which was nearly three meters long, suddenly broke into countless pieces and scattered down. Without giving the opponent any chance to breathe, Uno swung his right hand hard, and the whole short knife instantly split into black dots like stars, all hitting Azrael's body. Taking advantage of this gap, Uno stomped his feet in the air, dodged behind Azrael, and the left hand that was ready to strike grabbed his head with lightning speed.

It was about to hit the back of Azrael's head, and blood would splatter on the spot in the next second. Suddenly, a dangerous intuition arose from the bottom of Uno's heart, causing him to retreat more than ten feet back like a conditioned reflex, creating a certain distance between him and his opponent.

He stood on the rugged ground, still standing straight, but his breathing was much more rapid than before, and his eyes were filled with unconcealable fear and a sense of danger.

Just a moment ago, a picture flashed through his mind of himself lying in a pool of blood, his body riddled with holes.

"Hehe, very good, with this kind of momentum, you make me feel a little happy."

Azrael turned his head slowly while speaking. His body was covered with dense iron pieces. The poison penetrated his body through his flesh and blood and gradually spread to his whole body. But he remained calm and acted as if nothing had happened. He casually pulled off a piece of bloody iron piece stuck in his chest, opened his mouth and took a bite. He actually chewed it with relish. His expression of enjoyment was as if he was tasting the most abundant delicacies in the world.

After a long time, he spat out the shapeless iron slag in his mouth with a "Puh". With a flash of cold light, a bowl-sized hole suddenly appeared on the grass beside his feet, which was bottomless. During the whole process, he did not look at the ground. His sharp eyes were always fixed on Uno. A smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. It was a vicious smile that only belonged to the most vicious and insidious venomous snake in the world. "I didn't expect that you would go to the trouble of learning the 'Six Styles' in order to sneak into the government to seek revenge on me. Although I don't know how many of them you have mastered, it is very commendable for an ordinary person to be able to do this."

As he spoke, the iron pieces that had pierced his body sank into his body bit by bit as if they were sinking into a swamp. The countless blood holes on his body healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. In the blink of an eye, he was back to normal without any scars. His face, which had already turned a little blue, gradually turned pale. Uno, who witnessed this scene, showed no emotion at all, as if he had already foreseen such a situation. He was not surprised at all, but responded coldly: "If I can't make it look real, how can I make you believe in my identity?"

Hearing the sarcasm implied in his words, Azrael was not angry. He raised his right hand and squeezed it hard. The blood flowing on the ground swirled in front of Azrael with a strange aura. As the scarlet blood continued to surge, it gradually condensed into a huge blood-red sickle in front of him, which he held in his hand.

Looking at the huge sickle in front of him flashing with dazzling blood light, Uno's face slowly became serious, and the nerves in his body tensed up in an instant.

——A weapon created with power? Could it be that the previous one is the same?

Before he could finish his thought, Azrael casually swung the scythe that was almost bigger than his body. It looked much easier than holding a stone. A symbolic arrogance and contempt appeared on his face again. He slowly said, "Meeting an opponent like you is much more interesting than killing those defenseless trash. Take the most common example. When a hunter catches its prey, the more the prey struggles, the more it can stimulate the hunter's subconscious animal nature, and it will be devoured without leaving even a bone. You have been with the pirates for so long, you must understand this truth..."

Uno looked at the man who was talking at length with an expressionless face. His eyes became colder and colder, but he never refuted him, obviously agreeing with what he said.

"Before I turn you into ashes, there is one thing I have always cared about..."

As he spoke, he gradually shifted his gaze from Uno's terrifying face to the strangely shaped helmet, and a sinister smile appeared at the corners of his scarlet lips. "Do you have any unspeakable secrets? Let me find out!"

Amidst wild laughter, a huge bloody sickle was swung out.

At this moment, it seemed as if everything in the world was cut in half by this blow.

Uno only felt a flash of blood before his eyes, and he didn't even see the trajectory of the opponent's attack. His head seemed to have been hit hard, and he spun and rolled to the side. The blood splashed freely, and the white sea of ​​flowers formed a sad and beautiful picture. He could also hear the sound of metal breaking.

The mountains surrounding the valley seemed to be affected by some huge force, breaking in half and collapsing with a loud bang. The deafening roar almost tore the sky and the earth apart. The entire valley instantly turned into a slope that could collapse at any time, raising a huge cloud of dust.

"I think I overexerted myself. I should not have stored so much blood..."

Azrael looked around the valley that was razed to the ground in an instant, and marveled at the power of his moves that far exceeded his imagination. As if he suddenly realized something, he shifted his gaze to the left front. A pair of gray eyes seemed to emit light on the man shrouded in layers of thick fog. He raised the giant scythe in his hand and pointed it at the man and shouted loudly, unable to suppress the excitement in his tone: "I remember! That absolutely rare feature! No wonder you are wearing such a strange thing, it turns out that you are the only survivor among those scums!"

The thick smoke gradually dissipated, revealing a figure half-kneeling in the sea of ​​flowers. It was undoubtedly Uno who had escaped the disaster by luck.

It’s just that Uno’s appearance is a little different from before.

A head of purple curly short hair hung down from his head, just covering his bloody forehead. Although it was tightly covered by an airtight helmet all year round, his hair was still very smooth and there was no stain on it. The most eye-catching thing was the pair of curved horns growing on the top of his head, which glowed silvery white under the light.

At this moment, he covered his injured forehead tightly, glared at the young man who was walking towards him complacently with gritted teeth, and his eyes seemed to be about to burst out with uncontrollable anger.

"Azrael!"

In the raging fire of hatred and love, those happy yet cruel images once again appeared clearly before his eyes.