Chapter 287: The Clash of Swords and Sugar

Watching this, Karl couldn’t help but remember those organ harvesting videos from Blue Star. It was just too brutal.

A wave of discomfort washed over his body.

He recalled watching those videos—seeing the surgeon remove a kidney with practiced hands, the organ still faintly twitching.

Even knowing it was just a reenactment in a movie, a chill still crawled down his spine.

He couldn’t imagine what it would be like if someone suddenly ripped out his kidney one day. That’d be a nightmare.

“Snap!”

He clapped his hands. “Well, guess you won’t be needing your kidney anymore—it’s gone for good.”

Penelope felt the same. The moment her kidney vanished, her whole body was wracked with weakness.

It was like that aftermath—hazy brain, limp limbs, every part of her drained.

She just wanted to lie there quietly, savoring that empty, exhausted feeling.

But now wasn’t the time. They were still in the thick of battle. A single slip could be fatal.

Forcing down the weakness, she clutched the hollow in her side and growled, “Like your moves are any better.”

“An eye for an eye, right?”

“You sly dog, you sure know how to play!”

Bang!

“Ugh!”

Bruno spotted an opening mid-sentence and drove his foot hard into her crotch.

Everyone nearby heard a faint cracking sound.

“Right back at you—all skills we learned from you.”

The fight ended almost as quickly as it began. Bruno snapped seastone shackles on her and dragged her away.

Noticing blood trickling from Penelope’s pants, Bruno scratched his head, looking a little sheepish.

“Was I too rough just now?”

“As long as the enemy is down, anything goes. Isn’t that what she taught us?”

Bruno and Albert exchanged a look and broke into hearty laughter.

Suddenly, a roar and the crash of shattering glass echoed from afar, snapping both men to attention.

Albert waved and a few Fishmen rushed in to escort Penelope away.

When the two hurried toward the battlefield, they found Perospero already locked in a fierce fight.

The land for hundreds of meters was scattered with buildings shaped like candies.

And the person battling Perospero was none other than the lone swordsman on the island—Kuras!

Kuras was a true Swordmaster. His power put him squarely at the level of a pseudo-Admiral.

But being a Swordmaster made him even more dangerous than the other pseudo-Admirals—he was on another level entirely.

He was easily the strongest opponent Perospero had faced in recent years.

Perospero just unleashed a sword-rain attack, conjuring it with his Candy-Candy Fruit, sending it hurtling at Kuras.

“One Sword Style—Draw Slash!”

With lightning-fast hands, Kuras unleashed dozens of attacks in a blink, shattering the sword rain and charging straight for Perospero.

Albert and Bruno were about to join in when Perospero shot them a subtle shake of the head.

They held back, splitting left and right, always ready to step in if needed.

For Perospero, this was a fight that pushed him to his limits.

He’d been going toe-to-toe with Kuras using only his Devil Fruit.

He wanted to keep his guard down—but everyone should remember, Perospero was only the second person to use the Titan Gene.

Sure, he hadn’t been using it long, but anyone who thought he was fragile was making a huge mistake.

The Titan Gene enhanced every part of him—toughness, regeneration, strength and speed. All of it jumped up by orders of magnitude.

Just his raw power alone had reached Vice Admiral level.

And that’s before even counting his Devil Fruit powers. Against Kuras, the odds were finally in his favor.

No matter how you looked at it, he had the edge.

“Heh, I’ve known your secrets for a while now,” Perospero sneered.

“Once I get up close, that’s when your nightmare begins.”

“Then come on and try me.”

With a flash of surprise in Kuras’s eyes, Perospero threw a punch with all his might.

His blackened fist crashed against Kuras’s blade, filling the air with crackling sparks.

For a moment, sparks flew everywhere.

Feeling the immense force through his sword, Kuras blurted out, “How is this possible?”

“Where did you get strength like this?”

“Impossible, this can’t be real.”

He froze, rattled. According to all intelligence, Perospero shouldn’t have even come close to this kind of power. Where had things gone wrong?

Perospero didn’t give him a second to think. His right fist slammed straight into Kuras’s gut.

Thud!

With a dull crash, Kuras’s body was sent flying, smashing through a candy wall.

“Candy Hell Prison!”

Walls of pure candy rose up around Kuras, sealing him in with a snap.

Before he could even process what happened, hundreds of sharp spikes shot out from the walls.

At the tip of every spike was a layer of Armament Haki. If he got stabbed even once, he wouldn’t walk away.

“Hmph! So your power surprises me, but if you think this attack is enough to beat me, keep dreaming.”

“One Sword Style—Lion’s Song!”

A wave of sword qi sliced through the sky, shattering the prison in an instant.

Perospero wasn’t fazed at all by the broken cage.

His Fruit was awakened, true, but facing a true Swordmaster, it could only buy him seconds.

Kuras stepped on air using Moonwalk, gathered his strength midair and unleashed a sword qi a hundred meters long, aiming to split Perospero right in two.

But this was exactly what Perospero had been waiting for.

While Kuras was trapped, Perospero had already left a candy clone in place—his real body had moved behind Kuras.

Kuras didn’t even notice, attacking the decoy head-on and giving Perospero the perfect chance.

By the time Kuras felt a chill at his right temple, it was already too late.

Perospero’s right leg formed a sharp candy spike coated in Armament Haki and drove it straight through Kuras’s head.

The two of them crashed down to the ground like falling stars.

Down in the crater, sensing Kuras’s life force fade out, Perospero finally let himself relax.

When Albert and Bruno hurried over, Perospero greeted them. “You two finished over there?”

Didn’t think they’d wrap up before him.

“Yeah, all done.”

“Heard the noise and thought we’d help out.”

“From the look of things, you had no problem at all.”

Perospero waved his hands. “Come on, it was basically the same for all of us. Barely any difference.”

Karl’s training always said—respect your elders and care for the young.

Both of these guys were older than him by a good margin, and their strength was on par, so no way would he act all high and mighty.

“Let’s go see if anyone else needs backup. The sooner we wrap this mess up, the better.”