NOVGO.NET [613] : Mihawk’s Crushing Defeat
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With a casual slash, Shin shattered Mihawk’s sword aura. The icy battlefield Monet had created was now a ruin of shattered ice and churning sea.
Mihawk knelt on a piece of floating ice, clutching the hilt of his Supreme Grade sword. The other half of the legendary blade had already sunk to the bottom of the ocean.
Mihawk’s Yoru had been broken by Shin. Even reinforced with his formidable Armament Haki, it could not withstand a single blow from Shin.
“Mihawk, do you understand the gap between us now?” Shin asked calmly.
“My strength is no match for yours,” Mihawk admitted, his voice devoid of its usual confidence.
The defeat had been purely in terms of swordsmanship. In truth, Shin’s power had reached a level he could not even begin to comprehend.
From the start of the fight, Shin had not used a single intricate sword technique—only casual slashes—yet, these simple attacks had torn through all of Mihawk’s moves and ultimately shattered his blade.
This was complete domination.
Mihawk could not even force Shin to use his full strength.
They were not on the same level… The more they fought, the more unfathomable Shin became. Even Mihawk’s legendary conviction was shaken—for the first time in decades, he was starting to doubt his own power.
“Challenging me was a mistake,” Shin said, his tone matter-of-fact.
Right now, Mihawk had almost no ability to resist. Shin could kill him with a single strike.
Fighting an evenly matched opponent could help a warrior discover his own flaws, but fighting an opponent who could effortlessly crush him would teach nothing…
It would only break his spirit.
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Shin looked at Mihawk and knew the man had been deeply affected.
His sword was broken, and for a swordsman, his blade was his life. Mihawk was as good as dead—his body was intact, but his spirit was shattered.
However, if Mihawk could overcome this trial, it would forge his spirit into something stronger. It all depended on whether his will was strong enough.
If not, this defeat would be the end of him.
Nearby, Zoro’s expression was dazed.
The very man he had been chasing, his ultimate goal, had just been defeated so utterly before his eyes. It was a crushing, effortless rout.
Besides Mihawk himself, Zoro was the one most affected. He stared blankly ahead, his eyes dull and lifeless, as if he had lost his purpose.
“Zoro, are you okay?” Luffy noticed that something was wrong with him and grabbed him by the neck and shook him.
Seeing the dazed Zoro, Luffy was really a little worried.
Usopp was in a similar state, though his was a paralysis born of pure terror.
Luffy paid him no mind, knowing he was simply scared.
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“Mihawk is far beneath Shin,” Hancock said calmly. Her gaze shifted to Shin, her eyes shining with boundless pride. He was her man—and her greatest source of pride.
“Mihawk challenging Shin was definitely biting off more than he could chew,” Olvia observed. At this point, she felt confident she could take on the world’s greatest swordsman herself.
Having mastered her Rumble-Rumble Fruit to perfection, she’d also picked up swordsmanship—and turned out to have serious natural talent for it.
She was now a formidable swordswoman in her own right, powerful enough to make waves on the Grand Line even without her Devil Fruit abilities.
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“Kill me,” Mihawk said, closing his eyes.
“Oh? I didn’t expect you to be such a coward. Can’t even face losing?” Shin sneered. “I’m not interested in killing someone who’s already given up.”
He looked at Mihawk with open disappointment. Shin had never intended to kill him, and seeing him in this pathetic state only reinforced that decision.
Shin’s words seemed to strike a nerve.
Mihawk swayed slightly before opening his eyes to meet Shin’s gaze. A spark of life flickered back into those empty depths.
Propping himself up, he stood and held his broken sword. Mihawk said in a deep voice, “I will challenge you again.”
Seeing the change in Mihawk’s eyes, Shin knew the swordsman had shaken off his despair.
“If you challenge me again with the same level of strength, don’t bother coming.”
After Shin finished speaking, he turned and left, while Mihawk simply watched his retreating figure.
Mihawk could not move, his body was so severely injured that he could not even walk.
“Owner Zeff, this is for the meal.” At Shin’s signal, Olvia left a bag of Berries on a table.
“The food here is excellent. We’ll be back if we get the chance. Let’s go,” Shin announced.
Then, the crew returned to the Pluton, which began to sail into the distance. The sea was still littered with shattered ice.
The sheer force of Shin and Mihawk’s battle had decimated the frozen landscape Monet had created. The ice had simply not been hard enough.
Had it been Shin’s Ice Release, Mihawk would not have been able to break it.
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“They’re gone. Whew!”
Zeff watched the Pluton depart and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Having the Kuja Pirates here, even for a moment, had subjected him to an indescribable pressure.
Though they were gone, another problem remained: Mihawk. Although he was grievously injured and looked half-dead, the aura he exuded was not to be underestimated.
As Zeff looked at the broken swordsman, Mihawk’s sharp, eagle-like eyes met his. Feeling that piercing gaze, Zeff immediately looked away.
“I’m going over there,” Zoro said to Luffy, then began walking toward Mihawk.
Luffy watched his first mate approach the dangerous man, his heart tightening slightly. In the end, he did not stop him. He knew Zoro had a reason.
“What is he doing? Is he suicidal?” Zeff’s face sank.
“That’s right, why approach that dangerous guy?” Usopp shouted. Although Mihawk was defeated, he was not someone they could afford to provoke.
“I don’t know what Zoro is going to do, but he must have a reason,” Luffy said with a wide smile.
Zeff glanced at Luffy. ‘Silly-looking… is he really Vice Admiral Garp’s grandson? Hard to believe.’
Forget it. Whether they wanted to throw their lives away or not, as long as it didn’t affect his sea restaurant, it wasn’t his concern.
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