Among the many properties of the Shadow Fruit,

Whether it's the control of [Shadow Stepping], or the one-hit kill of [Shadow Slash],

All of them are quite powerful abilities in melee combat.

Maud slashed at the shadow under Ace with a backhand, intending to cut the shadow.

Unlike the shadow stepping, where the strength must be stronger than the opponent to produce a control effect, if it is a shadow slash, it can be done with the help of a sharp weapon.

It's just that

Slashing requires a precondition.

That is, the shadow of the target reflected on the ground, and it must be clearly outlined.

Under this premise, if the shadow slash is successful, the battle can be over in an instant.

The sword flashed by.

The tip of the autumn water knife successfully touched Ace's shadow.

however

Before Qiushui could further cut the shadows, Ace seemed to be aware of it, and took a step forward to elementalize his whole body.

In an instant, Ace's body turned into a raging flame.

With the elementalization of Ace's whole body, the shadow that was originally the [actual target] no longer exists.

Maude's shadow then missed.

And the raging flames after the Ace elementalization directly surged towards Maude, who was close at hand.

This was the moment when Maud swung his knife and slashed to the ground, so that it was difficult to withdraw his sword to defend in the first place.

But Maud also has stoats.

In the midst of all this, there was no need for Maud to give a command.

Bailey, who has an independent mind, as if telepathically, complied with Maude's thoughts in advance, and changed from a flintlock pistol form to a long knife form.

Armed color!

The domineering spirit came out of the body and attached to the weasel blade, instantly dyeing the ferret's snow-white jade blade black.

"As long as my 'attack speed' is faster than yours, elementalization is meaningless."

Maude's eyes glowed red, and she sensed the location of Ace's body from the flames.

Immediately, a knife slashed at the raging flames that rushed in his face.

Sneer——!

Slash down.

The sword qi that was drawn out split the flames of the fangs and claws in two.

As the flames were shaken and dispersed by the sword qi, Yu Wei cut through the weak flames and cut a deep furrow straight forward in the sand.

There was still a slight burning sensation on Maude's skin, but the flames in front of her were almost gone.

It's just that

The knife still didn't hurt Ace.

Although Maude has insight into Ace's specific location through seeing and hearing, Ace's seeing and hearing is also not weak.

Before the crisis approached, Ace responded in advance, preferring to slow down the offensive rather than give Maud a chance to hit.

"It's dangerous."

The spilled flames converged towards the sky, and soon condensed Ace's form.

Being high in the sky, Ace's eyes were slightly solemn.

The hand-to-hand encounter just now made him feel the oppressive force that he had not seen for a long time.

Especially when Maude rushed behind him by teleportation, a strong sense of crisis arose.

He's been a long time...... I don't feel such a clear sense of oppression.

This man at the bottom is very unusual!

Ace was in a certain mood, and his arms stretched out to his sides turned into flames, like a pair of flapping wings.

Immediately, Ace's waist twisted, and the whole person spun in the air at high speed.

As it swirled, the flames suddenly turned into a spiral pillar of fire several meters in diameter.

"Flame Ring, Pillar of Fire!"

Ace stopped spinning and pushed the condensed spiral pillar of fire towards Maud on the ground.

A blazing pillar of fire fell.

"Your 'fire' is certainly strong, but it is ...... in front of my overlordship Useless. ”

Maude looked up at the pillar of flame that fell from the sky, and between the swings, it was a sky-high overlord with proper power control.

The sharp and sagittal shock wave visible to the naked eye, from the bottom to the top, easily broke the flame pillar completely.

It's like blowing out a candle.

Blowing it in one breath, there is no reason why the candle will not be extinguished.

After the flame pillar was dispersed, the overlord still had momentum and rushed straight towards Ace.

Ace obviously also realized that a large-scale flame attack could not raise the slightest storm in front of Maude's overlordship, and his brows couldn't help but frown.

This is tantamount to blocking the advantages of being a natural system.

Seeing the aftermath of the hegemony coming head-on, Ace didn't have time to think about it, and elementalized his whole body to avoid the damage caused by the hegemony.

After recondensing his figure, Ace's frowning brows slowly relaxed, and he calmly looked down at Maude below.

"It's true that my flames can't help you, but your overlord can't hurt me either."

"That's the truth."

Suddenly, Maude's voice echoed behind Ace.

In the line of sight, where Maud was originally located, it turned into a pitch-black bird that flapped its wings and stopped at a low altitude.

"When will it ......"

Ace was startled, and reflexively mobilized his ability, spewing out a stream of high-temperature flames from his back, surging towards Maude, who circled behind him.

however

The moment before the flames engulfed Maude.

Maud and Shadowbird swapped places again.

The shadow bird that was swapped high in the sky was engulfed in flames in an instant.

As long as Ace can't cover the flames with the armament color, it is impossible to attack the shadow and thus return the damage to Maude's body.

After releasing the flames, Ace's light body turned around suddenly, knowing that Maud had already swapped places with Shadow Bird.

Maude, who returned to the ground, raised the flintlock pistol that Bailey had turned into, and aimed it at Ace's back and pulled the trigger.

Bang——!

Armed buckshot cut through the smoke and headed for the Whitebeard Pirates flag tattoo on Ace's back.

"Did you swap places with the shadow again......"

The moment he heard the gunshot, Ace's heart jumped.

The speed at which Maude's shadow swapped positions was so fast that it was no different from teleportation.

In order to resist the gunfire coming from behind, Ace was only able to make his body semi-elemental, and then completely elemental.

Suddenly, Ace's body turned into a raging flame, hanging high in the air, like a cloud of fire.

Armed colored lead bullets thus pierced through the flames and went in vain.

Seeing Ace once again use the characteristics of natural elementalization to avoid damage, Maude didn't care, and didn't switch places with the shadow anymore, but kept pulling the trigger to attract Ace's attention.

The gunfire suddenly stopped.

Lead bullets shot into the air, knocking out holes in the flames of Ace's elementalization.

If a firearm is used for cover, it doesn't matter if there is substantial damage.

Just disrupt the rhythm of the enemy, and that's enough.

The lead bullets that continued to shoot continued to destroy the flames.

It's just ordinary buckshot, and the elementalized Ace doesn't take it very seriously at first.

But when he saw a lead bullet wrapped around the domineering color of the weapon in the rain of bullets, the whole person was not good.

"It's too cloudy......"

Ace was wary of the armed attacks that were interspersed with a hail of bullets.

It's just that

Since the fight, he has been suppressed by Maude.

This made him quite depressed.

Mainly because Maude's hegemonic power has cured the destructive power of his burning fruit to death.

Maud looked up at Ace as he slowly descended from the sky as he avoided the edge for a while.

"It's time......"

Maude's eyes flashed with light.

The lead bullet that shot out of the chamber of the gun quietly turned into a shadow bullet, and the bullet speed instantly increased by more than three times.

Ace was keenly aware of the change in the frequency of bullet speed, but there was still no defensive pressure.

Elementalization is the nemesis of ordinary gunfire, so just beware of the armed colored lead bullets that Maud intersperses within.

As soon as such thoughts arose, the situation in the arena suddenly changed.

"Huh?"

Under Ace's gaze, the lead bullets fired at high speed suddenly turned into pitch-black butterflies, circling and flying around.

"It's never going to be ......"

Looking at the butterflies hovering around, Ace realized something.

No way?

Can that be done?

The speculation that flashed through his mind made Ace's heart in the form of flames condense slightly.

Just as Ace's attention shifted to the many pitch-black butterflies, Maud had already sheathed the autumn water, and Bailey turned into a twin spear, which he held in his hands.

In the next second, Maude's offensive performance confirmed Ace's guess.

Shadow stream, fireworks by day!

Maude's form vanished into thin air.

The next moment,

He swapped places with a pitch-black butterfly hovering in the direction of Ace's left.

"Bang Bang ——!"

As the teleportation came, Maud raised her twin guns and pulled the trigger at Ace's side.

As soon as the gunshots rang out, Maud disappeared again.

When he reappeared, he was already behind Ace.

"Bang bang—"

The moment the trigger was pulled, Maud shifted in a different direction.

"Bang bang—"

"Bang bang—"

"Bang bang—"

In this way, Maud switched positions as fast as she could.

And every time he switched, he fired two shots at Ace in the flame form.

With the assistance of the teleportation medium of the shadow butterfly, and the use of seeing and hearing to grasp the precise timing.

In a short period of time, Maud shot lead bullets at Ace from all directions.

As the gunshots rang out in the sky, the yellow pen light drawn by the lead bullet intertwined and converged from all directions, creating a wonderful scene.

As if above the day, there seemed to be fireworks flashing frequently.

Ace, who is in the middle of it, can only shuttle in embarrassment among the elemental flames.

Because

Among the many buckshots coming from all directions, there are many special buckshot bullets wrapped around the armament color.

"It's a monster to use a gun like this......"

The natural system, which is the least afraid of gunfire, is forced into danger at this time.

Ace was amazed by Maude's use of ability, and couldn't help but feel jealous.

From the very beginning, Ace would not underestimate Maude's strength.

But after the real fight, the strength shown by Maude still greatly exceeded Ace's expectations.

"It's not a deathmatch, but I'm really suppressed......"

Facing the lead bullets in all directions, Ace's eyes froze.

on the desert.

The Straw Hats, who were outside the battle circle, and Perona, who was floating in mid-air, all stared up at the sky through gunfire.

The fireworks of the day, which was staged in front of their eyes, gave them a thrilling beauty.

Just putting yourself in their shoes, you will feel that you can't even struggle, and you can only feel the despair of waiting for death in place.

As a sniper, Usopp was so shocked by Maude's daytime fireworks that he couldn't say anything.

Even if it was a figment of the imagination, he knew very well that he would not be able to use a gun to launch such an unreasonable offensive anyway.

It can even be said that

There is no second person in the world who can make such daylight fireworks......

It's definitely a unique powerhouse!

And that man was his master.

At this moment, Usopp was extremely proud.

However, such a powerful master is going to take action against his recognized companion at this moment.

Usopp looked confused.

"Hey, don't say I didn't warn you, if you don't want to die, you'd better get out of here."

Perona looked up at Maude's incessant rain of bullets, and she felt a faint sense of crisis inexplicably after having seen and heard the training.

It was like air, everywhere, which made her very uneasy.

After alerting the Straw Hats, Perona didn't hesitate to step back, as far away from the battle circle as possible.

She didn't want to be killed by a stray bullet just to watch a fight.

In that case, it would be too unjust.

Hearing Perona's reminder, the Straw Hats followed Perona's footsteps and moved back away from the battle circle.

Only Luffy remained where he was, not moving.

"Luffy, why don't you hurry up and come over here!"

Seeing Luffy standing in place like a log, Nami urged.

"I'm a rubber man, so I'm not afraid of bullets!"

Luffy didn't look back, watching the battle between Maude and Ace intently.

Nami was stunned.

Also, Luffy is indeed not afraid of bullets.

Thinking of this, Nami shook her head slightly.

Zoro and Sanji also knew this, so they let Luffy stay there.

But just as they retreated far enough, a stray bullet fell obliquely from the air, and it hit Luffy on the right side of his waist and abdomen.

Poof——!

The expected buckshot rebound did not happen.

Instead, the lead bullet simply pierced Luffy's waist and abdomen leaning to the right, bringing up a dazzling blood flower.

"Huh?"

Luffy was stunned.

Nami and her party, who saw Luffy being shot, were also stunned.

The air seemed to freeze briefly.

Moments later,

"I've been shot!"

Luffy screamed, and the unusual pain that came from the wound made him roll on the sand while holding the wound.

"How can this be, isn't Luffy not afraid of bullets?"

"Hey, Chopper, Luffy is injured."

"Chopper was stunned by the heat again."

“……”

"Zoro, Sanji, you guys hurry up and carry Luffy over!"

Seeing that Luffy was hit by a stray bullet and screamed so badly, Nami and the others immediately panicked.

"Idiot."

Perona, who was floating in mid-air with an umbrella, shook her head.

It turns out that this thing doesn't know what it means to be armed and domineering.

Hearing Luffy's screams when he was unfortunately shot, Ace, who was about to reach the limit of defensive pressure, was in a trance, and couldn't help but reveal a flaw.

Among the endless lead bullets that came from all directions, there happened to be a lead bullet wrapped around the domineering color of the armed color, which directly penetrated this seemingly insignificant flaw.

Sneer——!

A bloody arrow splattered from the flames, only to be burned up in an instant.

Ace was shot.

The already precarious defensive position suddenly had the potential to collapse.

If this continues,

There's a real chance that Ace will be shot alive by Maude.