Chapter 1317 - 28: Doflamingo’s Bitterness

Chapter 1317: Chapter 28: Doflamingo’s Bitterness

Doflamingo kicked Katakuri away with one foot, forming a joint pincer attack with Su Xiao from front and back. Not far from the battlefield, a sneaky figure was approaching.

Bubu Wang had a thermal sensing device in his mouth, trying to find Cracker within the pile of mochi, which was the perfect tool for the job. As for A Mu, he was lurking nearby, ready to act. As soon as Bubu Wang located Cracker’s position, A Mu would rush forward and pound Cracker to death.

Katakuri shifted his gaze; although he didn’t see Bubu Wang, he foresaw it.

"Seastone."

Su Xiao swung the metal rod in his hand, and Doflamingo smiled, realizing why Katakuri was willing to take a kick from him, preferring not to be hit by the metal rod.

Su Xiao had no intention of concealing the nature of the metal rod in his hand. For Katakuri, who could foresee the future, once attacked with that thing, he could foresee what it was.

"Katakuri, look over there."

Su Xiao’s metal rod pointed toward A Mu, indicating clearly that A Mu would replace him in pounding Cracker to death.

Katakuri’s face turned somewhat grim. If he were facing Doflamingo in a one-on-one, he was confident he could handle him. Even with Su Xiao added to the mix, he had strategies to protect Cracker while confronting the enemy.

The current situation, however, was tough, with Su Xiao wielding a seastone metal rod + Doflamingo already challenging enough, plus Katakuri had to guard against the elusive Bubu Wang and the lurking A Mu.

Bubu Wang and A Mu didn’t need to directly join the battle; their task was solely to locate Cracker, causing Katakuri to be distracted.

Katakuri was powerful, but he wasn’t a god; he could foresee the future but couldn’t necessarily alter it. Moreover, his foresight ability wasn’t without weaknesses, as he sometimes couldn’t foresee certain inevitable events.

Like previous kicks from Doflamingo, Katakuri hadn’t foreseen them because while dodging the metal rod, he couldn’t escape the haki-enveloped kick; it was inevitable.

That means if Katakuri were possibly able to dodge such a kick, he could foresee it and quickly evade, but if he couldn’t dodge, he could only perceive it through Observation Haki, not foresee it.

Su Xiao considered two ways to deal with Katakuri: a war of attrition, with him and Doflamingo taking turns to stall Katakuri, slowly depleting his stamina. But given Katakuri’s monstrous constitution, who knows how long it would take.

The second method was to rely on Cracker in a heavily injured state to distract Katakuri, forcing him to be worn out.

From the beginning, Su Xiao’s target wasn’t Katakuri. Considering their current side’s combat effectiveness, killing Katakuri was somewhat unrealistic; surviving against him already required every ounce of effort.

Su Xiao and Doflamingo exchanged a glance, then simultaneously charged at Katakuri, approaching from his front and back.

Katakuri squinted his eyes, bent over and grabbed a lump of mochi from the ground, shaping it into a trident with Armament Haki wrapping around it.

The trident, over two meters long, was only considered a short spear for Katakuri. He blocked it behind him while kicking towards the side.

With a loud clang, Su Xiao’s metal rod hit the trident. While seastone is the bane of Devil Fruit Ability Users, it doesn’t erase fruit creations. This means even if the seastone stick hits the mochi, it won’t disappear unless this mochi was transformed from Katakuri’s true body.

Blocking Su Xiao’s rod, Katakuri kicked Doflamingo’s arms, causing Doflamingo to stagger back several steps.

If Su Xiao wasn’t actively fighting Katakuri, he would surely think Doflamingo was purposely holding back, but that wasn’t the case. Katakuri’s blocking wasn’t mere anticipation; he knew where the attack would land, enabling timely defensive measures.

The moment the metal rod was blocked, Su Xiao kicked at the back of Katakuri’s thigh.

With a moist splat, Su Xiao’s foot sank into a sticky substance, as Katakuri mochi-fied, wrapping his calf in mochi.

Doflamingo had just been kicked away, leaving nobody to support Su Xiao. Katakuri, holding the trident, raised one arm, engaging the trident against the metal rod in a test of strength that nearly knocked Su Xiao’s metal rod from his grasp. Katakuri’s Power Attribute was likely over 95 points, possibly even higher.

As the black trident gleamed coldly, Katakuri intended to pierce Su Xiao’s skull with it. Suddenly, he ceased the mochi-fication of his leg, lifting it up to push Su Xiao’s leg away.

Pushed back, blue steel shadow energy enveloped Su Xiao’s leg. Delaying a moment to activate blue steel shadow would have been foreseen by Katakuri.

Staggering back, Su Xiao finally confirmed that blue steel shadow energy could most likely injure Katakuri.

With a murderous glare, Katakuri eyed Su Xiao, perceiving him as a ’porcupine.’ The danger of the seastone rod was evident, a single hit would break several bones. Alongside this, Katakuri also had to guard against the light blue energy.

In Katakuri’s foresight, touching that kind of energy would lead to one of two situations.

1. Unable to mochi-fy for a short time, while enduring great pain.

2. Unable to mochi-fy for a short time, losing control of his body, left vulnerable to attacks on his true form.

Neither scenario was something Katakuri wished to encounter.

Indeed, Su Xiao’s blue steel shadow ability wasn’t a wasted effort. Devil Fruit Users’ elementalization or pseudo-elementalization was essentially energy conversion, whereas blue steel shadow energy excelled in energy annihilation.

To Su Xiao, a fruit user’s elementalization meant almost voluntarily halting bodily defenses, exposing their most ’fragile’ energy.

Armament Haki captures elemental forms, whereas blue steel shadow is straightforward annihilation.

When fruit users undergo elemental annihilation, their bodies re-solidify, and due to the energy annihilation reaction, they can’t elementally reform for a short period.

Therefore, Katakuri felt Su Xiao was several levels more dangerous than Doflamingo, which is why he continuously targeted Su Xiao first.

Coupled with Su Xiao wielding the seastone rod, it frustrated Katakuri even further.

The roar reverberated through the port, with Su Xiao, Doflamingo, and Katakuri locked in combat, appearing evenly matched. In truth, Doflamingo was heavily injured, Su Xiao had taken punches from Katakuri, his entire skeleton felt like it was falling apart, aching all over.

Whiz~

The metal rod grazed past Katakuri’s shoulder, red gleam flashed in Katakuri’s eyes. He pressed one hand on the mochi-covered ground, causing Doflamingo to stumble from a sudden rise in the mochi.

Su Xiao’s intended strike on Katakuri curiously landed on Doflamingo. No, Doflamingo had moved to intercept it.

Bang!

Blood splattered as the metal rod struck Doflamingo’s face, with a buzzing sound in his brain, his body uncontrollably flying backward.