Chapter 1813: Blade and Darkness

In the giant crater blasted out by the three Apollos, the air was distorted by high temperatures. The crater walls were burned to vitrification by the solar flames, making a crackling sound when stepped on, with sparks flying.

Blackbeard held his breath, his gaze fixed on Su Xiao. Although he knew he had to leave here as soon as possible, Su Xiao was clearly not easy to deal with. The previous invitation was Blackbeard's delaying tactic.

Darkness surged from Blackbeard's body, covering the nearby ground. A pitch-black vortex appeared behind him, spitting out two blood-covered figures. Firelight emerged, indicating that this darkness had swallowed air before and was now releasing it.

"Huff, huff..."

Champion Burgess panted heavily, blood sliding down his face.

"Burgess, take Whitebeard away from here. Shiliew and the others should be nearby."

Blackbeard walked past Burgess and Doc Q. These two were able to dodge the Apollo because Blackbeard had swallowed them with Dark Hole. Although they dodged the Apollo's explosion, Dark Hole wasn't a move used for defense, and Burgess and Doc Q were nearly crushed to death by the darkness.

"Captain, Shiliew and the others..."

Burgess was clearly somewhat indignant, despising Shiliew and the others for fleeing in a time of crisis.

"It doesn't matter. As long as I am strong enough, they will still follow me."

Blackbeard stepped on the darkness, panting heavily. The surrounding heatwaves made sweat seep out on his face.

Burgess and Doc Q didn't speak anymore, but quickly ran to Whitebeard. After tentatively punching Whitebeard a few times, the two lifted Whitebeard and ran toward the outside of the giant crater. That's right, they lifted him. Whitebeard now was like a sculpture, his muscles tense and hard as rock.

"Finally able to breathe. I suddenly don't want to invite you to become my partner. Zehahahaha."

Blackbeard glanced at the wound on Su Xiao's shoulder. That arm-thick blood hole was clearly a serious injury.

Hiss~

A black gas sprayed from beside the metal mask on Su Xiao's face. He didn't rush toward Blackbeard but stood in a standoff with the other party.

"You protected Whitebeard even in the solar flames. Do you want Whitebeard's corpse? Or rather, waiting for him to be dying to seize something?"

Su Xiao of course knew Blackbeard's purpose, and he acted contrary to his usual self, actually starting to converse with Blackbeard before the battle.

"Oh? You discovered it? But it doesn't matter."

Blackbeard wasn't in a hurry to attack either. He had just been like a crab thrown into a steamer, and because there was no oxygen in the giant crater just now, holding his breath caused his blood oxygen content to be very low. He needed ten to thirty seconds to recover his state.

"Fire gold is a very unstable metal. It has flammability and energy conductivity. Even if it's a similar substitute material, it will have these characteristics. After fire gold burns, it will rapidly consume the oxygen, helium, krypton, and nitrogen dioxide in the explosion area. Some are used for combustion, most are consumed meaninglessly. This leads to fire gold producing a large amount of carbon monoxide and ash acid after burning out. Of course, ash acid is an element that cannot be generated naturally. In alchemy, it's called 'Jili Synthetic Element'. At the same volume, its toxicity is 1760 times that of aflatoxin, and its biological reaction is similar to tetrodotoxin."

Su Xiao's words left Blackbeard, this chemical illiterate, completely confused.

"What toxin?"

"..."

Su Xiao stopped speaking. His purpose of stalling for time had been achieved. Every time Blackbeard breathed, the ash acid poisoning reaction would become more severe.

"Can't understand at all. But my body has recovered its strength."

Darkness wrapped around Blackbeard's hands. Because Su Xiao had been fighting with a sword, Blackbeard didn't rush toward Su Xiao but manipulated the darkness, forming two pitch-black giant claws, grabbing toward Su Xiao.

"No one has seen this yet. I'll show you today."

Following Blackbeard's manipulation, two house-sized claws attacked Su Xiao, the darkness connected to the rear stretching rapidly.

The black claws attacked Su Xiao in an instant. Su Xiao didn't swing his sword to slash but knocked the metal mask with the end of the hilt.

Hiss~

Black gas sprayed from the side of the metal mask, and the two black claws suddenly slowed down. This wasn't influenced by Su Xiao's ability, but Blackbeard himself had a problem.

"This is..."

Blackbeard tried to move his fingers. His fingers did move, but there was a delay of at least 0.5 seconds or more. This feeling was very strange. He clearly could control his body through the central nervous system, but his movements were clearly half a beat slow.

"Body is very bad."

Blackbeard turned and fled toward the outside of the giant crater. He couldn't even take care of himself now, let alone fight. In his current state, once he was approached by Su Xiao, he would definitely die.

Blackbeard had just rushed out a few steps when he found his body suddenly returned to normal. The difference between this coming and going made him fall to the ground in a dog-eating posture, kissing the earth, the hot earth.

"So painful!"

Blackbeard covered his mouth with one hand, but what made him helpless was that the feeling of his body being out of control appeared again.

The Exile stabbed silently, heading straight for the back of Blackbeard's head. Darkness surged, and the Exile stabbed into the darkness and disappeared.

Su Xiao's perception of the Exile disappeared, but he could be certain of one thing: the Exile hadn't been destroyed.

A wind-breaking sound attacked from behind Blackbeard. He rolled in place. Although he looked wretched, he dodged a sharp cone formed by pale blue crystals. His body returned to normal again.

Blackbeard thought quickly. He indeed didn't understand chemistry and alchemy, but he noticed one thing: Su Xiao had been wearing a metal mask, which was clearly similar to a gas mask.

'There is poison in the air!'

Thinking of this, Blackbeard immediately held his breath. However, he had fallen for it. Su Xiao only said that ash acid was highly toxic and its biological reaction was similar to tetrodotoxin, but he concealed one point: ash acid would react with blood. As long as it didn't lead to respiratory system paralysis immediately after poisoning, antibodies would rapidly generate in the blood. The antibodies would intermittently immunize against the effects caused by ash acid, and it would be completely immunized after 20 to 50 seconds.

Blackbeard had just held his breath when a wind-breaking sound came from behind him.

Su Xiao used Dragon Shadow Flash to penetrate space. The scene in front of him changed, and Blackbeard, who was facing away from him, appeared. Having used Dragon Shadow Flash for a long time, he had long been accustomed to this feeling.

Green Qing Qing Gang Ying energy surged on the Zhan Long Shan, and the long sword left a slash mark in mid-air, slashing onto Blackbeard's back.

The long sword first tore through his clothes, the blade touching the flesh and skin on Blackbeard's back, and sank into the flesh without any obstruction. But just after slashing in two centimeters, Su Xiao felt a powerful resistance. Blackbeard's body was like a piece of rubber with extremely strong toughness. His external defense was similar to Aokiji, Akainu, and others, all wrapped in Haki, but his internal defense was incredibly strong.

A pitch-black claw attacked Su Xiao's face. He could only leap backward, the long sword detaching from the wound on Blackbeard's back, bringing up a trail of blood.

"So painful!!"

Blackbeard's pig-slaughtering roar spread. His actions were very exaggerated, actually rolling on the ground in pain, waving his hands wildly behind his back, nearly kicking his legs.

Blackbeard's willpower wasn't weak; on the contrary, his willpower was very firm. As for why he had his current appearance, this involved his fruit ability.

Blackbeard's fruit ability was the Logia Dark-Dark Fruit. This was a very special Logia. The user couldn't elementalize, but could use darkness to absorb damage from the outside. The reason Su Xiao's sword couldn't slash through Blackbeard's muscles was because of the Dark-Dark Fruit ability. It was absorbing Su Xiao's slash. As a price, Blackbeard would bear the doubled pain caused by this slash.

Unfortunately, the Dark-Dark Fruit ability couldn't absorb Green Qing Qing Gang Ying energy. The severe pain caused by Green Qing Qing Gang Ying energy, plus the side effects of the Dark-Dark Fruit, could be said to complement each other, and the resulting pain could be imagined. ===== CHAPTER 1814 =====