One Piece: Alucard the Immortal-Chapter 491 - 490: Alucard vs. Dragon

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Loli A Alucard drew her weapons with lightning speed. The silver Casull roared, spitting out a volley of lead. Dragon blurred, his body weaving through the air as bullets chewed jagged craters into the pavement where he had stood a heartbeat before.

The crack of gunfire served as the starting gun for the battle. Those who had been paralyzed by Alucard’s earlier display of predatory intent finally found their legs. Ignoring their trembling limbs, they scrambled to flee. The only ones left behind were the weak-willed who had fainted in terror. To Alucard and Dragon, however, the lives of these innocents were of no consequence.

Facing Alucard, Dragon could no longer afford the luxury of his heavy, billowing cloak. While such a minor encumbrance was usually negligible for a man of his caliber, against an opponent like Alucard, even a one-in-a-million chance of interference had to be eliminated.

Stripped of his cloak, Dragon revealed his full form. He curled his fingers into a specific, predatory grip: the thumb tucked back, index and middle fingers pressed together, and the ring and pinky fingers paired—a three-clawed beastly hand.

"Dragon’s Claw!"

Dragon slammed his hand into a nearby building. With a violent heave, he physically uprooted the entire structure, hurling the multi-story edifice at Alucard like a giant’s projectile.

"Oh, impressive... just kidding."

A flicker of genuine praise crossed Alucard’s face, only to vanish beneath a mask of contempt two seconds later.

He drew the black Jackal with his other hand, aiming true at the incoming building. "Compared to Zephyr tossing entire mountains around, this is barely an itch."

BOOM!

The Jackal roared. A specialized Seastone round tore through the masonry. Relying on his exceptional Observation Haki, Dragon tilted his body with minimal movement to evade the return fire.

In the next instant, the building Dragon had thrown was cleaved in two. Alucard charged through the debris, but he was no longer in the form of a young girl, he had reverted to his original, towering self.

He now wielded the Impaling Castle, though not yet in his Count Dracula form. While this prevented him from utilizing the weapon’s full potential, it remained a peerless tool of slaughter.

"A thrust?"

Dragon was momentarily taken aback by Alucard’s choice of weaponry, but he was the leader of the Revolution for a reason. He suppressed his surprise instantly, twisting in mid-air to slam his palms against the ground, unleashing a concentrated burst of Haki.

"Dragon’s Breath!"

As the words left his lips, a shockwave of Haki-infused power tunneled into the earth. Alucard had barely taken a step before the ground beneath him buckled and collapsed. Violent, solidified blasts of energy erupted from the subterranean fissures, each one sharp enough to flay skin from bone.

Slash!

A stray arc of energy grazed Alucard’s cheek, leaving a thin crimson trail in its wake. The explosions continued to ripple outward, tearing the entire street to shreds.

"What the hell is happening?!"

Cavendish, who had just fallen and hadn’t even had time to stand up, shrieked as the tavern beneath him groaned. The building buckled like a stack of toppling blocks, collapsing entirely. His world inverted; the floor became the ceiling, and his bed came crashing down toward his skull.

"Aaargh! Help! Help!"

In his panic, Cavendish proved his eccentric nature; his first instinct wasn’t to draw his sword for protection, but to scurry around like a frightened animal. Through sheer luck, his frantic crawling saved him from being crushed.

"Ever since I came to this city, it’s just been one disaster after another."

Cavendish managed to crawl to a shattered windowsill and peered outside, desperate to see the source of the devastation.

"Wh-what in the world is that?!"

Before him lay a wasteland. Every building on the street had collapsed like scattered toys. But what truly froze his blood was the river of gore flowing through the ruins. A literal tide of crimson blood carpeted the street, and within that viscous red surface, countless unblinking eyes stared back.

ROAR!!!

Suddenly, the river of blood surged several meters high. When the tide receded five seconds later, a phalanx of knights appeared. They wore silver plate armor over shifting, malevolent red shadows, mounted on warhorses and clutching wicked lances. Cavendish did a quick mental count, there were at least ten thousand of them.

Standing at the vanguard in bronze-toned armor, a man in his forties with a sword at his hip looked on. This was Alucard in his Impaler state.

Legend told of a Voivode who led twenty thousand knights to conquer lands, only to be betrayed and fall into darkness. The Impaler’s Triumph behind Alucard was not the usual legion of the River of Death, but the legendary twenty thousand knights who followed the Count. When they fell, souls from the River of Death would replenish their ranks, though their number was capped at twenty thousand.

Dragon maintained his stoic "poker face." He showed no shock at Alucard’s shifting forms; he knew that against this monster, no technique was "unexpected."

Alucard drew his sword and swept it forward in a sharp arc. Behind him, the sea of knights thundered forth. They didn’t charge blindly; they split into multiple squads, flanking and encircling, leaving Dragon with no room to escape.

"Hmph!"

Dragon unleashed an invisible pressure, a tempest of spirit that swept through the street. Hiding in the ruins of the tavern, Cavendish nearly blacked out from the sheer intensity of the aura.

"The qualities of a King... Conqueror’s Haki? I have subordinates who possess that as well," Alucard mused, feeling the weight of the power. Yet the Impaler’s knights did not falter. Instead, their charge accelerated.

"But unfortunately, these things... they have no concept of ’fear,’" Alucard said coldly.

Neeeigh!

As the warhorses brayed, Dragon was completely surrounded. A forest of lances lunged toward him from all directions.

Dragon’s hands blurred into twin claws, snapping the spearheads with effortless precision and hurling several knights into the air.

Clop-clop! Clop-clop!

The thunder of hooves was relentless. Dragon neutralized the first wave, only for a fresh wall of knights to crash against him.

"No other choice, then?"

Dragon gritted his teeth. Suddenly, his body began to shift and blur. His entire presence underwent a terrifying, violent transformation.