A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

Chapter 947 A Self-Inflicted Trap

Erza's armor features a red base, orange accents, black floral patterns, and twin ponytails.

"Emperor Yan's Armor!"

This is Erza's most fire-resistant armor among all her armors. Even Natsu's extremely hot flames would not fare well against it, let alone King's flames.

"You just said that you can choose the armor based on the opponent's characteristics, which means that this armor is..."

"That's right! It's specifically designed to deal with opponents who use fire-based abilities!"

Erza confirmed Jin's guess and smiled faintly, "In other words, if you can't break through the defenses of the Flame Emperor's Armor, then you can't harm me!"

Jhin is a descendant of the Lunaria race. People of this race are born with the ability to use fire, and when they use fire, they have very high defense. To hurt them, you must seize the opportunity and strike when the fire disappears.

Over the decades, Jhin has fought countless battles and encountered many opponents, but almost none of them could grasp the timing of his flames disappearing. Some opponents didn't even understand the nature of his fire. Therefore, without exception, they all failed to break through Jhin's defenses and were defeated by him.

Over time, this formidable defensive capability became the most solid barrier for Jhin to forge his invincible legend.

Upon hearing Erza's words, King was momentarily dazed.

It's always others who go to great lengths and use every means to break through your defenses. When did it become your turn to break through others' defenses?

Something's not right!

But Erza didn't give him time to think.

With a flick of her head, her twin ponytails appeared as she summoned a new weapon: "Sea King's Sword!"

The Neptune Sword is made of water, and ordinary swords cannot affect it, but it can unleash powerful attacks, including water magic. When used in conjunction with swordsmanship, it can also unleash water slashes powerful enough to cut through gold and jade, making it the best weapon to deal with fire-type enemies.

The next moment, Erza slashed out with her sword, and the Sea King's Sword unleashed a fierce water slash, its power even surpassing Juvia's 'Water Slash' by three points.

Without a word, Jin once again manipulated the flames around him.

Flames roared and formed a shield in the path of the water's slashing attack. The shield completely blocked and evaporated the water. The invisible energy resisted the tangible matter with incredible ease, a scene that astonished all the mages.

"It actually blocked Erza's attack...??"

"Is that the second-in-command of that pirate crew? He seems quite strong, so it's not surprising that he has that kind of power!"

In their eyes, Jhin and Katakuri are similar. Katakuri can fight Laxus for half an hour, so it's perfectly reasonable that Jhin can block Erza's attack.

Despite being blocked, Erza was not discouraged. Instead, she raised her sword and swung it again, unleashing twenty or thirty water slashes in succession, each one longer and faster than the last.

"Is it just my imagination? It feels like Erza is using the opponent as practice..."

"Maybe not, after all, her swordsmanship has improved a lot compared to before!"

Erza used to fight with a sword, mostly through direct, hard strikes, even against meteors. Although she possessed the ability to unleash slashing waves, she rarely used them.

But things are different now. In this world, slashing waves are the mainstream. To defeat the sword masters of this world, one must learn a new style. But for a swordsman, changing one's fighting style halfway through is not an easy thing.

That's why she used this battle as her training match.

However, doing so was destined to disappoint Erza, because Jhin was not a swordsman.

The sword in his hand was merely a weapon for combat; he himself was not bound by swordsmanship duels.

clang!!

The two weapons clashed, with the longsword in Jhin's hand wreathed in a domineering aura.

"Just as I thought!"

Jin's exposed eyes revealed an "I knew it" look: "Just like Logia types, you can reach them as long as you use Haki."

Erza remained calm, her gaze serene, showing no embarrassment at being exposed: "I never said the Sword of the Sea King couldn't be touched; it just can't be damaged!"

The two moved with lightning speed, each wielding a weapon and slashing at each other dozens of times in mid-air, before forcefully shaking off each other and retreating.

The current situation is that Jin's flames cannot burn Erza, and Erza's water slashes cannot break through Jin's defense. In terms of swordsmanship, Erza is superior, but in terms of defense, Jin is stronger.

The racial characteristics of the Lunaria race make their defense stronger than that of more than 90% of the people in the world, but this defense is also time-limited!

Simply put, the flame needs to be turned off every so often, and the more frequently the flame is used, the shorter its duration.

"So we need to use frequent attacks to wear down his flames as much as possible..."

Once the strategy was formulated, Erza had the tactics in mind. With ample armor and weapons, she could handle every battle with ease, and she always had a lot of trump cards up her sleeve.

"Transformation - Heavenly Wheel Armor!!"

With another soft shout, Erza abandoned the fire resistance of the Flame Emperor Armor and chose to put on another set of armor for attack. When this set of silver-white and shiny armor was put on, hundreds of sharp swords floated behind her, like soldiers waiting for command, ready to strike.

"Heavenly Wheel - Sword of Cycles!!"

At his command, countless swords surged forth from behind him like a thousand horses galloping and roaring, shooting towards Jin from all directions.

"This is...?!" Jin's eyes widened in surprise, but he still managed to react defensively in time.

Whoosh...

The sound of something cutting through the air echoed continuously.

ding ding ding...

The sounds of impact continued incessantly.

The audience was stunned, looking at each other speechlessly.

One second they were praising her as a rare female swordsman on the high seas, and the next second this? Controlling so many swords to cut people down—is this a swordsman's technique? What normal swordsman fights like this?

Despite the relentless attacks of hundreds of sharp swords, Jhin remained as steady as a mountain.

He manipulated flames to swirl around himself, forming a hard energy shield that could not harm him in the slightest, no matter the angle from which the blades came or how strong they were.

But at the same time, the audience could clearly see that, along with the clanging sound, the amount of flame on the stage was decreasing at a visible rate.

Finally, the rain of swords ended, and the flames were completely extinguished.

At the same moment, just as the sounds of swords slicing through the air and metal clashing disappeared, Erza's soft shout rang out.

"Heavenly Wheel - Pentagonal Sword!!"

With a crisp clang, a flash of silvery-white light disappeared in an instant, leaving a bright pentagram in the air.

As the light faded, the pentagram seemed to be imprinted on Ember's massive body, but it quickly dissipated in the blink of an eye.

"What happened?! The attack didn't work?"

"No, it blocked it!"

Upon closer inspection, everyone saw that a long sword was held horizontally in front of Jin, blocking Erza's attack. The long sword was special; the end of the blade had changed from a smooth "I" shape to a serrated shape, like a shark's tooth, firmly biting Erza's "Heavenly Wheel Sword".

Erza's expression remained calm, as if everything happening before her eyes was within her expectations.

"You don't seem surprised?"

"Of course! As I said before, I have already seen your information, so I naturally know that your sword has this form."

"Looks like you have a very good informant..."

Jin glanced at Erza in surprise, secretly wondering to himself: 'Who on earth possesses such superb intelligence-gathering abilities? I haven't used this sword-wielding form in a long time...'

"However, since you already knew my information, it's really a shame you missed this rare opportunity! It seems your combat experience is nothing special after all..."

"That's not true at all!"

"...?!"

Erza smiled slightly: "The main purpose of your weapon's form is to take away the swords from the swordsmen, but as you can see, I have more than one sword!"

"So it's not me who's restricted in terms of weapons right now, it's you!"

Jin's heart skipped a beat. He twisted his right hand forcefully, intending to take away his opponent's sword as usual, but found that no matter how he turned the hilt, the sword in his hand remained motionless!

The weapon originally intended to hold the opponent hostage has now become a shackle that binds oneself!

Chapter 948 Sword Slaying the Flying Dragon

As Erza finished speaking, the surrounding swords rose from the ground, forming an array in mid-air, and then, like a storm, pierced towards the massive figure whose weapons were bound!

Although the flames have not yet been restored and his defense is not at its strongest, as an Ancient Zoan-type, with the added bonus of his special bloodline and the use of Haki, King's defense is still among the top-tier powerhouses.

However... with those countless sharp longswords, that lightning-fast speed, and the domineering aura subtly swirling around them, who would dare to block them head-on?

So Jhin readily let go, abandoning his weapon and instantly entering beast form, transforming into a Pteranodon and taking flight.

shhhhhh...

Each sword blade was driven several centimeters into the ground, producing a dense rustling sound.

This scene sent chills down the spines of the audience. One can imagine that if an ordinary person were hit by these blades, they would probably have hundreds of holes in their body. Even if Jin's physique was far superior to that of ordinary people, he probably wouldn't be able to defend against them.

Immediately afterwards, everyone's attention was drawn to the Pteranodon circling high in the sky.

"It turned into a dragon?!"

"How ugly! What kind of deformed species is this?!"

"With fire and dragons involved, this enemy should be left to me to deal with!"

"Idiot Natsu! Look closely, that thing isn't a dragon! And you guys, you've all seen dragons before, don't insult our race!!" Gajeel roared indignantly.

Upon hearing this, the mages thought of the handsome Igneel, the terrifying Acnologia, and the elegant Selene, Irene, and Grandine...

I immediately realized that what Gajeel said made a lot of sense.

"That's right, that thing isn't a dragon! If we're really going to classify it, it should be called a dinosaur, right?"

"Fun fact: Pteranodon was neither a dragon nor a dinosaur; it was just a flying reptile!"

"Eh?! There's such a thing?! I had no idea..."

"It's true! That's what the animal encyclopedia says!"

Pteranodon had a length-to-width ratio of nearly 9:1, no feathers, tail, or teeth, short legs, a long beak, and a bony crest on its head. It flew mainly by gliding with its wings, and looked very strange overall.

King in his beast form has revealed a new ability—flight, which is very rare among known Zoan-type Devil Fruit users.