Roger vs. Nusjuro! The Limit of Conqueror's Haki

On the east side of the Mary Geoise forecourt, the fire had been burning fiercely for a full hour.

This is no ordinary flame; it is the infernal fire born from Saint Nusjuro's deep development of the Melt-Melt Fruit.

The flames piled up in layers, so dense and heavy they were almost tangible. Once they hit the Armament Haki Hardening, the high temperature would seep inwards along the surface of the armor, like rainwater seeping into cracked soil, gnawing away at and disintegrating the Haki defense layer by layer.

A single flame can peel away a layer of Armament Haki.

Roger stood at the front of the fire array, his red captain's coat already burned to shreds. His left sleeve was completely charred, and his bare forearm was covered in burns, blisters burst, and blood mixed with tissue fluid flowed down his wrist. On his right hand, a deep, bone-revealing wound split open at the base of his thumb, blood slowly flowing down the hilt of his sword, only to be instantly evaporated by the Conqueror's Haki lightning around the blade, turning into a cloud of dark red mist.

Since the start of the war, his heels have been firmly planted on the stone ground, and he has not retreated even half a step.

"Hahaha..." Roger laughed loudly, his roar stirring up the surging flames. "Nusjuro, your fire has been burning for an hour, and at most it's only burned my outer garment! Is all you've ever done from beginning to end just spread out flames and hold your ground?"

At the center of the fire array, Saint Nusjuro's feet were firmly planted on the ground, not moving an inch from beginning to end, as if his entire body was welded to the stone slab. His noble robes were torn to shreds by the sword energy, and his forehead was covered in cold sweat. Maintaining a large-scale fire barrier was extremely taxing on his physical strength.

"Roger." Nusjuro's face was cold and grim as he stared intently at the man before him. "With each layer of flame your sword pierces, a layer of Armament Haki is stripped away from your body. You've already broken through seven layers of fire; your Haki armor is growing weaker and weaker. How many more full-force strikes, brimming with Conqueror's Haki, can you unleash?"

Roger looked down at his right arm.

The originally thick, black Armament Haki Hardening layer has now thinned considerably, and the areas eroded by the flames are now uneven, as if flesh has been sliced away by a blade.

However, the Conqueror's Haki on the sword's edge did not weaken; instead, the dark red lightning became increasingly condensed and intricate, like a beast that had been suppressed for a long time, constantly accumulating the power to break the deadlock.

"How many sword strikes I can unleash depends on how long you can hold out." Roger raised his eyes, his gaze sharp as a blade. "Your fire array is already shrinking. It initially covered a full thirty meters, then compressed to twenty meters, and now only ten meters remain. Your stamina and Devil Fruit endurance are almost depleted."

One

Nusjuro said no more, and suddenly clenched his right fist.

The walls of fire suddenly closed inward from all sides, and countless tongues of fire pressed in layer by layer. Each layer of flame carried the impact force from all directions, just like four high walls closing in on the middle at the same time, leaving no room to dodge.

Roger shifted to the side, dodging the strongest line of fire. His sword precisely cut into the gaps in the flames, and the sword energy wrapped in Conqueror's Haki exploded, easily severing two layers of flames. But when the sword tip struck the third wall of fire, it could not advance even an inch further.

The flames locked together layer by layer, firmly blocking the slashing attack.

"Your flames can dismantle Armament Haki, but the activation of this ability has a fixed cooldown period." Roger flicked his wrist, and the sharp blade carved a thin crack in the surface of the third layer of flames. "Each time the fire wall is shattered, it takes three breaths to rebuild the defense. Within those three short breaths, the flames behind cannot fill the gap in time, leaving a fleeting passage."

Nusjuro's pupils contracted, and he subconsciously took half a step back.

This was the first time he had retreated during the entire match.

As they retreated, a gap appeared in the outer fire array. The fire line in front shrank back three inches, and the flames behind took advantage of the contraction to re-condense their density, creating a half-breath gap between the two layers of fire walls.

A narrow passage briefly took shape in the firelight, barely wide enough for one person to squeeze through sideways.

Roger seized the fleeting opportunity and leaped into the passage.

He took two quick steps in quick succession during the intervals between the alternating flames, his sword piercing through the still-unrepaired lines of fire, and before the new wall of fire closed in, he had already rushed to within three steps of Nusjuro.

The Conqueror's Haki lightning surging on the sword was compressed to its limit, and the dark red lightning in the sky gathered into a thin thread of light, like a sharp needle extending from the tip of the sword. The air was torn open by the thread of light, leaving a narrow crack, the cut was smooth and clean, without a single extra crack spreading.

"This sword strike, Divine Departure Modification."

The sharp sword pierced fiercely into Nusjuro's hastily conjured fire armor.

The outer layer of fire armor shattered the moment the sword tip touched it, cracks spreading outwards from the point of contact, like thin ice being shattered by a heavy hammer. Pieces of fire armor peeled off and scattered, revealing the flesh beneath.

The sword tip only penetrated about a finger's width before it could go no further.

Roger clearly sensed that the sword's edge was firmly blocked by a layer of solidified magma barrier. At the last moment, Nusjuro overdrawn his Devil Fruit power, forming a final defensive barrier on the outer layer of his skin.

Nusjuro looked down at the tip of the sword resting on his shoulder, his face expressionless. "You stopped. Why didn't you thrust it in with all your might?"

"Because you're already exhausted." Roger slowly withdrew his longsword and stepped back to create distance. "The entire fire array has shrunk by nearly half, and the speed at which it fills the defensive line is twice as slow as before. That layer of magma barrier was your last trump card. Even if I continue to advance, you won't be able to withstand the complete fire array."

Two

Nusjuro gritted his teeth and raised his right hand again, trying to reactivate the power of the Melt-Melt Fruit.

A ball of crimson flame first rose in his palm, but the flame only remained stable for two breaths before it began to shrink uncontrollably inward. It compressed from the size of a fist to a cluster of flames at the fingertips, and finally turned into a few wisps of light white smoke, dissipating in the evening breeze, never to be able to reform.

He stared blankly at his empty palm, remained silent for a moment, and then slowly lowered his arm.

"You figured out the pattern of the flame loop when I was patching the firewall for the third time?"

"That's right." Roger gripped the hilt of his sword, his arm slightly steadying its trembling muscles. "The fire array arrangement repeated the same cycle the third and fifth time. I waited until the pattern reappeared on the seventh time, then followed the remaining path of the firepower gap and cut straight into the array's core."

Completely exhausted, Nusjuro leaned heavily against the stone wall. The shattered flame armor on his shoulder turned into charred scraps of paper, falling to the ground piece by piece. The raging fire surrounding him lost its power and quickly dissipated, the flames fading away along the wall, leaving only thick Huijin and scorched marks.

Seven sword marks were crisscrossed on the stone floor, each crack corresponding to a layer of fire wall that had been severed.

Roger slowly sheathed his rapier, turned, and walked slowly toward the exit of the corridor. His entire right arm trembled violently, from his shoulder to his fingertips, and blood continued to seep from the wound on his hand. The overwhelming Conqueror's Haki lightning subsided completely, leaving only the residual heat of the blade, which slowly dissipated in the cool air.

He took two steps, then paused, never turning back.

"Nusjuro, your Melt-Melt Fruit has immense potential, but unfortunately your tactics are too rigid. You focus solely on creating large-scale fire walls, using most of your energy to expand the area covered by the flames, while neglecting the density of the fire walls themselves."

"The wider the fire array is spread, the weaker the power of each layer of flames becomes. If you forcibly create a thirty-meter sea of fire, a single flame can at most peel off one layer of my Armament Haki. If you shrink your battle line and only protect a ten-meter radius, a single layer of flames is enough to peel off two layers of Haki in succession."

"You chose to expand your territory, sacrificing the depth of your flames; this is the root of your defeat."

Nusjuro leaned against the cold stone wall, his clothes soaked with blood from the wound on his shoulder, and he didn't even have the strength to raise his hand to stop the bleeding.

"If I prioritize increasing the flame intensity, will the outcome change?"

Roger continued walking, his voice carried on the wind. "At most, you'll force me to swing my sword one more time, but the outcome won't be reversed. You rely on your Devil Fruit to maintain your output, and every bit of offense and defense drains your stamina; I've been fighting solely with my physical body and Conqueror's Haki from beginning to end, my endurance far surpasses yours. Devil Fruits have a natural limit, but physical endurance can last much longer. Your limits have been reached sooner than mine."

As soon as he finished speaking, he stepped out of the fire-lit front courtyard.

Three

At the corridor exit, Kaido leaned against a broken stone pillar. The blood on his face had been wiped away, but the wounds on his shoulder and side were still bleeding, staining his black clothes a dark red.

He glanced at Roger's trembling right hand, didn't ask about the battle, but simply asked in a deep voice, "Where's your sword?"

"Sheathed." Roger brushed past him, his right hand temporarily powerless, only able to lightly press the hilt with his left. "My right arm is too strained; I can't swing it for now."

"Then wait until my arm recovers before unleashing the next strike." Kaido hoisted his Iron Club, his eyes still burning with fighting spirit.

Roger didn't reply, silently following behind Kaido as they walked deeper into the Room of Authority. The trembling in his right arm lingered, his Conqueror's Haki completely subsided, and only the acrid smell of burnt smoke and the lingering heat of flames from a sword cutting through the air remained. His steps were steady and powerful, but the five fingers of his right hand were tightly curled up, unable to fully straighten.

Behind the thick stone wall Room of Authority, came a deep, resonant laugh from the Whitebeard.

"Gurgle... Is the fighting in the front courtyard over? How many guards are left?"

Kaido took a step and strode towards the source of the sound, the Iron Club dragging on the ground with a harsh scraping sound.

"Only three Celestial Dragons remain as powerful warriors."

Four

The empty front courtyard was now empty except for Saint Nusjuro was all alone.

He slumped in the corner, staring at the seven crisscrossing sword marks on the ground, remaining silent for a long time. All the flames were extinguished, and the sky full of firelight vanished without a trace, leaving only Huijin and scorching hot stone slabs.

He spent half his life refining the Melt-Melt Fruit, painstakingly studying the combat method of disintegrating Armament Haki layer by layer with flames, and steadily suppressed countless powerful sea warriors with his large-scale infernal sea of fire.

But today, he was defeated in the battle of Conqueror's Haki.

He lost because of his tactical choices, the limitations of his Devil Fruit's endurance, and even more so because of Roger's terrifying physical stamina and his extremely refined Conqueror's Haki's Haki.

Nusjuro slowly raised his right hand, attempting in vain to condense a flame again. His palm was empty, and not a single flame could rise.

The Celestial Dragons' lofty pride was shattered by a single sword strike.

The sea breeze swept through the corridor, stirring up Huijin that filled the air. This ultimate showdown between Conqueror's Haki and Devil Fruit abilities had come to an end.

(End of Chapter 113)