A punch from the legendary Marine Hero was actually caught firmly by Maud.
The many Marines returning from the central battlefield in the plaza stared incredulously at Maud, who had caught Garp's attack.
They had seen it clearly.
When he caught Garp's attack, Maud had not only failed to retreat even a single step, but his entire body had not even trembled.
Did this mean...
That Maud's strength and Armament Haki were now already on par with Garp's?
This guess left the Marines deeply shaken.
In other words...
Had the Shichibukai Maud, who had been so active since the start of the war, actually been hiding his strength!?
It was hard to imagine!
Strictly speaking, the Marines' "assessment" was correct.
With the shadows of six hundred prisoners in hand, Maud could only be considered to have truly gone all out after using Shadows' Gathering Ground to amplify his strength.
The effect created by combining the shadows of five hundred prisoners had indeed raised Maud's physical strength and Armament Haki to an entirely new level.
By a simple estimate, his physical constitution and Haki star ratings had probably soared to somewhere between eight and a half and nine stars.
The half-star range was mainly due to the instability of Shadows' Gathering Ground.
Even so, judging purely by theory and supposition, the ability of Shadows' Gathering Ground could allow Maud, whose combat power had reached ten stars, to break through further to eleven or even twelve stars and beyond.
That was also one of the reasons Maud had chosen to eat the Shadow-Shadow Fruit in the first place.
Through the explosive boost brought by Shadows' Gathering Ground, Maud had temporarily gained the capital to contend with a physical combat expert of Garp's level.
However, the reason he had been able to withstand