Although Huo Lisha specialized in unarmed combat and was not adept with weapons, her Armament Haki was now so powerful that a finger thrust surpassed the sharpest spear, while a palm strike was as keen as a Great Quick Blade. Even empty-handed, she could fully unleash the miraculous effects of the Smooth Smooth Fruit.
After learning this welcome news, Li Dayong devised a plan accordingly and waited for Marine Admiral Akainu to take the bait.
After discovering that this young scholar, whom he had never heard of before, could develop the Swamp-Swamp Fruit to the point of contending with him, even the ever-proud "Akainu" Sakazuki could not help but feel respect. Yet his confidence did not waver in the slightest:
"You are indeed remarkable, but my power comes from decades of hard training. It is not something you can defeat just by eating a fruit and using your brain!"
And that was indeed true. While the Swamp-Swamp Fruit could counter the Magma-Magma Fruit to a certain extent, its lethality against Akainu after he had elementalized into magma was nowhere near as great as that of the Ice-Ice Fruit, a true natural nemesis.
With Akainu's monstrous vitality, he could withstand it even if he had to take the hits head-on. Their earlier apparent draw had merely been Li Dayong barely holding off Akainu's attacks with his Devil Fruit ability.
However, once the seven youths cleared the other Marines from the warship and joined the main battlefield, the Marine Admiral finally began to feel the pressure. His appraisal of Li Dayong unconsciously rose another level:
"The mud is actually protecting those young people? In other words, what he controls is not just his own elementalized body, but also the mud created by his ability? No wonder someone with such frail vitality can