Black Arm and Divine Fire 2

A heavy sweeping kick, burning with crimson-gold divine fire, lashed out like a giant axe cleaving a mountain, slamming fiercely toward Zephyr's flank.

Facing this sharp strike, which was wrapped in the power of Ryuo, Zephyr did not even attempt to dodge. His only remaining left arm sank downward, acting like a pitch-black load-bearing pillar, blocking the blow firmly at his waist.

"BOOM!"

The moment leg met arm, a violent shockwave sent the rocky ground beneath their feet flying in layers.

"Too light, brat!"

Zephyr took the hit head-on, a piercing, ferocious glint erupting in his weathered eyes. The muscles in his left arm bulged like coiled dragons, and his pitch-black Armament Haki compressed to the extreme in an instant, transforming into a thick, suffocating destructive force.

"Black Arm: Exploding Rock!"

Zephyr's left fist, like a heavy siege cannon fired from its chamber, slammed violently into Ace's chest at point-blank range.

Ace's eyes narrowed slightly; his right arm quickly retracted to cross in front of his chest, high-level flowing Haki and divine fire instantly constructing a defensive barrier across his arms.

"THUD!!"

A dull, thunderous sound, like an ancient bell being struck, echoed across the battlefield.

Ace felt a sharp, agonizing pain in his arms, as if his bone marrow were being shattered. The density and weight of Zephyr's tempered Armament Haki were simply unfathomable. Even with the force-dissipating properties of Ryuo and the cushioning of the divine fire, that terrifying penetrating power still punched through his defense, striking his chest cavity directly.

Ace's burly frame was forced to slide backward, his feet carving two deep trenches dozens of meters long into the hard ground until he finally stopped after smashing through a remaining fortress wall.

"Cough."

Ace felt a tightness in his chest and spat out a mouthful of blood.

However, in the very next breath, a cluster of crimson-gold Nirvana Fire ignited automatically on his chest and arms. The tiny capillaries and muscle fibers ruptured by Zephyr's strike healed instantly under the nourishment of the divine fire.

"Hmm?"

Zephyr, watching from afar, caught this scene with keen eyes, his brows furrowing deeply.

"Not only can you release strange-colored flames of extremely high temperature, but you also possess such an outrageous super-regeneration ability... So that's it, a rare Mythical Zoan-type, is it?"

As a former Marine Admiral, Zephyr's insight was sharp enough to see through the essence of Ace's ability at a glance.

"Relying on the recovery of a Mythical Zoan, you dare to go head-to-head with me so recklessly."

Zephyr approached with heavy, measured steps, his iron-blooded killing intent thickening with every stride. "I have buried countless rookies in my life who, like you, over-relied on their Devil Fruit and thought themselves invincible!"

"Relying on my fruit?"

Ace stood straight up from the ruins, casually wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. He looked at the approaching Zephyr, his eyes devoid of fear, burning instead with the fanatical fighting spirit of a man who had finally met his match.

"Old man, don't lump me in with those weaklings."

Ace sank his legs slightly, the vast blood-energy within his body roaring like an engine. He retracted all the crimson-gold divine fire covering his body, compressing it to the limit and pouring it into the deep, flowing Haki of his right fist.

The flames no longer erupted outward; instead, they were forcibly restrained by the Armament Haki onto the surface of his knuckles, forming a terrifying vortex that emitted a blinding white light, like a high-pressure furnace.

"Divine Fire: Flame Cone!"

The ground beneath Ace's feet exploded, and he transformed into a black-and-red afterimage, shooting toward Zephyr. This highly compressed punch abandoned all area-of-effect damage, seeking only extreme single-point penetration and internal destruction!

Seeing the fist hurtling through the air, a flash of surprise crossed Zephyr's eyes.

"Forcibly compressing the explosive properties of fire into Haki? What a mad combat genius!"

But surprise was just surprise; there was no retreat on Zephyr's resolute face.

His only remaining left arm pulled back sharply, his muscles popping like a string of firecrackers. The Black Arm, tempered through decades of life-and-death battles, erupted at this moment with a pure, overbearing power capable of crushing any technique.

"But your Haki is still too green compared to my decades of experience! Black Arm: Great Mountain Puller!"

"RUMBLE!!!"

Two fists—one large, one small—carrying world-shattering power, collided violently in mid-air in the most primitive and brutal fashion!

This collision did not trigger a shockwave that swept the surroundings.

All the power, the high heat, and the destructive force of the Haki were held firmly in check at the single point where the two fists met.

"Screech—!"

The ground beneath them began to show dense, spiderweb-like cracks, then rapidly collapsed and sank. The surrounding air twisted violently under the extreme pressure and heat, emitting a piercing, mournful wail.

Ace gritted his teeth, the muscles in his right arm bulging to the point of tearing. He could clearly feel his highly compressed Ryuo and divine fire being ground down and pushed back, bit by bit, by Zephyr's solid, black-armored fist.

This one-armed veteran was like an immovable, living volcano when it came to his mastery of Armament Haki!

"Your flow is indeed exquisite, but the foundation of Haki cannot be achieved overnight through talent alone!"

Zephyr roared, his left arm suddenly erupting with a second wave of overwhelming, monstrous strength.

"BANG!"

The vortex compressed on Ace's knuckles exploded completely, and he was sent flying once again by this irresistible force.

This time, Zephyr did not give Ace a chance to land and recover.

"Geppo!"

Zephyr's burly frame stepped agilely through the air, his speed even faster than the retreating Ace. Like a black hawk hunting its prey, he appeared instantly above Ace.

"It's over, you madman from the East Blue!"

Zephyr hung head-down, his left leg like a pitch-black steel whip, cleaving through the air with a piercing shriek as it slammed down onto Ace's chest.

"BOOM!"

Ace's body was smashed into the ground with brutal force, like a falling meteor.

Accompanied by a thunderous roar that shook the entire plateau, the solid rock strata were forcibly cratered, creating a massive impact site over thirty meters in diameter. Debris and dust billowed into the sky, obscuring the center of the battlefield.

Zephyr landed steadily on the edge of the crater, his breathing slightly ragged.

Advanced in age as he was, the relentless, all-out assault he had just unleashed was a significant drain on his stamina.

He stared coldly at the dust swirling at the bottom of the pit.

He had held nothing back in that heavy strike. Even for a Zoan-type user, taking a direct hit of that internal-destruction force would surely have pulverized their internal organs.

However.

"Clatter... clatter..."

A faint sound of rolling stones drifted up from the silent crater floor.

Zephyr's pupils constricted slightly.

The dust gradually began to dissipate.

In the very center of the pit, several meters deep, the tall, burly black-haired youth was slowly straightening his body from the ruins.

A glaring streak of blood hung from the corner of Ace's mouth, and a clear, charred footprint was branded onto his incredibly sturdy chest muscles. The lethal injury, which would have killed an ordinary pirate ten times over, was currently being enveloped by clusters of crimson-gold divine flames, healing at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"Hoo..."

Ace exhaled a puff of hot air mixed with the metallic tang of blood.

He raised a hand to wipe the blood from his lip, then slowly rotated his neck, producing a series of crisp, popping bone cracks.

He tilted his head back, looking up at Zephyr standing on the crater's edge. In those deep, dark eyes, there was not a hint of frustration from being suppressed; instead, they burned with an intense excitement, as if he had just spotted the perfect prey.

"Refreshing, that's the stuff! You're truly worthy of being the 'Black Arm' who pushed Armament Haki to its peak. This heavy, dense feeling of compressed Haki has certainly taught me a lesson."

Ace walked up from the bottom of the crater, step by step.

With every step, the sound of blood surging through his veins grew more violent, and the temperature of the surrounding air climbed sharply in response.

"Old man, your Haki is indeed rock-hard."

Ace stopped, standing face-to-face with Zephyr from across the distance.

A terrifying aura, more ancient, majestic, and filled with extreme destructive power than before, began to awaken within him without reservation.

"But, the warm-up... ends here."