Sabo VS Momonga

"Clang!"

The katana and the Alloy Staff collided violently in mid-air, erupting in a long string of blinding sparks.

On the other side of the battlefield, the clash between Sabo and Vice Admiral Momonga had reached a fever pitch. The surrounding ground had been plowed into ruins by sharp sword qi and raging flames; no ordinary soldier dared to approach this area.

"Boom!"

Sabo flicked his left hand, and a mass of orange-red flames swept out along the ground, attempting to seal off Momonga's retreat.

"Too naive, pirate!"

Vice Admiral Momonga let out a cold shout, his legs stomping against the ground in rapid succession. Navy Six Styles: Soru!

His figure instantly transformed into a blurred afterimage, not only easily avoiding the engulfing flames but appearing directly in Sabo's blind spot. The katana in his hand, coated in pitch-black Armament Haki, whistled as it tore through the air, aiming straight for the back of Sabo's neck.

Sabo's eyes narrowed; his Observation Haki captured the trajectory of the blade at the very last second. He ducked abruptly, the katana grazing his top hat and shearing off a few strands of blonde hair.

The moment he dodged the lethal blow, Sabo put force into his waist, and the staff in his hand whipped back toward Momonga's ribs like a venomous snake.

"Iron Body!"

Momonga did not dodge or parry, his entire body's muscles instantly tensing like iron. The staff slammed into his ribs with a dull thud, like striking a thick steel plate. Not only did it fail to cause any substantial damage, but the massive recoil made Sabo's wrist go slightly numb.

"The combination of the Six Styles and Haki—truly flawless."

Sabo used the recoil to retreat rapidly and put some distance between them, his chest heaving as his breathing became somewhat labored.

This was the first time he had encountered a top-tier master swordsman since consuming the Mera Mera no Mi.

Momonga was not only incredibly elusive in his movement, but that katana, wreathed in high-density Armament Haki, could directly slice through his elemental defense. Had he been even half a beat slower just now, his shoulder would have been severed.

"You certainly have some skill,"

Momonga gripped his sword with both hands, the tip pointing diagonally at the ground, his eyes as sharp as a hawk's. "But relying solely on a Logia fruit you've only just consumed to challenge a Vice Admiral of the Navy Headquarters? You're still far from ready!"

Before the words had even faded, Momonga swung his blade with both hands.

"Half Moon: Flying Pavilion!"

A massive, dark blue crescent of sword qi, over ten meters long, whistled out along the ground. It cleaved through the rocks and abandoned war machines in its path, slashing toward Sabo with the momentum of a landslide.

Facing this unavoidable strike, Sabo took a deep breath and slammed his Alloy Staff into the soil beside him.

He raised both hands, index and middle fingers pressed together, while his ring and pinky fingers curled inward. Deep, pitch-black Armament Haki instantly covered his palms and forearms. With a low shout, orange-red flames spiraled and clung to his dragon claws.

"Flame Dragon: Twin Jaws!"

Sabo did not retreat but advanced instead. Facing the massive sword qi, his hands transformed into giant phantom dragon claws and struck out ferociously.

"Crack!"

A piercing, tearing sound echoed across the battlefield.

The flame-wreathed Armament Haki dragon claws locked tightly onto the front of the sword qi. Sabo's feet were pushed back several meters across the ground, his boots carving scorched marks into the rock. He gritted his teeth, the muscles in his arms bulging, and with sheer force, he tore the sharp sword qi apart into a sky full of light particles with his ten fingers!

"You crushed my flying slash with your bare hands?"

A flash of astonishment crossed Momonga's eyes, but he was a veteran of countless battles. Without a moment's hesitation, he used the cover of the sword qi to dash forward using Soru, appearing right in front of Sabo.

"Die!"

The katana was raised high, the Armament Haki on the blade concentrated to the extreme, making the surrounding air feel heavy.

Under this terrifying, life-or-death pressure, Sabo's mind entered a state of unprecedented clarity.

In his mind, Ace's explanation of advanced Armament Haki techniques from the deck yesterday flashed by.

"Don't just keep your Haki rigidly on the surface of your skin like Iron Body. You have to consciously guide it outward to form a flowing, wrapping layer."

"Flowing..."

Watching Momonga's lethal downward strike, Sabo stared fixedly at the thick layer of black on the opponent's blade.

He no longer simply compressed his Haki against his skin to resist; instead, he tried to push the energy within him outward like a flame.

"Dragon Hook Claw: Flowing Flame!"

Sabo's right hand lunged out to meet the descending katana.

In that fleeting instant before his fingers touched the blade, Sabo felt the Armament Haki covering his fingers overflow ever so slightly. That invisible sliver of Haki collided with Momonga's blade in a brief, mid-air clash before physical contact was even made.

"Clang!"

A crisp, clashing sound rang out, entirely different from the previous ones.

Vice Admiral Momonga's expression changed drastically.

He felt his sure-kill strike, the moment before it hit the opponent's fingers, as if it had struck an invisible, highly resilient, and slippery current of air. The force of his blade was strangely deflected by half an inch!

It was that half-inch deflection that allowed Sabo's dragon claw to precisely avoid the sharpest edge of the blade and lock directly onto the tsuba of the katana!

"What?!" Momonga was shocked and tried to pull his sword back to defend, only to find that the blade felt as if it had been cast in molten iron—it wouldn't budge an inch.

"I've caught you, Mr. Vice Admiral."

Sabo looked up, his blue eyes flashing with fierce fighting spirit.

He did not let this split-second opportunity slip by; his left hand transformed into a fist, and the violent orange-red flames compressed intensely in an instant, carrying a terrifying, scorching heat as they slammed fiercely into Vice Admiral Momonga's chest.

"Fire Fist!"

A point-blank explosion at close range!

The raging pillar of fire, like a roaring, furious dragon, pierced directly through Momonga's defense. Even though Momonga had utilized Iron Body and coated himself in Armament Haki at the very last moment, he was still sent vomiting blood by the destructive impact, which was infused with both Armament Haki and intense heat.

"Bang!"

Vice Admiral Momonga's tall frame flew backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily into a pile of steel ruins dozens of meters away, his famous blade slipping from his hand and landing at an angle in the scorched earth.

The firelight gradually dissipated.

Sabo stood where he was, gasping for air. His refined tailcoat was already tattered, his arms were marked with several deep and shallow bloody gashes, and the majority of his stamina had been depleted.

He did not pay attention to Momonga, who lay incapacitated in the ruins, but instead lowered his head and looked quietly at his right hand.

In that moment just now...

His Haki had indeed extended from his fingertips for a fleeting instant. That feeling was truly wondrous, as if he had broken through the inherent vessel of his body, allowing his power to truly come alive.

But that sensation was ephemeral. No matter how he tried to capture it now, his Haki remained stubbornly fixed to the surface of his skin like Iron Body, unable to flow outward naturally as it had before.

Was it just a flash of inspiration on the verge of life and death?

Sabo slowly clenched his right fist, his eyes devoid of disappointment and instead filled with an even clearer fighting spirit.

Although he had not fully mastered the high-level flow, he had already smashed a crack into that layer of window paper. He was certain that as long as he experienced more life-and-death battles of this caliber, he would be able to turn this power into his own instinct before reaching the Sabaody Archipelago.

"Still, this battle was truly difficult."

Sabo took a deep breath, calming his surging blood. He bent down to pull his Alloy Staff from the soil, then turned to look toward the other directions of the highland battlefield.

The sea breeze dispersed the smoke of war.

When he saw Ace walking slowly up from the edge of a massive crater in the distance, and the legendary Marine veteran Zephyr lying defeated in the ruins, a sincere smile could not help but curl the corners of Sabo's mouth.

It seemed that in this collision with the old era, they were the ones who had won.