Sabo vs. Momonga

"Clang!"

The katana and Alloy Staff collided fiercely in midair, spraying a long trail of dazzling sparks.

On the other side of the battlefield, Sabo's clash with Vice Admiral Momonga had already reached a fever pitch. The surrounding ground had been plowed into ruin by razor-sharp sword energy and raging flames. No ordinary soldier dared approach this area.

"Boom!"

With a sweep of his left hand, Sabo sent a mass of orange-red flames sweeping along the ground, trying to cut off Momonga's retreat.

"How naive, pirate!"

Vice Admiral Momonga shouted coldly, his legs stomping the ground repeatedly in an instant. Six Powers: Soru!

His figure instantly became an afterimage. Not only did he easily evade the consuming flames, but he also appeared directly in Sabo's blind spot. The katana in his hand, coated in pitch-black Armament Haki, shrieked through the air as it slashed for the back of Sabo's neck.

Sabo's eyes narrowed. At the critical moment, his Observation Haki caught the blade's trajectory. He ducked sharply, and the katana skimmed past his top hat, severing several strands of blond hair.

The instant he evaded the fatal strike, Sabo twisted at the waist, whipping his staff like a venomous snake toward Momonga's ribs.

"Iron Body!"

Momonga neither dodged nor retreated. The muscles all over his body instantly tensed as hard as iron. The staff struck his ribs with a dull thud like metal smashing into a thick steel plate. Not only did it fail to cause any real damage, but the powerful recoil left Sabo's wrist slightly numb.

"The combination of the Six Powers and Haki really leaves no openings."

Using the recoil, Sabo swiftly retreated and widened the distance. His chest rose and fell slightly, his breathing already growing labored.

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

Momonga's footwork was incredibly elusive, and his katana, wrapped in dense Armament Haki, could cut straight through Sabo's elemental defense. If he had been even half a beat slower just now, his shoulder would have been severed.

"You do have some skill,"

Momonga gripped his sword with both hands, its tip angled toward the ground, his gaze sharp as an eagle's. "But relying only on a Logia fruit you ate not long ago and thinking you can challenge a vice admiral of Marine Headquarters? You're far too inexperienced!"

Before his words had faded, Momonga swung his sword with both hands.

"Half Moon: Flying Pavilion!"

A gigantic dark-blue sword wave more than a dozen meters long roared across the ground, splitting the rocks and abandoned war chariots in its path in two as it slashed toward Sabo with overwhelming force.

Facing the unavoidable slash, Sabo took a deep breath and drove the Alloy Staff in his hand into the dirt beside him.

He raised both hands, pressing his index and middle fingers together while curling his ring and little fingers. Deep, pitch-black Armament Haki instantly covered his palms and forearms. With a low shout, orange-red flames spiraled around his Dragon Claw.

"Flame Dragon: Twin Jaws!"

Rather than retreat, Sabo charged forward. Facing the massive sword wave, both his hands transformed into enormous phantom dragon claws and seized it head-on.

"Crack!"

A piercing tearing sound rang across the battlefield.

The flame-wreathed Armament Haki dragon claws locked tightly onto the front of the sword wave. Sabo's feet were pushed several meters backward across the ground, his boots scraping blackened marks into the rocks. Gritting his teeth, his arm muscles bulging, he forcibly tore the fierce sword wave apart with all ten fingers, scattering it into lights that filled the sky!

"He crushed my flying slash with his bare hands?"

A trace of astonishment flashed through Momonga's eyes, but he was a battle-hardened veteran. Without pausing for even an instant, he used the sword wave as cover and had already dashed before Sabo with Soru.

"Die!"

The katana rose high. The Armament Haki on its blade had become so dense that even the air around it seemed to grow heavy.

Yet under the terrifying pressure of that life-or-death moment, Sabo's mind entered an unprecedented state of clarity.

Ace's explanation from yesterday on the deck about advanced Armament Haki usage suddenly flashed through his mind.

"Don't rigidly keep Haki on the surface of your skin like Iron Body. Guide it outward deliberately, forming a flowing coating."

"Flowing..."

Watching Momonga's fatal strike descend, Sabo stared fixedly at the thick black layer coating the other man's blade.

Rather than simply compressing his Haki against his skin to withstand the attack, he tried to push the energy within him outward like flames.

"Dragon Hook Claw: Flowing Flame!"

Sabo thrust out his right hand, meeting the falling katana.

In the infinitesimal instant before his two fingers touched the blade.

Sabo felt the Armament Haki coating his fingers seep outward ever so slightly. That thread of invisible Haki collided with Momonga's blade through the air before physical contact was even made.

"Clang!"

A crisp impact, completely different from before, rang out.

Vice Admiral Momonga's expression changed drastically.

He felt that in the instant before his certain killing blow struck Sabo's fingers, it was as though he had slashed into an invisible, slick current of air with tremendous resilience. The force of his blade was strangely deflected by half an inch!

That half-inch was enough for Sabo's Dragon Claw to precisely avoid the sharpest edge of the blade and clamp directly onto the katana's guard!

"What?!" Momonga was horrified. He tried to pull back his sword and defend himself, only to find that its blade seemed to have been cast in molten iron. It would not budge.

"Got you, Vice Admiral."

Sabo raised his head, fierce fighting spirit flashing in his blue eyes.

He did not let this fleeting opportunity pass. His left hand clenched into a fist as raging orange-red flames compressed to the extreme in an instant. Carrying the terrifying heat to burn everything, it smashed brutally into Vice Admiral Momonga's chest.

"Fire Fist!"

A point-blank explosion at zero distance!

The violent pillar of fire was like a roaring furious dragon, directly piercing through Momonga's defenses. Even though Momonga used Iron Body and coated himself in Armament Haki at the last moment, the devastating impact mixed with Armament Haki and extreme heat still blasted blood from his mouth.

"Bang!"

Vice Admiral Momonga's tall body flew backward like a kite with its string cut, smashing heavily into a heap of steel wreckage dozens of meters away. Even his famed sword flew from his grip and embedded itself at an angle in the charred dirt.

The firelight gradually faded.

Sabo stood where he was, gasping heavily. His immaculate tailcoat was now in tatters, and several wounds of varying depth marked his arms. More than half his stamina had been spent as well.

He did not spare a glance for Momonga, who had lost his fighting ability amid the wreckage. Instead, he lowered his head and silently looked at his right hand.

That instant just now...

His Haki had indeed extended from his fingertips for an incredibly brief moment. The sensation was strange and wonderful, like breaking the body's fixed vessel and allowing power to truly come alive.

But that feeling had vanished in a flash. No matter how he tried to grasp it now, his Haki could only cling rigidly to the surface of his skin like Iron Body. It could no longer flow outward as naturally as it had just now.

"Was it only a flash of insight at the edge of death?"

Sabo slowly clenched his right fist. There was no disappointment in his eyes—only even clearer resolve.

Though he had not fully mastered that advanced flow, he had already punched a crack through that thin barrier. As long as he experienced more life-and-death battles of this level, he was certain that before reaching the Sabaody Archipelago, he would completely turn this power into instinct.

"Still, that battle was truly difficult."

Sabo took a deep breath and calmed his churning blood. He bent down, pulled the Alloy Staff from the dirt, then turned to look toward the other parts of the battlefield on the high ground.

The sea breeze scattered the smoke.

When he saw Ace slowly climbing up from the edge of a massive Meteor Crater in another direction, while the legendary old Marine veteran Zephyr lay fallen amid the ruins, an earnest smile rose to Sabo's lips.

It seemed that they had won this clash with the old era.