Sabaody Archipelago, Marine base, swordsmanship dojo, a private room.
Bang! Bang! Bang!...
Sephiroth and Gion's bamboo swords, wrapped in transparent Armament Haki, collided again and again. As they traded blows, the air rang with an unbroken series of piercing whistles.
Both of their combat techniques had long since been honed to an exceptional level, and both possessed Observation Haki capable of seeing the future. The instant a sword move began, it would be foreseen by Observation Haki. Even the trajectory of the following attack, along with its subsequent variations, could be read in advance.
Thus, their sparring was essentially a rapid exchange of countering each other's moves, each trying to disrupt the other's rhythm and interfere with the other's Observation Haki perception.
In truth, this sort of sparring had already become difficult to use for further improving either of their strength!
You predicted my prediction, and I predicted yours.
Without clashing head-on, it was hard to determine a victor!
Therefore, many powerful people who had reached this level chose seemingly simple, unadorned methods of attack in battle to avoid prolonged wars of attrition. They competed purely in strength and Haki, sometimes even trading injury for injury!
Put simply, no matter how flashy your techniques were or how powerful your attacks might be, it was useless. The one who could take a beating was the one who laughed last!
That was why, although people said Logia fruits were powerful, Zoan fruits were actually the favorites of the strong!
If you couldn't kill me with one combo, then once I found an opening, I could take you out with mine!
Sephiroth now somewhat understood why Kaido, despite possessing future-sight Observation Haki, did not like dodging attacks.
He could, but there was no need!
Rather than playing cat and mouse and wasting time,