"You think I'm afraid of you? There's no one else around, so let's settle this."
Ye Chen wasn't about to back down. He swung his fists and rained blows on Lucci. They traded attacks for hours, but neither could gain the upper hand. Then Ye Chen noticed the towering trees across the island. An idea struck him. He feinted, turned, and ran. Lucci ground his teeth. "Don't run!"
"Only an idiot would stay," Ye Chen called back.
The shore was wide open, and Lucci had mastered the Six Powers. Ye Chen was nowhere near as skilled with them, but his awakened Haki helped make up the difference. His Armament Haki worked only now and then, but his Observation Haki had grown quite strong. Their fierce battle had been evenly matched, with neither able to gain an advantage.
Once they entered the Woods, though, Lucci's advantage shrank considerably.
Lucci had the clear edge in the air, while they were roughly equal on the ground. Among the Woods, however, Ye Chen climbed and leaped with more agility than a monkey, sometimes scrambling up a trunk, sometimes circling Lucci.
The forest hampered Lucci's Geppo and Soru. Towering trees stood everywhere, their thick branches and leaves blotting out the sky. However skilled he was with Geppo, he couldn't see a thing from above them.
"Uppercut!"
A shout rang out from behind Lucci, and a dark figure burst from behind a tree.
Ye Chen moved like a ghost, swift as a flash of lightning. Lucci instinctively used Soru, but the trees made it hard to change direction in midair. He had to dodge the trunks, and the dense branches overhead were trouble enough on their own.
In open ground, Lucci could use the Six Powers freely. Here, obstacles hemmed him in at every turn. He