Fighting Garp; Armament Haki at Its Peak / The Battle Heats Up; Proficiency Is Locked

Dongze was as sly as a fox. If he faced Robin now, she would tear into him. She was an angry young woman with her emotions running high, and she would not be interested in reason. So Dongze kicked the problem back to Garp.

"You crafty little brat! I'll teach you to respect your elders and care for the young in a minute!"

"Sure thing! But first, deal with this victim of Marine justice!"

Garp looked at Robin, tears streaming down her face, and lowered his gaze. "Young lady, you've been through a great deal. I imagine you've formed your own view of this world."

"The Marines aren't independent. Above them stand the World Government and the Celestial Dragons. Sometimes, they don't get to make the decisions!"

"As for the history of the Void Century, even without knowing what happened, I can guess that something occurred during those hundred years that would be deeply damaging to the World Government!"

"Otherwise, the World Government wouldn't be so desperate to keep it quiet!"

"In the end, this world belongs to whoever has the stronger fist. Ohara's scholars crossed the World Government's line, so they were bound to be killed. None of them could fight back, either. Their fate was inevitable."

"From where I stand, I deeply regret what happened. But their actions would have thrown the world into turmoil, and I didn't want that either! So I can't give you the answer you're asking for!"

"I can't even say whether it was right or wrong. If you want an answer, go see more of the world! Time will give you one!"

"Now that bastard Roger has stirred things up and ushered in the Great Pirate Era. The world's growing more chaotic by the day! Someone has to uphold justice. Even if that justice is flawed, it can still bring the world a little hope!"

Garp's words caught Dongze off guard. He had not expected this seemingly simple-minded brawler to see things so clearly.

He had thought Dragon was the only clever one in the Monkey Family. But Garp was shrewder than he looked. Dragon had become the leader of the Revolutionary Army, yet Garp still held his place among the Marine brass. The old man clearly had a lot going on beneath the surface.

Perhaps his usual carefree manner was a disguise.

As he spoke, an imposing aura rose from Garp and locked onto Dongze.

"Brat, looks like I'm leaving empty-handed today!"

"Sorry! You have your convictions, and I have my path. I'm afraid I can't join the Marines!"

Facing Garp: Armament Haki at Its Peak

The fight erupted without warning. Robin was still standing there, trying to process what she had heard, when Dongze and Garp clashed.

Garp was a master who had trained his body to the pinnacle. His Haki, too, ranked among the strongest in the world.

Not just anyone could chase the Pirate King around the world with a pair of iron fists.

Robin's vision blurred. She could no longer make out either figure.

A sharp shout exploded over the island.

"Fist Bone: Mountain-Breaking Strike!"

Robin's face changed. A roar filled her ears.

A terrifying attack descended over the island.

She thought she heard space itself groan. Then she witnessed the most terrifying sight of her life.

High above, the shadow of a fist struck down through the air.

Clouds scattered for miles. A vast hole opened above the island, exposing the brilliant blue sky, as though someone had punched through the heavens. Then the entire island began to shake.

To limit Dongze's troublesome speed, Garp had decided to go all out.

His formidable physique. His Armament Haki pushed to its absolute limit.

Together, they gave him the power to batter space like Whitebeard, though not to quite the same terrifying degree.

And with no one else around, he could cut loose. He was not yet as old as he would be seven years later. At full strength, Garp was a monster.

Dongze activated Geppo, but his body suddenly faltered. His heart began to race beyond his control.

A crushing pressure from Garp's fist swept across the entire island, stopping Dongze for a split second.

"Hey, hold on! Which one of us is supposed to have the cheat, Old Man Garp? This is too much!"

"Let's see where you run now, brat!"

By the time the words reached him, Garp was already beside Dongze. His fist had turned completely black, and an iridescent sheen flickered across it.

"Ryuo?"

Damn it. People complain that youngsters don't fight fair, but old men are just as bad!

With no way to dodge, Dongze tapped Forgotten Dust. Armament Haki wrapped around the blade in an instant.

Then: "Hidden Light, Sitting in Forgetfulness!"

With no other choice, Dongze raised two layers of defense.

Hidden Light, Sitting in Forgetfulness came from Yan Lu, the second-ranking figure of the Confucian School in The Legend of Qin.

There, he had been known as the Master of Draws. In the world of the Pirate King, when Dongze maxed out the move, he had also unlocked its passive ability.

"Gentleman's Non-Contention. Concealed Light, Formless. Stillness, Mindless!"

The instant Dongze activated Hidden Light, Sitting in Forgetfulness, his mind entered a strange state.

It was just as the sword technique was described.

He drew in his presence and concealed his wisdom, letting go of form and knowledge to disappear among the masses. Meeting weakness with weakness, he became like a mass of cotton in both attack and defense, leaving brutal blows nowhere to land.

"Got you!"

A smile had barely begun to form on Garp's face when his pupils contracted. His Armament Haki-infused punch seemed to strike a bundle of cotton. It found no purchase at all; not even the force behind it reached Dongze.

"How is that possible?"

While Garp was stunned, Dongze hurriedly used Shave.

He put distance between himself and the old man who refused to fight fair.

At first, the two had only been testing each other. Thanks to Observation Haki, their attacks had all struck empty ground.

Then, without the slightest warning, Garp had gone all out. He knocked Dongze out of his high-speed Geppo-and-Shave movement and followed up with a flurry of punches—five lightning-fast strikes. No, punches coated in Ryuo. If Dongze had not activated the passive ability of Hidden Light, Sitting in Forgetfulness, that blow would have beaten the crap out of him.

Armament Haki that powerful made his scalp tingle.

Koshiro had also trained his Armament Haki to the Ryuo stage, but his Ryuo was not Garp's. Koshiro had reached that stage through immense effort. Garp, on the other hand, was there because Ryuo was as far as Armament Haki could go.

It was like two top students: one could score a hundred points, while the other was limited to a hundred only because that was the highest score on the test. The gap between them was enormous.

Looking at Garp on the ground, Dongze was filled with awe.

No wonder they call him Garp the Hero. That combat instinct, that power... He's terrifying!

Garp had seized on a moment's hesitation and followed it with an earth-shattering assault.

Dongze now believed what that unreliable old man had said during the Paramount War. If Garp's strength had not declined so much by then, he really could have beaten the crap out of Akainu.

"Brat! What was that move?"

Dongze glanced at the activity on his panel, and his eye twitched. He had guessed right. Koshiro's attack had given him only 1,000 points, but Garp's punch had given him five times that.

Observation Haki (Awakening): 400000/1000000;

Armament Haki (Awakening): 410000/1000000;

That single blow had raised his Haki by 5,000 points. The rate was like riding a rocket, even faster than when he had exploited the bug before.

Honestly, the sight of the panel tempted him. But then he remembered that the bug had already been fixed, and his heart ached.

Why did I waste time fighting those Sea Kings? If that bug hadn't been fixed, I could turn around and thrash this unreasonable old man in less than a day.

"Hidden Light, Sitting in Forgetfulness!"

As the words rang out, both figures vanished again.

With his superior combat instincts, Garp pressed Dongze so hard that he barely had a chance to strike back. But whenever that happened, Dongze activated Hidden Light, Sitting in Forgetfulness.

It made Garp stamp his feet in frustration.

Garp could not find a way around the move in so short a time. All he could do was glare.

Still, he grew increasingly cautious around Dongze, doing his best to keep him from entering that state.

It did little good. Dongze could also trigger Hidden Light, Sitting in Forgetfulness through his Golden Finger. Even when his body was pinned down, the Golden Finger could put him into that state in an instant.

As the fight wore on, Dongze gradually adapted to its rhythm and began to counterattack.

The Armament Haki coating Forgotten Dust grew darker, and his slashes grew stronger. Even Garp could no longer take them lightly.

Bang!

Another violent collision rang out with the shriek of clashing steel. The two men flew apart, and Garp stared at Dongze in amazement.

At first, Dongze had been completely unable to keep up with him, relying on that strange move just to avoid his attacks. Then he had begun to strike back. Now he was putting up a proper fight.

His Armament Haki and slashes kept growing stronger, while his combat instincts improved by leaps and bounds. It had been a full three hours since he had last needed Hidden Light, Sitting in Forgetfulness.

After that exchange, Dongze changed tactics. Instead of coating Forgotten Dust in Armament Haki and fighting at close quarters, he began using his sword techniques.

He drove off his left foot, pushed Shave to its limit, and hurled Forgotten Dust.

The black blade radiated killing intent. A black-and-white ink painting spread across the entire island.

An Azure Dragon, half-hidden in the white, flickered in and out of sight. As Forgotten Dust tore through the air, its momentum swelled, locking onto Garp from afar as he braced himself.

This was Hundred-Pace Flying Sword, the deadliest move Dongze currently possessed. It could strike a crowd or a single target. As the first skill he had unlocked, it was also the one he used most naturally.

Better yet, the move exerted pressure and forcibly locked onto its target, ensuring his blade would not go wide.

Whether Garp could block it was another matter.

Caught by the move without warning, Garp looked no less alarmed than Crocodile had.

But he recovered in the blink of an eye. Once the sword's momentum locked onto him, he lowered his head. A tremendous force burst beneath his feet like a bomb.

It shattered the fearsome pressure of Hundred-Pace Flying Sword and freed him.

"Conqueror's Haki?"

The Battle Heats Up, Proficiency Locked

Boom!

A deep thud came with a violent shock wave. Feeling that world-ending force, Robin shivered from the soles of her feet upward.

At the edge of the island, where she had nearly backed into the sea, Robin felt a sudden stab of dread. She looked toward the island's center.

The hills and trees blocked her view. She could not see what was happening there.

But slashes kept flying out of the woods, splitting waves nearly a thousand meters high as though by divine power. Her amazement gave way to unease.

By then, she had realized something: the reason Dongze and the Marine hero Garp were truly fighting seemed to be her.

Dongze was a Pirate Hunter. He had no conflict of interest with the Marines.

She, on the other hand, was a pirate, and both sides had reason to come after her. She began to regret staying on his ship out of spite.

After spending these days with him, she knew Dongze was not cold-blooded. His cruelty was reserved for vicious pirates. He never harmed civilians.

Pirates called him a butcher who left nothing alive. The civilians he had helped called him a savior who missed nothing.

Her feelings tangled together.

Suddenly, Robin's expression changed. She looked up. The sky over the island was torn apart again as easily as a toy.

A black gash opened above, like the savage mouth of a giant in the heavens. Thick clouds fled outward in disarray, as though terrified.

The terrifying sight caused by the clash of Conqueror's Haki left her numb. She sank to her knees on the beach.

"Are they even human?"

At the center of the island, Garp stared at Dongze in disbelief.

"Conqueror's Haki?"

"Brat, you just keep surprising me!"

"Remarkable Observation Haki, Armament Haki strong enough to wound me, and Conqueror's Haki on top of that. Then there are those bizarre sword moves and strange abilities! You could make a name for yourself in the New World. What are you still doing in the East Blue?"

Garp had avoided a fatal strike from Hundred-Pace Flying Sword, but when he rushed in afterward to knock Forgotten Dust from Dongze's hand, the blade had broken through his defense.

It had left a cut on the back of his hand.

Garp stood there laughing. Dongze looked far worse for wear, his clothes reduced to rags. Only his eyes shone brighter than ever.

"What if I told you I'm planning to head to the New World? Would you believe me?"