The Third Time-This Is the Current [Scholar] Advancement Task (Continued)

White Ghost's Armament Haki felt strangely familiar to Garp.

"Hey, White Ghost, what's your connection to that drillhead from the Flower Country?"

Without realizing it, Garp had dropped the dismissive "brat" and started addressing Adrian by his codename.

"You mean Chinjao the Drill?" Adrian steadied himself in midair. "Last year—or maybe the year before—I did kill a flat-headed old geezer in the Flower Country who'd lost his fighting spirit."

Garp's Armament Haki was powerful, but it could not penetrate both the Spiritual Pressure Lightsaber and the Ghost Body to strike Adrian himself.

Though Garp had sent Adrian flying in their clash of Armament Haki, Adrian had taken no real damage. His arm was only a little sore.

After that brief explanation, Adrian fell silent and ignored Garp's questions.

This time, he did not keep meeting force with force. Instead, he controlled the White Thousand-Hand Buddha still lingering in the sky, attacking Garp from every direction while occasionally closing in with his sword.

Garp answered with punch after punch, seemingly tireless, shattering every attack that came his way.

Neither the Ghost Energy Cannon nor the Spiritual Pressure Lightsaber could break through the defense of those iron fists!

And in this head-on clash, Adrian truly understood how terrifying someone at the pinnacle of the seas could be.

Or, more precisely—

A [Fruitless] fighter.

With nothing but martial arts and Two-Color Haki honed to their limits,

just how strong could someone become?

Nearly all the enemies Adrian had faced before were among the seas' strongest Devil Fruit Users.

There was Sengoku, of course, whose Buddha Form was said to have brought mind, technique, and body into perfect harmony.

But there was no denying that the power of Devil Fruits had affected their skills in other areas.

Even Whitebeard suffered from that to some