"Crack, crack, crack..."
Before Fresh Knife: White Calm and Black Blade Yoru even touched, Xie Wen had already felt the same resistance he had encountered when clashing with Garp, and the air around the two began to warp and tremble.
The Marines who had come to watch even had the illusion that all of Marineford was shaking.
Apart from the unbroken sky and the absence of black lightning, the spectacle of this clash was already every bit as impressive as a collision of Conqueror's Haki, or even Conqueror's Coating. Yet neither Xie Wen nor Mihawk had used Conqueror's Haki.
"They can do this with Armament Haki alone? That Mihawk really does deserve his title as the world's greatest swordsman... But to think young Xie Wen has grown this much too. Young people these days really are something! Hahahahahaha!"
Watching the two clash below, Garp could not help marveling.
Vice Admiral Tsuru sighed beside him. "Yet neither of them belongs to our Marines."
Garp, who had learned Xie Wen's stance back in the East Blue, fell silent for a moment before chuckling. "At least they haven't become pirates, have they?"
"...True. It's better than becoming pirates."
Vice Admiral Tsuru sighed again. From the moment Xie Wen returned alone, she had known that Sengoku's invitation must have been rejected. She found that a great pity, because she truly thought highly of a young man as caring and full of a sense of justice as Xie Wen.
While the two veteran vice admirals spoke, Xie Wen and Mihawk remained locked in their stalemate. This one lasted far longer than the previous two, and even now, their weapons had not actually touched.
Both Xie Wen and Mihawk knew perfectly well that the moment the two blades truly met would be the moment victory and