Saint Garling's swordsmanship... was honestly average.
Of course, that "average" was in comparison to the likes of Dracule Mihawk, Shimotsuki Koshiro, and Meow Jūshirō, who had forged their own paths in Idealist Swordsmanship.
Xie Wen was actually walking the path of Idealist Swordsmanship now too, but compared with the three "college students" mentioned above, he was probably at a middle- or high-school level.
As for Saint Garling, his swordsmanship, strength, speed, and technique were all decent. In terms of strength alone-or rather, killing power-he was not much worse than Meow Jūshirō and the others, but he barely put Xie Wen under any pressure in terms of swordsmanship.
Even though Xie Wen was currently trading blows with him without gaining any overwhelming advantage, his opponent simply felt inferior to those three "college students," and even to that "high-school student," "Flower Sword" Vista...
In short, it was still very much a matter of the mind.
But Saint Garling did have one advantage-his Conqueror's Haki was very strong.
How should he put it...
As expected of the One Piece world, where bloodline mattered, Saint Garling, who came from the same family as Shanks, was equally gifted in Conqueror's Haki.
It was precisely because his Conqueror's Coating was every bit as good as Shanks's and Kaido's that Xie Wen had yet to take him down.
But Xie Wen was in no hurry to take him down, either. Their main objective was merely to cause enough of a commotion to draw attention, and Xie Wen also thought Saint Garling was a decent whetstone for further honing his strength. That was why he had neither asked Sasha Meow to lend him her Conqueror's Haki nor used his Logia feline combination form. He had not even taken any potions.
Just as Xie Wen was absorbed in the