"Warm-up over? What a boastful brat!"
Sensing the terrifying aura at Yas's fingertips, so sharp it seemed capable of slicing through space, Garp's pupils abruptly contracted. As a top fighter who had weathered countless battles on the seas, Garp felt his beastlike instincts screaming a warning!
It was a lethal threat capable of piercing Armament Haki defenses!
But rather than making Garp retreat, that threat completely ignited the savage fighting spirit in this Marine hero's bones!
"Then let me see just how tough that finger of yours is!"
Garp roared. He no longer held back. Armament Haki surged wildly over his arms. The pitch-black coating instantly hardened to its utmost strength, faintly giving off a dark red metallic sheen. Garp crossed his arms before his chest like an indestructible wall of lamentation, assuming a stance of absolute defense!
"Then watch closely."
Yas's gaze was as cold as a blade. The instant his words fell, he moved.
No sound. No afterimage.
Under the extreme stimulation of Lightning Release Chakra Mode, Yas's neural reflexes and explosive muscular power surpassed the speed of sound at that moment! His figure abruptly vanished from where he stood. This was not a technique like Shave of the Six Powers, which relied on repeatedly kicking the ground, but an all-out burst of speed driven by pure physical strength!
Fast! Too fast!
Not one of the thousands of Marines watching could make out Yas's movements. All that remained on their retinas was a dazzling flash of blue lightning spanning over a hundred meters!
In one thousandth of a blink.
Yas was already before Garp.
His four fingers, held together, carried the peerless edge hailed as the Strongest Spear in the Third Raikage template, along with all the terrifying power in Yas's body. Without any flourish, they stabbed straight toward Garp's crossed arms!
"Hell Stab: Four-Finger Nukite!"
Hiss!
Time seemed to have been paused.
There was no deafening, earth-shattering explosion. At the precise point where his fingertips met Garp's pitch-black arms, a burst of ghastly white light erupted, so blinding that everyone briefly lost their sight!
Then.
An intensely shrill sound of tearing fabric, as though the sky itself were being ripped apart, pierced everyone's eardrums. Countless recruits with less composure immediately clutched their ears and collapsed to the ground, screaming in agony. Blood seeped between their fingers.
Rumble!
Frozen time began to flow again. The intensely compressed energy finally erupted in full!
At the instant of contact, disbelief covered Garp's rugged face! His top-tier Armament Haki defense was his pride, something almost no one on the seas could break. Yet when it met those four fingers wreathed in eerie blue light, he actually felt a piercing pain!
That power was intensely concentrated and incomparably sharp. Like a peerless divine sword, it was slicing through his Haki defenses bit by bit!
"Hold!"
Veins bulged on Garp's forehead. His legs remained rooted firmly to the earth. With a roar like a wounded beast, he poured every ounce of strength in his body into his arms!
Sizzle! Bang!
The stalemate lasted less than half a second.
With an earth-shaking boom, Garp's mountainlike frame was forcibly driven backward by that unparalleled penetrating force!
His feet plowed two deep furrows through the hard stone ground. Shattered rocks flew everywhere. Garp slid back over a hundred meters, only barely steadying himself when he reached the edge of the training ground!
And this was merely the instant of contact with Four-Finger Nukite!
After forcing Garp back, the remaining chakra within Yas's strike went completely out of control. Following the direction of his fingertips, it turned into a crescent-shaped pillar of blue lightning more than ten meters thick. Like a laser cannon capable of destroying heaven and earth, it surged wildly forward!
"Run!"
The cigar-smoking major directly in its path let out a shrill, despairing scream as the blue death ray instantly filled his entire field of vision.
But at that critical moment, a tall figure descended from the sky and landed before the major.
"Iron Body: Heavy Fortress!"
Zephyr's arms were wrapped in pitch-black Armament Haki as he braced them firmly against the spilling surge of lightning. Yet the impact forced him back step after step, leaving deep footprints in the ground.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The terrifying pillar of blue lightning swept past Zephyr, destroying everything in its path.
It sliced straight through the iron-hard surface of the combat training ground.
It pierced the ten-meter-thick seawall at the edge of the training ground.
Finally, it plunged into the vast sea beyond Marineford!
When the light finally faded, deafening echoes lingered over the sea.
The entire world fell into deathly silence.
The pungent smells of scorching and ozone filled the air. Everyone stared blankly at the sight before them as though they had seen a ghost.
Marineford's First Combat Training Ground, the training base reputed to be the sturdiest on all the seas.
Had been split open.
A terrifying, bottomless trench several thousand meters long and several meters wide stretched straight through the center of the training ground. The edges of the fissure were as smooth as mirrors, the marks left by the instantaneous cut of intensely hot, razor-sharp lightning.
Most chilling of all, the fissure had cut clean through Marineford's foundations. Azure seawater was burbling up through the trench, forming a small artificial canal in the middle of the training ground!
The might of a single finger.
Had not only driven back Garp the Hero of the Marines while he was using Advanced Armament Haki.
It had even split open a corner of Marine Headquarters!
"This has to be a lie." The veteran who had mocked Yas earlier rolled his eyes back and dropped to his knees with a thud. He did not even notice that his trousers were soaked at the crotch.
Yas still held his four fingers extended. He stood where he was. The blue lightning armor around him had completely dissipated. He gasped for breath, the muscles throughout his body spasming and twitching uncontrollably. The strain of Four-Finger Nukite was still too much for his body, whose current fusion rate was only 5%.
But.
Yas slowly drew back his unbearably sore right arm. He turned his head to look at the panting old man a hundred meters away.
"Old man." Yas's lips curved in satisfaction, his gaze arrogant to the extreme. "Was that Nukite tough enough?"
Before you continue