Disaster-class pirates face an almost unbridgeable gulf when matched against Admiral-level power.
Even with monster-tier Devil Fruits, you still need mastered high-level Haki or a Fruit Awakening. Without absolute force, you're just a slightly tougher punching bag before them.
Sharn and Kaido's strengths lay in enormous vitality, thick hides, and rock-solid defenses. But the strongest foes before them possessed both devastating offense and blinding speed.
"Swap opponents!"
They slapped palms and staggered out of the crater. Two ravenous dragons do not bow to mere mortals. Fists and fingers trembled with Haki. If the Mythical Zoan was to develop further, their Haki must be pushed to higher planes. This would require fighting to the death.
Kaido had already been a Haki powerhouse before eating his Fish-Fish fruit — years of training and campaigns with Rocks had tempered him. Now weaponless and with blood on his fists, he stared down the opponent: Buddha Sengoku.
Ssssh! Armament Haki darkened around his knuckles, an ink-black layer forming an invisible air shield. His overwhelming Haki had softened into a flowing, waterlike motion.
"Eight-Strike Fist — the secret softness inside the iron fist, the resilience of Rocks' blades." Kaido's voice rumbled. "What secret techniques are you hiding in your Haki?" He felt the gap between standard and advanced Haki — it wasn't just quantity or quality, but a learned technique. What should he call this method?
Kaido grinned fiercely. "We'll call it God Valley Concealment — Haki hidden in the valley of the gods." Years of punishment had finally pierced into advanced Armament technique. After taking beatings, Kaido had at last grazed high-level Armament mastery.
"Don't presume you've mastered anything extraordinary!" Sengoku charged, dual-colored Haki blazing. Boom! Kaido met the blow, trading with more edge than before — yet a golden shockwave still loomed. They clashed midair; both were hurled aloft.
"In this world every Haki is unique to its wielder," Sengoku warned. "Thinking a little technique makes you grand is arrogance — and arrogance was Rocks' ruin!" Sengoku was wrong about the cause — Rocks fell because others were not stronger — but his point about arrogance stung.
"Cut the lectures, Sengoku!" Kaido roared, fists crackling with lightning.
On the other front, Sharn's opponent had shifted to Garp. One was a towering, beast-shaped Mythical Zoan; the other, a Marine vice-admiral whose name alone struck fear. Facing Sharn's now-nearly-comprehensive abilities, Garp still didn't flinch. He cracked his knuckles until his bones trembled, swaggering as he sized the scene.
"Rocks left you blights to poison the world," Garp snarled. "Today I'll bind that will with iron!" His eyes flared blood-red as blue-white lightning wrapped his body. He glowed with white light and murderous intent. Three-color Haki, refined to a burning edge. Then he vanished without a trace.
Sharn's Observation Haki strained to read Garp's reappearing positions, but the man was too fast. "Pop!" Garp's voice echoed right behind Sharn — terrifying speed. Sharn had seen Garp at his prime only fleetingly in God Valley; in a battlefield full of monsters he'd seemed ordinary. But the memory of Garp's prime returned: he wasn't just an admiral in title; his peak power matched the might of an Admiral like Akainu.
"Pop!" If Sharn could not find Garp, then he would disappear. With Paw-Paw boosting his already tremondous quickness, his motion approached teleportation. "Is that the speed you brag about?" Garp's voice chimed in Sharn's skull.
Sharn's muscles clenched. Garp's prime was absurd. He'd nearly forgotten Garp could be so relentless. Speed and raw power were dialed to the max now.
A sprinting exchange followed: Sharn blinked in and out of sight, compressing burst after burst of air into cannon-like strikes. Each time he appeared, Garp arrived sooner. "Observation tells where you will be; Armament strikes your organs; Conqueror pushes damage even further," Garp said as he pummeled — an iron sermon of fist, Haki and premonition. "This is an iron fist — the weight of justice."
Sharn's repeated evasions eventually ran dry. Speed alone wasn't enough; he had to endure. Each hit he took mined deeper life-force from his body. Haki and Fruit only truly tempered in hot combat — and Sharn excelled at rapid regeneration. He welcomed the pain.
"Come then, Garp!" Sharn countered, unleashing a prepared volley of compressed-air cannons fused with Haki. He poured into the attack every stored joule Devour-Devour had accumulated.
"Material can be devoured and fused — energy can too. That's Devour's advanced use," he murmured. He wasn't just exploring the Zoan — he was tempering Paw-Paw and Devour together, layering Haki like armor.
His skin hardened beneath Armament from tip to toe. He smiled through the pain. Even battered, he still carried one final explosion of power.
"You damn animals who don't die easily — hate that," Garp grunted, struck by Sharn's rapid growth. If Sharn had been a Marine, he might have been a perfect officer: Dragon, Sharn, Kaido — a terrifying new guard. But only Garp's son sought justice. The rest were hunger and will.
"Let's finish this, Garp!" Sharn assaulted — shockwaves braided with Haki to pierce through defenses. Garp shattered them again and again, a storm of blows that pulverized the harbor.
"Your raid wrecked Flower Country's port, you bastards!" Garp roared as he unleashed a flurry of thirty-plus punches. Maybe rage lent speed — every strike carved through Sharn's waves and Haki defenses, and the final blows struck the abdomen and chest. Even dragon scales and full Armament were taxed. Sharn spewed blood, losing speed and edge — but delight burned in his chest like never before.
"Whitebeard hit that place first," Sharn rasped, recalling. "Still — was it really unrelated?" The first blow from Sengoku had already shattered much. Sharn landed three punches; Garp returned ten stronger, faster. Battle command: Sengoku's order rang out — sweep up the pirate crew.
Sengoku's fist launched Kaido skyward and the order came: eliminate the pirates. Try to wipe them out? Dream on.
Pushed to the limit, Sharn and Kaido staggered to their feet, bruised and battered, yet grinning like drunks. Kaido coughed up blood, barely coherent. "You got any strength left?" Sharn asked calmly.
"A bit," Kaido rasped.
"Don't worry — nobody dies," Sharn said, drawing the last of his energy and life into one more Paw-Paw strike. Sengoku intended to purge all Rocks remnants — two Admiral-level blows descended.
"Rocks' remnant — leave none alive!"
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