"Imitation can only take you so far."
Garp took a single step forward, his body soaring like a dragon bursting into the sky as he charged straight toward the giant of ice.
At his words, Byakuren's expression turned cold as frost.
Seething with anger, he said nothing, his gaze alone, sharp as blades, stabbed toward Garp.
At that moment, the ice giant, towering like a god who could prop up the skies, suddenly raised its mountain-sized arm.
Clutched in its hand was the massive Wind Blade, vibrating with a shrill, tearing hum as it swung downward from above to cleave Garp in two.
With just a single swing, a raging hurricane engulfed the battlefield within a mile radius.
Even before the blade fell, the power of Wind Release chakra carved a massive, bottomless gorge hundreds of meters long across the Land of Water's soil.
Zzzz…
Facing the colossal wind blade, vast beyond imagination and crashing down like a mountain collapsing, Garp stamped his feet through the air, his body advancing instead of retreating.
In that same instant, no one noticed that although Garp was already swallowed beneath the descending wind blade, the surface of his pitch-black right fist had become sheathed in swirling rings of light, like torrenting waters, yet also like black flames burning.
Almost the moment that layer of Haki clustered around his fist, flowing without pause, Garp swung his right arm and punched straight forward.
Seeing the two prepared to clash again, Orochimaru, Kushina, and the others, who had retreated far away, immediately erected a barrier, terrified that the collision between two legendary-level forces would unleash shockwaves capable of obliterating them.
On the other side, Yagura and the Mist-nin with him did the same, erecting a barrier technique to withstand the force that would erupt from two legends colliding.
After all, with just a casual swing from the First Mizukage's ice giant, a typhoon on the level of a natural disaster had already formed, and the earth had torn open like thin paper, splitting into gaping fissures.
If that truly collided head-on with the Iron Fist's strike, the destruction would be beyond imagination.
Yet….
Just as both barriers rose, and the shinobi of both sides, Byakuren included, braced themselves for an earth-shattering clash that would shake the Land of Water and rip the surrounding apart…
Garp's fist suddenly stopped right in front of the oncoming wind blade.
Shrrrk…
At that same moment, the ice giant's body, and the wind blade it was swinging, froze in midair.
Just as everyone felt confusion rising, that mountain-sized blade of wind abruptly scattered into nothing.
Immediately after, starting from the ice giant's arm, the massive layers of ice began to crumble like they had been struck by Dust Release, breaking apart into shards at a speed visible to the naked eye.
In less than two seconds, the ice giant, larger than a tailed beast, had dissolved into a storm of drifting ice fragments across the battlefield.
Byakuren stared blankly at the scene before him. His pupils dulled, even his thoughts felt frozen.
He wasn't the only one stunned. The shinobi within the barriers were equally shocked.
There was no apocalyptic explosion, no force swallowing mountains.
No tempest ripping open the sky and tearing apart clouds.
Not even a blinding flash that swallowed the battlefield.
There was only Garp casually throwing a punch…
And then the ice giant and the wind blade vanished into dust, leaving behind a surreal scene that felt almost fake.
Yet this unreal moment inflicted a visual and spiritual impact unlike anything they had ever imagined.
None of them, Byakuren included, could fathom what kind of overwhelming, tyrannical power could produce an effect like Dust Release.
Even Dust Release emits an intense white light before disintegrating everything within its field.
But Garp?
With a single punch, ice became dust, and the storm dispersed.
Everything vanished like it had never existed.
Splurt….
Garp ignored everyone's stunned expressions and slowly withdrew his fist.
But at the moment the advanced Armament Haki faded from his knuckles, Byakuren, who was about to fall from the air, exploded into a cloud of blood.
"Ah…"
With a shrill, ragged scream, Byakuren, his body shrouded and smeared by that violent spray of blood, dropped like a severed kite into the very crater he had climbed out of moments before.
…
Moments ago, he could still rise. Now he couldn't even move a single finger.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"Why did I lose?"
"This isn't how the battle should have gone…"
Lying limp in the center of the crater, Byakuren stared blankly at the sky. His eyes were dull, devoid of light, fixed on Garp descending from above.
At the final edge of his life, his mind was empty. He couldn't think. His body couldn't move. He couldn't twitch even a finger.
...
Even his eyelids, barely open, seemed held up only by the last flicker of life, the final spark of a dying flame.
At this point, the only thing he could still do was release faint, intermittent murmurs filled with confusion and despair.
Garp didn't look at Byakuren. Instead, he stood where he was, pulled down his rolled-up sleeve, fastened the cuff button again, and turned to walk out of the crater.
"Iron Fist!"
He had barely taken a few steps when a weak, unwilling, questioning voice drifted from behind him.
"The reason you lost is simple. You challenged me."
Garp paused for a brief moment. As though foreseeing Byakuren's struggle to speak, he answered without turning his head.
"You… You're still the same as ever. Still saying things that piss people off.
It's exactly that attitude… that made it impossible for me to accept living beneath you."
A dim ember of unwilling anger flickered in Byakuren's lifeless gaze.
"Is it so bad to live beneath me?
At least you'd still be alive.
But now, after finally getting a second life… you chose the shortcut."
Garp's voice remained calm.
.........
Guys do leave some reviews and comments.
Also, if you guys enjoy this story, you can support me on Pat re on and get access to some Advance Chapters, it really helps me to work on new chapters.
pat re on. com / Yhssab
Just remove all the spaces in between and search it.