"Grandpa Rowan is so strong..."
Outside Arlong Park, Nojiko's eyes went wide, her face filled with a mix of shock and joyous relief.
"Hehe, see? I told you my Great-Grandpa is amazing!" Luffy, whose stamina had recovered slightly, boasted with eyes shining in hero worship.
He had pushed himself to the limit and couldn't gain a single advantage against that blue fish-man. Yet, against his Great-Grandpa, a powerhouse of that caliber didn't even have the chance to fight back!
If I learn all of Great-Grandpa's skills, becoming the Pirate King will be a piece of cake!
While Nojiko and Luffy were lighthearted, the atmosphere on the fish-men's side was the polar opposite. Arlong, the leader of the crew, saw his former captain sent flying. His already hideous face turned ashen, his eyes trembling with pure dread.
How could Jinbe, a newly appointed Warlord of the Sea, be suppressed so pathetically by that old fossil?!
"Is... is Boss Jinbe defeated?"
Arlong knew very well that the human old man was here for him! At this moment, Arlong desperately wanted to dive into the sea and swim back to Fish-Man Island without looking back. But he didn't dare move, fearing he'd alert the predator. Forget the old man—even that human kid's speed was something he couldn't hope to match.
"How's the big blue guy?"
Before long, the sea breeze swept away the billowing dust. Not just the fish-men, but Luffy as well craned his neck, peering into the ruins of the villa. After all, Jinbe was one of the Seven Warlords handpicked by the World Government; surely he wouldn't be defeated so easily.
Suddenly, a shift occurred within the rubble. A half-collapsed wall was violently shoved aside, and Jinbe's stout figure emerged once again.
Seeing Jinbe walk out, Arlong finally let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. Although Jinbe looked incredibly bedraggled—his clothes torn to shreds and covered in dust—he didn't seem to have any life-threatening injuries. It seemed Rowan's kick, while terrifying, hadn't broken him.
"Decent Armament Haki."
Watching the black coating recede from Jinbe's skin, Rowan nodded inwardly. His experienced eyes could see that Jinbe's mastery of Haki was highly refined. Combined with the natural physical constitution of a Whale Shark Fish-man, Jinbe was a tank.
Truthfully, with Jinbe's current strength, even an opponent with slightly better physical stats and Haki would find defeating him a grueling task of attrition. Unless... the opponent possessed a level of power that was fundamentally overwhelming. A level reserved for the Navy's "Highest Combat Power"—the Admirals—or the Emperors of the Sea.
"In that case, I shouldn't hold back anymore!"
Rowan exhaled a long breath, and his expression turned focused and sharp. He, too, wanted to see exactly what "Level 10 Physical Arts" looked like in action.
Jinbe opened his mouth to say something, but before a single word could escape, Rowan's aura shifted. The moment their eyes met, Jinbe felt a primitive chill seize his heart.
"Jinbe, kid. Consider yourself lucky. You're the first person to witness me getting serious since my return to the sea." Rowan gave him a faint smile.
In the next instant, Rowan's figure blurred and vanished.
"He's gone?!" Jinbe's heart hammered against his ribs.
Ordinary Rowan was a source of great pressure, but "Serious Rowan" was different. Just looking into the man's eyes gave Jinbe a suffocating sense of impending doom. This invisible weight was agonizing. When Rowan was stationary, Jinbe could still endure, but the moment the old man vanished, a bone-deep instinctual terror took over.
Forced into a corner, Jinbe pushed his Observation Haki to its absolute limit, covering the entire Arlong Park.
Where is he?!
To his horror, Jinbe found that even with his Observation Haki active, he couldn't pin down Rowan's location!
Is he not here?
His brow furrowed as he prepared to expand his range, but then a realization hit him like a lightning bolt.
No... it's not that he's not here. It's that he's moving so fast my Haki can't track him!
Before Jinbe could process the thought, a screaming sense of danger made him instinctively raise his right arm in a defensive guard. Just as his limb moved, a whip-like kick descended from the air with a thunderous roar.
CLANG!
The sound of clashing metal was deafening. In that split-second, Jinbe had coated more than half his body in Armament Haki to tank the blow.
Jinbe's Haki was strong, but Rowan's was legendary. A peak human constitution combined with max-level Armament "Hardening" was something Jinbe—especially while standing on dry land—simply couldn't withstand.
BOOM!
Jinbe's stout body was hammered into the ground like a nail. The remaining stone floorboards collapsed into a deep crater, sending up a curtain of debris.
"Great-Grandpa's power... is terrifying..."
Luffy stood at the gate, completely awestruck. The previous kick had made Jinbe look a bit weak, but at least the Fish-man could react. Now? The blue fatso couldn't even follow Great-Grandpa's movements. That one kick had completely redefined Luffy's understanding of "strength." His admiration for Rowan reached a new, fanatical depth.
Whoosh—
A strong gust of sea wind cleared the dust. Everyone stared in silence at the massive, collapsed pit.
Inside, Jinbe forced himself to stand, but his condition was beyond pathetic. The arm he had used to block the kick hung limp and broken from his shoulder. Crimson blood flowed down his limb like water from a tap, pooling into a sickening puddle on the floor.
This time, the blood on his face wasn't a trickle; it was a heavy flow. Within heartbeats, his clothes were soaked through with red.
One move. With absolute dominance. Warlord Jinbe—critically wounded.
.....BONUS CHAPTER IS COMING....
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