Chapter 318: The Battle That Caused a Natural Disaster
Axel felt an imaginary ache in his head.
Garp's fist had not even landed, yet the memory alone was enough to make his scalp tingle.
Years had passed, but the terror of the Fist of Love remained deeply engraved in his mind.
Axel clicked his tongue.
"Old man, do you seriously think the Marines would still take me back after everything I've done?"
"I don't see why not."
Garp folded his arms.
"I did plenty of things worse than that when I was younger, and look at me now."
Axel raised an eyebrow.
"Oh?"
"Like what?"
Garp scratched his chin.
"For example, there was that time I accidentally punched a superior I didn't like so hard he went flying through the roof..."
Axel stared at him.
Garp paused.
Then his expression suddenly twisted.
"WHY AM I TELLING YOU THIS?!"
His roar shook snow from the nearby trees.
"You brat! You're coming back with me!"
Garp cracked his knuckles.
"And if you refuse, I'll beat you until you agree!"
Axel lifted the wooden sword in one hand.
"I don't think hitting me will be that easy."
Garp had never been known for patience.
The moment those words left Axel's mouth, he moved.
Boom!
Snow exploded beneath his feet.
In a single step, Garp crossed the distance between them and reached for Axel's clothes, clearly intending to personally remind him of the taste of the Fist of Love.
Axel stamped his left foot.
The soft snow around him erupted upward.
Under his control, harmless flakes became projectiles carrying the force of shotgun pellets.
They blasted toward Garp in a dense white cloud.
Against an ordinary person, even snow driven at that speed could tear through flesh.
Axel had no expectation that it would seriously injure Garp.
He only wanted to obstruct his vision.
Using the burst of snow as cover, Axel lowered his body and slipped to the side.
His right hand tightened around the wooden sword.
Then he slashed diagonally.
"Too naive!"
Garp threw a punch directly into the snowstorm.
His fist met the wooden blade.
BOOM!
The collision erupted like cannon fire.
A violent shockwave blasted outward.
Snow vanished from the ground around them, and nearby Marines were thrown off their feet by the pressure alone.
Hina immediately understood the situation.
"Retreat!"
Her voice cut through the chaos.
"Everyone, get back!"
From the moment Garp entered the fight, this was no longer a battle ordinary Marines could interfere with.
At the center of the battlefield, Axel made no attempt to compete with Garp in raw strength.
The instant their attacks met, he altered the direction of the incoming force.
Garp's punch slid past the blade at an unnatural angle.
Axel stepped inside his guard.
The wooden sword swept upward.
Slash!
A massive arc of compressed force erupted from the blade.
The slash stretched dozens of meters across and struck Garp directly.
His body was pushed backward.
For several moments, the blade of force continued driving him through the snow.
Then Garp planted his feet.
His muscles tightened.
With brute force alone, he shattered the slash.
The attack dispersed.
And Garp was already moving again.
Axel had barely completed his swing when the old man's fist slammed toward him.
The punch struck like a cannon shell.
But Axel did not move.
Garp did.
BOOM!
The reflected force hurled the Marine Hero backward.
He struck the ground once.
Bounced.
Struck again.
Bounced again.
Like a stone skipping across water, Garp tore through the snowy landscape, each impact leaving a fresh crater behind.
He flew more than a hundred meters before finally crashing to a stop.
Silence followed.
The watching Marines stood frozen.
No one had expected that.
Their legendary Hero of the Marines had just been sent flying.
Hina reacted first.
"Vice Admiral Garp!"
She rushed toward the crater.
Before she reached it, something moved inside.
Garp slowly stood.
"Ow, ow, ow..."
He rubbed his head.
Blood trickled down his face and across several scrapes on his body.
"You little bastard."
Garp glared toward Axel.
"Is that any way to treat your own grandfather?"
Axel rested the wooden sword against his shoulder.
"As expected."
"You really are difficult to deal with, old man."
He looked Garp over.
"But in one sense, your ridiculous strength actually makes things easier for me."
Garp's eyebrow twitched.
Axel continued.
"The stronger the attack, the more force Reflection has to return."
"If I were fighting someone on your level who used weaker attacks or more complicated methods, that would actually be more troublesome."
Garp vanished.
Axel's pupils contracted.
He barely had time to raise his sword.
Garp appeared directly in front of him.
"You're still a hundred years too early to lecture your grandfather!"
His fist came down.
Bang!
The wooden blade blocked it.
Axel smiled slightly.
"You still don't understand."
"Your attacks can't get through Reflection."
"No matter how much power you use, I can simply send it back..."
His voice stopped.
"Hm?"
Something had changed.
The pressure against the wooden sword increased.
Then increased again.
Axel's calculations spiked.
His brain load surged so sharply that his expression changed for the first time.
This force...
It was growing.
Garp grinned.
"If that wasn't enough..."
The muscles in his arm bulged.
"Then take twice as much!"
"FIST OF LOVE!"
The pressure exploded.
Axel's hand trembled around the wooden sword.
Not from fear.
His actual body was beginning to bear part of the load.
That alone told him the problem.
His remaining Calculation Power was too limited.
A large portion of it was constantly occupied maintaining his damaged body.
Against someone like Garp, whose raw strength was monstrous even by the standards of the Grand Line, the strain became obvious.
So that's it.
Trying to precisely reverse all of his force costs too much.
Axel changed methods.
Instead of calculating a clean reversal, he abandoned directional precision.
He only filtered out the vectors that would harm his body.
Everything else was released wherever it could go.
That required far less Calculation Power.
The result was immediate.
Garp's power poured into the ground.
BOOM!
The hill beneath them disappeared.
The entire raised section of terrain collapsed and flattened under the redirected force.
Rock fractured.
Snow erupted.
A violent tremor spread across the mountain.
Far below, parts of Drum Island shook.
Windows rattled.
Snow slid from rooftops.
Even people in distant settlements felt the ground tremble beneath their feet.
Garp stared at Axel.
"Brat!"
He punched again.
"Just let me hit you once so I can calm down!"
Axel deflected the next strike.
"Only an idiot would agree to that!"
Another fist came.
Axel redirected it into the mountainside.
BOOM!
Rock burst apart.
"If you don't let me hit you, I'm not stopping!"
Garp shouted.
"You know what I'm like!"
Axel ducked another punch.
"Reduce the strength to one percent and I'll consider it!"
"ONE PERCENT?!"
Garp roared.
"Is that any way to speak to your grandfather?!"
Axel swung his wooden sword.
"And is there any grandfather who tries to kill his grandson with every punch?!"
Their argument continued without pause.
So did their fight.
Boom!
Bang!
Crack!
Every collision shook the mountain.
To Axel and Garp, exchanging insults in the middle of battle seemed perfectly natural.
For everyone else, it was a nightmare.
One of the Drum Kingdom guards suddenly looked upward.
His face drained of color.
"Captain..."
Dalton followed his gaze.
His eyes widened.
The mountain above them was moving.
Snow had begun breaking loose from the higher slopes.
At first, only small sections slid.
Then the entire snowpack collapsed.
"Avalanche!"
Someone screamed.
The warning spread instantly.
"Avalanche!"
"Run!"
A massive wall of snow thundered down the mountain.
The repeated impacts from Axel and Garp had shaken the accumulated snow loose.
What began as a slide rapidly became a roaring white wave.
One guard stared in disbelief.
"They caused this?"
His voice shook.
"That old man and that boy..."
"They triggered an avalanche just by fighting!"
Another tremor rolled through the ground.
The guard nearly stumbled.
"And an earthquake too?!"
"What kind of humans are they?!"
Dalton had no time to answer.
"Stop staring!"
He pointed toward the side of the mountain.
"Move sideways!"
"Get out of the avalanche's path!"
The Drum Kingdom guards immediately ran.
Hina issued the same order to the Marines.
"Everyone move!"
"Do not run downhill!"
"To the sides!"
Soldiers scattered across the slope.
But the avalanche was already accelerating.
Hundreds of tons of snow surged downward with terrifying speed.
Trees vanished beneath it.
Rocks were swept away.
The roar grew louder with every second.
Dalton looked back.
His heart sank.
They were not going to make it.
The avalanche was almost on top of them.
Marines and Drum Kingdom guards ran desperately across the slope, but the wall of snow gained ground far faster than they could escape.
In only moments, it would swallow them all.
....
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