In the world of the Pirate King, it's common for two evenly matched powerhouses to clash in a fight that lasts for days and nights before a winner is decided.
Consider the following examples from the manga: Ace vs. Jinbe, Aokiji vs. Akainu competing for the position of Fleet Admiral, and of course, the Roger Pirates vs. the Whitebeard Pirates. The latter fought during the day and threw parties at night to rest. Once they started, these were all prolonged battles lasting days and nights.
When Liam left Kuja Island a year ago, his battle with Hancock was no different. They fought for days until Hancock finally exhausted her stamina, and only then did it end.
Such battles can drag on until one side runs out of stamina because both combatants deliberately avoid using overly dangerous killing moves.
Even when he had the advantage, Liam couldn't beat Hancock to death.
Hancock, who possesses the Medusa Fruit, wouldn't use a finishing move like the Medusa Gaze either because winning that way would be meaningless.
That was a normal duel, with both sides holding back.
However, in a true fight to the death, even if the combatants are evenly matched, once they enter the battle with the resolve to kill each other, it's unlikely to drag on until the next day—often, the outcome is decided quickly.
Furthermore, Liam and Haiyna were not evenly matched to begin with.
Bang!
Liam was blasted away by a punch and crashed through a large section of the already collapsing Royal City Fortress wall.
Haiyna drew her sword.
To the naked eye, it was impossible to see how she swung it. Several rapidly spinning slashes burst out, chasing Liam's trajectory and slicing through the remaining ruins as smoothly as cutting tofu.
Boom!
Liam pushed away the rubble pressing down on him, then swung his metal staff and shattered the incoming slashes.
Despite the level of reinforcement of his physical body, directly confronting those slashes with his staff caused his grip to tremble and a dull pain to spread through his hands.
Haiyna's strength was exactly as his Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki) had sensed: monstrous.
She was probably still slightly weaker than the two old monsters he often sparred with on the nameless island, Red-Hair and Hawk-Eyes, but far stronger than fellow Shichibukai Crocodile, whom Liam had chased around.
She was also stronger than Big Mom's third daughter, the "Demon Lady" Charlotte Amande, whom Liam faced in the sword-hero tournament.
Had this woman participated in the tournament, it definitely wouldn't have been Hawk-Eyes's solo show. Liam swung his staff to disperse several fierce slashes, then suddenly looked up.
Haiyna had leapt high above him with overwhelming momentum capable of cleaving the island in two. Her long blade came down toward Liam!
He instantly poured all of his Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki) into the metal staff in his hands and swung upward.
Clang!
The black blade collided with the black staff, and red-and-black lightning erupted wildly, like writhing serpents.
Haiyna pressed her black blade downward.
Liam held it off with his completely blackened staff. The ground beneath his feet split rapidly along the line of Haiyna's vertical slash. With a thunderous boom, it collapsed.
A massive chunk was cleanly shaved away from the entire palace high ground, centered on the axis of where Liam and Haiyna were clashing.
"Ah!"
Ross grabbed her father with her mouth to keep him from falling. The two retreated to a safe corner, both pale with shock.
The king's face was deathly white. "She cut the earth apart with a single strike. Is she still human?"
Still unfocused from the shock, Ross murmured, "Giorno can actually fight a monster like this..."
…
The city fortress collapsed and part of the palace's high ground slid away.
Stussy, wearing large brown-tinted sunglasses, watched the scene from afar.
"Truly astonishing... Just as expected of Laut Haiyna," she murmured to herself. "Back then, for the sake of a single woman, she dared to storm the Hundred Beasts Pirates alone. After becoming a Shichibukai, she turned into a Devil Fruit ability user somehow. I'd hoped that after developing her fruit powers, her combat and swordsmanship skills would decline slightly..."
Otherwise, even if Giorno managed to drain a great deal of Haiyna's stamina before losing, Stussy wasn't certain she could subdue Haiyna and her five companions.
…
"With such terrifying strength..." The King said bitterly, heartbroken. "Why would she need to use such bizarre methods to toy with the people of this island?"
"..." Ross stood there, stunned and speechless.
Liam narrowly dodged Haiyna's sword. Her blade sliced the remaining City Fortress behind him cleanly in half.
Several strands of Liam's black hair drifted down. Seizing the opening, he swung his blackened metal staff with full force, smashing Haiyna away.
She spun several times in midair and landed lightly on the ground.
"Huff…" Liam stood up, metal staff in hand, and let out a long breath.
Haiyna brushed the dust off her clothes and studied Giorno, who was sitting across from her. "If your strength is only on par with that black ghost, then I'm afraid you've chosen the wrong opponent, little boy."
Earlier, when B.I.B. descended from the sky and exchanged punches with Haiyna, the two were evenly matched.
Liam's pupils shrank as the Haiyna before him vanished from her spot.
Top-level great swordmasters almost always possess top-tier speed. Their sword strikes are lightning fast, and the swordsman's movement speed is no slower.
She was so fast that even Kenbunshoku Haki (Observation Haki) seemed sluggish by comparison.
However, Liam's instincts in battle were even faster than his conscious reactions.
His fist, entwined with Busoshoku Haki (Armament Haki), collided head-on with Haiyna's blackened punch.
Bang!
Black lightning erupted between their clashing fists, and the corner of Liam's eye twitched slightly.
"Your Haki still isn't up to standard," Haiyna breathed softly, her voice like a fragrant exhale. "Little boy."
With another bang, Liam was knocked backward, his feet plowing two long furrows across the ground for more than ten meters.
"Tss…" Liam shook his hand hard. As the Haki faded, his fist was flushed red from the exchange.
Despite having a body strengthened by years of using Tekkai and reinforced by Busoshoku Haki, he still felt pain in his fist during that exchange.
"Well," Liam shrugged. "Beating up weaklings all the time isn't much fun. That's precisely why I came to spar with you, Sister Hai."
"Is it worth staking your life on that?"
Haiyna held her sword in her left hand and clenched her right fist. Her figure flickered as she charged again.
"If it weren't worth it," Liam replied, "I wouldn't have come to the Grand Line in the first place."
With his left hand clenched into a fist and his right hand gripping the metal staff, Liam strode forward.
Bang, Bang, Bang…
Black fist against black fist, black fist against black blade.
Haiyna's blackened fist slammed into Liam's chest, drawing blood from him. Yet he counterattacked fiercely.
His black staff thrust toward Haiyna's abdomen, but it was blocked by her blackened blade. She shook her head at him lightly. Naughty kid.
Bang, Bang, Bang…
The two exchanged blows at a dizzying speed, streaks of blood spraying out periodically.
The already-ruined City Fortress Palace suffered even greater devastation from their violent clash, its level of ruin climbing several notches higher.
Haiyna's stamina showed no signs of dropping. As they fought, she studied the young pirate closely. She could sense that, emotionally and physically, he was in an extremely excited yet calm state, a peak condition perfectly suited for combat.
Giorno had been like this from the very beginning, maintaining that peak state all the way to now. Even after he took many of her attacks head-on, including several solid, Haki-infused punches,, there was barely any change.
Such overwhelming stamina caught Haiyna's attention. The strong fighters on this sea were almost all stamina monsters, but this little boy in front of her was a stamina monster among stamina monsters.
He reminded her of the monster she had once fought long ago who could incarnate as a dragon: Kaido.
With that thought, Haiyna slashed down.
Clang!
Her blade struck the black staff, and black lightning erupted as sparks flew between the weapons.
Aside from Shanks and Mihawk, Kaido was the first opponent Liam had met since leaving Kuja who could overpower him in raw strength.
He freed his left hand and punched Haiyna.
Haiyna freed her right hand as well, raising her palm to meet Liam's fist.
Pa!
Despite her height of two meters compared to Liam's two-point-four meters, her palm was not small at all—her slender hand completely enveloped his left fist.
Their gazes met.
Haiyna smiled faintly. From her palm, large amounts of dark green liquid surged forth and crawled up Giorno's arm, spreading toward his entire body.
Rot-Rot Fruit · Corrosive Rot!
Liam used both his left fist and the metal staff in his right hand to blast Haiyna away from him. By then, the dark green poisonous rot had already covered more than half of his body.
The liquid slid down over him. His clothes rapidly decayed under its corrosion, falling away in chunks and revealing skin coated in Busoshoku Haki.
Liam said, "Bubbles are fine for a quick wash, but I'll pass on this one."
Having recognized Jiabode's ability as the Bubble-Bubble Fruit from the manga, he knew the worst it could do was limited. That was why he'd dared to let her get close and touch him freely.
But this rot poison was no joke.
Even when Liam went wild, he did so with restraint. He wasn't reckless enough to throw his life away.
With both hands blackened by Busoshoku Haki, he wiped the dark green liquid off his body and flung it to the ground. There was no sizzling sound, yet the ground slowly rotted away all the same.
Across from him, Haiyna twirled her sword once and smiled faintly before charging again.
"…"
Liam met her head-on.
Bang, bang, bang...
The two clashed fiercely once more, but this time Liam fell behind much faster.
Haiyna swung her sword. Liam dodged, but was seized by the throat with her right hand.
Splash!
Another surge of dark green poison poured from her palm and spread over Liam's body.
He immediately spread Busoshoku Haki across his entire body, blocking the corrosive toxins produced by her Devil Fruit ability.
"Huff..."
Liam jumped back to create distance and let out a long breath.
"What's wrong? Starting to get tired now, stamina boy?" Haiyna twirled her sword again.
Liam snapped back irritably. "You keep calling me 'boy.' How old are you anyway, auntie?"
Haiyna replied casually, "Old enough."
"That figures," Liam nodded, quickly wiping the dark green liquid off himself again with Haki-coated hands and flinging it to the ground. "Keeping full-body Busoshoku Haki up all the time must be exhausting, right?"
Haiyna smiled and charged once more.
"You haven't seen me truly tired yet!"
Bare-chested and entirely blackened by Haki, Liam lifted his metal staff and rushed to meet her again.
Clang!
As the black blade and the metal staff collided once more, the blade bit slightly into the body of the staff.
(End Of This Chapter)
You can read ahead up to 30 chapters on my patreon https://www.patreon.com/marvel6395