Looking at Luffy, who had changed his combat stance, Hawkeye couldn't help but feel a hint of curiosity.
"What is it this time?"
Luffy's various strange combat stances and fighting styles made Hawkeye secretly marvel at the convenience of his Devil Fruit.
But what he found most astonishing and shocking was Luffy's continuously improving strength during their battle.
He had never seen anyone with such talent, growing stronger with every fight.
It was like Zoro, who had seemed strange to him before, but the disparity in strength between Zoro and him was too great, so the feeling wasn't as obvious.
But with Luffy, the visibly increasing speed of his strength made him worry that if Luffy had enough stamina and enough Haki,
Hawkeye himself might very well be the one to lose this fight.
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard Luffy speak.
"Gum-Gum: King Cobra!"
The next instant, Luffy's fist retracted into his body like a compressed spring, then burst out violently, shooting forth like a bullet.
What surprised Hawkeye was that this attack method, similar to the previous enlargement, was surprisingly fast.
So fast that even he found it difficult to track with his naked eye.
Hawkeye immediately activated Observation Haki, predicting Luffy's attack trajectory.
The next moment, he twisted his body and swung his sword, striking in a certain direction.
However, to his surprise once again, the attack he had predicted suddenly changed its course, switching to another direction.
Hawkeye once again relied on Observation Haki to predict and swung his sword in a certain direction.
But the anticipated attack route changed yet again.
"So that's it, Armament Haki can't hurt me, so he plans to use Observation Haki to attack me?"
Hawkeye thought to himself.
In fact, at this moment, Luffy was secretly overjoyed.
"Your comprehension is heaven-defying. Through firsthand combat experience, your Observation Haki has been strengthened."
Every clash with Hawkeye's Observation Haki allowed Luffy's Observation Haki to improve.
And with the continuous improvement of his Observation Haki, Luffy's attack frequency also became faster and faster.
His black and red arm rapidly curved in the air, continuously launching attacks at Hawkeye.
From the perspective of the people on Baratie, who were now a good distance away,
they saw a black and red arm, like a black snake, twisting and changing in the air with dazzling attack speed.
It was as if it was weaving around Hawkeye, forming an incredibly vast and intricate giant net.
Sanji watched, dumbfounded, and couldn't help but exclaim,
"Such fast attacks! He's making that Hawkeye only able to defend."
Zeff stared blankly at the dazzling battle, but his mind was thinking,
"That Straw Hat... I must let him take Sanji away. If Sanji follows him, he won't be buried."
Usopp was overjoyed and cheered for Luffy.
"sugei! Luffy! Defeat that Hawkeye!"
Zoro heard Usopp's words but shook his head and said,
"Such attacks alone won't defeat that Hawkeye. Although Hawkeye is currently only defending against the incredibly fast and varied attacks,"
"if he wanted to break through, he could just take one of Luffy's punches, then swing his sword at Luffy, and the situation would quickly reverse."
"That man has no intention of defeating Luffy right now; he just doesn't want to be hit by Luffy's attacks."
Uta also nodded silently, agreeing with Zoro's judgment.
But she then continued after Zoro's words, saying,
"However, when Luffy's Observation Haki improves to be a step ahead of Hawkeye's, the scene you described will happen."
If Luffy's Observation Haki could predict Hawkeye's movements a step ahead and launch an attack in advance, leaving Hawkeye no time to predict and defend, then the latter would have no choice but to attack to break the situation.
Luffy and Hawkeye's offense and defense continued.
Because he was constantly engaging in a contest of Observation Haki with his opponent, Luffy's Haki was consumed extremely quickly.
But at the same time, the speed of improvement was also very fast.
Just then, Luffy suddenly saw it in his mind.
Hawkeye, who had been dodging and defending, suddenly stopped, gripped his black blade, and fiercely unleashed a slash towards him.
And at the moment Hawkeye unleashed the slash, his fist finally struck Hawkeye, sending him flying.
But he himself also took a slash from Hawkeye and was severely injured.
...
"Future Sight!"
Luffy muttered to himself, instantly realizing what was happening.
At the same time, he immediately stopped chasing Hawkeye and retracted his fist.
Although hitting Hawkeye with a punch felt good, he didn't want to take a slash, especially one from Hawkeye.
It wasn't worth it!
His Observation Haki was almost depleted anyway, and he had reached the realm of Future Sight, so there was no need to harm each other with Hawkeye.
Meanwhile, on Hawkeye's side.
He had already clearly sensed that Luffy's attack routes were becoming increasingly difficult for him to predict. Just as he was losing his grasp and preparing to exchange blows with Luffy, he found that Luffy had actually stopped attacking.
Hawkeye immediately frowned and muttered in confusion,
"Is he out of strength? Or is it that..."
A shocking thought occurred to Hawkeye.
Could it be Future Sight?!
Just then, Luffy released his Gear Fourth form.
The exhaustion brought by Armament Haki and Observation Haki instantly made him feel utterly fatigued, and he lay weakly on the deck, panting heavily.
Seeing this, Hawkeye secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
It seemed Luffy was probably out of strength, and had not reached the realm of Future Sight.
Otherwise, such terrifying progress would make him doubt himself.
Even as the World's Greatest Swordsman, he did not have Luffy's monstrous progress speed.
"You're really ruthless! You actually intended to hit me that hard."
Suddenly, Luffy, lying on the ground, complained.
Hawkeye's pupils constricted upon hearing this, and his heart felt as if it had been pricked, secretly shocked.
"It really is... Future Sight?!"
But on the surface, Hawkeye maintained his usual cold demeanor and said faintly,
"I only intended to make you lose your combat ability, not to kill you."
With that, Hawkeye began to return his black blade to his back.
"Red Hair was right, you indeed gave me many surprises."
"With your talent, one day, you will surely grow into a top-tier powerhouse."
"You no longer have combat ability, so this battle ends here!"
"I will tell Red Hair about your growth."
"I hope the next time we meet, you will have grown enough to make me, the world's greatest swordsman, fight with all my might."
With those words, Hawkeye turned to leave.
But just then, he suddenly heard Luffy, lying on the ground, say,
"Wait!"
"Who said I... had no combat ability?"