By the evening of the second day.
A day and a half had passed since Karl's first surprise attack.
In that day and a half, the ten warships of the Buster Call had advanced a mere forty nautical miles.
One nautical mile is 1,852 meters, so forty nautical miles is 74,080 meters.
Ignoring the first half-day, in the twenty-four hours since the warships started their paddle wheels, the Buster Call fleet had, on average, only advanced a little over three thousand meters per hour.
Only advancing three kilometers per hour.
For large warships with excellent shipbuilding technology, describing this speed as a snail's pace was no exaggeration.
Even with their main and secondary masts broken and their sails gone, the speed from the paddle wheels alone should not have been this slow.
This showed just how infuriating Karl's harassment of the ten Buster Call warships had been over the past day.
It was like sailing through a storm for a full day.
The ten warships had advanced across the ice field for a day under a constant barrage of lightning.
Throughout the day, the area of effect of the lightning barrage varied in size.
When it was small, it only struck the ice field in front of the warships, destroying their path forward.
When it was large, the lightning not only shattered the ice field but also took advantage of moments when the marine soldiers let their guard down to rest, attacking the ten warships and the marines who were repairing the masts and sails. Ultimately, thanks to the enhanced lightning rod devices and the powerful marines, these attacks did not succeed.
Even so, the marine soldiers, who were on edge every single moment, were thoroughly tormented by Karl.
"That monster, is his stamina infinite?"
"If the intelligence is correct, he's only 15 this year, right?"
"With that kind of stamina and Haki, is he a monster favored by the sea?"
"..."
On the main warship, the five Vice Admirals looked at Aokiji's back as he continued his clash of abilities with Karl, their eyes filled with deep shock.
It wasn't Aokiji's endurance that shocked them.
As one of the Navy's top combatants, Aokiji's strength was what one would expect from an Admiral.
What shocked them was the Dragon Rider, who was attacking from an unknown number of nautical miles away, so far that their Observation Haki couldn't sense him at all, yet he could still attack them from such an extreme distance.
Even a weakling could see it.
In the clash of abilities between Karl and Aokiji, the former's consumption was undoubtedly the greatest, perhaps several times that of the latter.
After all, Observation Haki consumes Haki, and fruit abilities consume stamina.
Aokiji only needed to release his cold air to refreeze a portion of the sea whenever the ice field was shattered.
Any smart person would not engage in a duel with such a clear disadvantage.
But Karl not only did it, he kept it up for an entire day.
His Haki capacity and stamina, combined with his age of 15, deeply shocked the five Vice Admirals, who were all in their prime.
Of course, they did not know.
This level of Haki and stamina consumption was nothing to Karl.
Because while continuously harassing the Navy's Buster Call, Karl had also used a few Skypiea Cloud Dials to create a cloud bed in the sky, harassing them while resting.
After a few or a dozen rounds of attacks, he would go down to the sea to catch sea beasts, cook them on the ice with electric heat, and use his hidden devouring trait and Life Return ability to instantly recover his spent stamina.
As for the consumption of his Observation Haki, forget a whole day; even ten days and ten nights straight would have no effect on Karl's Haki capacity.
Swoosh—
Another half-day passed.
As night fell, a dazzling golden light, like a small sun moving through the night, flew in from the horizon.
"Admiral Kizaru!"
When the golden light landed on the deck of the main Buster Call warship and formed Kizaru's tall figure, the five Vice Admirals and some of the marines on duty hurriedly shouted respectfully.
"My, my, apologies... I'm late."
Kizaru, who had spent over a day flying from the first half of the Grand Line to the New World, showed no signs of fatigue. With his hands in his pockets, he looked at Aokiji's back as he clashed with Karl and said with an exaggerated expression, "I bought a newspaper on my way here. I heard Kuzan and young Karl have been at it like this for more than a day."
"As expected of the youth, how truly scary."
"Borsalino, you're finally here!"
As Kizaru's voice fell, Aokiji immediately stopped his clash with Karl, turned around, and reverted to his usual lazy demeanor, saying to Kizaru, "From now on, I'm leaving it to you."
"Really now, can't you show a little respect for the elderly like young Karl?"
Kizaru put on a pained expression. "I gave up my precious vacation and rushed here from the first half of the Grand Line without stopping. My stamina consumption is even greater than young Karl's. Can't you let me rest for a night and act tomorrow?"
Though he said that, Kizaru's next action told everyone that he wasn't admitting to being old.
Swoosh—
A golden light shot into the sky, and in the next second, it was enveloped by the night.
Kizaru's figure had already disappeared from the main warship's deck.
"...What a pair of monsters!"
Seeing this, even Aokiji couldn't help but complain about the old and young duo.
Although Kizaru and Akainu were from the same generation and were both called monsters, Kizaru, who was a few years older than Akainu, was one of two monsters whose true depth even Aokiji couldn't fathom.
The other monster was not Akainu...
It was the true second-generation marine who was raised by the Marine Hero—Monkey D. Dragon.
Compared to those two monsters, Akainu was slightly inferior.
And he, their junior, was also a step below his three seniors.
Although Teacher Zephyr always scolded Kizaru for relying too much on his fruit ability.
But how could Aokiji not see it?
Beneath Kizaru's seemingly unbeatable ability lay powerful martial arts, swordsmanship, marksmanship, and Haki.
If he had to rank the three Admirals, Aokiji, as a participant, would definitely cast his vote for Kizaru.
"Yo... old man, we meet again."
The Glint-Glint Fruit's speed was incredibly fast, especially in a straight line, which even the Rumble-Rumble Fruit couldn't match.
After all, the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's teleportation relied on an electric field, whereas light did not.
Before long, Kizaru had flown several dozen nautical miles and found Karl on an ice floe, feasting on a large fish he had pulled from the sea and cooked with electric heat.
As if he had sensed Kizaru's presence long ago, Karl was no longer in the sky.
Seeing Kizaru, Karl waved at him while eating the grilled fish. "Old man, want some?"
"Perfect, I've been on the road all day and I'm a bit starving."
Kizaru descended from the sky as a flash of light, landing beside Karl. Without refusing, he tore off a piece of fish meat, tasted it, and asked, "No seasoning?"
"The seawater is the seasoning... the fish is fragrant enough," Karl said with his mouth full of fish, his words muffled.
"Indeed, your electric heat cooked it just right," Kizaru nodded, complimenting Karl's culinary skills.
One old, one young, standing on the ice field in the middle of the night, eating grilled fish.
If one didn't know better, they would think they were a grandfather and grandson, not enemies.
Neither Karl nor Kizaru took the opportunity to launch a sneak attack while the other was eating.
Having fought once on the Sabaody Archipelago, they both knew that a battle between light and lightning would be inconclusive.
If Kizaru were like Akainu, who adhered to "Thorough Justice," then even if no victor could be decided, he would fight Karl to the death.
But Kizaru followed "Ambiguous Justice," which was a neutral stance.
Despite being the oldest and strongest of the three Admirals, he had no ambition, joining neither the doves nor the hawks. In the original story, he couldn't even be bothered to compete with Akainu and Aokiji for the position of Fleet Admiral.
It was as if he was just going to work, punching in and out on time every day.
When capturing pirates, he would also adjust the force of his attack based on their character.
On this point, Kizaru was rather like Karl.
Because when Karl faced weaker opponents, he would also choose the force of his attack, only going for the kill when he encountered some truly hopeless idiots.
It was these similar abilities and similar personalities that turned their relationship into one of frenemies after just one encounter, giving them the air of an unlikely friendship that transcended age.
"Old man, are you done eating?"
After the old and young man had split the entire large fish, Karl broke off a fishbone to pick his teeth and looked at Kizaru. "Shall we continue our unresolved battle?"
"One does need some post-meal exercise."
Kizaru took out a handkerchief from somewhere and wiped his mouth.
Swoosh—BOOM!!!
With no wind-up, the two of them lifted their right legs, one shining with golden light and the other with blue-white lightning, and kicked towards each other.
The collision of the Lightspeed Kick and the Thunder-Light Kick directly created a massive mushroom cloud on the ice field.
The immense energy, capable of kicking apart a Sabaody mangrove tree, turned into an unparalleled shockwave, carrying astonishing light, heat, and electric heat, shattering and melting the ice field for several thousand meters around.
"Yasakani no Magatama!"
As if to avoid letting his colleague see him slacking off.
The shockwave of light and heat had just dispersed the giant mushroom cloud.
Kizaru, who had to teleport into the air because the ice beneath his feet had shattered, pinched a golden photon between his fingers and shot countless dazzling light bullets down at Karl, who was standing on a piece of broken ice. The barrage was like a curtain of rain, threatening to submerge him.
"God's Judgment."
Karl simply raised a hand and released a pillar of lightning, blocking Kizaru's barrage. Its remaining power continued unabated, engulfing Kizaru himself.
As a Glint-Glint Fruit user, Kizaru could actually release a giant laser similar to God's Judgment.
It was just that his marksmanship was superb, and compared to a light pillar that consumed more stamina, he preferred to compress light into a laser and fire it like a sniper.
Letting Karl's God's Judgment engulf him, Kizaru's body was carried a certain distance before he teleported back to his original position and once again unleashed Yasakani no Magatama on Karl.
Another sky-full of bullets rained down.
To protect the "ice floe" beneath his feet, Karl once again used God's Judgment, which consumed a tiny bit more stamina than Kizaru's move. The lightning pillar once again blocked the curtain of light and engulfed Kizaru in the air.
The old man and the young man, on the vast and boundless ice field, began their performance once more, competing for the title of best actor.
Without Karl's harassment, the ten Buster Call warships advanced steadily with their paddle wheels.
At three in the morning, the warships passed by Karl and Kizaru's battlefield.
Watching the gold, blue, and white fireworks continuously blooming in the night sky, all the marines, including the five Vice Admirals but excluding Aokiji, were deeply captivated by the visually spectacular battle.
They watched in shock at the light bullets, any one of which could destroy a small sailboat; the lightning bolts, any one of which could shatter a large warship; the lightning pillar that could blast apart a large warship in a single hit; and the charged lasers that would create a giant mushroom cloud upon hitting the ice...
Karl and Kizaru's clash this time was nothing like their casual swordplay on the Sabaody Archipelago.
The two of them fought as if they had truly lost their tempers, each move a world-destroying, large-scale attack that perfectly illustrated what it meant to have a top-tier Logia ability.
Among the nearly ten thousand marine soldiers, the vast majority had their worldviews completely shattered by these scenes.
Neither Karl nor Kizaru paid any attention to the ten warships passing in the distance, as if the night was too dark for them to see.
After five in the morning.
Sensing that the ten warships had completely left his perception range, Kizaru finally stopped using his high-consumption ultimate moves. He condensed a sword of light and began a new round of casual swordplay with Karl.
"Are you just going to let them leave?"
As they clashed with swords, Kizaru voiced his question. "Although I'm confident I can stop you, with your speed which is no less than my own, and your even more troublesome teleportation, stopping them or causing them trouble should have been a piece of cake for you, right?"
"Old man..."
Holding his Armament Haki-clad knight's sword, Karl blocked Kizaru's light sword once again, then suddenly grinned and said something that was both familiar and strange to Kizaru, "Do you know my title?"
"Could it be..."
Remembering Karl's Blue-Eyes White Dragon that could ignore the lightning pillar, Kizaru couldn't help but show a look of surprise.
"You're a good guesser, you just happened to guess Little White's true name!"
Karl smiled meaningfully. "Little White's species name is Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
"But the bounty you placed on Little White severely underestimates his power..."
Staring at the sunglasses Kizaru wore even in the middle of the night, Karl said, word by word, "Little White is a monster whose strength is no less than mine!"
"...That is truly surprising."
Seeing that Karl wasn't lying, Kizaru couldn't help but sigh.
"Old man, just you watch."
Karl was full of confidence in his little dragon. "After this incident is over, Little White's name will spread throughout the entire world!"
"ROAR..."
As if in response to Karl.
An unknown number of nautical miles away from Karl and Kizaru, a giant dragon that had flown from Gran Tesoro streaked across the night sky like a massive blue-white meteor.
The dragon's roar, which could intimidate all living things, scared the sea beasts that poked their heads above the water, causing them to flee back into the sea in a panic.
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