Two hours later, the three battlefields were still in a stalemate.
Nami was exhausted from fighting, finally understanding the feeling Carina and Hancock had during their spars.
No matter what powerful move she used, whether it was the Super Railgun or the golden Lightning Bolt, she couldn't do anything to Kizaru.
What was even more infuriating was that if Kizaru was in a good mood, he would use Haki to dissipate Nami's moves head-on.
If he was feeling lazy, he would just use his fruit ability to dodge, making Nami's charged attacks miss completely.
Although Nami could also ignore Kizaru's attacks, and with her teleportation that ignored all obstacles, she could prevent Kizaru from getting close...
...compared to his lasers, Nami's lightning consumption was clearly greater.
So, after more than two hours, Nami had already used up more than half her stamina, while Kizaru wasn't even breathing heavily, still standing with his hands in his pockets and pouting, looking extremely punchable.
In contrast, Hancock, Carina, and Aokiji's side had gotten serious.
Even from a great distance, one could see explosions of flames, storms, lightning, and ice over there.
If one zoomed in, they could see the ice plain there was covered in craters, filled with various elemental and petrification marks.
Aside from Carina, who was acting as support and was completely unharmed, both Hancock's traditional maid outfit and Aokiji's suit jacket had some damage.
Traces of blood also lingered at the corners of their mouths.
There were no external wounds, meaning the blood was from internal injuries.
Compared to Aokiji, Hancock's injuries were slightly more serious. Besides the internal damage from Advanced Armament Haki, there was also frostbite from the Ice-Ice Fruit's cold air.
From this, it was clear that Hancock's combat power, while able to fight a Marine Admiral to a standstill for a short time, still had a slight gap compared to the Admiral's comprehensive strength.
But this small gap could be instantly closed once Hancock Awakened her fruit or mastered Conqueror's Haki Infusion.
The advantage of someone possessing the qualities of a king!
On the Buster Call's side, the Kuja warriors had tied up all four Headquarters Vice Admirals and the other Marine elites.
They used the shackles and ropes from the warships.
Although they had won, Nojiko still hadn't reverted her mobile castle form, and Perona hadn't come out, instead sending out a few Negative Hollows to stand guard.
After all, this group of Marine elites were her captives and bargaining chips for post-war negotiations.
Because her adoptive mother was a Marine, Nojiko did allow the injured to be treated.
Unlike Kizaru, who was throwing the fight, and Aokiji, who was fighting seriously...
...Garp's side was having a blast.
Like Kaido, Garp hadn't encountered a fellow martial arts expert in a long time.
Although Yami was an unprecedented multi-Devil Fruit user, in his fight with Garp, aside from using the Momo Momo no Mi, he hadn't used any other fruit abilities, just using Haki and martial arts for a fist-to-fist, flesh-to-flesh battle.
Garp, not knowing Yami's true purpose, was thoroughly enjoying the fight.
He didn't know if it was an illusion, but Garp found that as they fought, this kid's strength seemed to be... getting stronger?
At first, Garp thought it was because he was old, a matter of his stamina declining.
But he discovered it really wasn't his imagination; this kid's strength was truly increasing.
"Hahaha... brat, you're not one of those types who gets stronger as they fight, are you?"
Garp laughed loudly, his sleeves torn, the veins on his arms bulging. His fist, covered in a black substance and wreathed in dark red lightning, blasted towards Yami with a stunning sonic boom.
"It's not that I'm getting stronger, it's that you're getting weaker."
Facing Garp's Conqueror's Haki-infused punch, Yami didn't dodge this time, countering with his own fist wreathed in Advanced Armament Haki.
The two fists collided, though they didn't truly make contact, blocked by an invisible substance.
However, it was not a clash of Conqueror's Haki Infusion.
Unlike before, when he was sent flying by Conqueror's Haki Infusion, this time Yami wasn't blasted straight back. It appeared to be an even match.
The terrifying shockwave, carrying dark red lightning, roared towards Garp's side.
On Yami's side, there was only the raging shockwave.
Two powers from completely different dimensions... were evenly matched. It was simply incredible.
But it was a fact! Because Yami really had gotten stronger.
Although he hadn't stolen the Conqueror's Haki Infusion technique, Yami's "Clairvoyance + Scan" stealing skill had stolen a higher-level application of Garp's Life Return.
As a martial arts master, Garp's mastery of Life Return was at its peak. His consciousness and body were perfectly fused. Every punch could be a terrifying blow that shattered mountains, or just a normal blow that gave a child a lump on the head.
By observing the cellular changes when Garp used a full-power blow, Yami also infused his consciousness into his body, imitating Garp's power-generation technique, gradually gaining a deeper level of control over the "monster physique" given by the system.
The upgrade in his bodily control also increased the multiplication factor of the strength he boosted with the Momo Momo no Mi in his normal state.
Therefore, even without using the King's Punch, Yami, just by using Advanced Armament Haki and his multiplied strength, blocked Garp's Conqueror's Haki Infusion.
This result made Yami extremely excited.
In his eyes, Garp was now like a character from a wuxia novel. The energy pathways of his every move were displayed before him.
He just needed to imitate those energy pathways!
He had learned the Life Return technique of how to control his body for perfect power generation. Next was Conqueror's Haki Infusion.
So, after the power of that punch dissipated, Yami used teleport to dodge Garp's next punch. His figure appeared a hundred meters in the air, looking down at Garp, "The wrestling game is over. Next up is my strongest attack! I hope you don't die, Marine Hero!"
After speaking, Yami used Life Return to mobilize all the bodily energy he could gather in an instant, concentrating it all in his fists and infusing it with Advanced Armament Haki.
In an instant, Garp, who had been laughing heartily on the ice plain below, looked up at Yami with a rare, solemn expression.
Because... he felt a long-absent sense of deadly suffocation!
This feeling of suffocation was extremely strong! So strong that he couldn't evade it, which meant... the coming attack was likely unavoidable!
Zzzzzzt...
Thus, Garp didn't hesitate in the slightest. He immediately covered his iron fists with Advanced Armament Haki, and then wreathed them in Conqueror's Haki.
Dark red lightning swirled around the legendary Marine.
"Guaranteed-Hit Series! King's Punch: Reckless Bombardment!"
At this time, Yami, in the sky, finished charging. He continuously threw punches downwards, his arms turning into afterimages.
"Fist Bone Impact: Meteor Shower!"
Garp likewise threw continuous punches towards the sky, his hands also turning into afterimages.
BOOM—
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