Rehn did not tell Potts to put down the egg. Instead, he began walking around him in a slow circle.
"Lieutenant Commander Potts, you've had contact with Haki before, haven't you?"
Potts, still in his griffin hybrid form and struggling to maintain balance while holding the egg, rumbled out a reply:
"Y-Yes…! I received basic training at Headquarters, but… I barely awakened Armament Haki. As for Observation… I don't have the slightest clue."
"Good. That saves me the trouble of starting from zero."
Rehn nodded, his expression turning serious.
"Then listen carefully as I explain what Haki truly is. The Marine Six Styles hone the body; those are techniques. Haki, however, is power, the power harnessed from spiritual energy and born from willpower!"
"First, Observation Haki!"
Rehn's tone grew solemn.
"Observation Haki is perception. It is listening. It is the ability to sense enemies outside your line of sight… to detect killing intent… even to predict your opponent's next action!"
"It is the act of extending your spiritual energy outward, transforming your awareness into a kind of 'touch.'"
Potts listened intently. This explanation was far more straightforward than what he'd heard at Headquarters.
"But-!"
Rehn's tone suddenly shifted.
"For us, this 'prediction' has a deeper meaning!"
He pointed toward the distant sea.
"When pirates attack, an average Marine reacts after the enemy fires. That creates noise!
A skilled Marine predicts the cannonball's trajectory and intercepts it, but that still creates noise!"
"But we? We must sense the pirate's killing intent at the very moment he decides to fire! And then deal with him before his hand even reaches the firing rope!"
"The ultimate essence of Observation Haki isn't 'responding to trouble.' It's foreseeing trouble, snuffing it out before it takes shape, before it makes the slightest sound!"
"That… is the greatest service we can offer Lord Renzo!"
Potts's massive body trembled as a flash of understanding lit up his eyes.
"Now," Rehn commanded, "close your eyes. Hold that egg steady. And… sense me."
Potts obeyed, shutting his beast-like eyes and focusing all his spirit on perception.
The training grounds fell silent.
Suddenly, Rehn's plump body moved with shocking agility, completely at odds with his round frame, lunging forward as one chubby finger shot toward the egg in Potts's claw!
Just as Rehn's fingertip was about to touch the shell,
"Rrraaagh!"
Potts's griffin head snapped sideways, and one giant wing swept out by pure instinct!
Whoosh!
A powerful gust forced Rehn to take a half step back, and the egg remained perfectly intact.
"Oh?" Rehn raised a brow in surprise. "Not bad. As a Mythical Zoan, your 'beast instinct' is naturally sharp, excellent fuel for awakening Observation Haki."
"Remember this feeling. Expand it. Until you can 'hear' even the crawling of every insect in this mountain."
Potts nodded heavily.
"Next, Armament Haki."
Rehn's face grew even more severe.
"Armament Haki is the hardening of spiritual energy! It forms invisible armor that greatly boosts defense, and it can also become the sharpest weapon to grab or strike those slippery Logia users!"
"But look at that punch of yours earlier!"
Rehn pointed at the distant coastline without mercy.
"You shattered a reef, but your force scattered everywhere, kicking up huge waves, absolutely unacceptable!"
"The essence of Armament isn't 'strength.' It's precision and penetration!"
"Lord Renzo needs a scalpel, not a wrecking hammer! We must condense power to a single point, creating the most lethal strike with the smallest possible noise!"
Rehn picked up a granite fragment, thrown earlier when Potts shattered the reef.
"Watch closely."
He extended one pudgy index finger. With a soft pop, the fingertip was coated in jet-black Armament Haki.
Then, with a light tap,
"Shhhk…"
No loud noise. No explosion.
The solid granite block was pierced like tofu, leaving a perfectly smooth, round hole.
Potts's beast pupils shrank sharply.
That level of control…
"This is what we call efficiency," Rehn said proudly as he withdrew his finger. "Now, your turn."
"Maintain the egg without breaking it. Then take all your strength, your Mythical Zoan power, your freshly awakened Armament, and concentrate it into the tip of a single claw on your other hand."
"Huh?" Potts was stunned.
One hand doing delicate micro-control, the other performing high-level Haki compression?
"No excuses! If you face two enemies in the future, one you must capture alive, one you must instantly eliminate, will you choose only one? Lord Renzo doesn't have time to wait for you to deal with them one by one!"
"Yes, sir!"
Completely cowed by Rehn's bizarre logic, which somehow still made sense, Potts didn't dare slack off.
The massive griffin lowered himself to the ground. One claw trembled as it held the egg; the other lifted high, claw-tip pointing skyward as he closed his eyes and breathed heavily, trying to compress all his power and will into a single point.
It was excruciating.
Every muscle in his body trembled. Drops of sweat fell one after another.
Minutes passed.
Finally… the raised claw tip began to show a faint black glow. Weak, unstable, flickering in and out.
"Focus! Concentrate! Imagine that point is Lord Renzo's enemy! One strike, instant kill!" Rehn shouted.
"Rrraaaaahhh!"
Potts's eyes snapped open as he roared.
A dense, solid black aura burst to life at the tip of his claw!
"Now! Pierce it!"
Rehn tossed the same granite chunk he had demonstrated on.
Potts's claw slashed out like lightning,
Pssht!
A soft sound.
The granite was sliced cleanly in half mid-air, the cut smooth as a mirror.
And in his other claw…
The egg remained untouched.
Under the sunlight stood a majestic griffin, one claw holding a fragile little egg with delicate precision, the other claw-tip gleaming with deadly Armament Haki.
The scene was absurd, contradictory… and strangely awe-inspiring.
But Potts's heart was firm.
Because he knew he was finally walking a path, a quiet, efficient, professional path, that would allow him to truly ease Renzo's burdens.
.....
If you enjoy the story, my p@treon is 30 chapters ahead.
[email protected]/DaoistJinzu