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Night fell. Moonlight poured over the coast in a pale, silvery wash.
The battle raged on. Each explosive clash sent shockwaves rippling outward, kicking up sand and dust in rolling waves.
Satori was burning through every word he knew, frantically shouting into the Den Den Mushi as he tried to describe what he was seeing.But the line he repeated the most was always the same:
"Kyle got split in half—again—and he's not hurt!"
"He got cut open again! How is he still alive?!"
"Wait, weird—Kyle's using Tekkai… huh? He can use Tekkai while fighting?"
His astonished commentary made Sengoku freeze for a moment.
He knew the Rokushiki techniques well. Tekkai was primarily a defensive skill. When mastered, it hardened the body enough to shrug off bullets and ordinary blades. The drawback was total immobility—you had to brace yourself and tank the hit. Because of that, most practitioners rarely used it unless they absolutely couldn't dodge.
And even then, in most cases, it didn't save them from a tragic end.
To many people, Tekkai was basically a pointless technique.
But Sengoku also knew that once someone pushed Tekkai far enough—far beyond its usual limits—it became something else entirely. At that level, the immobility weakness vanished. The defense grew even harder. And with further refinement, it could even rebound force on impact, harden specific body parts like living weapons, and—combined with Armament Haki—create devastating attacks.
At this moment, Kyle was beginning to feel all the wonders of that transformation.
At level thirty, his Tekkai boosted his defense dramatically while still letting him move at high speed. His whole body felt like forged steel, his muscles like tightly wound springs. Every punch and kick carried monstrous power. Even without coating his attacks in Conqueror's Haki, he could still crush chunks of the ground with a single blow.
"Tekkai Fist?" he muttered."No… this is more like an Iron Body."
The thought made Kyle grin.
He didn't care about defense. He leveled Tekkai purely to harden his fists and body, to squeeze out more strength through sheer physical reinforcement. And he could feel it—if he pushed it even further, he'd be able to concentrate all that hardness into specific spots.
If he focused it into his fists, that would be a true Iron Fist.
In a way, it was already approaching the effect of Armament Haki—just without the ability to hit Logia users.
Night faded, but the battle didn't.
Humans in the pirate world truly had monstrous physiques. Neither side slowed, neither side hesitated.
Garp and Roger were already fighting in the island's center, blasting light and shockwaves through the forest with every collision.
After an entire night of fighting, Kyle pushed Tekkai to level fifty.
At that level, he could freely control it, stacking the defense that usually covered his whole body into a single point. Wherever he focused—fists, legs, arms—became his strongest weapon.
Even grains of sand that brushed his skin would bounce off and shoot outward like bullets from the reflexive muscular recoil.
It made his attacks against Rayleigh even fiercer.
"You're starting to look more and more like that monster Garp," Rayleigh muttered, eyes sharp.
The kid in front of him was absurd. Rayleigh could practically watch him grow stronger mid-fight.
By now, his fist could only be described as an iron weapon—maybe stronger than actual steel, with far better durability.
The battle felt endless. And Kyle didn't seem to feel tired at all.
In the blink of an eye, another day passed.
He died far fewer times this round. He had started adapting to the rhythm of fighting the Dark King.
He pushed Rankyaku to level thirty-five.
With both his fists and legs strengthened, and with his high-speed Soru movements, Rayleigh finally began to feel real pressure.
Pain flashed through Kyle's body as he spun in like a whirling top, both legs striking again and again.
"Rankyaku!"
A simple technique in others' hands, but in his it sliced through the forest like sweeping blades. A thousand meters of trees fell cleanly in half.
"This kid is probably the scariest Rokushiki user I've ever seen," Rayleigh thought, honestly stunned.
By the third day, he was tired—and he had witnessed firsthand how terrifyingly fast Kyle grew.
He was starting to suspect he had become the boy's whetstone.
On the fourth day, Rayleigh noticed Kyle had started using Shigan.
His fists tightened into fingers, and the piercing force behind each thrust was monstrous. Even worse, the kid wrapped Conqueror's Haki around his fingers.
Black-and-crimson lightning crackled. Every thrust tore the air, shooting a deadly shockwave forward for kilometers.
Rayleigh had no choice but to rely on Observation Haki to dodge. He had zero doubt that a direct hit would punch a hole straight through him.
"Shigan," Kyle whispered."As expected. When I combine local Tekkai hardening with Conqueror's Haki, the penetration increases even more."
He was thrilled.
He was testing each of the Rokushiki techniques in turn, and at high levels they were changing drastically.
His strength had undergone a full metamorphosis.
Now, he finally had real survivability in this world. He no longer needed to fear strange dangers lurking everywhere.
When he first arrived—immortal or not—he could still be caught, imprisoned, or hauled off by some mad scientist for dissection. Immortality wasn't invincibility.
Then Garp saved him. Then came the training. Then countless deaths, each one followed by a little more growth.
Until finally, here he stood—able to fight the Dark King Rayleigh without being instantly crushed.
"Shigan!"
He blurred forward.A soft pop rang out, and the air trembled.A finger-shaped shockwave streaked out with crackling black-red lightning, ripping toward Rayleigh.
Rayleigh's body flicked aside, dodging it by a hair.
A moment later, a thunderous boom shook the air behind him.
Anyone hearing that sound would never believe this was just Shigan—a basic marine technique.
"This kid has taken Rokushiki to a whole new level," Rayleigh sighed.
Then he surged forward again, blade swinging.
"I want to see how far you can grow."
The battle only intensified.
Satori kept acting like a war reporter, breathlessly updating Sengoku. The old admiral listened to wave after wave of unbelievable information.
He pieced together Kyle's image in his mind—his strength, his abilities—and built a rough mental model.
In the end, he reached a tentative conclusion:
"Kyle… might already have reached a quasi–Admiral level of combat power."
"But…"
"How is that even possible?!"
"..."
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