The sky over Hachinosu Island was torn apart by two vastly different forces...
"Momo: Three Hundred Times Speed!" Wald's figure suddenly blurred, and the ground where he had stood exploded into a spiderweb-like crater ten meters in diameter.
His Armament Haki-clad fist, accelerated three hundred times, ripped a vacuum tunnel through the air, carrying a sonic boom cloud directly towards Gern's face.
Gern's pupils constricted slightly, and he brought black blade eight desolations across.
"Clang!!!" A metallic clang echoed throughout the island, and a shockwave spread in a ring, leveling all the ruins within a hundred-meter radius.
Gern's military boots plowed two deep furrows into the ground, and the blade of black blade eight desolations trembled slightly from the immense force.
"It's not over yet!" Wald sneered, changing his stance, and his left fist, also accelerated three hundred times and amplified in strength, slammed towards Gern's abdomen.
Gern's left hand instantly covered itself in Armament Haki, and his fist, imbued with vibrating particles, met the attack.
"Boom!!!" The moment their fists collided, space seemed to rip apart.
The energy storm generated by the clash of pale shockwaves and amplified impacts sent both of them flying.
"In that case, let's go even faster!" Wald adjusted his posture in mid-air, pushed off the ruins with his feet, and his figure vanished again.
"Momo: Four Hundred Times Speed!"
This time, even Gern's Observation Haki could only catch a blurry afterimage.
"Bang!" A heavy punch slammed into Gern's back, sending him crashing into the ground and kicking up a dust cloud dozens of meters high.
From the dust, Gern slowly stood up, wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, and his fighting spirit intensified: "Interesting..."
Wald stood not far away, his muscles gleaming with a metallic luster from his full-body Armament Haki, but his smile grew even more sinister: "What? Can't keep up already?"
"No." Gern suddenly smiled, "I was wondering, your body... how many times can it endure?"
Wald's pupils constricted.
Gern's figure suddenly vanished, not with Soru, not with Moonwalk, but with pure—"Quake Flash: Molecular Leap!"
Wald hastily turned, only to see Gern already behind him, black blade eight desolations slashing down diagonally with high-frequency vibrating pale particles!
"Heaven Quake: Sky Split!"
"Momo: Five Hundred Times Speed!" Wald erupted, relying on his Devil Fruit ability, pushing his amplification to the limit once more to barely avoid the fatal strike, but his right shoulder was still grazed by the blade, instantly becoming a bloody mess.
"Pfft!" Blood splattered, and Wald staggered back, his eyes filled with disbelief: "You... how is that possible..."
"Your acceleration is strong, but your current self ultimately has limits (insufficient development)." Gern flicked the blood beads from his blade.
"But vibration... has none."
"What a joke?!" Wald sneered, throwing a handful of pellets, the metallic marbles gleaming with a cold light in the sunlight.
"Momo: Hundred Times Range Cannon!"
In an instant, dozens of pellets rapidly expanded in the air, each transforming into a gigantic cannonball.
The surface of the projectiles glowed reddish from air friction, and the sonic booms generated by their increased speed shattered all the surrounding building glass.
A hundred-fold amplified barrage of destruction rained down on Gern like a meteor shower!
Seeing this, Gern remained calm, his left hand slightly splayed.
Tiny ruptures appeared in the surrounding air, followed by the sudden appearance of eight pale energy spheres, with high-frequency vibrating arcs of electricity dancing on their surfaces.
"Heaven Quake: Eight Extremities Orbs."
As he lightly tapped his fingertips, the eight vibrating orbs shot out as if alive, drawing perfect arcs in the air, precisely intercepting every incoming cannonball.
And the moment the vibrating orbs contacted the cannonballs, "Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The shockwaves from the consecutive explosions literally lowered the ground within a hundred-meter radius by three feet, and dust soared into the sky.
However, under the cover of the explosions, Wald's figure suddenly flashed to Gern's side.
At the same time, a victorious smirk played on his lips, and his left palm glowed with an eerie amplification aura.
"You made a fatal mistake, Marine!" Wald's eyes flashed with cunning, "A swordsman should hold onto his weapon......."
"Momo: Fifty Times Impact!" The palm, imbued with amplified power, slammed heavily onto the hilt of Black Blade.
Under the force of the fifty-fold impact, the Black Blade shot out like an arrow from a bowstring.
With a "Zheng" sound, it deeply embedded itself into a rock wall a hundred meters away, only its hilt still trembling outside.
After succeeding, Wald used the momentum to leap back, plowing two deep furrows in the ground with his feet, crossing his arms over his chest, and sneering:
"Now, let me see you without your sword......."
Before his words finished—"Boom!!!"
A suffocating Conqueror's Haki erupted like a tsunami, and the air hummed piercingly under the extreme pressure!
Gern's figure suddenly blurred, and almost the instant Wald landed, he was already upon him!
"Who told you..." Gern's right fist was wrapped in dark, reddish flowing Haki.
Purple-black Haoshoku lightning also danced wildly on his fist, and for a moment, this scene continuously magnified in Wald's pupils.
"...that I need a sword to fight?"
"Black Quake: God-Slaying Nail!!" A simple, unadorned straight punch, yet the moment it was thrown, space cracked like glass!
"Bang!!" Wald's hastily raised arms exploded with an unbearable sound of bones cracking the instant they made contact!
The force of the punch did not dissipate; the terrifying vibration wave directly penetrated his defense, sending his entire body flying!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!" His body, like a cannonball, pierced through the island, smashing through ruins and rock walls along the way.
Finally, he slammed hard into the reef cluster on the eastern coastline!
"Cough..." Wald spat out a mouthful of blood, his eyes filled with shock.
"This power... how is it possible...
You can't be stronger than my amplified power, I don't believe it!!!"
The next second, Wald's muscles began to swell unnaturally, and the blood vessels under his skin bulged like giant pythons!
"Momo: Ultimate Amplification Giantification!!"
His body swelled wildly—five meters, ten meters, twenty meters...
Finally, he transformed into a fifty-meter-tall Armament Haki steel giant god!
His muscles, as if cast from steel, gleamed with a metallic luster, flowing wildly across his body!
"Now..." Wald's voice boomed like thunder.
"Taste the limits under a hundred times the strength, speed, and physique!!!"
"Thud!!" He took a step, and the entire island trembled violently!
The next second, his figure flashed to Gern's face with incredible speed!
"Momo: Hundred Times Speed: Giant Gatling Gun!!"
"Boom boom boom boom boom!!" His fists hammered out like a meteor shower, each strike tearing a vacuum tunnel in the air!
Where his punches passed, the earth cracked, and the sea churned with towering waves!
However, facing this world-destroying offensive, Gern merely raised his gaze coldly, his fists wrapped in high-frequency vibrating pale particles, the air around his fists twisting and collapsing!
"Black Quake: Conjoined Stars!"
His punch speed was in no way inferior to the amplified Wald's; every strike precisely met and intercepted!
Their fists collided wildly, erupting in deafening roars, and shockwaves swept across the entire island like a tsunami!
At this moment, the entire Hachinosu Island trembled under their power!