At the same time, in the center of the training ground, before the dust had settled, a purple figure shot up into the sky!
Zephyr used Moonwalk, his right fist charged to its limit, and his pitch-black Haki even glowed with dark red light: “Haki isn’t about resisting, it’s about conquering!”
“I can’t let him get into position.” Gern’s pupils constricted, and he quickly activated Quake Flash, attempting to elementalize and dodge.
But Zephyr’s Observation Haki locked onto his movements in real-time, predicting them, and then his punch suddenly changed direction.
“Bang!!!” This punch shattered the sound barrier, hitting Gern squarely in the chest, and a circular airwave exploded in the sky!
Gern spat out a mouthful of blood, smashing into the ground like a meteor!
“Is it over?!” Someone exclaimed.
However, Gern, who had fallen to the ground, suddenly clapped his hand on the ground, “Quake Wave: Impact!”
The recoil made him bounce up, and at the same time, pale vibrating particles condensed at his fingertips, “Quake Roar: Piercing Shot!”
“Whoosh!” A spiral ray shot straight at Zephyr’s throat!
Zephyr tilted his head to dodge, the ray grazed his ear, penetrating a bottomless hole through the rock wall behind him, and a muffled explosion immediately followed from inside, then the entire structure shattered!
“That was close…” Zephyr landed, finally revealing a hint of a smile, “Now that’s more like it.”
“Zephyr-sensei.” Gern stood up, panting, and grinned: “Your warm-up should be over, right?”
As he spoke, Gern clashed his fists together, and vibrating ripples spread out in layers like ocean waves.
“Heaven Quake: Star Ring!” A circular quake wave swept across the entire field.
“Hahaha!” Zephyr laughed loudly, forced to retreat, then stepped forward, his right fist, imbued with Haki, began to flash with black lightning, splitting the quake wave.
“Final blow!!”
“Gladly!” Gern roared back, bringing his fists to his waist to charge, vibrating particles frantically gathering at his knuckles, and space began to shatter and collapse.
“Heaven Quake: Piercing Star!!” Their fists crashed together with a booming sound.
“Boom!!” Blinding, shattering white light engulfed everything!
For a moment, the Marines outside the field watched dumbfounded, even Kuzan had unknowingly stood up, his eyes fixed intently on the battle within the field.
When the light dispersed, in a giant crater a hundred meters in diameter, Zephyr stood proudly, while Gern was on one knee, his right arm trembling.
“Heaven Quake: Air Burst!” Gern gritted his teeth and clasped his hands together, releasing a shockwave at extremely close range.
Zephyr did not dodge or evade, crossing his arms to take the hit head-on, the ground beneath his feet instantly collapsing, but his figure remained motionless.
“Good power, but the precision is a bit off,” Zephyr commented, “But, using your Devil Fruit ability with such high intensity—your stamina is insufficient right now, so this is normal.”
As he spoke, Zephyr suddenly changed his move, an uppercut once again striking Gern’s chin directly.
Gern barely managed to turn his head to avoid it, but felt another heavy blow to his abdomen—Zephyr’s left fist had been waiting there, he didn’t know when.
“Ugh!” Gern spat out a mouthful of sour liquid, his body flying out again.
“Secondly, Observation Haki.” Zephyr stood with his fists withdrawn, “Predicting your movements is easier than predicting the weather.”
“I didn’t realize… you could even predict the weather.” Gern lay on the ground, panting heavily.
He originally thought he could at least exchange a few blows with Zephyr, but he didn’t expect that in front of a pure Haki and physical combat master, his Nature Type ability was practically useless.
“Get up.” Zephyr’s voice came.
Gern propped himself up, then suddenly smiled: “Zephyr-sensei, do you know?”
“Hm?”
“My greatest strength…” Gern suddenly looked up, a hint of slyness flashing in his eyes, “is that I’m incredibly resilient!”
Before his words finished, Gern clapped his hands on the ground, and the entire training ground suddenly began to vibrate violently.
Exclamations rose from outside the field, and many people lost their balance and fell to the ground.
“An earthquake?!”
“No, it’s his ability!”
The ground beneath Zephyr’s feet suddenly cracked, but he merely leaped lightly, adjusting his posture in mid-air.
In that instant, Gern had already rushed in front of him, a dog head formed by vibrating particles striking Zephyr’s face directly.
“Heaven Quake: White Dog!”
“Bang!” Zephyr caught the punch with one hand, and the two stalemated in mid-air.
“Interesting.” Zephyr chuckled, “To be honest, I see shadows of many people in your techniques.”
“Of course, and…” Gern grinned: “The more interesting part is yet to come!”
His fist suddenly vibrated at high frequency, Zephyr’s expression changed slightly, and he quickly released his hand and retreated.
But it was too late, the vibration wave had already transferred to his arm through contact.
With a crisp “crack,” a crack appeared in Zephyr’s sunglasses.
The field instantly erupted.
“He touched Zephyr-sensei!”
“He actually made ‘Black Arm’ retreat!”
After Zephyr landed, he looked at his arm, then looked up at Gern, and suddenly burst into laughter: “Good! Very good!”
Gern landed back on the ground, already panting.
That last blow had almost exhausted his stamina, but the effect was even better than he had expected.
“It seems I underestimated you.” Zephyr took off his broken sunglasses, his eyes becoming incredibly sharp, “You better be ready for this next move.”
Gern instantly felt an unprecedented sense of pressure.
“Oh ho?” Garp, standing outside the field, also narrowed his eyes, “Zephyr’s aura has completely changed.”
Before he finished speaking, Zephyr released a powerful Haki that cracked the surrounding ground.
In an instant, he had already appeared in front of Gern, his pitch-black fist rapidly expanding in his vision.
“Wait, Zephyr-sensei, I surre—”
“Black Arm: Impact!” Time seemed to stand still at this moment.
Gern saw Zephyr’s fist stop less than an inch from his nose, the wind from the punch already stinging his cheeks.
“Surrender?” Zephyr raised an eyebrow.
“I lost.” Gern swallowed and said frankly.
If Zephyr’s full-power punch had really landed just now, he would have been laid up for at least half a year.
Looking at Gern, Zephyr withdrew his fist, patted him on the shoulder, and reached out to pull him up, his voice uncharacteristically gentle.
“Good performance. At your age, you’re at least stronger than some people.” As he spoke, he glanced pointedly in Kuzan’s direction.
“Gern, you really are a man like a natural disaster!” Kuzan pretended not to see Zephyr’s gaze and spoke to himself.
Immediately after, Zephyr also turned to the silent audience, suddenly roaring,
“Did you all see that clearly?! This is a New World battle!!”
The entire field was silent for two seconds, then erupted into deafening cheers!
...
Gern’s eardrums ached from the cheers for a moment, and his vision suddenly went black.
He then staggered, trying to stand steady, but found his legs as heavy as if filled with lead.
Zephyr’s broad hand was still on his shoulder, becoming the only support point preventing him from falling at that moment.
Zephyr noticed the abnormality from his palm and couldn’t help but ask, “Gern, are you alright, kid?”
“I’m… fine…” Gern wanted to say something tough, but found his voice as faint as a whisper.
The dazzling sunlight of the training ground suddenly twisted into colorful blocks, and the cheers in his ears sounded as if through a thick layer of seawater.
Then he saw Kuzan’s blurry figure walking quickly towards him, his mouth seeming to be shouting something, but the world was rapidly losing its color.
“Oh crap, is Zephyr’s punch a delayed injury…?” Gern’s pupils suddenly dilated, and his body fell forward like a broken puppet.
Zephyr reacted extremely quickly, catching his falling body, and at the same time shouted, “Medical team!!”
Meanwhile, Kuzan had already flashed to the other side, his palm covering Gern’s sweaty forehead, and cold air instantly condensed into frost upon contact.
“It’s alright, Zephyr-sensei. Just extreme exhaustion.
After all, using his Devil Fruit ability with such high intensity, plus those few punches of yours…”
After speaking, Kuzan tore open Gern’s already tattered training uniform, revealing a chest covered in spiderweb-like bruises, the price of taking Zephyr’s heavy punches head-on.
Zephyr looked at the fist marks he had left on Gern, his thick eyebrows knitted into a tight knot.
“Damn it, he was already at his limit, but he still had to hit me…”