'g… g…'

  'Boom… boom…'

  'Whoosh… whoosh…'

  On Isnd No. 1, now a plete wastend, massive amounts of seawater tinuously flooded in. The numerous, crisscrossing fissures had formed enormous rivers and trehe fierce, relentless battle had left the isnd—oned from the roots of the world's rgest Yarukiman Mangrove trees—riddled with scars and utterly devastated.

  "Tch! So this is the power of the Fallen Angel, El?" Tsuru, known as the Navy's flower, was shocked by the terrifying csh between these powerful figures. Admiral Hark, representing the Navy’s highest strength, was fully demonstrating his immense power.

  As an awakened Zoan user of the aype, Hark's speed was terrifyingly fast. With his vast strength and rich battle experience, he had no iion of directly g head-on with the immensely powerful Fallen Angel, El. Instead, he fully utilized his speed advantage, stantly darting around, leaping, and shifting positions.

  He moved too quickly for the naked eye to follow, and those without strong observation haki couldn’t predict his movements. Hark stantly probed for El’s weaknesses, waiting for the perfeent to strike. Each of his attacks was a lethal blow—fast and deadly.

  'Swish!'

  Suddenly, from amidst the ruins, a glint of light appeared as Hark's razor-sharp, scythe-like cws, capable of cutting through anything, violently sshed forward.

  "There!" El's eyes narrowed, the hairs on his body standing on end. Without thinking, he swung his massive halberd, sshing fiercely toward his left rear. But in an instant, Hark, with his relentless speed, vanished just before the giant bde could ect, leaving El’s strike to hit empty air.

  'Tch!'

  'Boom… boom…'

  A tremendous explosi out as El’s missed strike tore through the ground, slig through tless trees and raising clouds of dust. The sheer force of the blow left the onlookers drenched in cold sweat.

  'Swish… swish…'

  However, Hark, moving like lightning and ed in bck fme-like clouds, was entirely ued. His menag figure shifted dire in an instant, speeding around behind El in a fsh. His attack came faster than anyone could react.

  'Tch!' Without hesitation, Hark's razor-sharp, haki-covered cws ruthlessly sshed at El, who had just finished swinging his on, momentarily leaving him vulnerable.

  'Boom!!' The powerful strike seaggering back a few steps, the force of the blow causing the grouh him to crack. Yet, with his fming hair bzing behind him, El remained pletely unharmed.

  'Swish!'

  Before the battle-hardened El could retaliate, the cautious Hark vanished once again, moving at incredible speed, leaping and shifting positions like a leopard. He moved so quickly that it disrupted El’s observation haki, preventing him from log onto Hark’s precise location. Hark was stantly hunting for the opening, always striking areating in quick succession.

  'g!!!'

  Sparks flew as El mao bloother attack from the right. His massive, haki-covered bde cshed with Hark’s scythe-like cws, both of them moving with deadly precision. But just as El prepared to ter, the experienced Admiral had already withdrawn, moving with incredible agility. Using both 'Soru' and 'Geppo', Hark tinuously shifted positions, never giving El a ce to nd a hit.

  'Tch... tch…'

  "This guy... he really see into the future?"

  "With a body se, wielding such a cumbersome on, he still barely keep up with the speed I’ve achieved in my awakened Zoan form," Hark thought as he moved with blinding speed across the ground and through the trees, each step apanied by powerful gusts of wind. His sharp eyes, aided by his observation haki, remained locked onto El.

  "His Armament Haki is just as formidable as mine! bined with that monstrous strength... the only thing I have over him is speed!"

  Hark had to admit, this Lunarian was already on par with him, a Navy Admiral, and much strohan when he fought Kong. El's growth had been terrifyingly fast.

  "Jumping around like a rat in a sewer!" El's eyes fshed with a red glow. His bulging muscles tightened as he lifted the halberd. His advanced observation haki, hoo near perfe through releraining, locked onto Hark's movements.

  El had no iion of using his devil fruit powers this early. He wao use Admiral Hark as a whetstoo sharpen his abilities, to fully test the results of his years of training.

  "I’ve got you!" El’s fmes suddeinguished as he preteo expose a weakness, all part of his pn to lure Hark into attag. As soon as Hark appeared behind him, El turned with lightning speed, sshing with full force using his halberd. "Elbaf Spear!!!"

  By sacrifig some of his defense, El unleashed his race’s natural ability to boost his attack power. His strength and speed increased dramatically as he sent a massive, devastating strike hurtling toward Hark, who had just appeared behind him.

  'Whoosh… whoosh…' The air itself seemed to colpse uhe pressure as a gigantiergy bst, at least twenty to thirty meters in diameter, shot forward with unstoppable force.

  'Boom!!!'

  The earth groaned in protest as it was torn apart. Hark, caught mid-movement, barely mao dodge the full brunt of the attack. Though he escaped in time, the sheer wind pressure sent him flying.

  'Boom… boom…'

  The shockwave from the strike tore through tless trees and tioward Isnd No. 4. Nothing could stop it as it tore through anything in its path, leaving a trail of destru all the way to Isnd No. 8 and even Isnd No. 13, before finally plunging into the o.

  A Navy warship, just arrivihe coast of Sabaody Archipego, found itself ih of the devastating shockwave.

  "No… that's—"

  'Boom boom…'

  The massive warship, nearly a hundred meters long, was obliterated, its remains scattered into the sea as the sailors’ screams of terror were drowned by the crashing waves. The sea itself bore a massive scar, a trench carved into it by the force of the attack.

  "This monster…"

  Hark, having stabilized himself after being thrown back, felt cold sweat drip down his face as he withe catastrophic power of El’s attack. "So that's the Elbaf Spear? But acc to what I’ve heard, its power shouldn’t be this overwhelming…"

  If he had been struck directly by that attack, even as an Admiral, Hark was certain he would have been severely injured.

  "El's strength has grown immensely since his fight with Kong," Hark thought, his mind rag.

  "This level of power…"

  Tsuru, standing on Isnd No. 2, gasped as she stared at the erench before her. The sight made her scalp tihe Elbaf Spear that El had unleashed was on a pletely different level from the one Linlin had used earlier. The differen power was terrifying.

  'Swish!'

  El's fmes did nnite as he tio prioritize attack power over defense. His bck wings fpped powerfully, sending him s through the air, hammer in hand, as he pursued the now disheveled Admiral Hark. "What’s the matter? Is this all the great guard dog of the Wover has to offer?"

  "You said you wao take me down for your Celestial Dragon masters. Well, give me something to get excited about!"

  'Boom!'

  The air itself seemed to rip apart as El unleashed another massive strike.

  "Don’t get cocky, kid!" Hark snarled, shrouded in bck fmes as he violently kicked the air, sending out his own green 'Storm Leg' ssh.

  'Boom…'