Lightning shot straight into the sky. From within that pillar of light, a figure slowly stepped out.
Silver-white hair spilled over his shoulders, falling all the way to his waist. Ortoren's height had climbed again, now close to six meters.
He still couldn't compare to Charlotte Linlin in sheer size, but the power coiled inside him was in no way inferior.
His muscles stood out across a thick, imposing frame. Lightning leaked from his eye sockets, and the horns atop his head looked vicious and domineering. His fingertips were like claws, radiating menace. And from the base of his spine, a tail had even sprouted, swaying behind him.
Silver thunder plasma flowed along that tail like a writhing dragon, then spread across his body in branching streams. In that moment, Ortoren looked like a god come down to earth.
"Old hag," Ortoren said, baring his teeth at Charlotte Linlin in the distance, "show me your limit."
The instant he finished speaking, thunder cracked. His figure vanished from where he stood.
Ortoren's speed was beyond what the naked eye could track. Even with Charlotte Linlin's powerful Observation Haki, she could only catch the faintest trace.
But her body had already moved on instinct.
"Flame Fist: Heavenly Fire!!!" Charlotte Linlin bellowed, punching straight into the air in front of her.
As that heavy fist—wrapped in violent flames—swung out, Ortoren appeared in midair directly before her, lightning snapping around him like an escort.
Charlotte Linlin's flaming punch crashed in like a meteor. Against Ortoren's six-meter frame, it looked like he was trying to stop a boulder with his bare hands.
But that wasn't how it went.
Ortoren's fist, wreathed in lightning, drove straight into it.
Neither of them coated their fists with Haki. The flames and lightning were just spectacle.
This clash was pure strength.
The moment their fists met, black cracks and hollow voids burst open in the air around them. Power slammed into power, erupting from between their fingers and blasting outward in all directions.
Nothing in its path could stand.
More than a hundred meters away, Kaidou had to snap fully alert and take a defensive stance just to avoid being swept away by the aftermath. That alone showed how terrifying the force released in that single exchange was.
It wasn't a clash of Conqueror's Haki, yet it still ripped at the sky, churned the sea, and made the island groan and twist under the strain.
Even bodies of steel couldn't endure it.
You could see it plainly. Ortoren's fist was mangled, flesh torn open, bone exposed. Charlotte Linlin's fist was so huge that in this kind of head-on collision, its size actually worked against it. Where their knuckles met, her "steel body" also cracked apart, and fractures even spidered through her finger bones.
At first it was a dead-even struggle, neither giving an inch. But after just a few breaths, Charlotte Linlin's expression turned heavy. She could feel it: Ortoren's punch was stronger than hers.
And as a top-tier fighter, she understood why immediately.
Her body was simply too massive. Even if her raw strength didn't lose to Ortoren's, it was spread out across that enormous frame.
Compared to that, Ortoren—at only around six meters—was practically the perfect shape to wield this kind of power.
"So that's how it is!" Charlotte Linlin's eyes flashed. With a roar, she stopped trying to overpower him.
When she pulled back, it was fast. In the blink of an eye, the two figures that had been locked together were already more than a hundred meters apart.
Ortoren clearly hadn't expected her to suddenly disengage before the clash had decided anything. Caught off guard, he swung into empty air.
The punch still tore the air apart, sending ripples through it. A violent gale of force turned into a surging shockwave that spread hundreds of meters.
That single blow was absurd, almost like the power of a shockwave Devil Fruit user. Producing an ability-like effect with nothing but his body.
Ortoren landed and steadied himself, then looked toward Charlotte Linlin a hundred meters away, where the shockwave had swept through.
As expected, it posed no threat to her at all. It passed over her like a breeze.
And there she stood, huge as a giant, rooted in place as she drew in a deep breath.
That made her already swollen chest expand a little more.
But the next moment, she slowly let out all the air she'd drawn in.
And as she exhaled, guided by that eerie green soul energy, her gigantic, giant-like body actually began to shrink.
Ortoren had the chance to move then, but he didn't try to stop her or interrupt what she was doing.
And Charlotte Linlin, as if she'd known from the start he wouldn't interfere, left herself wide open, focusing entirely on guiding and shaping her power without a hint of defense.
That bloated, slightly warped body quickly compressed down to ten meters.
But that still wasn't enough. She growled, and the eerie green soul halo flared again. In that instant, Charlotte Linlin returned to her original physique—eight meters eight.
To sense a disadvantage in the middle of a clash, adjust immediately, and adjust perfectly… that was the awareness and ability of a true top-tier fighter.
"Haa…" After restoring her normal size, Charlotte Linlin opened her mouth and exhaled a stream of white vapor.
It was high-pressure steam, created by forcing all that power down and sealing it inside her body.
She didn't say a word, but she'd already calculated her limit in this state.
Ten minutes.
For ten minutes, she could keep this body size while wielding power that went beyond the usual boundary.
And because of that, she was sure Ortoren also had a limit while using that same kind of power. The only question was how long he could hold it.
"All set?" Ortoren asked calmly.
"Come," Charlotte Linlin said, her voice low.
The moment the word left her lips, Ortoren's crackling, electrified figure was already reflected in her pupils.
"That last clash proved the gap in strength between us is almost nothing…" Ortoren snarled. "But I'm faster than you!!!"
It was exactly as it sounded. Even in this beyond-the-limit state, the Goro Goro no Mi could still push Ortoren's speed even higher.
That was the advantage of an ability.
Thump!
Ortoren's heavy fist slammed into Charlotte Linlin's chest.
Even bodies of steel couldn't endure it. They'd already proven that.
The moment the punch landed, the muscles and ribs in her chest caved in slightly, and blood spilled from the corner of her mouth.
And yet, that boundary-breaking blow didn't send her flying.
Charlotte Linlin's feet sank into the ground. Power surged up from her calves, rose through her waist, and with sheer lower-body stability she forced herself to hold firm, resisting the force exploding from Ortoren's punch.
It felt like the entire island trembled.
He was fast, yes, but not so fast that Charlotte Linlin couldn't keep up.
So as she took the hit head-on, Charlotte Linlin split her mouth into a grin. With blood at her lips, the smile looked even more savage.
"You think you're the only one with an ability, you little brat?" she snapped back, and swung a punch into Ortoren.
Ortoren hadn't planned on dodging anyway. He hardened his waist, tightened every muscle, kept his stance, and braced to take it.
The heavy blow smashed into his midsection. The force was brutal. Ortoren couldn't hold back the surge of blood, and two streams sprayed from his nostrils.
But that wasn't the real problem.
The real problem was that when Charlotte Linlin's fist hit him, his awareness wavered for a split second.
It was like he'd suddenly seen his own body from the outside.
It lasted only an instant, but there was no mistaking that feeling.
And the moment it happened, Charlotte Linlin's other fist slammed into Ortoren's chest, sending him flying.
Off in the distance, Kaidou no longer had any business stepping into a true "monster"-level battle like this, but that also meant he could watch clearly.
When Charlotte Linlin's punch struck Ortoren's waist, a faint, ghostly soul-light seemed to spill from him.
Like that one hit could knock his soul loose from his flesh.
The instant Ortoren's feet touched down, lightning flashed around him and he vanished from where he landed. In the next heartbeat, Charlotte Linlin's towering form had already reached the spot he'd been in. Her fist punched into empty air, but it still kicked up a shockwave on the level of a shockwave Devil Fruit user.
After the miss, Charlotte Linlin lifted her head and looked to the side, a hundred meters away.
Ortoren stood there, his hand unconsciously brushing over the bruised imprint on his waist.
"Felt it, did you?" Charlotte Linlin said, rolling her fist.
"Don't tell me you developed this Soru Soru no Mi application specifically to deal with me," Ortoren said, sounding a little helpless.
"Of course I did," Charlotte Linlin replied bluntly. "On this sea, who else is worth me deliberately ignoring their stubborn physical toughness and going straight for their soul?"
Across the entire ocean, only Ortoren—who inherited Charlotte Linlin's nearly invincible physical prowess—was worth the effort she'd put into studying and mastering a technique like this.
As for everyone else… even Kaidou, who also ruled through physical strength, wasn't worthy of her taking it that far.