Boom! Boom! Boom!
Kai and Zephyr clashed in midair, launching into a fierce aerial battle.
With Moonwalk beneath their feet, both possessed the ability to fight in the sky.
Every punch they threw carried the terrifying might of Armament Haki, crashing head-on in explosive collisions.
Even the stray shockwaves from their exchanges were enough to shatter the ground below.
They had already fought for nearly ten minutes.
And Kai still had not fallen.
If anything—
he was growing fiercer the longer the fight dragged on!
Zephyr was old, yes, but he had not yet truly entered his twilight years. He had only just begun to decline from his absolute peak.
At this stage of his life, he was still monstrously powerful.
Even the future Whitebeard Jr., the one destined to sever Zephyr's arm, might not actually defeat the Zephyr of this era if they met now.
Of course—
the current Whitebeard Jr. had already been captured by Kai himself, so naturally, he no longer posed any threat to Zephyr's future.
Unless…
Whitebeard Jr. somehow escaped from Impel Down.
But that was clearly unrealistic.
Several days ago, Whitebeard Jr. had already been sent to Level 6, Eternal Hell, of Impel Down.
Unless something impossible happened, he would spend the rest of his life buried inside that darkness, never again appearing on the seas.
In a sense,
Kai had changed Zephyr's future.
At this moment,
Kai and Zephyr's clash only grew more and more violent.
"Kai, you really are strong!"
"But…"
"I'm about to stop holding back!"
"So don't go and die on me, brat!"
Zephyr burst into loud laughter.
Against a monster like Kai, he could no longer afford to leave anything in reserve.
"That's exactly what I want!"
Kai grinned back.
To clash with a Marine Admiral in his prime—
wasn't that exactly the kind of challenge worth craving?
His blood burned for this kind of battle.
He yearned for this kind of fight against true power!
"Come!"
Kai clenched both fists, pushing his Armament Haki to the limit.
No fancy techniques.
No flashy tricks.
Just pure Armament against Armament.
A contest of whose Haki was stronger.
Among the truly powerful on the sea, this was what decided everything—
the depth of one's Haki mastery and the raw strength behind it.
As for Devil Fruits?
In Kai and Zephyr's eyes, they were external aids—nothing more.
Zephyr needed no explanation. One of his own students, Kizaru, had no doubt been scolded countless times by him for relying too much on his Devil Fruit power.
And Kai?
He had likely inherited Garp's mindset—
along with the influence of his Ghost Back System.
He, too, disdained that kind of borrowed power.
Only his own fists
were worth trusting.
Gradually,
Kai took a solid punch from Zephyr.
It slammed into his abdomen,
nearly shaking his organs loose.
Pfft!
Kai spat out a mouthful of blood.
He was finally injured.
Taking a direct blow from Zephyr's Armament-coated fist was no joke. Even with Kai's current monstrous physique, that punch still dealt significant damage.
His breathing grew ragged for an instant.
But soon,
he adjusted his condition again.
Wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, Kai looked at Zephyr with bright, burning eyes.
"As expected of an Admiral-level powerhouse."
"Instructor Zephyr…"
"You're monstrously strong."
"Again!"
Kai charged right back in.
Though his body had already taken damage, he still showed no fear of clashing with Zephyr head-on.
Seeing this,
Zephyr smiled with genuine pride.
Kai truly was an outstanding student.
A student he could be proud of.
"Come then!"
As Kai rushed him again, Zephyr immediately met him head-on.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The number of exchanges between them kept increasing.
Gradually,
even Zephyr's fists began to ache with a faint numb pain.
Even wrapped in Armament Haki, that did not mean all force could be completely nullified.
"Kai really is a monster…"
"To raise his Armament Haki to this level in just one year…"
"Even I'm feeling the pressure."
Zephyr was full of inward astonishment.
Of course,
Kai's own condition was no better.
His Armament was also under immense strain, and the pain in his fists was even worse than Zephyr's.
At the end of the day,
Zephyr was still a true Marine Admiral—
one of the top monsters on the sea.
For Kai, trying to contend with an Admiral at his current stage was still too much.
But from the beginning,
Kai had never expected to beat Zephyr.
This fight was only meant to measure himself.
With that in mind, there was no reason for him to hold back.
All-out.
Full power.
That was the only thing he needed to do.
This fierce clash with Zephyr drained Kai's stamina at an alarming rate.
He had to maintain both Observation Haki and Armament Haki at full power while also continuously using the Six Powers.
Under such high-intensity combat,
both his stamina and concentration were dropping rapidly.
Against a Marine Admiral,
Kai had no choice but to remain fully focused every second.
And maintaining that state
was exhausting his mind as much as his body.
By contrast,
though Zephyr was also tightly focused, his condition was vastly better than Kai's.
After all—
Zephyr was a Marine Admiral.
A top-tier monster of the sea.
"Kai…"
"You're starting to reach your limit, aren't you?"
"To fight me for nearly twenty minutes before your condition began to slip…"
"That alone is already remarkable."
"There are barely a handful in all of Marineford who could do that."
"And you are one of them."
Zephyr sighed in admiration.
He had already sensed it—
Kai's condition was beginning to deteriorate.
Clearly,
this level of combat was now becoming extremely taxing for him, both physically and mentally.
That Kai had managed to sustain such an intense battle for twenty minutes,
without allowing Zephyr to suppress him outright,
was already enough to leave Zephyr deeply impressed.
And he had not forgotten—
Kai was only five years old.
A five-year-old boy,
fighting a Marine Admiral to this extent…
That alone was astonishing.
"I've never heard of a monster like this appearing anywhere on the sea."
"You…"
"have broken history."
"You've created a feat no one else ever has."
"In all the years I've taught students, you are the strongest one."
Zephyr's praise came from the heart.
As time continued to pass—
half an hour later,
Kai's condition had declined even more noticeably.
At that point, he was operating at less than half his peak combat strength.
Meanwhile,
Zephyr was still full of energy.
That left Kai with no choice but to sigh inwardly.
An Admiral was still an Admiral.
Their ability to sustain top-level combat
was far beyond what he could currently compare to.
"Kid…"
"I once fought one of the sea's top monsters…"
"for three full days and nights before I barely managed to take him down."
"So…"
"for me, this half-hour?"
"It's not even long enough to finish warming up."
"In a battle of endurance, I won't lose to a brat like you."
Zephyr smiled with utter confidence.
A drawn-out fight?
He could keep going for three days and nights—
and that in true high-intensity combat.
That was obviously not something Kai could compare with yet.
After all,
Kai was only five.
Though his burst strength was terrifying enough to keep Zephyr from suppressing him for a while,
once the fight dragged out long enough,
Kai's eventual decline was only natural.
"It looks like…"
"I've hit my limit."
Feeling his condition sinking lower and lower, Kai shook his head.
At this point,
he could feel that his combat strength had already fallen well below even half of his prime.
On top of that,
his stamina and concentration were nearly spent.
The tremendous power inside his body had been worn down to a tiny fraction of what it had been at the start.
Still—
Kai gathered every last bit of strength left in him
and forced himself back into a brief peak state for three more minutes,
using it to launch one final intense exchange with Zephyr.
The result was that Training Ground No. 1 became even more riddled with devastation.
A moment later,
Kai's face turned pale. His breathing had become completely uneven.
Using Moonwalk, he descended from the sky.
When his feet touched the ground,
he only just managed to steady his weakening body.
"It's over."
Kai looked up at Zephyr, who was also descending from the sky, and made the judgment in his heart.
This battle…
he had indeed lost to Zephyr.
And through this fight, he had fully realized the limits of his current strength.
Among Vice Admirals, he would absolutely stand among the strongest.
But compared to the very peak Admirals,
he was still lacking.
Zephyr was arguably one of the weaker Admirals.
Yet even so,
Kai had still felt immense pressure fighting him.
Pressure he could not overturn.
Pressure he could not defeat.
"Still…"
"give me a little more time, and that might not stay true."
Kai narrowed his eyes, thinking to himself.
He was confident.
A few years from now,
he would surpass Zephyr by far.
He might even surpass Sengoku.
And perhaps one day—
even surpass his own grandfather, the legendary Hero Garp.
Breathing out heavily,
Kai withdrew the Armament Haki coating both his arms.
And with that,
this peak showdown
finally came to an end.
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