Barret spat out a mouthful of blood-tinged saliva, yet a ferocious grin split his face."Now that…" he growled, "…this is more like it."
Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, his right fist slammed down toward the ground!
"Combined Boxing — Joint Cannon!"
The entire island shuddered violently. Countless rocks, shattered warship hulls, even metallic fragments buried beneath the sea surged toward him as if alive.
In an instant, a colossal steel fist erupted from the earth. Barret swung it down with brutal force—
BOOM!The punch compressed the air itself, forming visible vacuum ripples that detonated outward.
Gern vanished in a flash. The spot where he had stood collapsed into a crater over a hundred meters wide, the shockwave hurling walls of earth several meters high in all directions.
"Heaven-Shaking · Sky Step!"
In the very next moment, Gern appeared, his foot planted on a joint of Barret's gigantic metal fist. His body folded through space like a bolt of lightning, leaping high into the sky. His right hand opened as the black blade Bahuang, wrapped in pale, trembling shockwaves, snapped back into his palm.
Then he brought it down in a devastating arc.
"Heaven-Shaking · World-Collapse!!!"
CLANG!
A thunderous metallic crash rang through the clouds.
At the critical instant, Barret had condensed his combined metal into a massive shield. The shield's surface collided with the blade's tip, sending blinding sparks exploding outward.
"So you've already awakened it?" Gern's pupils shrank as he stared at the shield. Flowing across its surface was living Armament Haki, constantly shifting, redistributing its density like a thinking organism.
"Caught on, did you?" Barret's voice echoed from within the metal giant. "My combined Armament adapts automatically to whatever hits it!"
As his words fell, the metal abruptly disintegrated, exploding into countless razor-sharp fragments that shot toward Gern from every direction.
At the same time, Barret's true body burst forth from the storm of shards, his right fist wrapped in intertwined black and crimson Conqueror's lightning, driving straight for Gern's face.
"Heaven-Shaking · Fractured Mirror!"
Gern's hands formed claws, gripping the void before him. He twisted them sharply—
CRACK!
Violent vibrations shattered the space in front of him, warping it so it could no longer maintain a straight form.
In an instant, the incoming storm of fragments split apart on its own, veering to either side of Gern as if repelled by an invisible fault line!
But Barret's fist pierced through the smoke regardless.
BAM!
Gern was blasted backward, his body smashing through three rocky peaks in succession before he barely managed to stabilize himself.
"Ever since that punch," Barret roared with manic laughter as he chased after him, "I've replayed your moves and your battles in my head countless times!"
His fists alternated in a relentless barrage. Every strike triggered a sonic boom, the very space along his punching path warping subtly.
"Is that so?" Gern suddenly closed his eyes. He sheathed his blade, lowered his stance, and sank his weight.
The instant Barret crossed into a three-meter radius—
"Heaven-Shaking…"
The black blade emitted a high-frequency hum. Spiderweb-like cracks spread through the surrounding air.
"Instant Hell!"
A white blade flash erupted as Gern drew his sword, like lightning tearing heaven and earth apart. Barret crossed his arms to block—
—and the armor coating them vaporized instantly.
The residual slash didn't stop there. It split the sea behind him clean in two, carving a vacuum trench more than a hundred meters deep!
"Ghk—!" Barret spat blood, using the force to rocket backward—then rebounded again in a heartbeat!
...
In a deafening storm of explosions, Barret's iron fists collided again and again with the black blade Bahuang.
Shockwaves spread in perfect rings. The ground shattered like brittle glass, pulverized stone scattering into dust.
Barret's pupils tightened.
With every clash, he felt something sinister—strange vibrations traveling up through his weapon and into his arms, tearing at his muscle fibers on a microscopic level.
"Heaven-Shaking · Shatter Slash!"
Gern abruptly changed tempo, twisting the blade. The downward cleave transformed into a rising thrust.
Barret jerked backward, the blade's tip grazing his chin and drawing a string of blood.
But Gern's assault didn't stop. His left fist, wrapped in purple-black Haki, drove straight toward Barret's chest.
"Black Quake · Star-Piercer!"
At the last possible instant, Barret crossed his arms to block.
BOOM!
The force punched straight through his defense. Barret was hurled back dozens of meters, his boots carving twin trenches into the ground.
He glanced down.
Spiderweb cracks spread across the Armament coating on his forearms.
"Interesting!" Barret laughed instead of raging. His Conqueror's Haki erupted, dark-red lightning dancing wildly around his body.
"Now this is what I'm talking about!"
He stomped down hard. The ground collapsed.
Using the recoil, Barret shot forward like a cannonball, his right fist drawn back to its limit, Armament Haki condensing into a pitch-black sheen.
Gern's eyes sharpened. Bahuang came up horizontally to guard.
CLANG!
Steel rang against steel. The blade screamed under the impact, vibrating violently as Gern was forced to slide backward.
In the instant he retreated, his left hand formed a claw and ripped at the empty air before him.
"Heaven-Shaking · Void Shackles!"
CRACK!
Pale fissures bloomed in the space around Barret. Invisible vibration-forged restraints locked down his body.
Barret roared. His muscles swelled grotesquely as Conqueror's and Armament Haki erupted together, shattering the bindings by brute force.
But compared to Roger—
It took him noticeably longer to break free.
And that was time enough.
"Heaven-Shaking · Eight Desolations Rend!"
The moment Bahuang swung, space around the blade twisted and collapsed, forming a vacuum slash.
Barret's pupils shrank violently. His Observation Haki screamed in warning.
He forced his body sideways. The slash skimmed past his shoulder, leaving behind a vacuum trail stretching for kilometers across the sea, water unable to close in its wake.
"Not done yet!"
Gern's figure flickered like a ghost at Barret's side, the blade arcing upward from below.
Barret raised his arms in a hurried block. Armament-coated forearms collided with the blade, sparks bursting in blinding sprays.
But the high-frequency vibrations pierced through the defense. He clearly heard it—
a faint crack crack from within his own arm bones.
"Bastard!" Barret bellowed in fury, sweeping his right leg like a battle axe.
Gern leapt back. The ground where he'd stood exploded into a ten-meter-wide crater laced with black Haki lightning.
In the swirling dust, Barret panted heavily, sweat streaming along the grooves of his muscles.
He stared at Gern—and noticed his opponent's breathing had also grown ragged. Pale fissures flickered erratically along the surface of the black blade Bahuang.
"Your vibrations…" Barret grinned, blood staining his teeth. "They're a burden on your own body too, aren't they?"
"Huh?" Gern frowned, lightly flexing his numb wrist. "What, you think I'm Whitebeard?"
"You—!" Barret roared, slamming his fists together as Conqueror's lightning crackled around his knuckles.
"Armament!"
His muscles bulged again, veins writhing like coiled dragons.
Armament Haki began to liquefy, flowing over his body and forming armor-like black radiance.
Gern's gaze turned grave."So this is what Armament looks like when it's forged to the absolute extreme…"
Barret moved.
This time, his speed exploded.
He was in front of Gern almost instantly. The fist hadn't arrived yet, but the pressure alone made Gern's face sting.
BAM!
Gern barely managed to raise his blade before the punch sent him flying. He smashed through several rocky peaks before finally coming to a halt.
"Well?" Barret advanced with a savage grin. Each step made the ground tremble, loose stone raining from nearby cliffs."This is… my power now!"
Gern dropped to one knee, Bahuang stabbed deep into the earth.
He coughed violently, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. He looked utterly wretched.
"Damn it…" Gern muttered weakly, head lowered, his voice barely audible."I never thought… you'd become this strong."
"Heh heh…" Barret's grin widened in smug delight, ready to unleash a mocking retort—
—but Gern suddenly lifted his head.
There wasn't a trace of fear on his face.
Only a chilling, mocking smile.
"You don't actually think I'd say that, do you?"
Before the words finished—
Gern vanished.
"You—!" Barret's pupils shrank. He instinctively stepped back half a pace, but it was already too late.
The instant the black blade flashed, time itself seemed to freeze.
The trajectory of the swing etched pale fractures into the air—proof that even space itself had been cut apart.
For a heartbeat, Barret stood there in a daze.
Then pain bloomed in his chest.
He looked down, and for the first time, a solemn expression crossed his face.
As expected—
PSHHT!
There was no deafening explosion. Only a savage wound bursting open, blood spraying outward.
Behind him, Gern flicked the blood from his blade, tilted his head, and smiled with disarming innocence.
"Sorry," he said lightly."This… is what 'really strong' looks like."