"Damn, that hurts."
Li Ke shook out his arm. It was flushed a dark, angry red—a sign of burst capillaries. It was proof he'd pushed his body too hard, his own strength outstripping his durability.
Still, he wasn't satisfied. If he could have flash-frozen the water into ice like the scrolls described, this would have been over much faster.
Honestly, even though he'd acquired Firebending much earlier, Li Ke was starting to prefer Waterbending. Out here on the ocean, it was just too damn convenient. He'd realized through practice that he could even pull pure water straight out of the air—though his technique was still clumsy and slow, which had earned him plenty of mocking laughs from Roger.
Just as he was about to call up to the deck for a blade to finish off the cow-faced monster, Roger leaned over the bow, watching him with an amused glint in his eyes.
"Yo, looks like you've grasped Armament Haki too. You really are a monster."
Li Ke froze. He stared down at his fist in shock, only to find thin, wispy trails of black aura radiating from his skin. Suddenly, everything Roger had said before clicked into place.
"That feeling just now... was that Observation Haki?"
He looked up at Roger, still buzzing from the sensation. It had been incredible—as if he were viewing the world from a third-person perspective, but seeing things much deeper than just the surface.
"Exactly. I felt it, you know? You're the same type as me—the kind that 'hears' more than others. Right now, you should be able to hear the weaknesses in that sea beast beneath your feet, right? Otherwise, there's no way your pathetic little fists could have shattered a Sea King's skull."
Weaknesses?
Li Ke instinctively looked down at the massive creature bobbing in the waves. Immediately, he sensed it.
The beast looked ordinary enough to the naked eye, but in his mind's eye, everything was laid bare: where it was vulnerable, where its vitals were failing, and exactly where its muscles were tensing. He realized with a jolt that when he'd struck earlier, he had subconsciously followed that exact instinct.
No wonder he'd been able to crush its reinforced skull in just two hits.
However, when he tried to push that sense toward Roger, he hit a brick wall. He felt absolutely nothing. Yet, when he turned it toward Nami and Robin, he could easily sense their next moves. It was a fuzzy feeling for now, but he knew that if he could see them clearly, that sensation would likely evolve into full-blown precognition.
But when he shifted his gaze back to Roger, his eyes went wide.
There were Rogers everywhere!
Within his newly awakened Observation Haki, his vision was flooded with a million Rogers. Every single possible move the man could make, every potential strike—and that punchable, grinning face—seemed to occupy every inch of his perception.
"Well, that's just how Observation works," Roger said, his voice cutting through the sensory overload. "Against someone significantly stronger than you, it isn't some magic win-button. But keep training. Getting stronger is only a matter of time now."
Roger let out a soft chuckle, and the hallucinations swarming Li Ke's vision instantly vanished.
At the end of the day, Observation Haki was just a byproduct of pushing the human body to its absolute limit. When you ran into someone who had pushed those limits further than you, it naturally became useless. Of course, there were those freakish prodigies who defied the rules, but even then—sometimes seeing an attack coming didn't mean you could do a damn thing about it.
"Alright, looks like we've reached our destination. Li Ke, once I take care of this Arlong guy, I'm free to go, right?"
Roger grinned at Li Ke, and Li Ke gave a firm nod.
Even though Roger's "coaching" mostly consisted of kicking him overboard to swim for his life, Li Ke had to admit the man was a master at pointing the way. When it came to the One Piece power system, Roger had clearly beaten the game.
"That's the deal. Slaughter Arlong's crew, and you can take your wife and go. I'll grant you both another year of life."
"Whoa, a whole year? That's a bit much, isn't it?"
Roger scratched his head, looking troubled. A year was a long time—plenty of room for things to get complicated—but for his wife, a year felt far too short. Still, it would be enough. Ace was with Whitebeard now; finding him shouldn't be much of a problem.
"In that case, we better make this quick. Besides, looks like we've got company."
With that, Roger hopped onto the back of Momoo—the sea beast Li Ke had just brained—and looked toward the shore.
Li Ke followed his gaze. On the distant beach, a group of bizarre figures were lounging in beach chairs. They were misshapen, alien-looking things with obvious fish-like traits.
"Those are the Fishmen?"
Roger nodded. "Yeah. But they're weak. Honestly, you could handle them yourself without me lifting a finger. But a deal's a deal, so I'll take the lead on this one."
As he spoke, he grabbed Li Ke, pulling him around to stand face-to-face beside him. Before Li Ke could ask what the hell he was doing, Roger spoke again.
"Wide open. Crank your Observation Haki to the max."
"Huh?"
Li Ke was confused, but out of respect for Roger's sheer power, he instinctively did as he was told.
Then, in the next heartbeat—
A crimson light flared deep within Roger's eyes, a predatory glint that seemed to set the very air on fire. Before Li Ke could even register the shift in the atmosphere, Roger's hand blurred. There was no hesitation, no warning—only the sharp, metallic shing of steel leaving its scabbard.
In an instant, a pitch-black aura coiled around the blade like a living shadow. It wasn't just a color; it was a physical manifestation of will so dense it felt heavy. Streaks of black lightning began to crackle and hiss through the air, arcing off the sword and tearing at the wooden deck beneath them.
The world around Li Ke suddenly warped. An overwhelming sense of dread washed over him, hitting with the force of a tidal wave. It was a primal, suffocating pressure that made his lungs seize and his heart hammer against his ribs like a trapped bird.
His mind went completely blank. Every instinct he possessed screamed a single, terrifying word that echoed through his consciousness like a funeral bell: DEATH.
Roger's violent aura acted like a physical weight, instantly crushing whatever meager power Li Ke had been trying to muster. His internal energy was snuffed out like a candle in a hurricane. Yet, sensing Li Ke's terror, Roger didn't pull back. Instead, his grin stretched wider, turning into something jagged and demonic—the face of a man who had conquered the entire world and feared nothing in it.
As the blade finally began its arc, the world seemed to slow to a crawl. In that moment of absolute crisis, Li Ke's perception shattered and reformed. He "heard" the vibration of the atoms in the air; he saw with agonizing clarity the precise shift of Roger's muscles and the way the Haki coiled and snapped like a pressurized spring.
Roger was holding nothing back. He was laying bare the very essence of his legendary technique, carving the "truth" of his power into the air itself for Li Ke to witness. It was a terrifying gift—a lesson taught at the edge of an executioner's blade.
Then, a voice thundered, not through the air, but directly through the foundations of his soul—a roar that vibrated in his very marrow.
"Divine Departure!!"
The shadow of death swallowed Li Ke whole. For a split second, he was certain he was a dead man. The savage energy tore right through him, and anything standing in the path of that strike crumbled like toy blocks.
Over on the shore, Arlong was staring at their ship with annoyance. He grumbled as he hauled himself out of his beach chair, glaring at Roger and Li Ke with pure disdain.
"Where did these little shits come—"
He didn't get to finish. Roger's strike landed.
The berserk force instantly pulverized Arlong's body into a mist of blood and bone. In a heartbeat, his crew, his "Arlong Park" empire, and his pathetic ambitions were all wiped from existence.
Li Ke stood frozen. He didn't even need to turn around to know what the scene behind him looked like. He could feel it because the power that leveled the coast had flown right through his own body.
The water, the air, and his newly awakened Haki all screamed the same thing: the earth was trembling, the ocean was roaring, and a literal demon had just unmade the world.
"Alright, finally free of you and your lecherous bullshit," Roger chirped, sliding his blade back into its sheath with a clean click. He gave Li Ke a heavy pat on the shoulder. "The noise you make every night... man, it was driving me insane."
Roger grinned and adjusted his hat. "I'm out of here, kid! That move? You better not forget it!"
Without another word, he turned and hopped back onto the ship, scooped up his wife, and tossed a few packs into a life boat.
Li Ke stood dazed for a long time before he finally turned his head to see the wreckage behind him. The island, which was at least two kilometers away...
Had been split clean in half.
A literal mountain-leveling, sea-parting strike.
Li Ke was the first to snap out of it; Nami was still catatonic, staring as if she were trapped in a nightmare. It wasn't until Li Ke climbed back on deck that she jolted awake, still unable to process what her eyes were seeing.
She scrambled for the binoculars, desperate to get one last look at the man rowing away in the small boat.
But as she looked, her face went from shock to pure horror. She let out a blood-curdling scream.
"MY MONEY!!"
It was true. Roger had made off with Nami's hoard.