On his right arm, muscles bulged explosively as the entire arm pulled back.
In an instant, streaks of black and red lightning, emitting a solemn aura, flickered, burst, and roared on his fist!
At this moment, the aura on Garp's body was as powerful as a demon god descending upon the world.
The powerful aura spread outward in an instant, passing through the entire God Valley like a storm.
Streaks of black and red Haoshoku lightning flashed and bloomed in the sky.
Garp leaped high into the air, his fist like a falling galaxy, crashing down toward the top of Carlo's head.
"Fist Bone! Galaxy Impact!!"
Below, Carlo squinted his eyes, stung by the shining black and red light on Garp's fist.
"Hey, hey, hey! Do you want to destroy this island? You crazy-strong old man!"
He curled his lips, stepped forward suddenly with his right foot, and stomped down!
Boom!!
The ground for hundreds of meters around, as if trampled by a celestial god, sank and shattered downward as a whole.
His right arm moved from bottom to top, like a giant god propping up the heavens.
He threw a punch toward Garp in the sky; on his fist, a massive cluster of deep red lightning bloomed violently, like a world-ending thunderstorm.
The deep red lightning, like a crimson torrent, instantly spread and coiled around Carlo's fist and arm, striking toward the sky!
"Fist Bone!! Galaxy Impact!!"
Yeah!!!
Across ten meters of void, two fists—one above, one below—collided violently, looking like two giant colliding meteors with earth-shattering power.
The void between the fists was crushed inch by inch, and countless thick bolts of lightning burst out from within, splitting the heavy clouds ten thousand meters high in the sky.
Between their fists, the air was pushed aside by the violent force, instantly drawn into a vacuum, forming a briefly distorted transparent sphere that shone with the Haoshoku lightning venting from their bodies.
In the next instant, an overwhelming circular shockwave swept in all directions with a violent posture that surpassed the speed of sound!
Wherever the circular shockwave passed, the earth was ground into powder, and trees were uprooted and pulverized in the shockwave.
The pirates, who had already retreated again and again to over a thousand meters away, were still affected by the terrifying aftershocks of the battle; dozens of unlucky souls were sent flying, spitting blood, and died on the spot.
"Hey, hey, hey! Do you two have to be so desperate? If this continues, this island really will sink into the sea!"
"Enough is enough! If you keep fighting, everyone is going to be dragged into this!"
Whitebeard's shout came from afar.
He actually barged directly into the range of Garp and Carlo's battle, clutching his Murakumogiri, and frowned as he looked at Garp, who had landed on the ground.
"Stop it! You know, Garp! Even for you, it's impossible to take down the current Carlo in a short time! At our level, a life-and-death battle won't end for days and nights!"
"If you really fight like that, this island won't be enough for you to move around. Think about your Marine soldiers; if you expand the battlefield further, do you want them to end up like those pirates, killed by the aftershocks?!"
He walked directly into the center and stood beside Carlo, his tall and straight body also emitting a powerful aura as vast as the mountains and seas.
Seeing Whitebeard's positioning, Garp raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Heh, I didn't expect that you, Newgate, would actually want to help Carlo."
"Carlo is my teammate, of course I'm going to help him. Was I supposed to help you?"
Whitebeard said as if it were obvious.
He turned his head to look at Carlo and asked with concern, "Carlo, are you okay?"
Carlo wiped a trace of blood from the corner of his mouth and shook his head, "I'm fine. Where's Rocks?"
"I was just about to go find him, let's go together," Whitebeard said, while also casting a wary glance at Garp, who stood still.
Carlo also looked back at Garp and gave him a toothy grin.
"Garp-sensei, well then... let's fight again next time."
"Brat! Did I say you could leave?" Garp snorted coldly.
Whitebeard frowned and couldn't help but scold: "Garp! You..."
Garp reached into his pocket, pulled out a ring of keys, and casually tossed them toward Carlo.
"These are the handcuff keys for those civilians; they're universal and should save you some effort. Also, next, I will have our Marines help those innocent people evacuate safely!"
He looked deeply at Carlo and said solemnly, "Carlo, I want you to know that while the World Government may be wrong in some aspects, we Marines will definitely not follow them in their mistakes! I, Monkey D. Garp, will definitely change all of this!"
With that, he turned and strode away without looking back.
Looking at his tall departing back, Carlo shook his head.
"Trying to change them is too difficult, my naive Garp-sensei. In a cesspool like that, being able to keep oneself clean and not join them is already quite good."
Whitebeard beside him looked down and asked curiously, "Is that why you defected from the Marines back then?"
"Maybe, who knows. I'm not really some great philanthropist with a heart for justice. I have my own ambitions, and those ambitions certainly couldn't be realized if I stayed in the Marines."
"Your ambition... what is it?"
"You'll know in the future. It's too early to ask now."
A mysterious light flashed deep in Carlo's eyes.
He distracted himself slightly to check his current attribute panel.
[Host: Sorus Karlo, 24 years old]
[Physique: 9-Star — Indestructible Diamond — 92.112]
[Haki]
[Observation Haki: 9-Star — Future Sight, Mind Reading — 93.892]
[Armament Haki: 9-Star — Martial Armor — 94.205]
[Haoshoku: 9-Star — Golden Haki Entanglement — 93.122]
[Devil Fruit Power: 9-Star — Awakening Level — 92.316]
[Comprehensive Evaluation: 9-Star! Top-tier Combat Power!]
[Commentary: Pentagon Warrior! Pirate Overlord! High Admiral/Emperor Level! One-strike Island Destroyer! Humanoid Ancient Weapon!]
Looking at the attribute values in the panel, several of which were accurate to three decimal places, Carlo couldn't help but shake his head.
As he had expected.
The higher the attribute values, the harder it was to increase them further.
Compared to four years ago in Elbaf, his overall attributes had only increased by less than three points.
It was equivalent to going from level 90 to level 93.
Four years of time!
Only increased by this much.
It was clear that in terms of power improvement, it really did get harder the further one went.
Actually, this wasn't very hard to understand.
It was just like playing an online game and killing monsters in his previous life.
In the early stages, the experience provided by a small mob could easily level you up several times.
But when you were close to the level cap...
Even if you farmed a dozen bosses in a row, the experience bar might not necessarily fill up.
At this height, if one wanted to continue improving their strength, they could only rely on a lot of time and hard cultivation to move forward bit by bit.
Especially in terms of the Physique attribute.
Since the battle with Harald, where he successfully broke through the 90-point mark and entered the physical realm of the Indestructible Diamond...
After four years of hard training, his Physique attribute had only increased by less than two points.
And just now, after this fierce battle with Garp...
The number by which Carlo's Physique attribute increased was 0.012.
Yes.
That's right!
It was 0.012!
It was a number that almost made one lose their composure.
This meant that Carlo would have to fight Garp a hundred times to increase his Physique by 1.2 attribute points.
And that was without considering the issue of it becoming even harder to improve the higher one went.
However, Carlo had to admit that there was still some gap between his current strength and Garp's.
Although he had caught up in terms of physical body, and even surpassed Garp slightly...
His attainment in the three types of Haki could not compare to Garp, who specialized in Haki.
Even if he performed the Garuda's Hybrid Form transformation, he could at most narrow the gap a bit further, but he still couldn't fully catch up.
Carlo estimated that if measured by levels, Garp, who was currently in his prime, should be above level 95.
Fortunately...
With this gap, he still had hope of catching up!