Daz Bonez led Bardock at a brisk pace for about ten minutes before finally coming to a halt. They stood in the middle of an abandoned street that looked like a recent warzone; the derelict buildings on either side were riddled with bullet holes and heavily scarred by fire and smoke.
The two squared off. Bardock calmly drew his sword. "This blade used to be called 'White Iron.' It might not be a famous Meito, but the quality is top-notch. It's not a single bit inferior to a Skillful Grade sword."
"It doesn't matter," Bonez replied coldly. "Ever since I ate the Dice-Dice Fruit, no swordsman has ever managed to even scratch my skin." He smashed his fists together, the impact ringing out with the heavy clank of solid metal. "Hear that? My body is as hard as steel. Slashes, blunt force—it's all completely useless against me."
"Oh, really? Then I'm going to have to see that for myself," Bardock smirked. "Three-Hit Combo!"
In a flash, Bardock crossed the distance, appearing right in front of Daz Bonez and unleashing three blindingly fast strikes.
"Steel Body!"
Facing Bardock's point-blank assault, Daz Bonez was fully confident he wouldn't be hurt, but he still dropped into a defensive stance, pushing his Devil Fruit to the absolute limit to maximize his body's hardness.
Clang!
Bardock had clearly swung three times, but the strikes were so impossibly fast they merged into a single, sharp ring of metal. The sheer kinetic force of the blow sent Daz Bonez skidding backward, his boots grinding against the dirt until his back finally slammed into the ruined wall of an abandoned building.
"Not bad power, brat," Bonez grunted, casually dusting off his coat. He looked back at Bardock, completely unscathed. "But like I said, you can't hurt me."
"Now, it's my turn. Grasping Slash!"
He formed his hands into tiger claws, his fingers transforming into razor-sharp steel blades, and lunged fiercely at Bardock like a predator pouncing on its prey.
Bardock quickly raised his sword, catching the descending blade-fingers on the flat of his blade. "Those are some pretty sharp cat claws you've got there."
"The show's just getting started!" Bonez sneered.
In terms of raw physical strength, Daz Bonez was nowhere near Bardock's level. He had to use both of his arms and his entire body weight just to keep from being instantly overpowered in the clash. Sensing the gap in strength, Bonez quickly changed tactics. He forcefully gripped the edge of Bardock's sword with his bare hands and launched a vicious, diagonal sweeping kick aimed straight at Bardock's ribs. The moment his leg left the ground, his shin morphed into a lethal, gleaming broadsword.
If that kick connected, unless Bardock used Tekkai or his Monkey King form, he was going to be severely injured.
"Hulk Smash."
Instead of trying to win the test of strength, Bardock violently whipped his sword around, treating Bonez like a ragdoll—exactly like the Hulk smashing Loki. Because Bonez was gripping the blade tightly and standing on one leg, he had absolutely zero leverage. He was brutally slammed into the pavement several times in rapid succession before he finally let go of the sword.
"That's not exactly a traditional sword technique," Bonez spat. Despite being slammed into the dirt, his steel body hadn't suffered a single scratch. Lying on his back, he immediately launched a sweeping kick at Bardock's legs, his shin-blade flashing coldly.
Bardock hopped backward to easily evade the sweep. "Swordsmanship shouldn't be so rigidly inconvenient," he quoted solemnly.
"Hmph. Sophistry," Bonez scoffed, getting back to his feet. "Atomic Spurt!"
Bonez transformed the soles of his feet into ice skate-like blades and rushed at Bardock with terrifying speed, skating across the concrete. His hands and fingers shifted into an array of whirring blades, ready to shred Bardock to pieces at any moment.
This time, Bardock didn't dare block the blade-fingers head-on. If Bonez grabbed his sword again, the 'Hulk Smash' trick definitely wouldn't work twice. Instead, he meticulously parried the flat sides of Bonez's blades, flawlessly deflecting every single lethal strike.
The two exchanged a blinding flurry of blows. Bardock was completely untouched, and Daz Bonez was completely unharmed.
'I'm here to achieve the realm of cutting steel, not to win a war of attrition,' Bardock thought. 'This isn't working. I need to slice him open before he runs out of stamina.'
At the same time, Daz Bonez was thinking, 'I've used my Devil Fruit powers this much, and I still haven't landed a single scratch on him. This is bad. At this rate, my stamina won't keep up.'
As if reaching a silent agreement, both fighters stopped their probing attacks. Every subsequent clash was packed with exponentially more lethal power. Yet, despite his best efforts, Bardock still couldn't cut through the bounty hunter's steel body.
"Spar Claw!"
Daz Bonez swung his arms wide before violently crossing them in front of his chest, launching a massive, cross-shaped flying slash at Bardock. Sensing the incoming danger, Bardock swung his sword to meet it.
He managed to block the invisible blades, but the sheer force of the impact sent him skidding backward, his boots carving trenches into the street until he crashed into the wall of a building behind him.
The tables had turned; they had now each pushed the other back once.
Crack... crcck...
The lower half of the building behind Bardock had been diced into neat blocks by the residual shockwaves of the Spar Claw. With a groan of shifting concrete, the upper half of the building began to collapse.
"Atomic Slash!"
Giving him no time to breathe, Daz Bonez pressed the attack. He angled his crossed arms, turning his fingers into interlocking blades, and brought them down in a devastating 'X' shaped slash.
The dense barrage of slashes diced through everything in its path. The falling chunks of the collapsing building were sliced into tiny, uniform cubes like tofu, raining down onto the street in a deafening clatter.
But at that very moment, Bardock entered a profoundly strange state of mind. He felt... enlightened.
He had originally intended to just use Tekkai to tank the incoming slashes. But as he listened to the distinct sounds of Bonez's slashes cutting through the falling concrete, Bardock noticed something incredibly subtle.
Time seemed to slow down. Everything around him became extraordinarily clear. Every time a slash cut a piece of stone, the sound was slightly different. Sometimes it was smooth; sometimes it was strained. Even different parts of the exact same rock produced different frequencies. The stones had a "breath." Let's just call it a breath—after all, that's what Zoro called it. Everything in the surrounding world possessed this "breath."
Bardock casually swung his sword. He didn't even use much physical strength, yet the incoming shockwaves of the Atomic Slash were instantly dispersed. He took a few steps forward, then a few steps to the right. A split second after he moved, massive chunks of debris slammed into the exact spots he had just occupied. He smoothly navigated through the falling rubble, every step perfectly timed to avoid the destruction. He walked entirely out of the collapsing ruin without suffering a single scratch, only getting a bit of dust on his coat.
"T-That's impossible!" Daz Bonez gasped, his chest heaving heavily. Unleashing Spar Claw and Atomic Slash back-to-back had drained a massive amount of his stamina. Despite constantly calling Bardock a 'brat', Bonez himself wasn't very old either—he was still under twenty.
"And yet, it happened," Bardock said, his golden eyes locking onto Daz Bonez. "I can hear your 'breath'. To show my gratitude for helping me realize this, I'll make this next strike a gentle one."
"Hmph. Stop pretending to be a ghost! You think I'd fall for a bluff like that?!" Bonez roared. "Steel Body!"
His words were arrogant, but his actions were completely defensive. That was the kind of fighter Daz Bonez was.
"Steel Rending."
Bardock gently swung his sword. It was a strike infused entirely with his sheer will.
The swing didn't possess blinding speed, nor did it carry explosive physical power. Daz Bonez could clearly track the blade's trajectory with his eyes. If he hadn't firmly planted his feet to maximize his steel defense, he was completely confident he could have easily dodged it.
And yet, as the slow blade made contact, Bonez's eyes widened in absolute disbelief. The sword effortlessly sliced through his steel skin, sinking deep into his muscle. Blood erupted from his chest in a violent spray, and he collapsed heavily to the ground.
As his vision faded to black, he desperately wanted to scream a thousand curses at the boy. 'That's what you call gentle?!'
"Oops, my bad," Bardock's voice drifted into his fading consciousness. "I just figured it out, so I'm not very used to it yet. I think I still swung a little too hard."
Despite his words, there wasn't a single shred of actual apology in his tone. Swallowing his outrage, Daz Bonez finally passed out.