At the edge of the dense forest located at the absolute base of Mt. Colubo, the tense standoff between Garp's Marines and Bardock's crew had reached its boiling point.
Garp pointed a thick, calloused finger toward the dark, ominous treeline of the mountain. He locked eyes with Bardock, his signature wide grin pulling tight across his face. "Brat. We're leaving the subordinates out here. Do you have the guts to follow me into that forest?"
"Sure," Bardock replied smoothly, completely unfazed.
He turned and whispered a few rapid tactical instructions to Daz Bonez and Enel. Without another word, Bardock's silhouette blurred, and he vanished into the dense foliage, leaving behind only four words echoing in the air: "Stick to the plan."
Garp didn't hesitate for a microsecond. He instantly launched himself into the forest, tearing through the underbrush like a cannonball. "You arrogant brat! You're definitely tasting my Iron Fist today!"
Back on the dirt road, Daz Bonez and Bogard locked eyes. Since their respective captains had formally established the battlefield, they didn't need any further authorization. They simultaneously charged at each other.
From the very first moment he laid eyes on the fedora-wearing Marine, Daz Bonez had acutely recognized Bogard as an incredibly lethal, top-tier swordsman.
Originally, Daz Bonez had hoped to test his evolving skills against Koushirou back in Shimotsuki Village. Unfortunately, because the Dojo Master wasn't an actual enemy, engaging in a brutal, life-or-death duel hadn't been appropriate. Bogard, however, was a Marine. He was the perfect opponent to go absolutely all-out against without holding back.
CLANG! CLANG!
After fiercely exchanging a few high-speed probing strikes, Daz Bonez aggressively shifted into a defensive stance. He crossed his arms over his chest, his entire body instantly darkening as he coated his steel flesh in a dense layer of Armament Haki.
"Sparkling Daisy!" (斬人 - Zanjin/Beheading)
This was Daz Bonez's absolute strongest defensive technique, which he had recently upgraded by integrating the Navy's Tekkai (Iron Mass) principles into his Dice-Dice Fruit powers. He wanted to test the true, raw cutting power of Bogard's blade.
As Garp's longtime Vice-Captain, Bogard was an absolute monster. If he didn't prefer operating quietly in Garp's shadow, his raw combat strength and military achievements absolutely qualified him for the rank of Vice Admiral. In terms of pure swordsmanship and Haki, he was easily on par with elite Vice Admirals like Onigumo or Momonga.
DING! DING! DING! DING!
Bogard unleashed a terrifyingly fast, relentless barrage of slashes. Each consecutive strike was exponentially heavier and sharper than the last. However, even after landing the final, devastating blow of his combo directly against Daz Bonez's chest, the blade failed to cleave through the pirate's Haki-coated steel body.
"You're undeniably strong," Daz Bonez rumbled, his cold eyes narrowing. "But my defense is stronger."
Having successfully gauged Bogard's baseline attack power, Daz Bonez transitioned into the offensive.
"The Dice-Dice Fruit, hm? Let's see if I can carve you open," Bogard muttered calmly, adjusting his fedora. Having followed Garp through countless life-or-death battles in the New World, Bogard had faced far worse disadvantages. He knew exactly how to fight patiently and systematically dismantle a tough opponent.
The two men clashed again, their blades sparking violently as their battle officially reached a boiling point.
Deep within the dense, uninhabited center of Mt. Colubo, Garp and Bardock finally skidded to a halt. The distance from the village was perfect; as long as they didn't literally shatter the entire mountain range into dust, Foosha Village would remain perfectly safe from the collateral damage.
"So this is the Devil Fruit those Headquarters analysts keep screaming about? Some kind of Mythical Zoan?" Garp asked, crossing his arms and observing Bardock with genuine curiosity.
Before him stood a massive, heavily muscled, humanoid monkey covered in radiant golden fur, radiating a suffocating, ancient aura. It was a species Garp had never encountered in his decades of sailing the seas.
"I call it the Human-Human Fruit, Mythical Model: Sun Wukong, the Monkey King," Bardock replied, his voice dropping an octave as he gripped his massive, golden staff with both hands.
To survive a direct clash with Garp, Bardock had to immediately pull out all the stops. His Hybrid Monkey King form provided him with the absolute highest baseline stats for raw physical strength, speed, and durability, giving him the highest margin of error.
"Bwahahaha! Sounds fancy! Take this!"
Garp threw his head back and laughed. Without any warning, he vanished, utilizing a highly advanced form of Soru (Shave) to instantly materialize directly in front of Bardock. His massive right fist, completely coated in pitch-black Armament Haki, violently slammed toward Bardock's face.
Bardock's Observation Haki had fully anticipated the trajectory. He swung his golden staff upward in a fierce, two-handed parry, violently colliding with the incoming fist.
BOOOOOOM!
An apocalyptic shockwave of displaced air violently erupted from the impact point, instantly flattening the surrounding trees for dozens of meters in every direction.
The sheer kinetic force of the collision forcefully pushed both men sliding backward through the dirt.
"Not bad at all," Garp noted, slowly rotating his wrist and cracking his knuckles. The playful grin faded slightly, replaced by the serious, focused gaze of a true warrior.
Previously, Garp had merely read Tsuru and Kuzan's highly classified reports regarding Bardock's terrifying potential. Now, he had personally verified it. No, the reports were already outdated. Bardock wasn't someone who would eventually become a top-tier powerhouse; he was already standing firmly at the apex of the sea.
"Again!"
Garp roared, launching himself forward in another brutal, high-speed assault. His battle lust was rapidly rising. It was incredibly rare for him to encounter a pirate who could actually withstand a direct, Haki-infused punch without their bones instantly shattering. For the sake of global stability, Sengoku strictly forbade him from casually picking fights with monsters like Whitebeard, Big Mom, or Kaido. Finally, he had a sturdy punching bag!
"Bring it on, old man!" Bardock roared back, fiercely swinging his staff.
He absolutely refused to back down. This was exactly what he needed. His strength would only evolve under absolute, suffocating pressure!
On the opposite side of Mt. Colubo, Ace and Luffy had just finished securely transferring their hidden treasure stash into a new, heavily reinforced cave when the first massive explosion violently shook the earth beneath their feet.
Ace stumbled, looking around frantically. "What the hell was that sound?!"
"It's just thunder!" Luffy laughed carelessly, adjusting his straw hat.
Ace aggressively smacked the back of Luffy's head. "You idiot! Look at the sky! There isn't a single cloud! How could it be thunder?!"
"Who says thunder can't happen on a sunny day?" Luffy pouted, rubbing his head.
"Huh? What are you muttering about? Hurry up and follow me! The sound came from the other side of the mountain!"
Having accurately pinpointed the source of the shockwave, Ace—possessing the absolute fearlessness of a feral child—immediately began sprinting toward the epicenter of the destruction.
"Wait for me, Ace!" Luffy yelled, instantly abandoning the treasure and aggressively chasing after his brother.
The reality was that the entire Goa Kingdom was currently feeling the tremors.
Down in Foosha Village, Bogard's Marines had successfully calmed the panicked villagers, assuring them it was merely Vice Admiral Garp conducting a 'training exercise'. Deep in the forest, the Dadan Family bandits were currently trembling in their hideout, terrified that the mountain was collapsing. In the distant, pristine capital of the Goa Kingdom, the nobles felt the faint vibrations but largely dismissed them as minor seismic activity.
Back in the heart of the mountain, the apocalyptic battle between Garp and Bardock raged on.
Garp's fighting style was brutally, beautifully simple: absolute, overwhelming physical force. He didn't use tricky Devil Fruit powers or complex martial arts forms. He just constantly advanced, aggressively forcing his opponent into brutal, head-on collisions.
Bardock was incredibly grateful that he had chosen to fight exclusively with his golden staff. If he had attempted to block Garp's punches with his bare hands or even his swords, he would have been at a severe, potentially lethal disadvantage.
Garp's fists were simply too heavy. Only a massive, heavy blunt weapon like the golden staff allowed Bardock to fully leverage his Zoan-enhanced strength and clash evenly with the Marine Hero.
"You swing that club just like Kaido!" Garp shouted over the deafening roar of their continuous clashes, launching a rapid barrage of punches.
Bardock forcefully parried the strikes, utilizing the recoil to aggressively push himself backward and create distance. He shook his stinging, numb hands before smirking. "Maybe Kaido swings his club like me."
"Bwahahaha!" Garp burst into genuine laughter, actually pausing his assault for a brief second. "Your mouth is definitely the toughest part of your entire body!"
Bardock exhaled a long, heavy breath. The situation was incredibly dangerous; Garp's relentless, suffocating pressure had nearly forced him to break his defensive rhythm multiple times.
"Alright, brat. Time to get a little serious," Garp grinned. "Bone Crusher!" (Genkotsu Meteor)
Garp violently kicked the air, instantly launching himself high above Bardock. Gravity amplified his descent as he threw a terrifying, Haki-coated punch directly down toward the pirate's skull.
'Dammit,' Bardock cursed internally. He desperately swung his staff upward to intercept the falling meteor.
Because Garp held the absolute high ground, Bardock was caught at a severe mechanical disadvantage.
BOOOOOOOOM!
An impossibly loud explosion ruptured the eardrums. Bardock was driven straight into the earth like a nail being struck by a sledgehammer, instantly cratering the ground and creating a massive, deep depression in the mountain. A massive cloud of dust and debris violently erupted, completely obscuring the crater.
Garp's Bone Crusher technique was functionally identical to Kaido's Thunder Bagua; it was a simple, devastating kinetic strike that could be infinitely amplified by injecting various forms of Haki. That specific punch hadn't even utilized Conqueror's Haki yet; it was purely a masterclass application of Advanced Armament.
Floating in the air using Geppo, Garp's Observation Haki detected that Bardock's aura at the bottom of the crater hadn't weakened in the slightest.
'Tough kid,' Garp grinned fiercely. He pulled his fist back again, this time actively drawing upon his King's disposition. He was going to add Conqueror's Haki into the next strike.
"Galaxy Impact!" (Genkotsu Impact)
Thick, violent tendrils of black-red lightning violently erupted from Garp's fist as he unleashed a colossal, apocalyptic shockwave of pure Haki directly downward into the forest.
The sheer force of the impact violently annihilated a massive section of the mountain, instantly erasing hundreds of trees and creating a perfectly flat, barren wasteland. And this was Garp actively holding back to avoid destroying the entire island; if he had unleashed the full scope of the attack, the devastation would have been exponentially larger.
"Hm?"
Floating above the destruction, Garp suddenly frowned deeply.
He had completely missed.
At the absolute last possible millisecond before the Galaxy Impact detonated, Bardock had perfectly anticipated the attack's exact trajectory and explosive radius, executing a flawless, high-speed evasion.
If they hadn't been in the middle of a life-or-death battle, Bardock would have laughed out loud in pure elation. Under the absolute, suffocating pressure of Garp's relentless assault, his Observation Haki had finally broken through its plateau. At the critical moment, he had successfully triggered Future Sight, allowing him to perfectly predict and bait out Garp's ultimate attack!
With this successful activation, he knew that with enough practice, he would permanently master the ability to see into the future.
"Maximized Hasshoken Secret Art: FIVE FINGER MOUNTAIN!"
A terrifyingly massive, golden palm—the size of a literal mountain peak—suddenly materialized in the sky directly above Garp, aggressively crashing down toward the Vice Admiral.
Even before the physical palm connected, the sheer, crushing pressure of the highly advanced Hasshoken shockwave slammed into Garp, violently forcing him out of the sky and driving him toward the ground.
KRA-BOOOOOOOOM!
The massive golden hand violently slammed into the earth, producing an unprecedented, earth-shattering explosion that violently shook the entire island. The seismic tremors were so intense they felt like a catastrophic earthquake.
Bardock was absolutely certain the attack had connected directly with Garp. However, given the old man's absurd, logic-defying durability, he had no idea how much actual damage it had inflicted.
Simultaneously, sprinting over the ridge of the mountain, Ace and Luffy arrived just in time to witness the colossal golden palm violently smash their grandfather into the ground.
"GRANDPA!"
Instead of turning around and running for their lives from the apocalyptic destruction, the two absolute idiots screamed and aggressively sprinted even faster directly toward the epicenter of the blast.