Seeing this, Kalifa shot Tina a glare before urgently warning, "Roya, Smoker's weapon is made of seastone! Don't let it touch you!"
But her warning came a second too late.
Smoker had already swung his jutte, slamming it heavily onto Roya.
"Bam!"
Roya was sent flying by Smoker's strike, his figure dissipating in mid-air.
When Smoker saw this, he knew he had been tricked.
His decent combat instincts warned him, prompting him to thrust his jutte backward.
"Bam!"
Another Phantom was shattered by Smoker's strike.
But before Smoker could even catch his breath, Tina called out from the side, "Smoker, above you!"
"Armament Haki imbued!"
Roya's Phantom descended from the sky, his fist wrapped in Armament Haki, smashing down toward Smoker.
This completely nullified Smoker's Logia intangibility.
Although the Phantom's Armament Haki was only at an intermediate level, it was more than enough to deal with Smoker!
And it wasn't over yet. Before Smoker could recover from the dizziness,
Another Phantom appeared behind Smoker, also imbued with Armament Haki, delivering a punch straight to Smoker's back!
The force sent Smoker stumbling forward.
Yet another Phantom of Roya appeared in front of Smoker, Armament Haki coating his knee before slamming it hard into Smoker's abdomen.
"Guh!!!"
Smoker felt blood surge into his mouth.
Roya's assault had taken less than a second.
The Phantom shattered, revealing Roya's true form.
He stood before Smoker, looking down at the half-kneeling man, and said softly, "You've lost."
On the training grounds, everyone stared dumbfounded at the scene before them.
This outcome had far exceeded their expectations.
"Smoker is a Logia Devil Fruit user!!!"
"And he lost without even getting a chance to use his abilities?"
"That's just too strong!"
"The power of these Phantoms is insane!"
"Appearing and disappearing like ghosts—there's no way to defend against that!"
...
The surrounding soldiers whispered among themselves, exchanging shocked murmurs.
Tina clearly couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"Smoker lost just like that? How is that possible!"
At this thought, she stared at Roya in disbelief, as if trying to etch his image into her mind.
Meanwhile, Kalifa burst into laughter at the sight and said, "See? Roya's amazing!"
As if showing off to Tina, Kalifa raised an eyebrow at her.
Even Kalifa herself didn't understand why she felt so elated.
Only then did the surrounding soldiers snap out of their shock.
They erupted into deafening cheers!
"Roya! Roya! Roya!"
"Roya! Roya! Roya!"
"Roya! Roya! Roya!"
...
The soldiers chanted Roya's name with wild fervor, the echoes loud enough to be heard clearly across all of Marineford!
In another training ground, Akainu had just defeated Vice Admiral Doberman.
Hearing the commotion, he turned his stern gaze toward Roya's training field and coldly muttered, "Hmph, a mere clown. Just a Commander. Let's see if you'll still be cheering so loudly when you face me!"
Back on the training field, Roya extended his hand to Smoker and asked, "You alright?"Smoker looked at Roya and grinned, "It's nothing, just that I was too weak. Next time, I'll definitely win!"
"Let's work hard together!"
Roya gave a faint smile, and this smile instantly made the surrounding soldiers cheer.
However, for some reason, Kalifa felt a pang of sadness at this moment.
He could smile like that for others, so why was he so cold to her?
Kalifa bit her lip, lost in thought over this question.
Time passed quickly, and in the blink of an eye, three more days went by.
During these three days, Roya used the power of the Illusion-Illusion Fruit to repeatedly toy with his opponents, making it impossible for them to distinguish his real body.
One after another, they were left bewildered and easily defeated by Roya!
His overwhelming strength, combined with that gentle smile, earned Roya immense popularity!
His fame even surpassed that of the three monstrous Vice Admirals in the Marines.
——
In Sengoku's office.
Garp sat beside Sengoku, continuously munching on rice crackers.
The veins on Sengoku's forehead grew more and more pronounced.
"Garp, do you really have to eat all my rice crackers?"
"Of course! After all, if I lose the bet, I won't be able to eat them anymore. Might as well enjoy them now!"
"But I have a feeling you'd eat them even if you lost the bet!"
"Hahahaha, Sengoku, you really know me well! But are you really planning to pit Akainu against Roya in the next match? You know this is already a competition for the Admiral position, right?!"
"Garp, I know what you're thinking. But from what I've observed, Roya's temperament aligns most closely with our pacifist faction. Even if we can't fully bring him into our ranks, it's still better than letting Akainu rise to power!"
The Marines were far from a unified force—internal factional struggles were incredibly complex.
Sengoku had prepared two plans.
The first was to extend an olive branch to Roya if he lost to Akainu, absorbing this exceptionally talented individual into the pacifist faction.
The second was to form an alliance for mutual development if Roya managed to defeat Akainu—all for the sake of peace on the seas!
Garp naturally understood Sengoku's intentions, but precisely because of this, he was curious—why was Sengoku so confident that Roya could defeat Akainu?!
After finalizing the match list, Sengoku had his subordinates announce it publicly.
Everyone who saw the list was stunned.
"Hey, hey, hey! Did you hear? Akainu is facing Roya!"
"Seriously? Akainu is actually going up against Roya?!"
"No joke, it's already public!"
"I remember Akainu once said that if he ever faced Roya, he'd make him regret it!"
"That does sound like Akainu. After all, that guy is way too ruthless!"
...
Compared to the gentle Roya, the iron-fisted Akainu was truly detestable.
Standing before the match list, Akainu clenched his fists, radiating an oppressive aura. "Roya, don't lose too badly tomorrow! The Marines have no need for sudden interlopers!"
"We'll see about that tomorrow, won't we?"Roya happened to be right next to Akainu. With a smile on his face, he spoke to Akainu.
Akainu snorted coldly, then turned and walked straight away from the roster.
It wasn't until this moment...