The moment the words left Zephyr's mouth, he charged at Aren again.
This time, as his foot slammed down, the stone slabs beneath him exploded outward. His aura surged skyward, crashing forward like a tidal wave.
Aren lifted a hand and calmly unbuttoned the top button of his shirt. In the same instant, he moved.
As his body shot forward, the air around him suddenly became visible. Currents of wind appeared out of nowhere, then narrowed and compressed, folding inward like a field of crops pressed flat by a storm.
In the blink of an eye, that airflow formed a thin, flowing shell around his body, like a shifting barrier... like living armor made of air.
Black Arm Zephyr's jet-black fist met Aren's fist, which was wrapped in that swirling air armor.
They collided.
The power that exploded between their fists far surpassed anything from before. The shock of their clash erupted at once, a deafening roar that made the earlier blasts seem almost quiet.
This time, the ground around them did not merely crack. Centered on the two of them, the harbor floor violently detonated, stone fragments blasting upward like shrapnel.
The shockwave created by their fists, each carrying terrifying strength, spread across the entire harbor in a raging surge.
As it rolled past, even the sea itself seemed to howl. Huge waves rose and crashed wildly against the warships and the dock.
Every person present, including the Headquarters vice admirals, stumbled backward. Many could not even stay on their feet and were blown away outright by the pressure. The earth itself seemed to tremble.
In the midst of that chaos, Aren's body suddenly kicked upward, twisting as he flipped, his body inverted like a hanging bell as his leg whipped down toward Zephyr's shoulder.
Zephyr's eyes flashed. He raised his arm and blocked the kick, but his body was still forced back several steps. He stomped once, hard, leaving a ring of shattered stone beneath his foot before he finally stabilized himself.
Aren landed lightly where he had been. The air-armor swirling over his fists had shattered with the clash, but streams of wind gathered again, repairing themselves. The same airflow wrapped around his leg.
Zephyr...
The old man standing before him was even stronger than Aren had imagined.
Zephyr, feeling Aren's gaze, stared back with the same sharp light in his eyes.
Aren...
The young man before him was also stronger than Zephyr had expected.
This time, neither of them wasted any breath. Their figures vanished almost at the same moment.
Then they collided again.
A heartbeat later, they vanished once more and clashed again.
Fist struck fist with thunderous force. The repeated booming of their blows echoed over and over, the shockwaves from their invisible collisions rolling out like endless waves in a stormy sea.
Their speed was so great that no one could clearly see their movements anymore. The only things the onlookers could truly perceive were the aftershocks of each clash, and the tremors spreading through the ground with every exchange.
The cries of shock that had filled the harbor earlier were gone.
What remained was stunned silence.
And...
The boiling of every trainee's blood.
This battle no longer simply showed them the unbelievable strength of Aren. It was a brutal, overwhelming feast for the eyes and spirit, a collision that hammered directly into their hearts.
Become stronger.
I have to become stronger too.
Every trainee clenched their fists tightly, eyes wide open, not daring to blink as they stared at the two figures in combat. Even if most of them could not follow their movements at all, they still watched every place where the two appeared and vanished, refusing to look away.
"Zephyr..."
At the window of the Fleet Admiral's office, Sengoku looked down at the man below who was completely immersed in the battle, laughing and excited like a younger version of himself.
He had originally wanted to stop Zephyr's reckless behavior and the growing damage it was causing, but now he chose silence.
Because...
It had been a very, very long time since he had seen Zephyr like this.
A long time since he had seen Zephyr smile this way.
"Zephyr-sensei really does look cool," Kuzan said quietly from the side, watching the instructor throw himself wholeheartedly into battle, his voice tinged with genuine envy.
Former Marine Admiral, now Chief Instructor of the Marine School of Justice, Zephyr had fully mastered Armament Haki by the age of thirty-four. He could coat both hands with Armament Haki hardening, and combined with his naturally overwhelming strength, that was how he had earned the title of Black Arm.
A few years ago, while protecting a ship full of trainees, Zephyr had his right arm cut off by pirates. After that, everyone had believed that the era of Black Arm was over.
Even after Zephyr was fitted with a special combat prosthetic developed by World Government scientists, many still missed the old Black Arm, the man who had fought with his own flesh and blood, not the one with the massive mechanical arm.
But now, Zephyr was proving with his fists that Black Arm still existed.
He was still here.
Black Arm Zephyr was still alive on this battlefield, even if his right arm was no longer the real one he had been born with.
Because...
Black Arm remained.
"Zephyr-sensei..."
Behind them, Ain, the blue-haired female instructor, held Zephyr's cloak tightly to her chest. She did not blink as she watched the battle before her, her eyes filled with emotion. There was joy there, and worry, but above all, fierce excitement.
...