"Tch—"
Romu felt like his arms had just taken two mountains head-on.
CLANG! CLANG-CLANG!
Two more heavy collisions slammed through him.
His eyes flashed.
He bent sharply to the side, deliberately showing an opening—then his right foot stabbed the platform.
His body blasted backward, creating dozens of meters of distance between him and Zephyr.
"...Hah."
Romu exhaled, long and slow.
The flowing Armament faded.
He lowered his gaze—
both arms were covered in deep bruising, and they trembled faintly.
"Heh."
Romu rubbed the bridge of his nose, rolling his shoulders as he forced blood and heat back into limbs that felt sluggish.
His sharp eyes locked onto Zephyr's pitch-black "iron wrists."
Black Arm Zephyr…
In his prime, his Armament is probably not far behind Garp's.
On the ship's deck, the Marines erupted the moment they saw Romu disengage.
"Hahaha! I told you Romu can't beat Admiral Zephyr!!"
"He's the Black Arm—no one outdoes him in Armament!"
"Admiral Zephyr will win!!!"
"…!"
Zephyr didn't relax for even a heartbeat.
He narrowed his eyes, studying Romu from across the distance, his expression heavy and guarded.
This kid…
He's not even twenty?
And his Armament is already Admiral-tier.
That flowing Haki is especially troublesome…
Good thing my Armament hardening is at the extreme—otherwise I wouldn't be deflecting it this cleanly.
The strongest rookie pirate… the name fits.
Then Zephyr's thoughts drifted—briefly—to three rising "geniuses" at Headquarters:
Borsalino, Sakazuki, and Kuzan.
He compared them to Romu…
…and couldn't help letting out a bitter, helpless laugh inside.
Too far.
It's not even close.
I really should drag those three brats here and let them see what a real monster looks like.
Especially Borsalino—always slacking off, always talking big, saying the Glint-Glint Fruit is all he needs… it's enough to drive a man insane.
All that passed in the span of half a minute.
On the sea battlefield, Romu shook out his arms—already mostly healed—and abandoned the idea of pure Armament trading.
Maybe after absorbing more top-tier opponents and pushing his physique further, he could surpass Zephyr in Armament strength.
But right now?
Not happening.
Across from him, Zephyr saw Romu's arms recover—and his heart sank another notch.
That regeneration…!
His eyes sharpened.
No attrition.
End it fast.
Unlike Shiki, Zephyr recognized the danger immediately.
"Hff…"
Zephyr dropped his center of gravity.
Hot breath hissed from his lips as he gathered power—then forced it into his hands.
BOOM!
His already thick arms swelled another tier.
His fingers curled—
and a faint red glint flashed across the blackened fingertips.
"Finger Pistol—Ten-Finger Spear!!"
The moment the words fell—
Zephyr vanished.
"Don't let him get in!"
Romu felt the kill-pressure in that technique.
He folded low, palms slamming down.
"World-Tree Wall!!"
Instantly—countless brown vines erupted, twisting and knotting into a massive shield in front of him.
Not one shield.
Twelve.
An upgraded defense—built for impact.
BAM-BAM-BAM!!
A violent chain of impacts thundered across the battlefield.
In only a few breaths, Zephyr's Ten-Finger Spear punched the twelve shields into ragged, splintered sieves.
Romu's expression didn't change.
He'd never expected a simple wall to stop an Admiral's Six Powers.
Six Powers were mocked at times—
but that depended on who was using them.
And Zephyr's Six Powers, backed by that Armament…
were anything but a joke.
"Burst-Spear Trees!!"
Romu crossed his arms.
Black vines exploded outward from his forearms.
Zephyr shattered the last shield—and saw it.
Before he could adjust—
those black vines thickened into trees as wide as two men hugging, firing toward him at absurd speed.
Romu's voice was ice.
"Detonate."
BOOOOM!!
Explosions overlapped.
Smoke and debris swallowed everything.
Romu still didn't loosen his guard—he used the moment to summon a floating red blossom and lift himself into the air.
Then the smoke cleared.
The wooden "arena" within nearly a hundred meters was simply… gone.
Blown apart by Burst-Spear Trees.
And Zephyr?
He stood perfectly steady on the sea's surface in a textbook horse stance—
as if the explosions had been nothing more than wind.
His clothes were shredded to tatters, revealing dense, steel-like muscle beneath.
With the black Armament coating, his body looked like forged iron.
Iron Body.
The most ridiculed of the Six Powers—
yet in Zephyr's hands, it became something frightening.
Up in the air, Romu finally threw out a rare jab.
"Zephyr—if you quit the Marines and become a fitness coach, you'd make a killing."
But in the next instant—
brown light surged around him.
Both arms slammed downward through the air.
"Stake-Forest!!"
The sea platform convulsed up and down.
Every meter—
a hand-shaped tree shot up.
Thousands. Ten-thousands.
Each wooden "palm" bristled with black spikes, ten centimeters long.
Zephyr's scalp prickled.
Bad.
Instinct screamed that those spikes were dangerous—
and worse, they carried a strange, abnormal energy.
He kicked into Moonwalk to retreat upward—
but he was already late.
WHOOSH-WHOOSH-WHOOSH—
Hundreds of thousands of black spikes launched at once.
The sky turned into a black downpour.
A rainstorm of needles.
Then Romu didn't stop.
He scattered more seeds like a curse.
His voice dropped to a whisper.
"Thunderbolt-Summoning Wood."