"The fight for top of the class... Rogers Daren versus Kuzan!!"
As Zephyr's voice echoed across the training field, every pair of eyes lit up. All attention turned to Daren and Kuzan, filled with anticipation.
"It's finally happening!"
"This is a clash between monsters!"
"Both of them are insanely strong Devil Fruit users!"
"I don't know why, but Daren gives off a much heavier sense of pressure."
"Still... I wonder if he has any way to threaten Kuzan. Logia-type users are just too hard to deal with."
"..."
The elite Marines gathered from around the world couldn't help but whisper among themselves.
After the previous matches, they were well aware—Daren and Kuzan were no longer on the same level as the rest of them.
Only monsters could fight monsters.
At the edge of the field, Zephyr stood silently, his expression turning grave as he watched both combatants from behind his sunglasses.
Neither Daren nor Kuzan had been pushed to show their full strength so far.
But this duel—this battle for the top—might finally reveal what they were truly capable of.
"Hahahahahaha!! Daren!! You ready!? It's finally—finally our turn!!"
Kuzan rushed to the center of the field, his face flushed with excitement, eyes burning with battle spirit.
Daren chuckled at the outburst.
He had to admit, young Kuzan had this odd sort of theatrical flair to him.
But it wasn't the kind that grated on people.
"Come."
He didn't waste any words.
With a flick of his wrist, the metal bracer melted, twisted, and condensed into a metal sphere—then launched forward with a violent blast of magnetic force.
Boom boom boom!!
The sphere erupted forward with staggering speed and power, its passage tearing the air with heavy sonic booms and leaving rings of white shockwaves behind.
Against a monster like Kuzan, Daren had no reason to hold back.
With the magnetic propulsion pushed to max output, the speed of the metal sphere was clearly more than twice what it had been against Yamakaji.
Snap!
Aside from Zephyr, no one else on the field could track the sphere's trajectory.
All they felt was a sudden gust of wind—and then, Kuzan's face... exploded.
Shards of ice scattered into the air. Most of Kuzan's head had been blasted apart, leaving only jagged blocks of ice riddled with cracks.
The fragments reformed into a face once more. Kuzan's expression faltered, clearly caught off guard.
"...Tch!"
Only then did the Marines come back to their senses, all of them sharply inhaling as chills ran down their spines.
"Did... did any of you see it?" Doberman asked, face pale.
"No..." Onigumo's voice was raspy, like it had been scorched.
"That was... unreal..." Dalmatian's forehead was drenched in cold sweat.
The others stood frozen, eyes wide with disbelief.
Only now did they realize how much Daren had been holding back in his fight against Yamakaji.
If it had been any one of them standing there in Kuzan's place, that metal sphere would've blown their heads clean off.
And unlike Kuzan, whose body could reform with ice, they wouldn't be exploding into shards—
They'd be exploding into blood and brain matter.
"As expected... you're strong."
A drop of cold sweat slid down Kuzan's forehead. He froze for a second.
But then, the look of shock vanished—replaced by blazing excitement and raw exhilaration.
"Hah! You really are the man I acknowledged!"
"Daren, only someone like you is worthy to be my lifelong rival!"
As the words left his mouth, a wave of visible frost surged from Kuzan's hand, rapidly condensing into an ice spear gleaming with bone-chilling cold.
His grin disappeared. His expression turned serious and focused as he stepped forward, body drawn tight like a fully stretched bow. The ice spear, raised high in his grasp, glinted coldly under the blazing sun.
"Watch yourself, Daren. Let's see how you handle this one."
With his stance locked in, Kuzan narrowed his eyes—then hurled the ice spear with all his might!
Boom!
A white shockwave exploded outward as the spear ripped through the air with terrifying speed.
Daren narrowed his eyes. His bio-magnetic field instantly flared to its limit.
He shifted slightly, just enough for the spear laced with bitter frost to graze past his hair and plunge into the ruined remains of a military fortress.
Swoosh!
In less than a second, the entire structure was consumed in white. Frozen solid into a massive block of ice, the frost spread more than ten meters before finally coming to a stop, leaving the gathered Marines wide-eyed in horror.
The moment he dodged the ice spear, Daren blasted forward like a cannonball.
The sheer force shattered the ground beneath him in layers, kicking up sand like rolling waves.
So fast!
Kuzan's pupils contracted, but his eyes burned with a fierce fighting spirit.
He had known Daren was strong—but facing him head-on, the crushing pressure was on another level entirely.
"Still..."
Kuzan raised his hand, and a white ice pillar shot out from his palm.
"Ice Ball!"
Just then, a metal orb shot out from behind Daren. In the blink of an eye, it expanded into a massive metal shield that smashed into the ice pillar head-on.
Boom!!
The pillar shattered on impact, bursting into a glittering rain of ice crystals.
In the very next instant, Daren pierced through the icy haze like a ghost, appearing midair right in front of Kuzan.
He spun rapidly, building up centripetal force, and with that momentum, his black military boot snapped toward Kuzan's head like a whip!
Kuzan didn't flinch. Another ice spear formed in his hand, and he swung it to block.
But it only held for a moment—then cracked apart.
"I win!" Kuzan suddenly burst out laughing.
Instead of retreating, he charged forward, arms wide open—he wanted to take Daren's kick head-on using his Logia intangibility and then freeze him on contact!
No matter how strong Daren was, he couldn't touch a Logia user without Haki!
"Ice Time—What?!"
Bang!!
Daren's boot, carried by a whirlwind, slammed full-force into Kuzan's face. The crowd watched as Kuzan's long horse-like face twisted grotesquely, his skin rippling from the impact.
That monstrous strength—comparable to a giant—launched Kuzan through the air. He flew over a hundred meters before crashing into a classroom building like a missile.
Rumble...
Everyone stared in stunned silence as the five-story building cracked, buckled, and collapsed floor by floor—until it came crashing down in a massive cloud of dust.
A roaring shockwave followed, sending dust and debris rolling out like a tidal wave.
...
(60 Chapters Ahead)
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