Chapter 32: Gao Wen vs

*Snap! *

After Gao Wen hung up the phone, he raised his eyes and looked toward the distant sea.

Thick smoke churned, completely blocking his view; only the roar of an engine drew closer and closer.

The influence of a Nature-type on the environment was now displayed to the fullest—far more so than Gao Wen had previously realized.

His Observation Haki had only just awakened; he had not yet fully mastered it and could not apply it in actual combat.

But even by instinct, Gao Wen could sense the ferocious, beast-like aura hidden within that dense fog.

The Guanshi Zhengzong in his palm was already trembling with excitement—clearly Krieg earlier had not satisfied it at all, but the opponent before them absolutely could!

No need to probe.

Gao Wen could already judge the newcomer's strength: on par with his own—a top-tier bronze of East Blue caliber!

"He's coming!"

Gao Wen's gaze sharpened, and from within the sky-filling white smoke, a tall figure wielding a sea-prison-stone jitte burst forth.

If it wasn't Smoker, then who?

Borrowing the thrust generated by the billowing smoke behind him, he suddenly accelerated—fast enough that the eye could barely track him.

The exaggeratedly shaped sea-prison jitte, seizing the momentum, thrust violently forward.

His opening move was a killing strike!

Clearly supremely confident in his own combat power!

"Truly… how arrogant~"

A faint smile curled at the corner of Gao Wen's lips; his surging battle intent made him grip the Guanshi Zhengzong tighter, until the veins on the back of his hand stood out.

The Smoker before him was the strongest opponent he had ever faced—even setting aside the virtually unsolvable Nature-type, it was still so. After all, how could a man personally trained by Zephyr at Marine Headquarters possibly be a mediocrity?

That he suffered many setbacks in the original story was because he was in the New World, a place crawling with monsters—not East Blue.

"A performance like this finally does justice to the title of White Hunter!"

Gao Wen sighed inwardly, yet the long blade in his hand darted out like a spirit serpent, deflecting the jitte thrust by Smoker.

*Screeeech—! *

Blade edge grinding against steel, sparks flashing in the air.

Their gazes crossed.

In Smoker's eyes there was only utter Solemnity; in an instant he had discerned an astonishing—or rather, expected—truth:

The man before him and the other pirates of East Blue were creatures of two different dimensions.

One must understand that this strike of his, delivered with momentum, had already seized the initiative, yet was still so easily neutralized by Gao Wen.

Anyone capable of this, let alone in East Blue, would have made a name for themselves even on the Grand Line!

"How could someone like you exist in East Blue?!"

Gao Wen smiled faintly:

"Didn't a monster like Luo Jie once appear as well?"

"Luo Jie was a special existence, different from everyone else."

Smoker's gaze was cold and fierce; unwilling to waste more words with Gao Wen, seeing his strike had failed, the sea-prison-stone jitte in his hand swept sideways like a blade.

After Gao Wen dodged by twisting his body, Smoker pressed the pursuit; the jitte wove a skyful of black shadows in midair, pressing down on Gao Wen like a curtain of rain!

The jitte was a weapon born to counter blades and swords to begin with, and the one in Smoker's hand had been custom-made to suit his status as a Devil Fruit user.

The sea-prison stone embedded in its tip, apart from being the natural bane of ability users, was also hard enough to withstand the slash of a famed blade!

The next instant.

*Bang! *

*Bang! *

*Bang! *

……

The dense barrage of attacks fell like raindrops, shattering the floor beneath their feet to pieces.

Yet amid such a dense assault, not a single trace of change appeared on Gao Wen's expression; only his body and heart gradually heated up, and his dormant fighting instinct was being fully awakened by Smoker's attacks.

Compared to Krieg, the Smoker before him was an opponent worth fighting.

"Come!"

After a sudden roar, Smoker's descending offensive abruptly halted. It was because the long blade in Gao Wen's hand, swung at an even greater speed, blocked every one of his airborne chops!

Sparks flew in the air; the two men, their battle intent equally surging, swung their weapons on instinct.

Beneath such high-speed exchanges, thought and hesitation were nothing but dead weight that slowed the speed of one's strikes.

One could only entrust everything to instinct! To the fighting heart! To your will to win!

Only then, amid ever more fierce combat, could one find that one opening to victory.

*Clang! *

*Clang! *

*Clang! *

………

With every clash, Smoker felt his own arm trembling uncontrollably; an unsettling truth surfaced in his mind:

"What's going on?!"

"This guy is faster—he's swinging his sword at least thirty percent quicker than at the start."

Accompanying Smoker's incomprehension was a completely reversed tide of battle……

*Hiss! *

A sharp sound of tearing through the air came—Guanshi Zhengzong slashed across Smoker's face, nearly cutting it clean in half.

Yet not a drop of blood flowed out; white smoke churned instead, and in an instant the wound healed as if it had never been.

"As expected, the Logia's elementalization ability is nothing but trouble."

!

Gao Wen let out a sigh, but the long blade in his hand pressed its advantage without mercy, leaving countless wounds on Smoker's body—yet all of them were dodged by the elementalization ability.

This kind of special ability that almost completely evades physical attacks has made the Logia the highest-floor among the three categories of Devil Fruit powers in terms of minimum threshold; in an encounter without Armament Haki, it's practically unsolvable.

After this battle, Armament Haki must be put on the agenda.

A trace of solemnity surfaced in Gao Wen's eyes.

This kind of ability—only I can hit you, you're not allowed to hit me—is practically cheating; what's even more disgusting is how suffocating it feels to actually fight.

"Looks like you know about Logia abilities too."

"Without Armament Haki, even if you can suppress me in technique, you still can't inflict any damage on me!"

Smoker's face was expressionless, but inwardly he was utterly shocked by the combat power Gao Wen had displayed.

He had never been from the East Sea in the first place; he was an elite personally trained by Zephyr in Marine Headquarters.

The place where he ought to be cutting a swath should never have been the East Sea, but the Grand Line and the New World—yet now he was being suppressed in the East Sea to the point of needing his ability just to turn the tide?!

If Tina and his peers found out about this, he'd be hung up on the wall!

"You're too dangerous! I can't let you keep going!"

Smoker's gaze grew ever darker; the killing intent had already taken hold.

"White Smoke Launcher!"

He took a deep drag on his cigar and abruptly activated the Smoke-Smoke Fruit's power.

Rolling white smoke spread out in all directions, coalescing into countless smoke pillars like white serpents, sweeping toward Gao Wen!

"White—Snake!"

Gao Wen leapt back, but the long blade in his hand swept through the air—silver-white blade qi shot forth, instantly scattering all the smoke Smoker had gathered.

Without Armament Haki coating it, the formless white smoke was still too weak in terms of killing power.

Yet only after the surrounding white smoke had fully dispersed did Gao Wen realize Smoker's figure had long since vanished in the distance; he jerked his head up sharply.

And saw the tip of a jitte growing larger and larger in his eyes…

"Got him!"

Mid-air.

The corner of Smoker's mouth had already curved into a faint smile.

White smoke is weak in killing power, but in the East Sea where Observation Haki hasn't yet spread, it has an incomparable effect as a feint!

"Don't be a pirate in your next life!"

(End of this chapter)