Chapter 33: Recklessly Testing the Limits

Garen’s one-click equipment recall was a rule-level ability established by the system—no one could stop the greatsword from flying back to his hand.

When the sword took flight, Nami didn’t let go, Steelblade didn’t let go, and neither did Garp. Thus, the first two experienced what it was to be swept through the air, but the third suffered an even more dramatic fate:

As the greatsword thrummed with a deafening resonance, Garp’s towering form was instantly dragged along by the weapon eager to return to its master. In that split second, Garp realized the terrifying power at play and instinctively braced himself, trying to resist the sudden, monstrous force.

But all that accomplished was to make Garp, like a human plow, carve a wide and deep furrow across the sturdy wooden deck as he was dragged along.

Nami and Steelblade, with their lesser strength, lost their grip on the sword entirely after such an ordeal. Yet Garp was still Garp; even as he was utterly overpowered, he stubbornly refused to let go of the sword’s hilt.

With others still clutching the hilt, the greatsword couldn’t complete its return to Garen’s hand. Thus, in that instant, it shifted into an even more violent mode of flight…

Before the stunned eyes of the assembled navy soldiers, the sword, dragging Garp behind it, suddenly accelerated—surpassing even Garp’s “Shave” technique in speed. In a heartbeat, the flying sword whipped up a thunderous sonic boom and, at a speed nearly invisible to the naked eye, circled Garen once.

The unimaginable acceleration conjured a centrifugal force impossible to resist. At last, Garp could no longer hold on; his hand slipped from the hilt, and, like a flung meteor hammer, he was hurled away by the sword.

After a succession of explosive crashes…

Garp, who had just measured the width of the warship with his body, plunged into the vast sea.

The spray he kicked up was like a tidal wave, the crest almost reaching the warship’s upper decks dozens of meters above.

Meanwhile, the greatsword abruptly halted its wild flight and, in a moment of uncanny tranquility, returned tamely to Garen’s side, coming to rest silently in his palm.

“So powerful?” Garen was startled by the effect of his one-click recall. Before witnessing this, he’d doubted whether he could summon his greatsword back from the hand of a powerhouse like Garp. Now, it seemed the effect was almost excessive.

Nami, watching, felt her lips twitch; the little scheme in her heart to steal Garen’s greatsword and make her fortune vanished in an instant at the sight.

Amid the shocked silence of the navy soldiers, those who had been so eager to analyze the situation moments before were now beside themselves with excitement:

“This is absolutely the power of an Admiral!”

“Is Vice Admiral Garp… going to be alright?”

Witnessing such a scene, some navy recruits even found themselves, for the first time, worrying about their legendary hero.

But Garp’s hearty laugh rang out, reaching everyone’s ears.

With his white wolf at his side, he leapt from the sea back onto the deck in a single bound. Unconcerned by his drenched and bedraggled appearance, Garp faced Garen and offered honest praise:

“What an intriguing ability! Even I couldn’t keep that sword from returning!”

“Naturally…” Garen, keeping up his knightly persona, replied with calm composure, “A true knight will never lose—”

Bang!

He didn’t finish the sentence before, with uncanny fidelity, he retraced Garp’s earlier trajectory, crashing into the upper deck and leaving a sizable crater before dropping heavily to the lower gun deck.

Meanwhile, Garp, waving his still-smoking iron fist with casual ease, laughed heartily from the very spot where Garen had just stood.

The repair bill for the navy headquarters’ warship had just hit a new record.

“Why did you hit me all of a sudden?!” Garen quickly leapt out of the crater, perfectly intact but bristling with fresh splinters and iron nails, and demanded an explanation from Garp, face full of righteous indignation.

“Eh?” Garp replied earnestly, “We’re sparring, aren’t we? Isn’t it only natural for me to attack?”

Garen was momentarily speechless, casting an uneasy glance at his health bar, which had suddenly lost nearly half its length—this was no friendly spar; this was beating a child senseless!

“Good thing my body is always in perfect digital condition,” Garen thought with lingering fear. “Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t be able to stand right now…”

“You… you can still stand?” Garp said frankly, revealing his true intentions as he looked in mild amazement at the “unscathed” Garen. “I thought I controlled my strength well, but I guess I underestimated you…”

Though Garp still had reservations about Garen’s “knight of justice” rhetoric, he couldn’t help but be impressed by his strange abilities. A young man with such powers was worth appreciating, and Garp’s preferred way of showing appreciation was with his “loving iron fist”—a head full of lumps to let the youth know he was valued and expected to improve.

That was Garp’s style of education: he couldn’t let young people get too full of themselves.

“Uh-oh…” Garen already sensed danger.

“It seems your limits are far beyond this… I’ll just have to try harder!” Garp said with a laugh.

Garen’s scalp tingled, a chill running down his spine: his digitized body might not show injuries, but if Garp kept pushing for his “limits,” he might as well order himself a coffin.

“Wait!” Garen hastily objected, activating his lifesaving skills at once: “Courage!”

With the forty percent damage reduction in effect, Garen still felt uneasy and quickly followed up with another skill: “True and False Monkey King!”

True to form, Garp was already charging forward, fist cocked. This time, however, his punch was wreathed in the pitch-black aura of Armament Haki—a clear sign he meant business.

Hidden in the void, Garen finally felt a sliver of relief.

Garp’s iron fist halted just before Garen’s decoy, the force of the blow sending a fierce gust roaring past even as he stopped.

Garen’s heart skipped a beat.

“No wonder Smoker got caught off guard earlier…” Garp said, a look of admiration on his face. “Such a strange stealth technique—unless your Observation Haki is highly trained, you’d never see through it!”

And then—

Bang!

Garen’s body formed yet another navy logistics nightmare: a human-shaped dent in the warship.

And this time, Garen was in his hidden, invisible state—his true body.

He’d been found? Was it Observation Haki?

Garp’s innate “true sight” had caught Garen off guard, delivering another punishing blow and giving him another taste of being a living missile.

Lying in the now-familiar wreckage of the deck, Garen stared in horror at his health bar: even with the forty percent reduction from “Courage,” Garp’s earnest punch had nearly drained it.

Without his buffs, he might have become the first unlucky soul in history to die from “sparring” with the hero of the navy.

Though his body was still fully functional, Garen had learned his lesson…

He lay “writhing in pain” in the dent, opting for the time-honored tradition of playing dead.

After a moment, Garp approached, his iron fist still smoking faintly.

Garen’s expression of pain became even more convincing.

“You…” Garp exclaimed in surprise, “Your aura isn’t disturbed at all. So, not even that last punch could hurt you?”

Garp’s gaze grew stranger, his curiosity intensifying.

“In that case…”

Once more, his massive, kettle-sized fist was wreathed in Armament Haki—this time, even darker and more menacing.

“Let me try your limits again!”

Garen’s face turned ashen.