73: Chapter 73 The Great General Arrives

The Straw Hat Pirates also mounted a defense.

Under Franky's control, the going merry used its sturdy hull, forged from wapol metal, to forcibly smash through a barrage of cannonballs.

Zoro swung his three swords, and a massive slash of Sword Qi sliced through the falling iron balls.

Sanji's legs blurred into afterimages, kicking away the cannonballs falling toward the deck one by one.

The battle fell into a violent stalemate.

Although the firepower of the ten warships was fierce, facing the defensive line formed by the two armored ships, they could not cause fatal damage in the short term.

In the center of the battlefield.

Rice stepped on a pile of burning ruins, his bronze-colored torso stained with the blood of his enemies.

He paid no mind to the low-ranking Marine soldiers.

His violent black eyes stared fixedly at a cluster of high-density yellow photons that had suddenly condensed in mid-air.

The blinding glare robbed the surrounding soldiers of their vision.

The light converged, and a tall, thin figure appeared in front of Rice, stepping on the shattered bluestone fragments covering the ground.

The Peak combat power of Marineford, the Admiral. Kizaru, Borsalino.

Kizaru wore a yellow and white striped suit, draped in a wide Marine Justice cloak.

He wore tinted sunglasses with his hands tucked into his trouser pockets.

He glanced at the brutal battlefield, then looked at Rice's torso, which was covered in violent muscular lines.

"Oh my, what terrifying destructive power."

Kizaru drawled, a nonchalant smile hanging on the corners of his mouth.

"I heard that a lawless tyrant appeared in the East Blue, one whom even Kuzan's ice couldn't freeze. I came here specifically today to see just what kind of beast would dare to trample so wildly on the bottom line of the World Government."

Rice twisted his thick neck, his cervical vertebrae popping with a crackling sound.

"Admiral."

Rice grinned, revealing his stark white teeth.

"Not drinking tea at Marineford? Did you come here to throw your life away?"

Kizaru curled his lip, a flash of sharp coldness appearing in his eyes behind his sunglasses.

"Throwing my life away? Is the only thing hard about a Disciple taught by Vice Admiral Garp this mouth of yours?"

Kizaru slowly raised his right leg. His lower leg instantly elementalized, transforming into blinding yellow light.

Countless high-energy photons gathered at his foot, forming an energy field.

"Speed is weight. Experience the speed of light."

The moment his voice fell, Kizaru's figure abruptly disappeared from where he stood.

A movement at the speed of light that broke the limits of vision.

After a delay of mere milliseconds, Kizaru had already appeared in front of Rice's left side.

His right leg, flickering with blinding yellow light, carried terrifying momentum within the framework of relativity and swept fiercely toward Rice's waist and abdomen.

Rice didn't bother calculating any wavelengths.

The moment the strong light flared, his beastly intuition frantically triggered a death alarm in his central nervous system.

His left arm instinctively pressed down instantly, blocking the side of his waist and abdomen. The power of his entire body's Qi and blood exploded.

[Iron Body: Steel].

The pitch-black Armament Haki, like gushing molten iron, formed an extremely thick layer of Haki armor on the outside of his forearm.

Boom!

The Light Speed Kick slammed hard into the Haki armor on his left arm. The relativistic momentum carried by the high-energy photons collided with the Armament Haki. A blinding glare erupted from the point of impact.

A world-destroying circular shockwave spread wildly across the ground beneath them toward the entire Enies Lobby. The sturdy front island plaza was stripped of a layer of its surface.

The glare dissipated. Rice's feet had plowed two deep trenches dozens of meters long into the bluestone pavement.

The Haki armor on the surface of his left forearm was cracked over a large area. His flesh was scorched by the high temperature, emitting a burnt smell. Under the impact of the terrifying momentum, his arm bone emitted waves of aching, miserable groans.

Rice did not retreat; instead, the intense pain completely incited his ferocity.

"Light?"

Rice let out a deafening roar. He pulled his right fist back to his waist. Armament Haki was tightly compressed onto his fist. Twisting his waist and abdomen, he punched toward Kizaru's face with a brute kinetic energy capable of crushing mountains. Under the pressure of this punch, the air emitted a sharp sonic boom.

Kizaru did not dodge or evade; he raised his right hand and met Rice's heavy fist with a single palm.

Bang! The muffled sound of flesh colliding echoed. Kizaru's body slid backward several meters, a tingling sensation spreading through his palm. Looking at Rice's berserker-like fighting style—knowing only how to take hits and smash hard—he shook his head helplessly.

"What a waste." Kizaru pushed up his sunglasses, his voice shedding its previous laziness.

"Did that old geezer Garp only teach you how to compress Haki into a turtle shell?" Kizaru tucked his hands back into his pockets, his gaze fixed directly on Rice's bloodshot black eyes.

"Armament Haki is not just for increasing the hardening layer of your muscles. You lock it tightly inside your flesh and skin, but when facing my photon impact, you will eventually have your bones shattered."

Rice stopped moving, his chest heaving violently. Intuition told him that the Admiral before him had not used his full strength, but was instead examining his combat system with a condescending attitude.

"Haki is meant to flow." Kizaru raised a finger, and a blinding ball of light condensed at his fingertip.

"Guide the Haki within your body out, wrap it around the outside of your fist, and form an invisible destructive airflow. Not only can you perform non-contact defense, but you can also drive the destructive force directly into the enemy's interior." Kizaru casually flicked the ball of light in his hand, smashing it into the ruins in the distance and triggering a violent explosion. He turned back, his tone carrying a rare note of solemnity.

"Stripped of those flashy Devil Fruits, pure Haki is the true power that reigns at the pinnacle of this sea. Vice Admiral Garp punched through the previous era with a pair of iron fists. As his Disciple, if you can't even master the flow of Haki, then just be shattered here by my light kick."

Kizaru's words were like a heavy hammer, striking deep into Rice's mind.

No complicated data analysis, only the most essential truth of martial arts.

Flow. Release.

Rice lowered his head, looking at his fists covered in charred blood. For a long time, he had relied on the terrifying muscles brought about by lightning stimulating his cells, combined with the rigid hardening of Haki, to crush all his opponents along the way.

He had treated Haki like an iron plate, nailed tightly to his own skin. This brute-force way of using it was more than enough to deal with martial arts agents at the level of CP9. But when facing kinetic impacts at the Admiral level, rigid defense ultimately had its limits.

"So that's how it is." Rice suddenly raised his head; the violence in his black eyes had not subsided, but instead, a fierce gleam of sudden realization appeared.

"Release the Haki, use the destructive force field to tear everything apart."

The Qi and blood in his body boiled again. But this time, Rice did not compress the Armament Haki tightly inside his muscle fibers. He closed his eyes, feeling the trajectory of the massive energy flowing within his body.

Beastly instinct took over control of his body. His heart rate slowed, and his muscles were no longer blindly tense. The pitch-black Haki, like floodwaters breaking a dam, surged wildly along the meridians of his arms toward his fists.

Hum! On the surface of Rice's right fist, a strange distortion of air pressure occurred. The black Haki was no longer clinging to his skin, but hovering half an inch outside his fist, forming a circle of black airflow that felt almost tangible.

Not only that. A kingly Aptitude, dormant deep in his Soul and representing the tyrant's will, exploded.

Conqueror's Haki turned into black and red lightning, entwining around that layer of released Armament Haki airflow. The two were perfectly interwoven, emitting a terrifying fluctuation that could even tear space apart.

Advanced Armament Haki: Ryou.

Conqueror's Haki Infusion.

Kizaru looked at the black and red lightning appearing on Rice's fist, his pupils behind his sunglasses contracting sharply.

"Oh my... Just a few words of advice, and you've crossed the threshold of Haki emission in actual combat, and even mastered Conqueror's Haki Infusion. That old monster Garp really picked up an incredible tyrant."

In Kizaru's tone, for the first time, there was genuine wariness.

Rice opened his eyes. There were no distracting thoughts in his pupils, only the tyrant's will to destroy everything. He bent his legs slightly.

The bluestone pavement beneath his feet completely turned into powder. His figure, like a black thunderbolt, instantly crossed the distance in space. No tactics, no flashy moves. His right fist fully drawn back, carrying the world-destroying Ryou aura and Conqueror's Haki lightning, he punched straight at Kizaru's chest.

Kizaru dared not be the least bit arrogant anymore.

He pulled his hands sharply in front of his chest.

[Ama no Murakumo].

A dazzling light sword, two meters long and condensed from high-density photons, formed instantly. Kizaru held the sword with both hands and slashed down hard, meeting Rice's heavy fist.

Rumble!

The Haki field released from his fist collided directly with the light blade of the Ama no Murakumo. No physical contact occurred.

Rice's fist stopped half an inch in front of the light sword. Two forces at the pinnacle of their power were engaged in a fierce struggle across the air.

Black and red lightning raged wildly at the point of impact, ionizing the surrounding air into a pungent smell of ozone.

Crack... Crack... Crisp cracking sounds rang out in the bright light. Kizaru was shocked to find that the high-density light sword in his hand, capable of slicing through warships, was developing fine cracks under the crushing force of Rice's released Haki field.

Pure Haki was forcibly destroying the structure of the photons.

"Shatter for me!!!" Rice let out a inhuman roar. His arm muscles bulged, and the massive kinetic energy, channeled through the Ryou Haki, poured into the Ama no Murakumo like a mountain-toppling, sea-draining force.

Bang!!! The Ama no Murakumo exploded, turning into scattered points of light filling the sky. Rice's heavy fist did not lose momentum and struck Kizaru's chest through the air.

The terrifying internal destructive power of the Ryou Haki directly ignored the Logia elemental shell and drilled fiercely into Kizaru's torso.

"Cough..." Kizaru let out a muffled grunt, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. His tall, thin body flew backward like a kite with a broken string for dozens of meters, crashing through three remaining stone walls, and finally sank into the center of the ruins.

The entire battlefield fell into a deathly silence.

Even the Buster Call fleet in the distance, with its artillery fire, seemed to have lost its voice, stunned by this earth-shattering punch. All the Marine soldiers stared blankly at the bronze-colored man who had knocked back an Admiral with one punch, their eyes filled with uncontrollable fear.

Rice retracted his right fist. He looked at the black and red lightning entwined on his fist. He felt the smoothness brought by the flow of Haki. There was no fear of the Admiral; in the tyrant's dictionary, there was only absolute crushing.

In the ruins.

Kizaru slowly stood up. He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and brushed the dust off his suit. A dull pain came from his chest; the internal damage caused by the Haki had hindered his elemental self-healing ability to a certain extent.

He looked at Rice in the distance and pushed up his sunglasses.

"Without relying on any Devil Fruit, using only pure physical mass and Haki emission, you were able to shatter my light sword. Little Rice, your Haki has already begun to take the shape of the powerhouses at the pinnacle of this sea."

Kizaru did not continue to attack.

The Buster Call's artillery fire was destroying the island, and his purpose for coming here was only for inspection; he had received no death order to fight to the death with a monster of this level here.

If they fought to the end, even if he could win, Marineford would have to pay the painful price of having an Admiral severely injured.

"Let's stop here for today." Kizaru's body turned into light particles filling the sky, slowly rising into mid-air.

"Rice. The monsters of the New World are much more troublesome than me." As his voice fell, Kizaru turned into a streak of light and disappeared into the daylight sky of Enies Lobby.

Rice stood where he was, not pursuing the light.

He knew very well that although that punch had injured Kizaru, the vitality of an Admiral-level fighter was exceptionally tenacious.

If he really fought to the end, this body would also face the risk of collapse. The goal had been achieved.

The barrier to Haki flow had been completely broken, and his combat power had achieved a qualitative leap.

Rice turned around, strode with his long legs, and walked toward ship at the edge of the coastline.

On the deck, Paula, Mikita, Vivi, and the other female crew members had already cleared out all the Marines who had boarded the island. The dark golden warship was safe and sound amidst the artillery fire.

"Weigh anchor." Rice leaped onto the ship's prow, his cold command conveyed to the whole ship.

"This broken island is no longer worth staying on. Target, New World."

The cast-iron winch in the bottom hold turned wildly, pulling up the heavy anchor.

The massive dark golden bow of ship mercilessly sliced through the burning waves, crushing the wooden debris on the sea surface.