Pirate: I, Ace, am the King of Eclipse!

The commander and his officers each found their opponents, while the elite naval vanguard forces that arrived later began to pour up the high ground from the port, attempting to encircle the battlefield.

"Hey! This is way too big a show!"

Bucky looked at the large number of navy soldiers surging towards him, let out a strange cry, left his legs in place, and quickly flew his upper body into the air to dodge the bullets.

"Stop complaining, Chief Steward! If you don't want to be thrown into Impel Down, get moving!"

Karina, hiding behind a wrecked tank, deftly loaded her flintlock pistol. She calmly observed the battle, quickly identifying several naval officers preparing to flank Leona.

"Bang! Bang!"

Two crisp gunshots rang out. Karina's precise marksmanship directly interrupted the two officers' offensive.

"Look where you're looking, you naval idiots! Your opponent is me!"

With Carina providing cover fire from behind, Buggy's courage grew. He fully utilized the advantages of the Chop-Chop Fruit in group battles, wearing Seastone finger rings on his hands, and frantically weaved through the Marines' ranks.

"Four Pieces - Spinning Flying Fist!"

Bucky's fist flew out from a tricky blind spot, knocking unconscious a Marine soldier who was about to aim at Geno. It then quickly split, dodging the thrusting saber and using the small blades that popped out to cause chaos in the crowd.

The area in front of the high ground fortress quickly descended into chaos.

The deafening clang of metal, the roar of flames, and the whirring of the steam exoskeleton mingled together.

In the center of the battlefield, the clash between Ace and Zephyr had reached a fever pitch.

"boom!"

Ace withstood a powerful black wrist punch from Zephyr, his blood surging, but the numbness in his right arm only fueled his desire to continue. Using the force of his opponent's blow, he swung his right leg like a battle axe burning with divine fire, fiercely aiming for Zephyr's side.

Faced with this legendary figure from an old era who had honed Armament Haki to its ultimate level, any reservation would be fatal. Ace took a deep breath and unleashed the full power of his Haki to its limit.

He wants to use this veteran known for his "black fist" tactics to continue refining his domineering internal sabotage.

"Old man, your punches aren't strong enough!"

Facing Zephyr's imposing figure, Ace once again unleashed his iron fist, swirling with flowing cherry blossoms and divine fire, without holding back.

Chapter 43 Black Arm and Divine Fire 2

The heavy sweeping leg, burning with crimson divine fire, lashed out at Zefa's side like a giant axe.

Faced with this sweeping kick imbued with the power of flowing cherry blossoms, Zephyr didn't even bother to dodge. His only remaining left arm suddenly sank downwards, like a dark, supporting pillar, firmly blocking his waist.

"Bang!"

The moment their legs and arms crossed, a violent shockwave ripped away layers of the rocky ground beneath their feet.

"Too light, brat!"

Zephyr withstood the attack, and a sharp, fierce light suddenly erupted from his weathered eyes. The muscles in his left arm bulged like a writhing dragon, and his dark Armament Haki compressed to an extreme degree in an instant, transforming into a powerful and suffocating destructive force.

"Black Wrist - Bursting Rock!"

Zephyr's left fist, like a heavy siege cannon fired, slammed into Ace's chest at extremely close range.

Ace's eyes narrowed slightly, and his right arm quickly crossed in front of his chest in defense. High-level flowing Haki and divine fire instantly formed a defensive barrier on the surface of his arms.

"Boom!!"

A deep, resounding clang, like an ancient bell being struck, echoed across the battlefield.

Ace felt a sharp, piercing pain in his arms, as if it were shattering his very bones. Zephyr's Armament Haki, honed over decades, was so thick it felt like it was pressed directly into his bones. Even with the force of Ryuo's deflection and the buffer of the Divine Fire, the terrifying penetrating power still managed to pierce through his defenses and strike his chest.

Ace's burly body slid backward involuntarily, his feet carving two deep furrows tens of meters long in the hard ground, until he finally came to a stop after crashing into a remnant fortress wall.

"cough"

Ace felt a tightness in his chest and coughed up a mouthful of bloody saliva.

However, in the very next breath, a cluster of crimson-gold Nirvana Flames spontaneously ignited on his chest and arms. The tiny capillaries and muscle fibers that had been ruptured by Zefa were instantly healed under the nourishment of the divine fire.

"Ok?"

Zephyr, watching from afar, keenly observed this scene, his brows furrowing deeply. "Not only can it unleash extremely high-temperature, strangely colored flames, but it also possesses such an outrageous super-fast regeneration ability... I see, it's an extremely rare Zoan-type Mythical Beast."

As a former Marine Admiral, Zephyr possessed keen insight and saw through the true nature of Ace's abilities at a glance. "Relying on the regenerative abilities of a Mythical Zoan, you dare to recklessly confront me head-on."

Zephyr strode forward with heavy steps, his killing intent growing stronger with each step. "I've personally buried countless newcomers like you who overly rely on Devil Fruits and think themselves invincible!"

"Dependence on the fruit?"

Ace straightened up from the ruins, casually wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth. He looked at Zephyr, who was striding closer, his eyes showing no fear, but rather a grin. The stronger Zephyr was, the more useful this battle would be to him. "Old man, don't lump me in with those cowards."

Ace lowered his legs slightly, and the powerful blood and energy within his body roared like an engine. He completely withdrew the crimson-gold divine fire covering his body, compressing it to the extreme and pressing it into the flowing Haki on the surface of his right fist.

The flames no longer erupted outwards, but were forcibly restrained on the surface of the fist by Armament Haki, eventually forming a vortex on the surface of the fist like a high-pressure furnace, shining with a blinding white light.

"Divine Fire - Flame Cone!"

The ground beneath Ace's feet shattered with a deafening roar, and he transformed into a black and red afterimage, hurtling towards Zephyr. This punch no longer aimed for widespread destruction; the compressed divine fire and Haki were all concentrated at the tip of his fist.

Seeing the punch that came flying through the air, Zephyr's expression changed slightly.

"Forcibly compressing the explosive properties of flames into Haki? What a mad fighting genius!"

Despite his surprise, Zephyr's resolute face showed no sign of backing down.

His remaining left arm suddenly stretched backward, and his muscles exploded with a series of firecracker-like crackling sounds. The black wrist, honed through decades of life-and-death battles, unleashed a pure and domineering power capable of crushing all techniques.

"But your domineering aura is still too immature compared to my decades of experience! Black Arm - Great Mountain Climb!"

"Boom!!!"

Two fists, one large and one small, each carrying earth-shattering power, collided violently in mid-air once again in the most primal and brutal manner!

This collision did not trigger a shockwave that swept across the surrounding area.

All the power, heat, and destructive force of the domineering aura were suppressed at the point where the two fists made contact.

"Squeak squeak squeak—!"

The ground beneath their feet began to crack in a dense, spiderweb-like pattern, then rapidly collapsed and sank. High pressure and intense heat squeezed between their fists, violently distorting the air and emitting a piercing shriek.

Ace gritted his teeth, the muscles in his right arm bulging so much they were almost tearing. He could clearly feel his extremely compressed Ryuo and Divine Fire being crushed and pressed back bit by bit by Zephyr's almost tangible black heavy armor.

This one-armed veteran's mastery of Armament Haki is like an unshakeable active volcano!

"Your movements are indeed exquisite, but a domineering presence cannot be acquired overnight through talent alone!"

Zefa roared, and his left arm suddenly unleashed a tremendous, overwhelming second-stage strength.

"boom!"

The compressed vortex on Ace's fist exploded completely, and he was once again blasted away by this irresistible force.

This time, Zephyr didn't give Ace a chance to land and recover.

"Moonwalk!"

Zephyr's burly frame performed Moonwalk in mid-air, his speed even surpassing that of Ace, who was flying backward. Like a black eagle hunting its prey, he appeared above Ace in an instant.

"It's over, you madmen from the East China Sea!"

Zephyr, head down, delivered a powerful blow to Ace's chest with his left leg, which resembled a black steel whip, tearing through the air with a sharp whistling sound.

"boom!"

Ace's body was slammed violently into the ground like a shooting star.

With a deafening roar that shook the entire highland, a massive crater over thirty meters in diameter was smashed into the hard rock, sending debris and dust billowing into the sky and obscuring the view from the center of the battlefield.

Zefa landed steadily on the edge of the crater, his breathing slightly rapid.

After all, he was getting on in years, and the relentless, unrestrained attacks he had just launched had taken a toll on his stamina.

He stared at the churning dust at the bottom of the pit.

He hadn't held back with that powerful strike. Even if the opponent was a Zoan-type Devil Fruit user, after taking that blow and causing internal damage, their internal organs would definitely be shattered.

however.

"Shhh...shhh..."

From the bottom of the silent meteorite crater, a faint sound of falling rocks suddenly came from the ground.

Zefa's pupils contracted slightly.

The dust gradually settled.

In the very center of that pit, several meters deep, a tall, burly young man with black hair was pushing aside the rubble and standing up from the ruins.

A streak of blood clung to the corner of Ace's mouth, and a clear, charred footprint marked his muscular chest. That fatal wound, enough to kill an ordinary pirate ten times over, was now rapidly healing under the visible light of clusters of crimson-gold divine fire.

"call……"

Ace exhaled a breath of hot air mixed with the smell of blood.

He raised his hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, then turned his neck, producing a series of crisp cracking sounds from his bones.

He looked up at Zephyr at the edge of the pit. The repeated suppression hadn't discouraged him; instead, he was even more eager to see just how much this body could withstand. "Awesome, powerful! No wonder he's 'Black Arm,' who's mastered Armament Haki to its peak. This overwhelming sense of compressed Haki has truly taught me a lesson."

Ace climbed up step by step from the bottom of the pit.

With each step he took, the sound of his internal energy circulating became increasingly violent, and the temperature of the surrounding air rose sharply.

"Old man, your domineering aura is indeed very strong."

Ace stopped and faced Zephyr from a distance.

A stronger aura than before rose from his body, ancient and majestic, and even the surrounding temperature rose accordingly.

"However, that's enough for the warm-up."

Chapter 44 The Descent of Myth

At the bottom of the meteorite crater, smoke and dust filled the air.

"That concludes the warm-up exercises."

With this deep announcement, the surging energy within Ace erupted like a dormant volcano. His dark red trench coat fluttered in the scorching air, and then, his black fitted shirt was instantly burned away by the intense heat emanating from his body.

Crimson-gold flames shot into the sky, illuminating the entire gloomy fortress highlands as if it were daytime.