Golden armor, piercing through endless darkness, like the dawn breaking—
[Golden Dawn].
This was Ryan Rowan's nickname, from eight hundred years ago.
Crocodile knew very well that the key point of this historical record was the phrase "eight hundred years ago."
In that era of warring states at sea, there was no World Government, and certainly no such thing as wanted posters.
This also meant that there was no comprehensive information exchange platform in the world at that time, and things like world unified newspapers were out of the question.
Therefore, to leave a nickname in that era, you had to make the entire sea remember that person.
Remember his name, remember what he had done, remember everything about him...
In other words, a nickname from eight hundred years ago carried much more weight than one today!
...
"'Using genius strategic vision to bring victory to countless wars'...? "
Crocodile recalled what Granny Tsuru had said about the historical records, while looking at the battlefield in the distance.
Those sand soldiers were clearly extremely ordinary, and Garp could smash one with a single punch, but Rowan could control those sand soldiers to force Garp into a drawn-out fight.
Crocodile whispered to himself:
"Even fruit abilities can be controlled with tactics?"
Thinking about it carefully, it's not hard to see that if you want to create the current situation, there is one necessary condition, which is that both sides only use "one-third of their strength" to fight.
If they were fighting with all their strength, Garp could completely cover his whole body with Armament Haki, give up extra defense, and charge straight towards Rowan.
But... who can guarantee that Rowan, fighting with all his strength, doesn't have other tricks up his sleeve?
At the very least, those four sand elite guards, whose bodies were completely covered with Armament Haki, had not yet moved!
Crocodile had to admit that Rowan's strategy, which took into account the basic condition of "one-third strength," was a brilliant move.
He guided the battle to a situation that no one had considered, catching Garp off guard!
Tsuru was the first to see Rowan's intention, and Crocodile was the second to react.
And Garp?
As a veteran Marine with countless battles under his belt, he understood Rowan's plan almost instantly after they started fighting.
But what could he do?
The condition of using one-third strength was decided before the fight started. If one side used more than one-third of their strength, it would mean an automatic loss.
Of course, Garp could secretly release the restriction on his own strength, and no one would notice if he only released a little, but his pride wouldn't allow him to do that.
The same went for Rowan.
Helpless, Garp could only patiently continue to fight with the sand soldiers.
As long as he found an opportunity to get close to Rowan, Garp was confident that he could completely suppress Rowan with just his one arm covered in Armament Haki!
As for where the opportunity was?
Garp snapped a sand spear in half with one hand and grinned.
The opportunity is now!
Garp's gaze passed through dozens of sand soldiers, locking onto Rowan in the distance.
He clenched his right arm, which was filled with Armament Haki, grabbed the head of one of the sand soldiers, bent down, and used his right arm and the sand soldier as a shield, charging forward!
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang...
Garp was like an indestructible tank, charging towards Rowan's location.
In the condition that he could only use Armament Haki on one arm, Garp really couldn't completely defend against the sand soldiers' spears.
And if he resorted to exchanging injuries for injuries and forcing his way through, it would be too messy, and Garp wouldn't be happy.
Therefore, Garp chose another way—
Since he couldn't use defense to withstand the attacks, he would use speed to prevent the annoying sand from hitting him!
Sure enough, although the sand soldiers moved quickly, they were not fast enough to hit Garp, who was charging forward at full speed.
In the blink of an eye, Garp had jumped up and landed diagonally above Rowan.
With a "bang," he crushed the sand soldier in his hand.
Then, Garp clenched his fist, and Armament Haki gathered on the front of his fist.
"Emperor from eight hundred years ago, taste the spirit of modern people!"
Garp grinned and threw a punch!
Rowan looked up at Garp and gently let out a breath.
Right hand holding a staff, left hand with fingers spread open, then suddenly clenched into a fist!
Sand surged.
Whoosh!
In just an instant, five sand soldiers holding shields appeared behind Rowan, lined up, and charged towards Garp!
Garp frowned slightly, not understanding Rowan's intentions.
He didn't think ordinary sand shields could block his punch.
But the next second, Garp's expression turned serious, because he saw the dark metallic luster cover the shields.
Armament Haki, shield coverage—
Elite Guard Wall!
Garp's eyes lit up.
He had spent countless time honing his Armament Haki to the extreme, but he had never seen such a way to use it!
Stable, precise, with not a single unnecessary movement.
The precision of his control was terrifying!
"Hahahaha, such a generous welcome, truly a hospitable emperor!"
Garp grinned and threw a heavy punch!
Rowan smiled slightly, gripped the spear in his hand, and controlled the sand soldiers to bravely meet the attack!
"Ha!"
Crack!
The fist collided head-on with the shields, and the two streams of Armament Haki completely burst open in mid-air!
Boom!
Black lightning, caused by the collision of Armament Haki, exploded in the air!
The sand soldiers holding the shields were just ordinary sand soldiers, not sand elite guards completely covered in Armament Haki.
Therefore, under the impact of the violent aftershock, the sand soldiers' bodies were shattered, the shields were scattered everywhere, and finally disappeared with the wind.
The remaining aftershock also impacted the bodies of the two, forcing them to retreat a few steps in their one-third strength state before they could barely regain their balance.
After they each steadied themselves, they immediately looked up, their eyes flashing with excitement.
"Again?"
"Again!"
The two said the same words, one in the form of a question, the other in a statement.
Then, Garp bent down, clenched his right fist, and concentrated Armament Haki to the extreme.
Rowan stuck his staff into the ground and held out his right hand, adopting a throwing stance.
Sand surged, gathering in Rowan's right hand, forming a brand new sand spear.
The sand continued to be compressed, and then covered with black Armament Haki.
Sand Black Spear - Ready!
The sandstorm, which had already stopped, began to rage again because of the actions of the two.
The chaotic sand and stones flew everywhere, each one with the power of a lead bullet.
Garp grinned, while Rowan smiled.
They were waiting for the moment to strike at the same time.
But in the next second, a figure suddenly broke through the sandstorm, dodged the flying sand and stones, and stood in the middle of Garp and Rowan.
The two saw the person's appearance clearly and stopped their hands at the same time.
The black arm returned to its original skin color, and the blackness on the spear gradually faded, turning the entire spear into a large pile of sand.
Who could make these two, who were caught up in a heated battle, stop at the same time?
Naturally, it was that upright old woman.
Tsuru stood between the two, sighing helplessly.
"Oh, the two of you are really troublesome, don't overdo it."
After hearing this, Rowan and Garp looked around and realized that the surrounding desert terrain had changed due to their battle.
The original sand dunes were gone, and there were several huge sand pits all around.
If this battle had taken place in a city, even a large city like Alubarna would probably have been destroyed by now!
Garp scratched his head, smiling a little embarrassedly.
"That... it seems like we went a little too far."
After all, the purpose of this battle was just to test, as instructed by Sengoku, and neither he nor Rowan had intended to really get serious.
Tsuru narrowed her eyes and noticed that Garp's right arm was trembling slightly!
She understood in her heart and had already made a judgment.
The test was over, Garp stopped, and Rowan naturally had no need to continue fighting.
He pulled out the staff stuck in the ground and smiled, "As an after-dinner exercise, this is enough."
Granny Tsuru nodded slightly to show her respect to Rowan.
"Using the extension of Conqueror's Haki, combined with extremely strong strategic thinking, to control the sand soldiers to fight—the [Golden Dawn] of eight hundred years ago, your reputation is well-deserved."
Hearing this, Rowan quickly waved his hand.
"Spare me, I didn't expect this nickname to have survived to this day..."
He stretched his wrist, "Honestly, I really have to thank Mr. Garp."
Garp quickly shook his head and said, "Hey, hey, calling me 'Mr.' makes me a little embarrassed!"
"It's okay."
Rowan smiled, "After all, the two of you have been protecting civilians your whole lives as Marines, and besides, it's just a title, why be so fussy?"
"Hahahaha, the royal family of Alabasta are all very nice!"
Garp looked at Rowan and also recalled King Cobra, who was unconstrained by formalities, during the World Conference. "Speaking of which, what do you have to thank me for?"
Rowan pinched the sand at his fingertips and sighed:
"Through the battle, I found that my strength seems to be... a little weaker than before?"
This was a question, because Rowan himself was not sure if this judgment was correct.
The real situation was strange. The force used to perform the moves had not changed, and the feeling was the same as it had been eight hundred years ago, but the power seemed to have shrunk a little.
If he had to say it—
The expressiveness of the moves had become weaker!
It was a strange description, but that was the only way to describe it.
However, when Rowan said this, everyone except the boisterous Garp—Tsuru and Crocodile—were stunned.
A little weaker?
Then just how strong was Ryan Rowan at his peak!
Tsuru was very curious.
Considering Rowan's personality, Tsuru chose to ask directly, "What were you like at your peak...?"
"Each Conqueror's Haki user has different characteristics in their Conqueror's Haki."
"My Conqueror's Haki is more focused on 'functionality.'"
"I can summon soldiers in any corner where my Conqueror's Haki extends, I call it 'territory'."
Rowan replied, "And at my peak, the range of my Conqueror's Haki, that is, the range of my territory, was a little bigger than it is now."
Tsuru pressed, "How much bigger?"
Rowan heard this and thought for a moment, then smiled:
"Ms. Tsuru, Alabasta has a very large territory, doesn't it?"
You can read 50+ more chapter on patreon com/JYouyi