Lorne knelt on one knee on the cold ground, his chest burning like fire, every breath pulling at the excruciating pain in his internal organs.
He really wanted to retort, really wanted to point at Garp's nose and curse, "You're inhuman," but the words only turned into a fit of violent coughing when they reached his lips.
"Cough, cough... cough..."
A few strands of bright red blood spilled from the corners of his mouth and dripped onto the pristine white ice, blooming like red plum blossoms, strikingly conspicuous.
A silver light flashed by once more, and that tearing pain and the feeling of his internal organs vibrating instantly vanished without a trace, his physical state returning to normal once again.
"Old man, using your standards to demand things from a little guy like me, isn't that a bit too bullying?"
Lorne raised his head and let out a breath, forcing a smile onto his face that looked worse than crying.
Upon hearing this, Garp not only didn't restrain himself in the slightest, but instead laughed even louder.
"Wahahahaha! Kid, on the battlefield, no one cares who you are! Weak is weak!"
As he spoke, he squeezed his sand-pot-sized fists, his knuckles popping and cracking, as if preparing for the next round of his loving education.
Lorne's face twitched, his nerves tightening suddenly; going head-to-head like this was purely asking for a beating!
At this moment, a figure appeared silently on the ice field.
Borgart landed beside Garp using Moonwalk, his demeanor respectful yet tinged with a hint of helplessness, handing over a den den mushi that was "blu-blu-ing" noisily.
"Mr. Garp, an emergency call from Fleet Admiral Sengoku."
"Tsk!"
Garp clicked his tongue impatiently and took the "blu-blu-ing" den den mushi. The den den mushi's expression vividly mimicked an angry old man with blowing beard and staring eyes.
Garp didn't even look at it, directly slapping the den den mushi on the head, making it instantly go quiet.
"Got it, got it; that old guy just loves to make a fuss over nothing."
He took one last look at Lorne, seemingly unsatisfied, and finally dissipated that terrifying aura.
"Forget it, that's enough for today."
Garp casually extended an invitation once again:
"How about it? Kid, just become a marine! I'll train you personally, and I guarantee I'll train that fragile skin of yours to be as solid as iron!"
Lorne straightened his body and shook his head without hesitation.
"Old man, you know."
Being trained under you? Would I even survive until tomorrow? Luffy and Ace only survived because they had main character plot armor, right!
"That's a real shame!"
Garp seemed to just be mentioning it casually and didn't force the issue; he turned around and strode towards his dog-headed Warship.
Borgart immediately stepped forward to drape the Justice cloak back over his shoulders.
After walking a few steps, Garp suddenly stopped and turned back with a grin.
"Kid, those guys from the World Government won't be as reasonable as me."
"Take care of yourself! Wahahahaha!"
The resounding laughter echoed across the vast ice field, and that tall figure soon disappeared into the icy mist in the distance.
After walking a long distance, Borgart spoke softly beside Garp, his face filled with worry:
"Mr. Garp, is it really okay not to arrest him? After all, his bounty warrant..."
"What could possibly be the problem?"
Garp, completely unconcerned, pulled a bag of rice crackers from who knows where and began to chew them with a "crunch, crunch" sound.
"Oh! Good thing they didn't get crushed in the fight just now."
He stuffed another large handful of rice crackers into his mouth and said indistinctly:
"The sea is so vast; isn't it normal to occasionally get lost and not find your target?"
Borgart fell silent, or perhaps he was just used to it.
"Besides,"
Garp brushed the rice cracker crumbs off himself, stuffed another handful in, and chewed them with a crisp crunch,
"I've had smooth sailing the whole way here; I haven't encountered any pirates at all!"
"..."
Borgart adjusted his sunglasses and decided not to continue with this topic.
"And,"
Garp suddenly lowered his voice and muttered in a volume that only the two of them could hear:
"That kid is slippery; it wouldn't be so easy to actually catch him! It's too much trouble!"
Borgart nodded slightly and said nothing more.
He felt that Mr. Garp was just finding an excuse for himself not to arrest him; the justice of this marine hero had never been the kind of justice defined by the World Government.
...
At the Baratie floating restaurant, the chefs on the deck had all turned into statues, dumbfounded.
They stared in astonishment at the sea area in the distance that had been completely ravaged; that vast ice field was covered with huge craters and broken icebergs, as if it had just experienced a natural disaster.
Patty trembled as he looked towards Zeff beside him.
"Bo-boss... is that really... a scene that a human could cause?"
Carne also swallowed his saliva, his voice filled with awe and confusion.
"That guy who uses ice... he was actually able to fight that marine hero to that extent?! And he looked so... so..."
"Ordinary?"
Zeff exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, his single leg thumping heavily on the deck with a dull sound.
He sneered, his deep gaze sweeping over the group of inexperienced chefs under his command.
"On this sea, especially on the Grand Line, the ones you absolutely cannot provoke are often those who look completely ordinary."
"Because you never know what kind of monster is hidden beneath that ordinary exterior."
On the other side, Lorne stood in the center of the shattered ice field, silently watching the direction Garp had left, remaining silent for a long time.
The gap between him and this world's top-tier combat power was even greater than he had imagined.
Armament Haki, especially Armament Haki cultivated to the extreme, indeed has a very strong restraining effect on elemental transformation or elemental creations.
That method of ignoring defense and striking directly at the inside is simply unreasonable.
And the sensory ability of Observation Haki, which is almost like predicting the future, is also quite a cheat-like method.
However...
Lorne opened his palm, feeling the flow of magic power within his body, as well as his deep experience of that Haki during the fight just now.
This time, it wasn't without gains either.
He had felt the three types of Haki more deeply, and his analysis of this power had taken another step forward; as long as he continued to strengthen his physique and learn step by step, he should be able to master Armament Haki very soon.
Then he wouldn't have to fight so frustratingly.
Lorne dispersed the ice field beneath his feet, letting the vast expanse of ice turn back into seawater, the waves rising and falling once again.
He stepped on a piece of floating ice, his thoughts drifting to the upcoming journey.
The journey in the East Blue was about to end, and next time he would head to Reverse Mountain, the entrance to the Grand Line.
And before that, there was one more place.
Loguetown, the place where the pirate king, Gol D. Roger, began and ended.
Lorne's thoughts became active; should he go and take a look?
After all, that is a world-famous landmark to check in at.
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