The natural system started off strong, but the navy finally reached its peak!

"Shatter!" The blade slashed down!

The air was torn apart in an instant, and a massive slash carrying a shockwave erupted in a fan shape.

Wherever it passed, the ground cracked, buildings shattered, and even space itself seemed to be shaken open!

Logot grinned maliciously, neither dodging nor avoiding, and thrust his spear forward like a venomous snake!

"Blood Feast Thrust - Piercing the Sea!"

The spearhead, hardened with Armament Haki, collided head-on with the shockwave slash.

boom! ! !

The shockwave ripped out, sending Logot staggering back several steps. His hand split open, and blood dripped down his wrist.

At the same time, a thin, long bloodstain slowly appeared on Gern's chest; it was a wound caused by the tip of the Bloodbeak spear!

The body, which should have been elemental, was instead slashed with a bloody mark!

"Armament Haki?" Gern took a half step back, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.

"Ha...hahaha!" Seeing Gern's stunned expression, Logot suddenly burst into wild laughter, his eyes flashing with manic excitement.

"You fucking don't know Armament Haki?!"

Gern looked down at the wound on his chest, a hint of surprise flashing in his eyes.

Seeing this, Logot laughed even more wildly, plunging his spear into the ground and arrogantly raising his chin.

"Didn't expect that, did you, kid?! I'm a man who's fought real monsters on the Grand Line!"

Domineering presence—that's the proof of strength!

Having said that, Logot seized upon Gern's lack of Haki, and suddenly charged forward, his spear raining down like a storm, each strike wreathed in jet-black Armament Haki.

"Blood Feast - Thousand Spears!"

Gern quickly swung his sword to parry, the Black Blade Eight Desolations clashing with the spear and creating a continuous stream of sparks.

But gradually, Logot soon realized something was wrong; the navy officer in front of him seemed to have more than just a lack of combat experience.

At first, he thought that if Gern drew his sword, he was at least a swordsman, but now, sensing his true abilities...

Gurn's swordsmanship was completely haphazard, relying entirely on his Devil Fruit ability and the strength of his black sword to hack and slash.

Furthermore, each swing of the sword relies on the violent amplification of power through vibrating particles, rather than the exquisite skills of a swordsman.

Chapter 14 Skyquake · Sky Cracking

"Hey, hey..." Thinking this, Logot's attack suddenly faltered, a mocking glint appearing in his eyes.

"You kid...you don't actually know swordsmanship at all, do you?"

"Heh." Gern didn't answer but instead let out a slight breath.

Logot was right. Since obtaining the Heaven-Shaking Fruit, Gern had not undergone any proper training.

Before gaining Devil Fruit powers, he was just a strong support soldier.

After obtaining the fruit and undergoing a year of development, he only managed to forcibly increase his combat power by relying on the Devil Fruit.

However, when facing a truly experienced and powerful opponent, it is still easy for them to see through your disguise.

Therefore, before making a move, Gern would carefully study the opponent's intelligence.

After all, without a system, one only has one life!

"Ha! Just as I thought!" Logot laughed. "To wield such a fine knife and yet only know how to hack and slash aimlessly is a waste of its potential!"

With a flick of his spear, he deflected Gern's blade, and thrust the spear tip straight for his throat, "Bloodbeak - Throat Piercer!"

Gern hastily dodged to the side, the spear tip grazing his neck, drawing a trickle of blood.

At the same time, he took the opportunity to create distance. His serious expression and lack of combat experience were indeed his weaknesses.

But now it seems I've figured out the real information about this guy in front of me.

Another pirate with no trump cards; his Armament Haki is only at the basic level, making him easy to deal with...

"What? Giving up already?" Noticing Gern's pause, Logot flicked the blood off his spear and sneered.

"Those who flaunt their power with fruits and famous swords will face only despair once their true nature is exposed!"

After a moment of silence, Gern's lips slowly curled into a dangerous smile as he looked at the person in front of him.

“You’re right…” He gripped the black sword, Eight Desolations, in his other hand. The dark red cracks on the blade gleamed with a blinding crimson light under the sunlight.

"I am indeed not a swordsman."

The blade hummed softly.

That wasn't the tremor of metal, but the wailing of space itself.

“But…” Gern’s left hand slowly stroked the spine of the blade. In an instant, hundreds of millions of vibrating particles were frantically compressed, collapsed, and compressed again on the blade!

The air twists and turns into a spiral vacuum around the blade.

“Your domineering aura…” Gern suddenly looked up, “doesn’t seem to be quite mastered!”

The blade fell.

The world went silent for a moment.

With the Black Blade Eight Desolations as the origin, the entire port's ground was violently swept back as if a blanket had been lifted up!

Hundreds of tons of rock were pulverized the moment they were lifted into the air, seawater was torn into cubic crystals, and the air shattered like glass!

"Whitebeard..." Looking at this scene that resembled a natural disaster, Logot's expression changed drastically, and his pupils contracted sharply.

This cataclysmic scene finally awakened long-buried memories, and he finally remembered whose abilities Gern's was very similar to.

"Damn it, what kind of fruit did you eat?!"

Logot instantly covered his hands with Armament Haki; this was the limit of what he could do.

"I don't know, but I do know that my Devil Fruit ability is... terrifyingly strong in terms of destructive power and strength."

Gern slightly bent his knees, the vibrating particles on the blade were compressed to the extreme, and the surrounding space began to distort and deform.

"So powerful that I can temporarily ignore it..." A wild smile curled at the corner of his lips, "...even crush..."

The ground beneath their feet suddenly collapsed. "The so-called gap!!!"

As he finished speaking, Gern's figure blurred in the distorted space, only the black blade emanating destructive energy remained clearly visible.

"Heavenly Tremor - Void Rift!!" The moment the black blade was unleashed, the entire space shattered like a mirror!

A shockwave that pierced the heavens and earth tore through the sky, and wherever it passed, the shockwave reduced everything to the most basic broken particles and dust!

A hundred-meter-long crack was neatly cut through the sky and coastline of half the harbor, as if a god had scratched the canvas called the world with his fingernail.

Logot's vision suddenly distorted, and he instinctively raised his arms to block, but in the next moment he felt an unprecedented impact.

His Armament Haki crumbled and disintegrated like ice the moment it came into contact with the Vibration Slash.

"Crack... Boom!!" In just an instant, Logot's body was swept away by an invisible force, and the air exploded and the ground collapsed where he passed.

.......

The smoke and dust slowly dissipated, revealing the shattered harbor.

Gen slowly sheathed his sword, and the crimson cracks on the Black Blade Eight Desolations gradually dimmed, but the surrounding space was still slightly distorted, as if the aftershocks had not yet subsided.

The port's ground had completely collapsed, and seawater was flooding into the massive rift valley.

“Uh…cough…” Logot opened his mouth wide, but could only squeeze out broken syllables.

His internal organs had long since turned into bloody mud under the shockwave, and both arms, along with his prized Armament Haki, were severed in one strike.

Fresh blood gushed from the seven orifices, pooling into a dark red swamp on the scorched ground.

"Your Haki is as thin as paper!" (Unless you have extremely powerful Haki, you can't resist the power of a Devil Fruit.)

Gern stared down at Logot's dying body, remained silent for a moment, then bent down and picked up the blood-stained "Bloodbeak" spear.

"The 'Blood Spear' Logot, with a bounty of 69 million..."

With a backhand swing, his spear pierced through the air, precisely striking Logot's head and nailing this once infamous pirate to his own banner.

The sea breeze howled as it swept across the ruins, carrying away the last trace of blood.

"Ha...ha..." After confirming that Logot had completely stopped breathing, Gern finally couldn't hold on any longer and collapsed heavily to the ground.

His chest heaved violently, and sweat mixed with blood soaked through his tattered clothes.

That attack just now was his trump card, developed by combining the Black Blade Eight Desolations with the Heaven-Shaking Fruit.

By wrapping extremely compressed vibrational particles around the Supreme Greatsword, what is cut out is not only sharpness, but also the tremor of space!

Its power is astounding, but the cost is equally heavy.

At this moment, he could barely lift a finger; his muscles felt like they were being pierced by thousands of steel needles, and even breathing was excruciatingly painful.

"A competitor with 69 million... and you've pushed me to this point..."

The blinding sunlight shone on his face, and Gern squinted as he touched the tiny wounds on his neck, where blood was seeping out.

"I... am still too weak."

.......

After a long while, Gern, who had recovered somewhat, sat on a rocky outcrop, slowly wrapping the black sword Eight Desolations with the white bandage he always carried with him...

In the distance, a warship slowly approached, and naval soldiers stood on the deck, gazing in awe at the lone figure amidst the port ruins.

"Warrant Lieutenant Gern won!" Cheers echoed across the sea, but Gern's face showed no joy.

He looked up at the sky, muttering to himself, as Logot's words echoed in his mind.

A domineering presence is the true proof of strength.

Chapter 15 Building Momentum for Yourself

Three days later, the 133rd Naval Branch of the West Sea.

Inside the branch secretary's office, Asahi was excitedly rubbing his hands together, his chubby face squeezing into a ball with his exaggerated smile.

"Hahaha!!"

He excitedly unfolded the newspaper, and there it was, prominently displayed, a picture of Gern standing amidst the ruins of Ash Harbor, the headline eye-catching.

"West Blue Rising Star! Navy's 'Skyquake' Gern Slays a Pirate Worth 70 Million!"

"Gern! Did you see that?!" Asahi slammed his fist on the table excitedly, causing water to splash out of his teacup, especially since there was a photo of himself being interviewed next to the newspaper.

"The entire West Blue is talking about you right now! I'm sure the Navy Headquarters has already started paying attention!"

Gern leaned against the window, his gaze calmly sweeping over the newspaper.

Outside the window, on the branch's training ground

The new recruits were training like crazy, their eyes constantly glancing in his direction, filled with fervor.

In the year after Gern obtained the fruit, his basic training was the same as theirs, so his strength didn't improve much at all.

If it weren't for his powerful Devil Fruit ability, he would have been the one to die in the battle of Ash Harbor...

"Gern?!"

"It was just killing a pirate." Upon hearing Asahi's words, Guern replied calmly, having regained his senses.

“A pirate?!” Asahi’s eyes widened. “That’s ‘Blood Spear’ Loggert, with a bounty of 69 million Berries!”

A formidable character who returned from the Grand Line!

Do you know that this level of achievement would be enough for a colonel promotion even at headquarters?

Gern didn't respond, he just looked down at his palm.

My palms turned slightly white, and the vibrating particles were as easily controlled as soil.

He won that battle, but it also exposed his fatal weakness—a lack of domineering presence.

Although Logot only had a superficial grasp of Armament Haki, it was still enough to injure him.