"So it's Life Return locking down the entire body's blood? No wonder it could block the Seven Star Sword's blood-sucking ability!"
The next moment, when Nox saw the pale muscles around Garp's wound, he knew that Garp had used the technique of Life Return to lock down and transfer all the surrounding blood.
By reducing the amount of blood at the wound to the minimum, the Seven Star Sword naturally couldn't absorb much blood.
This was something only possible with the prediction of Kenbunshoku Haki and a deep mastery of Life Return.
"Hahahaha, I've thought of a way to solve the Seven Star Sword's bloodthirsty problem over the past two years! This time, you'll obediently die under my iron fist!"
Garp's good mood wasn't affected even when he was injured, seeing Nox's surprised expression.
At the same time, this slight injury didn't affect Garp at all; he could recover quickly under Life Return.
His iron fist once again slammed towards Nox's abdomen at this moment.
"Hmph, little by little it adds up. You can't succeed every time, and even if you do, it consumes stamina!"
Nox snorted coldly, and the Seven Star Sword blocked Garp's fist.
Using this method to avoid being sucked by the Seven Star Sword requires extremely high skill, and perhaps Garp is the only one in the World who can do it.
However, this is not without cost. First, Garp's Kenbunshoku Haki must accurately predict the Seven Star Sword's trajectory every time.
Second, even if the Seven Star Sword cannot absorb much blood, it doesn't mean it cannot absorb a single drop. If he is cut enough times, it can still absorb enough blood.
Third, every time Garp uses Life Return to do this, it consumes stamina. Once the number of times increases, Garp's stamina will be consumed much more severely than Nox's.
"Then let's see who can't hold on first!"
Garp was unmoved by Nox's words, and his other iron fist struck Nox's face with even more force.
He naturally knew what Nox said, but there was nothing he could do. If he didn't want to be sucked by the demon sword, unless he could dodge it.
When he couldn't dodge, his Busoshoku Haki couldn't completely defend against the Seven Star Sword's sharpness. In this situation, only this method could prevent the demon sword from swallowing his blood.
Otherwise, it would be like last time, where too much of his blood was swallowed, leading to severe exhaustion of stamina in the later stages.
"Of course, you'll be the first to collapse! The final victor will be me, Nox!!"
As he spoke, a confident smile appeared on Nox's lips.
"Blood Boiling!"
Immediately afterwards, Nox's entire body's blood began to flow faster and started to boil.
In an instant, faint white smoke emanated from Nox's pores, causing his strength, speed, reaction time, and other abilities to increase rapidly.
Vampire power can control blood. Not only can it control the blood of others, but it can also control one's own blood.
Currently, Nox is controlling his own blood, achieving a state similar to Luffy's Second Gear in the original work, making himself stronger on his original foundation.
Under his precise control, this state would not cause Nox any side effects; it only consumed a tiny bit of stamina, which was negligible.
Under the two boosts of Life Return · Limb Normal Enhancement and Blood Boiling, Nox's strength was much greater than in his normal state.
"Explosive Blood Step!!"
The next moment, Nox's speed increased dramatically, so fast that Garp had difficulty reacting the first time he saw it.
Garp's Kenbunshoku Haki captured Nox's movements, but his body couldn't react at this moment. He didn't even have a chance to gather strength to punch and could only passively block his chest with his iron fist.
With one sword strike, even Garp's iron fist couldn't block the Seven Star Sword's edge. Moreover, the powerful force transmitted from the Seven Star Sword actually caused Garp's iron fist to impact his own chest, causing him severe pain.
"Bang!!!"
Caught off guard, Garp's entire body was sent flying back over a thousand meters by a single sword strike.
At the same time, like a streak of blood light, he rapidly chased after Garp, who was flying backwards. His speed was even faster than Garp's.
However, Garp was indeed Garp. Facing Nox, who was stronger than him overall and had an additional power boost, he didn't lose confidence. Instead, he quickly stabilized his body with high fighting spirit, then dodged Nox's pursuing sword strike and readjusted his state.
"Hahahaha, I didn't expect you to have another boosting method besides the initial Life Return boost. But this stacking of boosts will severely consume your stamina, right!"
Garp laughed heartily after wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, as if he wasn't the one completely at a disadvantage right now.
"Want to know? Then come and try it and see if you can last until I run out of stamina!"
A smile with unclear meaning appeared on the corner of Nox's mouth, and he rushed forward again with his sword raised.
At this moment, Nox was much stronger than before. His speed, attack, and defense were all superior to Garp's.
Facing such a dominant Nox, Garp was still firmly suppressed, even though he was full of fighting spirit and eager for battle.
Their battle was incredibly fierce and intense. Garp's strength was indeed very powerful. At 51 years old, he was at his peak, and even if Nox was stronger, he was completely fearless!
Back then, when he was much weaker than now, he wasn't afraid of Rocks. Now that he was stronger and facing Nox, who was weaker than Rocks, there was naturally no fear, only surging fighting spirit.
Nox was the same. It can be said that at this moment, he was fighting with all his might, except for not using some Devil Fruit powers.
That powerful killing intent spread from his body. With his strong obsession with fighting and becoming stronger, he was thoroughly enjoying the battle with Garp at this moment. In this World, there were already few people who could fight him to this extent!
Their battle was fierce, grand, and intense. Within a radius of ten thousand meters around their fight, no one dared to approach.
Occasional violent collisions could cause the entire island to shake violently, which shows how intense the battle was.
After Nox flew onto the Marine Fortress, many Executive Officers of the Limitless Pirates also flew onto the fortress. Bullet even directly found Sengoku as his opponent!
"Hahahaha, Marine Admiral Sengoku, the unfinished battle from two years ago, let's continue!!"
Bullet transformed into his Human-Beast form and stood in front of Great Buddha Sengoku, blocking his path!
"Marine Admiral, kill!!"
Hermes also came with Bullet to deal with Sengoku.
Sengoku was Hermes' first enemy back then, and this enemy had taught him such a harsh lesson. He had to get revenge no matter what!
Over the past two years, Hermes had been constantly fighting, fighting, and fighting again among the Giant Race. Besides that, he continued to fight with the many Executive Officers of the Limitless Pirates.
His strength had increased dramatically through constant battles over the past two years. Now, he was no longer the person who could be easily sent flying by Sengoku's slap!
Sengoku knew that if he didn't defeat these two, he would be held back. So, Sengoku didn't say much. The moment he raised his Buddha palm, he combined his shockwave with Haoshoku Haki.
"Great Buddha Impact!!"
A fierce shockwave of power was released with the Buddha palm, instantly blasting towards Bullet and Hermes.
"Gravity Impact Fist!!"
Bullet didn't dodge or evade at all. He started with Eight Impact Fist, attached gravity to it, and punched out. The impact force merged with gravity, directly clashing with Sengoku's shockwave.
As the two fierce impacts collided, they created a huge aftermath shockwave. The ground within a hundred meters radius was torn apart, Rocks exploded into dust, and smoke billowed like dragons.
However, Sengoku was Sengoku after all. Even though Bullet's Gravity Impact combined with Eight Impact Fist was not inferior to Sengoku's shockwave, Bullet, who hadn't mastered the Haoshoku Haki coating technique, was not Sengoku's opponent.
He was defeated by Sengoku's Great Buddha Impact, and the impact caused him intense pain all over his body, making him retreat dozens of meters.
However, Bullet was not surprised by this, and was even more excited, because two years ago when he faced this move from Sengoku, he was more seriously injured and pushed back further. Now, he could completely withstand this level of injury, which indirectly proved that the gap between him and Sengoku was getting smaller and smaller!
The moment Sengoku and Bullet made their moves, Hermes also struck. He had fought countless battles over the past two years, and his battle intuition was terrifyingly strong.
In his Great Monk form, Hermes' size was only slightly smaller than Great Buddha Sengoku.
"Eight Impact Fist Secret Technique · Double Heavy Cannon!!"
A pair of huge fists covered in black Busoshoku Haki suddenly struck out. The extreme fists carried a fierce impact force towards Sengoku's waist.
Sengoku had just released a shockwave, and his other Buddha palm blocked Hermes' attack, but Hermes' immense strength and impact force actually pushed Sengoku back over ten meters.
"These two Pirates have become much stronger!"
With just one exchange, Sengoku calculated the significant difference between their strength two years ago and now.
Two years ago, the Limitless Pirates needed to send at least three Executive Officers to stop him. Now, Bullet and Hermes alone were enough to hold him back!
Although Sengoku's body in Great Buddha form was enormous, it was not lacking in agility. He used the Soru technique to the extreme, combining it with the power of impact to give him very powerful instantaneous burst power. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared from his original spot and reappeared behind Hermes.
"Great Buddha Push Palm!"
The shockwave in Sengoku's palm became more condensed and compressed to the extreme. Instead of blasting out directly from his palm, it gathered on his palm. As Sengoku struck out with his palm, its power increased to a higher level.
If Great Buddha Impact was area-of-effect damage, then the current Great Buddha Push Palm was single-target damage, which was more lethal against individual, single targets.