Chapter 783 - 782: As Young and Sharp as Ever

Garp’s thunderous punch completely shattered the earth, like a natural disaster descending upon the world. It made everyone watching the battle through the Visual Den Den Mushi realize exactly what it meant to be "as young and sharp as ever."

"Don’t celebrate too early."

At a Marine branch, Admiral Momonga knitted his brows. "That man has not used his full strength yet."

In the next instant, as if to validate Momonga’s words, Impaler Alucard abruptly materialized right next to Garp. Drawing the broadsword from his waist, he unleashed a sudden slash. The blade, shrouded in a crimson mist, erupted with flashes of red lightning.

"This is the power Shanks mastered after Roger, isn’t it?"

Garp gradually condensed his Armament Haki over his shoulder. With a loud clank, he took the strike head-on. His left hand then snapped out to grab the blade, while his right drove three savage punches straight toward Alucard’s heart.

Everyone watching expected Alucard’s body to either shatter or go flying.

To their absolute shock, the moment the blows connected, he vanished on the spot.

He vanished without a single trace or warning, as though he had never existed there to begin with.

Meanwhile, the sheer shockwave generated by Garp’s punch ripped through everything in its path like a raging gale, completely obliterating trees, rocks, and even mountain ridges for over a thousand meters ahead.

This was the power of "Garp the Fist."

"He vanished..."

Garp’s eyes darted left and right while he strained his Observation Haki to sense Alucard’s presence. Though it was unclear how Garp’s Observation Haki stacked up against Katakuri’s, whom Alucard had absorbed, it was absolutely impossible for it to be inferior.

Yet, to Garp’s surprise, his Observation Haki truly could not detect Alucard’s location or even his existence, as if he had never been there from the start.

But if that were the case, who had he been trading blows with just a moment ago? An illusion?

"I am everywhere, and I am nowhere."

Alucard’s voice echoed out of nowhere. Garp quickly looked up into the sky. He saw Alucard descending slowly from above with his arms flung wide. Complemented by his billowing, blood-red trench coat, he resembled a massive bat sweeping down from the heavens.

Click, clack!

His twin pistols were cocked. Having shifted from his Impaler form back to his original appearance, Alucard aimed his muzzles straight down at the crown of Garp’s head, unleashing a relentless barrage of gunfire.

Countless bullets rained down like a torrential storm. Seeing this, many Marines across the world couldn’t help but shout out in sheer panic, even though they knew Garp couldn’t hear them: "Garp-san!!!"

Can I still pull off this technique?

In that split second, a thought flashed through Garp’s mind, and his momentum surged. Alucard had expected Garp to completely coat his entire body in Armament Haki, turning entirely black like many others who had fought him before.

To his surprise, the Armament Haki on Garp’s forearms actually faded away in an instant.

The downpour of bullets slammed home, pelting Garp’s body and tearing up the dirt all around his feet. Dust exploded into the air, completely swallowing Garp’s figure.

By the time ten seconds had passed, Alucard had already touched down on the ground. As the dust began to settle, many spectators braced themselves, expecting to see the Marine Hero riddled with holes like a honeycomb.

Instead, the exact moment before the smoke cleared, a blur shot out. Appearing instantly right in front of Alucard, a massive hand clamped down hard over Alucard’s face, slamming him into the ground and brutally dragging him along at a ferocious speed.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

He crashed through an unknown number of massive trees and tore right through several ridges. It wasn’t until Alucard utilized the ability of Schrödinger’s Cat that he materialized right behind Garp, his black pistol, Jackal, pressed firmly against the back of Garp’s head.

Boom!

It was a 13mm Seastone explosive round, specially engineered by Dr. Vegapunk against Devil Fruit users. No Devil Fruit user could walk away unscathed after taking one of these.

Even for a non-Devil Fruit user, a single shot would cause catastrophic injuries. This included "Red-Haired" Shanks and "King of the Beasts" Kaido, let alone a direct hit to the head.

But what happened next defied all logic...

It was as if an invisible wall was pressing against Garp’s skin, halting the bullet’s momentum entirely until the round was deflected back by the kinetic recoil, grazing Alucard’s shoulder. However, the wound healed completely in less than two seconds.

Swish!

Garp instantly vanished from the spot, reappearing half a second later directly above Alucard’s head. He swung his leg out, bringing it down like a heavy axe.

It was Soru, one of the Navy’s Rokushiki techniques!

"Don’t get cocky, Garp," Alucard murmured.

Suddenly, something erupted from the pool of blood on the ground, slamming violently into the heel of Garp’s descending leg.

It was another head-on collision of pure power, the True Ancestor Familiar, Baskerville.

As Garp clashed with the beast, Alucard had somehow already appeared on top of the black hound’s head. The dark muzzle of his gun pointed squarely at Garp’s forehead. "Still completely unscathed even like this?"

"Tekkai!"

Boom!

Another Seastone explosive round discharged. Garp stacked defense upon defense, utilizing a form of Armament Haki never seen before alongside the Navy’s Rokushiki defensive technique, Tekkai. His flesh and bone were thousands of times harder than diamond.

Thud!

The shot rang out. The bullet merely grazed Garp’s skin, but it gave Baskerville the perfect opening to send the old man flying with a heavy impact.

Garp’s body crashed into a distant hillside, embedding itself deep into the rock. After a series of loud rumbles, he was completely buried under a heap of boulders.

Boom!

A few seconds later, Garp flexed his arms, sending the loose rocks flying in all directions. His elderly yet robust frame slowly stepped out from the debris.

Seeing this play out, even Aranea, who had just returned from the Revolutionary Army’s headquarters in Baltigo, couldn’t help but part her lips in sheer disbelief. "Whoa, whoa... you’ve got to be kidding me, right? He took two bullets directly to the head..."

"Is he on some kind of enhancement drugs?" Aranea finally couldn’t resist muttering.

Meanwhile, standing on another small peak on Mount Corvo, Sengoku clenched his teeth. The absolute pinnacle of Armament Haki... In our era, no one could hold a candle to you in that regard, whether it was Whitebeard or Roger...

Midway through his thought, Sengoku’s expression suddenly turned incredibly grim. But at your current age, forcing yourself to use that kind of technique is just too much...