"Focus!" Zeke yelled. Leroy up above him. Doing another round of his image shadow boxing against Zachary Leery. The Vampiric Assassin moving quickly to the eyes of the man.
"Armament Hardening can only be achieved through condensing the armament around your body into a denser layer. Like flexing and tightening your muscles."
"Agh! I'm! Trying! I got it once!" He said back. He'd been able to use hardening quiet regularly. It was easier for swordsman. They had a physical thing to 'grip' allowing for that mind muscle connection to fuel the hardening, on top of the fact that imbued objects didn't need as much harsh tension from the body to keep fueling.
But going up against Leery. It was throwing him off damnit! "Then get it again!" Zeke demanded.
Suddenly! Leroy fell! Slamming against the ground! The internal illusion suddenly catching him off guard and with his fangs bared for his neck! His observation flared as if it were real! His own mind causing his sixth sense to trigger!
And it caused the illusion to disappear…And him to loose his footing.
"Agh…Aghhh ahh…" Leroy's chest heaved.
"Armament Haki is the usage of your aura to reinforce your self. Combat. Body. Force. That is what this branch is about. Damaging your opponents. Hardening yourself. Interacting on a fundamental level in the case of Logias. Internal Damage from bypassing armor and defenses. Energy. Its about Energy."
"You move master with hardening on your feet. Hit harder with it on your fist. First. Ya just gotta think." Zeke tapped his students forehead.
"Get Hardening down. Then it'll strengthen. Eventually you'll get your own hue." At the peaks of hardening and its mastery, Users gained a hue to their metallic blackened armor like a pearlescent or iridescent hue.
"You've got three branches down to some extent. Thats far better than most. Far better than I had when first starting and in this time." Zeke dropped his weight and crossed his legs.
"You have a Knack for Conquerors. A rare leaning. But if you stop now–" Leroy cut him off. "I'm not going to stop now! I'll never stop…" He said slamming his hand into the ground. A wheeze to his breath.
"Even…Still." He spoke slow. "You've got two years left of training. And theres still a whole lot left to teach you. But at your pace. If you don't falter and don't give up. You'll leave here above what I thought when first landing here…"
"Ha…Hagh…I know….!" He slammed again and forced himself to the
The Second Month of The Second Year.
Zeke's voice suddenly broke through the silence, Arnie and Leroy working hard against the massive amount of weight. Leroys strength had nearly quadrupled. Lifting just over a Million tons of weight for reps as his chest constricted and lowered
"That little bastard!" He screamed! Breaking through the bramble from the coast line. Carrying grocery bags. He was leaking conquerors Haki! Black streaks of energy Emitting from him.
"Jeez Zeke what?" Leroy said. Flinching slightly. Feeling that tell tale feeling of blowing wind like a valley.
"Look!" He held up a small book titled 'Haki for Dummies'. But the stand out was the author byline.
Steade Bonney
"That…-" Leroy began, eyes widening.
"Yes! It is! Little bonbon was listening in someway after all, all those years ago! Too bad he didn't learn shit! Clearly because half the info in here is either inaccurate, wrong or down right dangerously incompetent!" Pages flipped as Zeke began to read aloud.
"Haki is power that can only be used by those who eat a healthy diet, do daily yoga, and rehearse the same mantra thrice a day." Zeke simmered…
"Armament Hardening can be achieved through submersion into heated sand."
"Agh!" The Teacher shouted. "Technically that would work and force it out but thats so…Improper! These books are a best seller too! He's started a trend of legitimate and fraudulent Books on the study and use of Haki are everywhere!"
"Isn't that good?" Leroy questioned. Crossing his arms on the bench. "No! Well…Yes! More people should know! But not like this! Especially because Bonney's is the most popular! Little shits even gained a following!"
"THE CON-ARTIST!" Zeke, filled with rage of a teacher who respects the work seeing a vulgarization of everything he valued, lobbed the book far into the horizon with such speed it began to ignite!
"Ha…Ha…." Zeke huffed and puffed. Rage simmering away in his body and posture. Leroy dropped his weight and crossed his legs. "Yeah…I guess that not good…But I imagine this means theres gonna be a dozen times more people with Haki in the world than before…"
"And thats what Im worried about. If now suddenly a huge chunk of the population is adept in Haki. That means not only the most mundane and weak fighters like your Warrant Officers in the Marines, would be able to use it. This also means that Omega Fascia in people can explode, making people grow even faster."
"There could be people you once fought now be able to keep up with you in some capacity, their strength having monumentally compounded." He pinches the bridge of his nose.
"Also means that I'd gauge the entire level of strength across the whole planet as been elevated. Recruits, Privates or what ever you wanna call fresh enlisted are going to be even stronger. An entire caste of strength is now irrelevant and can only be considered 'Civillian'."
Arnie took a drag from a cigarette between his lips. "Phoow…Good chance by the time you go back out there. Humans aren't going to be so much different from Fishman they once feared because of their innate ten times strength. At least the fighters wont be."
"The Dangers of reckless information." Leroy commented. Freddie nodding along. "Indeed. But you can only do so much with how you give information. It'll always be up to the human conscious on how to handle it."
Week 120
Leroy had been at this for nearly 2 and a half years. He had gotten the hang of three of the five branches. And had been able to just barely tap into the others. Just as Zeke had said any good fighter heading for the position Leroy was. For the New World it'd give him the edge. But would be a far cry from the peak of his potential. And was the furthest point Zeke Imagined Leroy could reach without needing to be forced passed by the bloom of Haki.
Zekes voice echoed in his mind as he stood a top a large boulder over a flat land that seemed to be empty. 'If you need to. Repeat my teachings to yourself. Remember them. Teachings and Fundementals are the only Mantra's you need.'
"Heee….Phooo….." Leroy breathed in through his nose. And out through his mouth. Eyes closed. Focusing the aura. Feeling it in the small of his back. And then visualizing it passing through his head. Not just fueling it. But processing it into the Branch.
There was a Sympatic shiver down the back of his neck.
Goosebumps.
The aura and life signals of those hiding in the bramble bouncing off his senses. In his minds eye. Almost like a haze in the darkness of a dimmed image projection. He saw almost a third person view of himself from above. The loose clouds of color each tied to an emotions. Their shape to thoughts. Instincts. Violence. Slumber.
"Phoooo….." He slowly brought his hands up flat together and up over his heads before–
CLAP!
He clapped his palms so hard that it caused a sonic boom! A pressure wave of sound and supersonic air shot all around the forest! Shaking the branches, rustling the leaves and disturbing the rest of the predators that laid this deep in the island of struggle.
It was quiet that followed. Then….A Cacophony!
Rumbling, Shaking, Quaking. Sounds of Branches snapping, animal calls that were deep and guttural. Primal roars as the beasts broke through and out into the clearing! Leroys eyes were still shut. He could feel the hotness of the predators breadth against his back. But still he did not move.
It wasn't until the chill that ran up his spine faster than a thought signaled the incoming danger he was on able to feel without it! Danger! Danger! Danger!
In an instant he processed the signal and leapt from the boulder with strength that caused the rock to shatter into dozens of pieces! Leaving the swiping paw of the now visible short faced yellow and red gecko!
"Armament Hardening!" He Clinched his fist! The tightness in his fist connecting with that same visualization of flow he'd done with Observation. Aura erupting from his forearm and then flashing into a solid state of dark blackened armor! Sports and trails of black like squiggles and splotches were near his elbow.
A tell tale sign of strong, but not fully efficient Haki usage in a single place.
"Gum Gum!" He cocked his fist back! The Lizard predator falling to the ground, unable to move due to its lack of speed! At the same time, Leroy saw as a dozen other creatures, each like perfect evolutions of the Animals they represented.
"VULCAN SHOT!"
In a flash of speed! His fist zipped down! And slammed into the skull of the Lizard! The Armament Hardening focusing and condensing the force of the blow and compounding it! Causing there not to be as much immediate devastation if done directly into the surface! The air ripped! Boom bellowing and the ground concaving downwards into a massive crater! Blood and loose skin fluttering from the destroyed lizard body.
The moment he landed. His other hand blackened. Fist clenched. Another chill down his back! It general area denoting where it was coming from!
Left!
It was an enormous Mantis Shrip! Its eyes swirling and blinking with colors! Its shells a vibrant display of irridescent hues that appeared as even more to the Shrimps compound eyes! A thought that ran through Leroys mind even in the midst of combat.
But the more pressing issue was its 'fist' cocked back! Leroy dropped his weight! Allowing himself to fall to the ground, he sped himself up slightly by the quick application of Haki. Pushing himself down faster than gravity tugged him. Letting him be faster than the shooting 'Pistol Shot'!
Its force was monstrous! Exploding the air in a visible pale white wave that ripped over Leroy and tore through almost a mile of forestry! The same trees that were a dozen times stronger than steel!
"Hmph!" Leroy pressed his hands behind his head and kipped up! Flipping his body right side up! Fist already flying! "VULCAN SHOT!" The aquatic internals sprayed up through the air! Felling it in a single blow!
A panther that had the same camouflage as a Cameleon shifted colors back into view! Leroy didn't even need observation for this beasts Lack of speed. He raised his hands, still coated with black armor, and let the enormous 13 ft long panther collide with him! Leroy holding its massive maw open. Claws swiping only to be met with sparks!
Black armor covered the skin underneath the white workshirt. It disappeared a second later, the Panther never able to capitalize on, Leroy lifting the Big Cat up above his head and falling backwards in a devastating suplex!
THRAM!
Earth shattered! Another crater scarring the island that would only be reclaimed and taking by nature in mere days by the super growth of plant life, adapted to the constant devastation of the island by its abnormally strong ecology.
"Hm?" A noise from the side. More. "One…Two…" He shook his head. "No Two and Half Dozen more." On que, the thicket ruptured! Two and half dozen forms of Animals and Insects! Stag beetles with massive pikes for horns! Millipedes with fiery eyes! Bats that evolved muscular arms! Wolves the size three times over a direwolf! Birds with sharpened hollow feathers!
But Leroy did not Buckle. His eyes focused. Animals drawing closer! All in the midst of pouncing on him when–
He Flinched toward them! Muscles tightened! Eyes widening and his pupils dilating!
ZZVWOOM!
A Burst of Red and Golden energy spewed out of the front of Leroy! Blackened crackles of Energy that were lined with red energy zapped amidst the energy like a volatile storm cloud! Washing and crashing over the Beasts in an instant! For a single moment of the burst, they felt a heat that was as if standing too close to a bon fire, or in the unprotected suns rays! And then- their minds began to blank. The pressure of the Haki far too much for their minds, will, and bodies to physically handle. Causing them to 'blink off' and fall to harmless unconscious….
"Heeee….Phoooo…" Another sigh. He hadn't even activated his aura during the fight beyond normal.
Leroy was at a High Sixth Dan. 3 Proficient Uses. All Five Branches tapped into.