chapter 19

time flew by and Arowen was standing in the field waiting for his assessment to begin, he was ready and in tiptop shape, during these two years Arowen reached the peak of the human physical condition in all aspects, he trained as hard as he could and every day he pushed his body further and further, beyond what was humanly possible, and finally, his hard work paid off,

Arowen got to the peak of this world in strength, speed and other parameters, he was training every day like crazy, but one day he felt it, it was like a wall, one that couldn't be surpassed no matter how much he tried, to give you a clear reference, imagine that in his previous world an average humans strength is 1, then the Olympic athlete's strength is around 1.5, the limit a human body could grow in that world was max 2 points in strength, but here in the one-piece world the limit is higher, the average human of one piece is 2 point, and the maximum they can grow to is 7 points, from this comparison you could see the difference between worlds, the starting point of one is the ending of another, you may call it unfair but this is reality, and like this, every world has its own limits, its own laws,

now Arowen was at the peak of this world, all his physical parameters are close to 7, and that makes him one of the strongest humans in the world some of you may think, sorry to break your bubbles but that is not the case, if you remember this is one piece world and there are devil fruits and haki, those two things are like hacks in this world, they allow the wielder to break past the limits, for the devil fruits when you awaken them they give various boosts, like an example luffys gear techniques, and for haki, it is the most direct, the armament haki gives you and your weapons an obscene defense as well as boost to your strength and speed, the perception haki gives you a 360 degree vision, and finally the royal haki which is an attack directed at the spirit and can be use to oppress the spirit of your opponent, but unlike devil fruits haki doesn't have drawbacks which is the reason why he wants to learn it, and to learn it he used the marine cause he will get in contact with it easily, otherwise if goes to the sea and tries his luck he may have completed the mission before coming into contact with haki

back to the story, Arowen was standing on the field, and all big shots were present even the captain as he holds the ticket and needs to see if the person is qualified, commander tusel was sitting next to the captain, and old man with grey long hair, the captain lost his leg so he had a wood prosthetic as a replacement, the captain seems to be of the long leg tribe as his leg were long, too long to be considered a tall person, commander tusel at his side whispered to his ears before standing up and jumping to the field, there was no announcement, no fanfare or whatever

"Arowen, I will be your opponent and if you impress the captain, he will recommend you to HQ elite" the commander said as he was stretching "this will be a nice workout, don't worry I will go easy on you" the commander was full of himself and seemed like he didn't even have Arowen in his eyes, but Arowen wasn't stupid, even though the commander was speaking like that and seemed nonchalant, Arowen could see his eyes trained on him and that the commander trying to get under his skin

"really now!! you think I am some 5 years old child, cut the crap and come at me, if you don't ... I WILL" as Arowen said those words he sprinted towards the commander full speed lowering his body, and to the normal marines it seemed as if he disappeared from his spot, that's how fast he was, Arowen doesn't like to waste time in a fight and so attacked immediately, all the higher-ups were surprised by his speed, they didn't expect much from him at the beginning but now they took him seriously, even the captain just from this first move already decided to agree to tusel's suggestion, so he laid back and enjoyed the fight

commander tusel even though a drop out from the elite of HQ, wasn't an easy target, he wasn't a commander for show after all so he quickly guarded himself, he already learned haki when he was at HQ and some rokushiki tekai and kami-e, the first used to harden the muscles and the second to raise flexibility both those techniques are quite perverted if you master them, and tusel knew how to use them to a certain degree which made him a cut above Arowen even though Arowen had a stronger body

thanks to his haki, commander tusel already seen through Arowen and blocked his kick, commander tusel was pushed back by two steps, and Arowen not giving him time to breath followed with another kick, an ax kick to the head, but the commander has seen it coming and used kami-e to easily dodge it, not only that but he counter-attacked and gave an uppercut to the body,

Arowen was very strong, so he tanked the hit, but the commander's fist was coated by haki and strengthened with tekai, he felt it and felt it hard, Arowen was sent flying by commander tusel, but with surprising agility, he did a backflip and landed on his feet,

*cough cough*

Arowen felt pain in his stomach and before he could regain his footing, commander tusel was upon him sending a punch to his head, Arowen barely dodged it by fliping backward and sent a kick to the commanders shin as he was flipping, the commander used kami-e again and bent his body a little bit backward effectively dodging Arowens strike, he knew that if he got hit even with haki and tekai he will see stars, a head injury isn't easy to deal with

both the combatants took a step back as they circled each other

'my hits aren't effective! if we continue this way I will loose' Arowen already assessed his condition, he decided to use his sword, by now his body recovered from the damage dealt by the commander, one of the perks of his monstrous training his recovery speed was not far from 6 points and considering how hard it is to raise he did a wonderful job, and so Arowen unsheathed his sword from his waist, the sight of it stunned all those present, the weapon was just too unique and beautiful everyone was mesmerized

commander tusel was the first to recover and said "you decided to use your sword, after all, I thought it was just a decoration"

"ooh! it is more than that"

"we will see about that"

Arowen didn't waste much time, he rushed to the commander and thrust at his chest using the reach of the weapon to his advantage, but commander tusel wasn't easy to deal with either, he sidestepped and got out of the range of the weapon, Arowen didn't relent and followed with multiple stabs as the commander continued dodging, and when Arowen retracted his sword commander didn't waste this chance and came too close to Arowen inside his guard, but Arowen was already prepared, even though he didn't have a lot of experience fighting humans, he fought plenty of animals, even though they weren't his match, the animals had sharp instincts and he was in serious situations more than once, and some of them did what the commander just did almost ripping his arm out, so he learned from the mistake, and when the commander entered his guard arowen held his sword with one hand as he punched with the other

the commander didn't expect it and even with his techniques, he received a hit to the shoulder making him stager a little and that gave Arowen enough time to slash at the commander who guarded with his forearms coated with haki and hardened with tekai, the slash didn't make much damage but it did pierce his skin, and with the sword's special property blood spurted out of the wound onto it, but the sword absorbed the blood, not one drop stained its blade

seeing that the match may have gone too far the captain stopped it after all this was just to get a feel for the boy's strength, not a deathmatch

"The match is over, tusel boy, bring to my office first thing tomorrow"

tusel saluted in agreement, he didn't mind the wound it wasn't serious and he did not feel shame to be wounded, the wound was only at the skin level, true the blood that flowed was weird but it already stopped

"good job Arowen, you got me there"

Arowen didn't register what he said, he was looking at his sword thinking

'i am still weak, with the sharpness of the sword his arms should've been cut off cleanly, was he using haki there, his arm didn't change color so he must be still at the preliminary stage of haki and it was enough to stop my blade, this is troublesome' yes that was what was distracting Arowen right now, this fight gave him even more motivation to learn haki, with his current strength he could already cut a boulder in half and the cut would be really clean but now he couldn't cur the a mans arm coated in haki, this experience really proved him trued that haki was the best option to get even stronger and the best thing is that it could be used everywhere in any world he goes to, haki only relied on the spirit of the user his will as a source of power, it made it a perfect cost-effective power to have