Seeing the "little guy" standing there so bold and dashing, Dorry and Brogy both burst into hearty laughter.
This human boy was exactly to their liking.
If you ignored the fact that he was human, this guy named Daren—whether it was his fighting style, the toughness of his body, his strength, his will, or his courage—was every bit the kind of man who would be famous even among the warriors of Elbaph!
"Blue Ogre" Dorry gripped his massive longsword with both hands and stepped forward. His enormous frame made the ground quake, his beard and hair flying like a demon's, while his face darkened with the flush of battle spirit.
"Don't you dare die too easily!"
"Red Ogre" Brogy also stepped forward, raising his battle axe into an attack stance. His thick beard trembled, and his rugged face flushed blood-red with excitement.
The two stood a distance apart, sword and axe lightly clashing together, their bodies tensed, ready to unleash their full power. ɪꜰ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴀɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ʀᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴏʀᴇ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs, ᴘʟᴇᴀsᴇ ᴠɪsɪᴛ novelꜰire.net
At that moment, Daren felt a heavy, domineering, overwhelming pressure crash down on him, as if every muscle in his body had been provoked, straining taut.
"What incredible pressure!"
Instead of fear, Daren's heart surged with excitement. A blazing, fierce light burst from his deep-set eyes.
The strength these two giants had shown so far was far beyond what he'd expected—a true delight.
In the original story's Little Garden arc, their performance had been disappointing, hardly worthy of the 100 million bounty they had carried for over a century, let alone the reputation of Elbaph as the "Strongest Nation in the World."
But right now, Daren's entire body trembled with exhilaration.
This suffocating, crushing sense of threat, the feeling of every cell in his body cheering and screaming... it made him unbelievably happy!
"Hahahahaha! Come, warriors of Elbaph!!"
He took a deep, powerful breath.
Visible streams of air formed at his nostrils, and countless memories of battles fought on the edge of life and death, endless days and nights of hellish training, flashed through his mind.
A sudden, wordless understanding emerged within him.
He murmured quietly, and as he drew that breath deep into his abdomen, his body underwent a strange transformation.
His sharply defined muscles swelled, each packed with explosive power, tearing apart the uniform on his upper body, revealing a body crisscrossed with scars.
Daren tore away the shredded remnants of his uniform, his black hair whipping wildly as he grinned fiercely. He raised both hands, one high, one low, adopting a fighter's stance.
"I, Rogers Daren, will stand here and face your strongest strike!"
"Defeat me! Beat me! Even... kill me!!"
A deep rumble shook the earth, as if the entire island itself was trembling.
The Vice Admiral's figure shot from his spot like a cannonball.
Facing the strongest combined attack of Elbaph's mightiest warriors... he didn't retreat—he charged head-on!
Dorry and Brogy's eyes lit up, wide smiles spreading across their faces, brimming with battle lust.
Only a man of such spirit deserved to face their ultimate attack!
"Give it everything you've got, Brogy! No holding back!"
"You too! It's been years since we've used this move—don't screw it up, kabababa!!"
Brogy roared with laughter.
Without needing to exchange a single look, both their eyes sharpened at the same moment, filled with deadly seriousness.
Under the surging force of their combined might, the space before them seemed to be sucked into a vacuum.
A titanic shockwave, vast and spiraling with slashing winds, exploded forth with unstoppable force!
Hundreds, thousands of towering trees were flattened in an instant, shattered into splinters!
Everything on the earth—rocks, vegetation, even entire rolling hills—was obliterated in a heartbeat!
Elbaph's Sovereignty: Hakoku!!
Before the overwhelming force of this attack, capable of crushing entire nations, nothing could stand in its path.
In an instant, it swallowed up the "tiny" figure of the Marine Vice Admiral.
Then it continued its unstoppable advance.
A mountain dozens of meters tall was blasted straight through, leaving a massive gaping hole!
The surrounding mountains were nearly leveled.
Out at sea, a colossal trench over a kilometer long and dozens of meters wide was carved into the ocean's surface!!
Towering waves surged violently, thundering in every direction.
The roar of crashing waves and collapsing mountains mingled together, shaking the heavens and the earth.
It was as if the world itself was splitting apart...
Dust rolled across the ground, and a deep groove stretched nearly across the entire island.
From high above, the dense jungle looked as if a colossal sword had slashed through it, a yellow-brown scar splitting the lush green forest cleanly in two.
"He's... he's not dead, is he?"
Brogy panted heavily, staring at the dust-choked land, his forehead drenched in sweat.
The battle axe in his hand began to splinter, spiderweb cracks spreading across it before it finally shattered into countless fragments.
The same happened to Dorry's worn giant sword, breaking apart into pieces.
These two ancient weapons, after decades of battles and duels, could no longer withstand the overwhelming force of "Hakoku" and were completely destroyed.
Dorry was gasping too, his face pale, the exhaustion in his eyes impossible to hide.
It was clear that even for mighty Giant warriors, a technique like Hakoku came at an enormous cost.
"That... was one hell of a move..."
At that moment, a hoarse voice suddenly drifted out from the thick curtain of dust.
Dorry and Brogy's eyes lit up in joy.
The human kid was still alive!
But that joy quickly twisted into shock and disbelief, leaving them dumbfounded.
That human kid... was still alive!
They widened their eyes, trying desperately to see through the swirling dust.
A blurred figure slowly straightened up from the shattered ground.
The voice carried a faint, almost playful smile as it echoed through the haze.
Dorry and Brogy saw a sight they would never forget for the rest of their lives:
That figure was undergoing a strange transformation, its body crackling with the sharp sounds of snapping bones.
As the tearing sounds of bones and muscles grew louder and more frequent, the small figure hidden within the thick smoke...began visibly...rising like a mountain from the earth, growing taller and taller before their very eyes!
"H-he's getting bigger!?"
Brogy cried out, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.
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