One was an aging, furious bear. The other was a young, savage tiger. While their clash wasn't quite on the level of the Four Emperors capable of splitting the heavens themselves, the sheer intensity of their Conqueror's Haki collision caused the blizzard clouds above them to aggressively churn and boil.
"Conqueror's Haki!" Chinjao's expression darkened, the sheer surprise momentarily overriding his fury. "Who the hell are you?! What are you doing in my territory?!"
Bardock didn't answer directly. Instead, he smiled and said casually, "Don Chinjao, you certainly haven't lost your touch. Even in your old age, your Haki is just as terrifying as the legends say."
"What did you just say?! You miserable brat, what did you just say?!" Bardock's casual compliment instantly detonated a massive landmine in Chinjao's psyche. His eyes bulged with uncontrollable rage.
"You dare say I haven't lost my touch?! Do you have any idea what I used to be?! I'm nothing but a flat-headed bald old man now! A savage wolf with its fangs ripped out! And you have the absolute gall to mock me by saying I haven't lost my touch?! DIE!"
Completely ignoring any further interrogation, Chinjao surged forward with terrifying speed, charging straight at Bardock like a runaway freight train.
"Fall back, all of you!" Bardock shouted to his crew over his shoulder, simultaneously kicking off the snow to meet the charging giant head-on.
Daz Bonez quickly ushered Robin and the others to a safe distance, feeling a slight twinge of jealousy. Ever since he had sworn loyalty to the Boss, the only time he had actually enjoyed a good fight was against Capone Bege. Besides dealing with small-fry pirates at sea, he hadn't had a chance to test his newfound Haki against a truly worthy opponent. He desperately wanted a life-or-death battle of his own!
BANG!
Chinjao and Bardock clashed in the center of the tundra, immediately engaging in brutal hand-to-hand combat. The moment their fists connected, they both realized the other was an incredibly dangerous opponent.
Chinjao was a seasoned veteran. His combat experience was absolute, and his mastery over both Armament and Observation Haki was exceptionally high. No matter how fast Bardock moved or what angle he attacked from, the old pirate flawlessly parried and launched devastating counterattacks.
Bardock was young, and his combat experience was noticeably shallower. However, his physical agility, speed, and raw power were monstrous. Furthermore, his proficiency with his own Haki was remarkably refined. Several times, Chinjao attempted to use veteran feints to lure Bardock into traps, but Bardock's Observation Haki saw right through every single one.
The existence of Haki was truly the great equalizer of this era. It allowed young upstarts to challenge the entrenched legends of the old generation. Veterans possessed decades of refined technique and trickery, but as long as those tricks couldn't bypass Observation Haki, the fight simply boiled down to a raw clash of stats and Armament Haki.
'Professor Kaido was right,' Bardock thought, grinning as he blocked another heavy punch. 'Haki truly rules all.'
BOOM!
They traded a massive, Haki-infused punch, the shockwave blasting them both backward into the snow.
"That footwork... you're using the Marines' Rokushiki!" Chinjao roared, his eyes suddenly filling with tears as a completely different, deeply buried trauma triggered. "GARP! I WILL HATE YOU FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE! I WILL CURSE YOUR CHILDREN AND YOUR GRANDCHILDREN!"
Chinjao suddenly began having a complete meltdown right in the middle of the battlefield. One second his eyes were bulging with manic rage, the next he was sobbing uncontrollably, snot and tears freezing on his beard as he screamed into the sky.
Bardock stood there, completely bewildered. He desperately wanted to ask, 'Uh, old man? Are we still fighting or what?'
Fortunately, Chinjao snapped out of his manic episode a few moments later. However, when his gaze returned to Bardock, his killing intent had multiplied exponentially. "If you use the Rokushiki, that means you have ties to the Marines! Which means you deserve to die even more! Hasshoken: Butou (Martial Head)!"
Chinjao violently headbutted the ground. A massive, directed shockwave tore through the tundra, ripping up tons of frozen earth and creating a massive dust cloud that completely obscured Bardock's vision. Using the cover, Chinjao leaped high into the air, aiming a devastating, falling headbutt squarely at Bardock.
Bardock didn't back down. He kicked off the ground, launching himself upward to meet Chinjao's falling headbutt with a heavy, Haki-coated punch.
Bardock had come to fight Don Chinjao for three specific reasons. First, to test his current strength against a legendary New World veteran. Second, to secure a top-tier shadow to leverage his negotiation with Moria. And third, and most importantly, he wanted to personally experience the Hasshoken (Eight Impacts) to grasp the advanced concept of Flowing Armament Haki (Emission).
BANG!
The impact was deafening. Chinjao was knocked backward slightly, but Bardock was violently blasted straight back down into the ground, crashing into the permafrost with terrifying speed.
Bardock had definitively lost that exchange.
Chinjao's attack was executed perfectly: launching a falling strike allowed him to synergize his massive body weight, gravity, and raw physical strength to maximize his offensive output.
Bardock, on the other hand, had launched an upward punch from mid-air. With nothing solid beneath his feet to provide leverage or generate rotational torque, he could only utilize seventy or eighty percent of his upper body strength. It was a completely foolish tactical decision.
Spitting out a mouthful of blood, Bardock quickly checked his internal organs. He silently etched the lesson into his mind, vowing never to make such a reckless, uncalculated mistake again. The Hasshoken shockwave carried an incredibly strange, penetrating destructive force. If he could learn to replicate that technique, he could apply it directly to his Flying Nimbus weapon to make it utterly unblockable.
"Hasshoken: Butou!"
Chinjao roared, repeating the exact same tactic, plunging toward Bardock with another falling headbutt.
This time, Bardock wasn't going to be stupid. He instantly triggered Soru, vanishing from the impact zone. He planned to let Chinjao bury his head deep into the permafrost, then follow up with a devastating combo while the old man was stuck.
But a split second later, Bardock's expectations were completely shattered. As expected of a legendary pirate, Chinjao's micro-control over his techniques was absolute. Despite the terrifying momentum of the falling headbutt, the moment his bald head touched the ground, there wasn't a single shockwave. Not even a speck of dust was kicked up into the air.
Having perfectly arrested his momentum, Chinjao seamlessly flowed into his next technique. With his head planted firmly on the ground, he pressed his palms together in front of his chest like a praying monk and extended his legs out into a perfect, horizontal split. Using the very tip of his bald head as an absolute pivot point, he began to spin—slowly at first, then rapidly accelerating into a blur.
"Hasshoken: Butou Kaiten (Martial Head Rotation)!"
Chinjao transformed into a massive, bladed spinning top, tearing across the tundra directly toward Bardock. Despite looking incredibly goofy, the technique was terrifyingly fast.
Bardock attempted to launch a few probing counterattacks, but the moment his fists made contact with the spinning vortex, he was violently deflected by the sheer centrifugal force. He was even clipped a few times by Chinjao's spinning legs, the Hasshoken shockwaves bruising his ribs. The continuous, outward-flowing shockwaves formed a perfect, 360-degree absolute defense around Chinjao. Even the air above him was violently distorted by the intense updraft created by the rotation.
Unable to find a viable opening to break the technique, Bardock was forced to constantly retreat, using Soru and Geppo to stay just out of range.
But as he continued dodging, realization dawned on him. He didn't actually need to break the technique. He just needed to not get hit.
The spinning top technique was incredibly powerful, offering perfect offense and defense with zero blind spots. However, as long as Bardock's evasive speed was faster than the top's movement speed, Chinjao would eventually have to stop. Bardock refused to believe that a massive old man could spin on his head indefinitely without getting dizzy.
Sure enough, after failing to catch Bardock for several minutes, Chinjao abruptly stopped spinning. He stood up, swaying heavily on his feet, panting loudly as a wave of dizziness washed over him. 'Dammit,' Chinjao cursed internally. 'I really am getting old. To think I can't even maintain a simple rotation for a few minutes anymore.'
Bardock, however, wasn't going to politely wait for his opponent to recover from vertigo. This was a battle!
Capitalizing on the opening, Bardock launched a relentless, multi-directional assault. Still suffering from the negative effects of the spinning, Chinjao failed to block several heavy strikes. The final blow—a devastating, Haki-infused right hook to the jaw—sent the legendary pirate flying through the air, crashing heavily into the snow.
"You... you have genuinely pissed me off!" Chinjao growled, slowly climbing to his feet. He wiped the blood from his nose, his eyes burning with absolute, murderous rage. He began funneling a massive, terrifying amount of Armament Haki to the crown of his bald head. "I am going to crush every single bone in your miserable body!"
A sharp, suffocating sense of lethal danger washed over Bardock. He couldn't afford to hold anything back anymore. Instantly, he transformed into his Mythical Zoan Monkey King form. "This time, I'll make sure you stay down!"
Bardock launched himself high into the sky. Flipping upside down, he used Geppo to rapidly accelerate his descent, aiming a devastating, falling punch directly at the old pirate.
Chinjao had already finished gathering his Haki. He was briefly surprised when Bardock activated a Zoan Devil Fruit, but after a quick glance, he sneered. Having the high ground was certainly an advantage, but Bardock was still just a child! He didn't have the sheer mass or body weight to generate true, catastrophic momentum from a falling strike!
'I've already won!' Chinjao roared internally.
"Hasshoken Secret Technique: Mukiri Ryu Mukiri Kugi (Drill-less Dragon, Drill-less Nail)!"
Brimming with absolute confidence, Chinjao launched himself upward, funneling the entirety of his physical strength, his massive body weight, and his terrifying Hasshoken shockwaves directly into his bald head. This single, ultimate clash would shatter the brat into pieces.
"Maximized Form!" Bardock roared, perfectly timing his trump card. "Armament Haki! Tetsu-Shigan (Iron Finger Pistol)!"
In the fraction of a second before the impact, Bardock pushed his Devil Fruit to its absolute limit. His body violently expanded in mid-air, instantly transforming from a normal-sized hybrid into a colossal, forty-meter-tall Great Ape.
'IT'S A TRAP!'
The moment the colossal shadow blotted out the sun, Chinjao's heart stopped. He cursed violently in his mind. 'This insidious, scheming little brat!' But at this velocity, trying to abort the attack would result in a far more gruesome death. He had no choice but to squeeze every last drop of Armament Haki he possessed into his head, praying the giant ape was all bark and no bite.
BOOOOOOM!
The collision sounded like a literal thunderclap detonating in the center of the tundra.
A split second later, Don Chinjao was violently blasted out of the sky by a single, colossal finger. He crashed into the earth like a meteor, carving a massive, deeply scorched crater into the permafrost.
Bardock gracefully landed on the edge of the crater, shrinking back down to his normal human form and deactivating his Haki. He exhaled a long breath, a satisfied grin on his face.
He had won again.