"Go ahead and inform everyone. Tell the brothers to relax and rest for now. Once we deal with the Eight Treasures Navy, we'll hold a lively celebration together!"
"Understood. I'll arrange it immediately."
After chatting for a short while longer, Robin quickly departed to carry out the order.
Kaito Arisawa remained where he was, his gaze drifting toward the ice field ahead.
The passage that Law had previously carved through the glacier using the Op-Op Fruit had already disappeared.
This was due not only to the special structure of the Treasure Jade Iceberg but also to the fierce snowstorms that constantly swept through the area.
The reason the tunnel vanished was simple—it had been buried and sealed again by the wind and snow.
Kaito stared silently at the vast frozen landscape before him.
After a moment, he stepped forward.
His pace gradually increased.
Then faster.
And faster.
Until he suddenly sprinted and leapt high into the air.
"Eight-Impact Fist Secret Technique: Cone Dragon Spike!"
At the peak of his jump, gravity began pulling his body downward.
At that instant, Kaito swung his arms downward and kicked powerfully toward the ice below.
Boom!!!
A thunderous explosion echoed across the entire glacier.
An extremely concentrated shockwave erupted from Kaito's foot.
The force was terrifying.
The ice field trembled violently as the impact struck.
The solid glacier began to collapse and split apart.
Countless shards of ice flew through the air.
Within seconds, two enormous cracks spread outward from the impact point, connecting to a massive crater and splitting the ice field apart as if dividing it into two halves.
Yet Kaito himself did not fall into the newly formed pit.
The moment his strike landed, he twisted his body midair and used Moonwalk to propel himself sideways.
He landed lightly on the ice nearby.
"It doesn't seem too difficult."
Standing beside the enormous crater—over ten meters wide—and the gigantic fractures splitting the ice field, Kaito placed his left hand casually on the handle of the golden saber at his waist and spoke to himself.
He had remained behind rather than returning to the ships with the others for a reason.
He wanted to test whether his mastery of the Eight-Impact Fist had reached the level necessary to break through the defenses of the Treasure Jade Iceberg.
From the results of this experiment, it was clear that his Eight-Impact Fist had indeed reached that level.
This realization once again made Kaito feel a trace of disdain toward Don Chinjao.
Clearly, the reason Chinjao could no longer break the Treasure Jade Iceberg was not because the iceberg itself had become impossible to destroy.
It was because Chinjao's mastery of the Eight-Impact Fist was insufficient.
And that had been during his prime.
Now that he was older, his strength had likely declined even further.
Thinking about this made Kaito's anticipation for the upcoming battle with Don Chinjao diminish even more.
If not for the personal grudge between them, he might not have bothered waiting here at all.
After all, an opponent who failed to excite his expectations made it difficult to feel any real fighting spirit.
"Forget it."
"Even if Chinjao isn't particularly strong, he's still an opponent."
"Consider it a farewell battle before leaving West Blue."
After comforting himself with that thought, Kaito turned and began walking toward a distant iceberg.
His test of the Eight-Impact Fist was finished.
Now it was time for the next step.
He stopped about a hundred meters away from a massive iceberg.
Facing him was a smooth vertical wall of ice.
It was the perfect target.
Kaito lifted his right foot slightly.
As he stared at the icy wall, he began circulating the techniques of the Eight-Impact Fist.
Shockwaves began condensing around his leg.
"I've essentially mastered the Eight-Impact Fist," he thought silently.
"In the future, as my physical strength continues to grow, the power of this martial art will also increase."
"But in terms of technique, it's likely reached its limit."
Kaito was not someone who would remain satisfied with his current achievements.
When he recognized a limit, he did not accept it.
Instead, he sought to break through it.
Boom!!
With the shockwave fully condensed, Kaito suddenly unleashed a sweeping kick.
His leg slashed through the air.
The terrifying force generated by the Eight-Impact Fist exploded outward, tearing through the atmosphere and forming a violent storm of air pressure.
The wave surged forward across the distance of one hundred meters, slamming into the massive iceberg.
The impact caused the iceberg to tremble slightly.
However, once the storm dissipated, the smooth wall of ice remained completely unharmed.
"The shockwave generated by the Eight-Impact Fist is powerful," Kaito murmured as he lowered his leg back to the ground.
"But it has a fatal flaw."
"It cannot be released outside the body."
If that kick had struck the ice wall directly, it would have easily carved a massive crater into it—even if it didn't shatter the entire iceberg.
But as things stood, the shockwave dissipated before reaching its target.
"The first goal now," Kaito thought, "is to break through that limitation."
"I need to release the shockwave beyond the body."
He began adjusting the distribution of his innate talents.
Previously, his attributes had been focused primarily on constitution.
Now he shifted them toward combat talent.
The moment the adjustment was made, Kaito felt the immediate consequences.
His constitution dropped sharply.
His body suddenly felt drained, as if the strength had been squeezed out of it.
For a moment he even felt physically weak.
However, he had long grown accustomed to this sensation.
After moving his body slightly, he quickly adapted.
As his physical condition decreased, the effect of concentrating his combat talent began to manifest.
"Absolute Mastery."
This ability allowed him to control every part of his body with incredible precision.
At the same time, countless insights about combat techniques began flooding into his mind.
"If I want to release the shockwave of the Eight-Impact Fist outward…"
"I could draw inspiration from the 'external emission' technique of Armament Haki."
"And also incorporate the Tempest Kick from the Six Powers."
"Combining them might greatly increase the attack's range and power."
The sudden burst of inspiration eliminated any confusion Kaito might have had regarding the next stage of development.
Ideas formed rapidly.
One after another.
Without hesitation, he began experimenting immediately.
Time passed.
The defenders of the Eight Treasures Navy had indeed contacted their leader when the attack on the Treasure Jade Iceberg began.
However, whether Don Chinjao was too far away—or delayed by other circumstances—he still had not appeared even by the evening of the following day.
Meanwhile, Kaito had spent the entire time training on the ice field, aside from resting briefly at night.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Shockwaves visible to the naked eye erupted from his kicks.
Each strike traveled over one hundred meters before crashing into the massive ice wall ahead.
Ice fragments scattered into the air.
Large holes and spiderweb-like cracks began covering the once-smooth surface of the iceberg.
Unlike the first attempt the previous day—when his kicks produced only storm-like gusts of wind—each kick now released a solid shockwave of the Eight-Impact Fist.
Clearly, in just a single day…
Kaito had already achieved a breakthrough.
He had successfully learned how to release the shockwave of the Eight-Impact Fist beyond his body.
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