CHAPTER 643: CHAPTER 162: YOUNG DARREN, GET HIM!

"Enemy attack?!"

"Who is it?!"

"Protect the Excellencies!"

"Protect His Majesty the King!"

Chaos erupted in an instant.

A crushing surge of Conqueror’s Haki drained the color from many faces; dignitaries from World Government member states swayed on their feet, on the verge of collapse. Guards scrambled for weapons, panic and disbelief written across their features. They had come for a royal wedding—who would dare cause a scene here?

Boom!

The ground thundered and dust billowed.

A colossal figure burst from the crowd, hair and beard whipping like a demon’s mane. Bloodshot eyes blazing with rage and hatred locked onto Garp.

"Today, I’ll finally have my revenge!"

Ripples of fear spread as the assembly recoiled.

"Chinjao the Drill!"

"The backbone of the Happo Navy!"

"The leader of that violent lot!"

"He’s insane—attacking here of all places?!"

Disbelief rolled through the ranks of royals and officials.

"Bwahahaha! Chinjao, that you? Long time no see!" Garp barked, then laughed as recognition dawned.

"Don’t you ’long time no see’ me!" Chinjao snarled, face twisting. He stabbed a finger at his flattened brow, Armament Haki darkening it by degrees. "My head ended up like this because of you, you bastard!"

Garp lazily picked his nose. "Don’t be so sore. Looks cooler now."

"...Before, your head just looked like a hammer."

"You’re the hammer!" Chinjao roared, the volcano inside him finally blowing. That man had destroyed the one thing that mattered most. Years ago his cone-shaped skull had earned the name "Chinjao the Drill." He’d used it to pierce a treasure iceberg and bury a fortune only his head could open. Then Garp flattened it—and with it, his future. The mountain of riches lay locked before him, taunting.

"DIE!!"

With a savage bellow, hair and beard thrashing, Chinjao sprang skyward, flipped head-down, and dove. Armament turned his forehead a hard blue-black, the sheen cold as steel.

Acceleration... descent.

He plummeted like a meteor, gravity driving him faster, the air itself screaming. The downward gale shattered stone, the ground crazing beneath the pressure.

"He’s coming!"

"It’s Chinjao’s iceberg-shattering headbutt!"

"Is he trying to wipe us all out?!"

Faces blanched, eyes went wide.

"Bwahahaha! Old Garp doesn’t have time to play today. Young Darren—this one’s yours!"

Laughing, Garp vanished behind Darren in a blur.

Darren: ...

That old man... dumping his mess on me?

Even as he grumbled, Darren recognized the gift. Chinjao’s rampage threatened everyone here. If Darren subdued him and shielded the gathered royals and officials, the political gains would be enormous.

More importantly—

A reckless grin cut across his face.

Time to test the limits of the "Giant’s Body."

Before anyone could blink, Darren blurred from his spot and reappeared like a phantom where Garp had been.

"You little whelp! Courting death!!" Chinjao howled as he crashed down like a star.

Eight-Impact Fist: Drill Dragon Cone Nail—Chinjao’s Gate Opener!!

BOOM!!

A deafening blast tore the air. Shockwaves detonated outward, a hellstorm of wind and debris ripping the ground within a hundred meters and leaving it laced with fractures. The earth heaved like a storm-tossed sea. Royals and dignitaries—already hustled to safety by their guards—stared, jaws unhinged.

Amid the maelstrom of force and flying rubble, the Marine Vice Admiral stood unmoved—a reef in raging surf. Black hair and white coat whipped and snapped, threaded with the crackle of colliding Conqueror’s Haki.

Unshakable.

Tokikake hunched back, head turtling into his shoulders.

Garp’s eyes flew wide.

They had seen it clearly: Darren had stopped Chinjao’s dive... with his forehead.

Skull met skull, crimson-black lightning sparking where they crashed together.

"You brat! How is your head this hard?!" Chinjao roared, disbelief wrenching his features. Garp, the Iron Fist, strongest of Marines, unmatched in Haki and hand-to-hand—he had flattened Chinjao’s cone years ago. But this upstart Vice Admiral had just met that same technique head-on? Was his head harder than an ice continent?

Hidden in the crowd, Stussy turned white. Watching that feral grin carve across Darren’s face beneath the crushing force of Chinjao’s attack, she understood at last—when she’d struck him before, he hadn’t even been serious.

"That headbutt really smarted," Darren said with a rough chuckle, rubbing his brow. Before Chinjao could recoil, Darren’s hand flashed out and clamped onto his arm.

Chinjao’s pupils pinpricked. A tide like a calving iceberg surged from Darren’s grip—raw, unstoppable power.

"Giant’s Arm..." Darren snarled, grin widening.

Crack... crack...

Muscles swelled up his right arm like molten stone, bulging until they strained his uniform. A plume of heat hissed from his lips, flashing into white vapor.

Then, under every shocked eye, the Vice Admiral lowered his stance, torqued his waist, and—

—swung Chinjao’s entire body in a brutal arc and smashed him into the ground.

BOOM!!

The island quaked. Smoke and dust geysered skyward. Cracks raced like black serpents through the stone, their gaping jaws terrifying to behold.

To be continued...