Danny vs Sopdu

Observing Sopdu's arrogant behavior, Danny only felt more confident. His situation is a little different when compared to his two peers, Nugeru and Markus. 

He has yet to awakened his Armament Haki, but has reached the level where he is able to make sword slashes, since he entered the iron cutting realm two years ago. 

And he had also awakened his observation Haki, around that same time he entered the iron cutting realm, so despite lacking armament Haki, his offense can make up for that, so he doesn't feel too pressured from Sopdu's antics.

Sopdu on the other hand was also carefully observing Danny's reaction to his actions, looking for any flaws that might be exposed. There was a reason why he came up last to the fight for Apollo school of combat.

Similar to Danny, he also has only awakened one form of Haki, armament Haki, although he is only 19 years old, his armament Haki can already be said to be proficient. 

Although he can't cover his entire body with Haki while in combat, he is proficient enough to cover his hands, legs and other other parts of his body individually while fighting.

 This does not mean that Danny or Sopdu are not talented, in fact, anyone that can awaken and use any type of Haki can be considered a genius. Not to mention that the two of them were under 20 years old.

And most of their time was spent most of their time training in their specific school of combat. So being able to even proficiently use Haki at their age testifies to their talent. 

As they both observed each other, Danny seemed to have realized something and quickly back stepped while swinging his sword at Sopdu creating a flying half moon white slash.

Sopdu was taken aback, but quickly recovered and reacted to the sudden attack.

'Soru'

With a swish, Supdu dodged the attack by using the marine technique Soru, showcasing his combat prowess.

But before he could gather himself, multiple other flying slashes came rushing towards him, it seems that Danny didn't want him to compose himself.

'I see, but..' 

He knew he couldn't defend against these attacks with his body, so he decided to attack with force and used Rankyaku, the marine technique that allows the user to create wind blades.

'Tempest Kick'

'Swish' 'Swish' 'Swish'

Although it was obvious that Danny's flying slashes were stronger, Sopdu's wind blades were strong enough to halt Danny's flying slashes, which allowed Sopdu to regain equal standing ground with Danny again. 

The audience that was silently watching the confrontation between the two finally relaxed their tense state, it seems that the small clash between Danny and Sopdu might have caught them off guard.

At this time, Sopdu was carefully observing Danny, this time he had his guard up, fully prepared for any sudden attacks. Although he lost the initiative before, now that he can has the possibility of regaining it, he isn't dumb enough to make the same mistake twice.

But right now, he was thinking about how to defeat Danny, during their short clash, he had already gauged at Danny's strength. 

And he realized that Danny might not know armament Haki, but he wasn't too happy about figuring this out, because he guessed that Danny probably knew that he didn't know observation Haki.

So he was thinking about what methods he could use to defeat Danny, but he quickly realized that just like his other teammates, his only chance of winning was in close combat.

But he only knew four of the six marine techniques, Soru, Geppo, Tekkai, and Rankyaku. Unlike the other participants, he can be said to be a late comer. He is now 19 years old, but he only joined Apollo's School when he was 16.

So he technically only has about 3 years training, the reason for this is similar to many other children in the Traingle. He is not from Black Bay, he is from one of the neighboring islands in the territory.

Some citizens living in the triangle have no idea how big this territory is, in fact what makes it big is not its land mass, but water mass. Recently he remembered seeing in Nature's Newspaper, that 80% of 'The Triangle' is made up of water, and the other percentages are land mass. 

Before this, people only knew that the islands are very far away from each other, and it took days, sometimes weeks of traveling time to reach Black Bay by boat. And Sopdu and his family lived on one of those islands that were a week's distance away from Black Bay.

But thanks to the sea train technology that is present in every island within the Triangle, moving around couldn't have been easier. About ten years ago he and his family were made aware of the otherworldly means of Nature's Family when they traveled to Black Bay with the sea train.

It took a while for his father to settle down, not because there weren't any accommodations for them, but because his father joined the marines, and was assigned to guard the border on the West Side.

And after realizing that he might be away from his family for some time, his dad consulted his new superior who recommended him to bring along his family with him, since all the Borders stations have good quality living accommodations for workers and their family.

It wasn't until about four years ago, after his father was promoted that his father finally decided to settle down, and they bought a house on the East side of Black Bay Island which was pretty close to Apollo's dojo, which he eventually joined. 

And when he joined, thanks to his father's military background, his dad made sure to train his physique from time to time over the past ten years, so when he joined Apollo's Dojo, he improved very quickly. 

'Tempest Kick'

Covering his legs with Haki, Sopdu speeded towards Danny while kicking out dozens of wind blades to restrain Danny's actions. 

Danny seemed to have sense that Sopdu was going to make a move, and attack at the same time with dozens of his own flying slashes.

'Bam!' 'Bam!' 'Bam!'

All of their attacks seemingly exploded upon contact with each other, raising up dust in the arena ground, making it hard for viewers to see what was happening.

'Soru' Sopdu turned into a blur and plunged into the smoky area with his Haki covered right arm outstretched into punch motion as he quickly closed in on Danny's position.

Not to be outdone, Danny made a vertical sword attack to meet Sopdu's attack head on.

'Clang'

Both fist and sword collided, but it sounded as though two iron swords had collided. Their attack also cleared away the dust from its impact, allowing the audience to see what was transpiring. 

Danny quickly retracted his sword and swung it out quickly trying to catch Sopdu off guard. But Sopdu was prepared and he reacted quickly as he countered with left Haki covered fist.

'Clang'

The same pattern kept repeating over and over again, but it was clear that although Sopdu was physically stronger, he lost to Danny in terms of attack speed.