Warning: The following contains spoilers for Tower of God, Chapter 510, “A Dark Twist 12,” by SIU, now available on Webtoon.
The months-long fight between Bam and White is finally reaching its climax, with Bam coming back from the dead in Chapter 507, and getting an immediate power boost. He is now able to overpower White quite easily. However, since they had a pretty big power difference at the beginning of the fight, this begs the question: Just how strong is Bam right now?
In Chapter 510, White admits that Bam is already stronger than him. Yet, he is still confident that he can take down Bam, probably because he is a much more experienced fighter overall. That being said, White’s hubris has always been his downfall, and the same is true this time around. He underestimates Bam’s defense and the power of his Shinsu rain that continuously weakens him, and his initial attack fails.
After his botched attack, White believes he has spotted Bam’s weakness, which is his black orb where he concentrates his powers. He decides to poke a hole through the orb, aiming to force all of the power to flow out so that he can absorb it. He succeeds in creating an opening and sees this as an opportunity to finally devour Bam. What he doesn't know, though, is that Bam is counting on him to do exactly this.
Bam uses the pause in White’s attacks to gather his strength, and deliberately lets White stab him with his spirit sword. He knows that White’s sword is directly connected to his own essence and this connection allows Bam to absorb White’s powers instead. Bam’s ability to absorb another’s powers has been set up for quite some time now. In Chapter 282, during the Hell Train arc, when Bam spoke to the Blue Thryssa inside of him, it tells him that his ability is one of gluttony; one that can absorb powers from others and make them his own. In a way, his ability might be an upgraded version of White’s skills, since the demon inside of Bam is likely stronger.
It was also established in the Floor of Death arc, in Chapter 333, that Bam has administrator level power inside of him; he even absorbed more administrator powers in that same chapter, the thorns which can disrupt the rules of the Tower and the millions of souls that he took over from White’s clones. So the fact that he is able to overpower White is not a deus ex machina, like many believe. He simply learned to harness the strength that has been inside him all along in a much more efficient way.
What might be more surprising is Bam’s growth in terms of his strategic thinking. When he fought White before, it was a straightforward brawl. While his fighting style does involve some high-level techniques like reverse flow control, Bam doesn’t really set-up traps like Aguero Khun would. However, in this chapter, not only is he able to successfully lure in the much more experienced White, he is able to surprise White with his level of calmness, even ruthlessness. While Bam has always been willing to sacrifice himself in fights, he does it in a much more cunning way this time around. This shows his growth in tactical intelligence, as well as fighting experience, which may be more exciting than Bam’s sheer power increase.
In the last arc, White was able to easily hold off a one-handed Kallavan. Thus, it is likely safe to assume that Bam is at least on the power level of Kallavan. White estimates that devouring Bam will put him on par with his father, Arie Hon, who is ranked #5 in the Tower and is the strongest leader of the Ten Families.
While Bam might still not be at the level of a single-digit High Ranker, he could be close to someone in the double-digit territory. Does that make him too OP? Not necessarily. Since he is one of the only few irregulars in the whole Tower, he's always been special. He will need at least this much power, and more, if his plans to take down Jahad, who is currently ranked #3, will succeed.
