In the King vs Zoro, we see once again King fighting in base(with no haki) against a Santoryu Zoro using hardening while visibly being pushed, so if we used the logic of some people here, base King is enough
When it's just that King doesn't have a proper fighting style and thus likes to fight by constantly switching form depending on the situation
By the way looking at the panels between Apoo and Drake, pretty clear now it's a setup for a backstab between Apoo and Drake with the numbers around
The smile of the numbers on the background is pretty much telling especially since they are enemies