Sengoku shouted an order: "All forces, attack! Surround the Rocks Pirates!"
"Yes, sir!"
The warships shifted formation, all their guns turning toward the enemy as they closed in on the Rocks Fleet in a crescent-shaped encirclement.
Sengoku and Zephyr exchanged a glance and nodded.
Then they both stepped off the deck. Geppo boomed through the air, and they shot toward the Rocks flagship like twin meteors.
"Gyahahaha... Men, charge with me!"
Golden Lion Shiki hovered in midair, his golden mane whipping wildly in the wind.
With a vicious grin, he drew the twin swords at his waist, Oto and Kogarashi:
"Send every last Marine into the sea! The Heavenly Tribute belongs to the Rocks Pirates!"
Behind Shiki, more than a dozen pirate ships accelerated toward the Marine formation.
"Kill!"
The pirates swarmed aboard the warships like hungry tigers pouncing on prey.
Grappling hooks filled the sky, and the clash of blades rang out alongside the crack of Fire Pistols. Nearly a hundred pirates poured onto the deck of the first warship they reached, and the two sides immediately fell into a vicious melee.
At the bow of the flagship, Whitebeard stood unmoving.
"Gurararara... Sengoku!"
Seeing the golden Buddha hurtling toward him, Whitebeard grinned, the battle spirit in his chest roaring to life.
He clenched his fingers. The muscles in his massive arm bunched as he swung Murakumogiri through the air.
"Today, we settle this once and for all!"
A translucent glow enveloped the blade. The air warped on either side of it, and fine cracks spread like a spiderweb—the very space itself was crying out.
Sengoku was already within a hundred meters.
The golden Buddha brought his palms together, a sphere of energy more than ten meters across gathering between them.
"Whitebeard, the Rocks Pirates' end has come!"
Sengoku glared furiously, his voice booming like a bell: "Every last one of you will be sent to Impel Down, where you'll repent for your sins in Eternal Darkness Hell!"
"Great Buddha Shockwave!"
He thrust out his massive palms, unleashing a torrent of energy.
The air compressed into a vacuum tunnel in its wake. The sea split apart to either side, exposing a trench dozens of meters deep.
How could Whitebeard back down?
"Too naive, Sengoku!"
Destructive Tremor Force wrapped around Murakumogiri as he met the attack with a mighty swing that could split mountains and seas.
"Quake-Air: Sea Splitter!"
The air burst into countless cracks like shattered glass wherever the blade passed.
Murakumogiri and the golden Buddha's palm collided from a distance.
For a second, time seemed to stand still.
Then—
BOOM!!!
The explosion shook the heavens. Its shockwaves spread in all directions as visible white rings of air.
A crater a hundred meters across blasted open in the sea.
It wasn't a splash. The seawater had been completely vaporized and driven aside, exposing a jagged bed of rock. At the crater's edge, raging waves rose into a fifty-meter tsunami.
The pirates and Marines fighting nearby didn't even have time to scream before the blast tore them to shreds.
In the heart of the smoke and steam, the two figures were already locked in a fierce battle.
Sengoku maintained his ten-meter-tall golden Buddha form, every punch carrying a shockwave powerful enough to split mountains and shatter stone.
Whitebeard swung Murakumogiri like a dragon, every slash making space tremble and crack.
Flowing Armament Haki wrapped around them. Fist and blade clashed, their shockwaves sweeping through the air like a storm. Every collision unleashed a ring of force that gouged deep trenches into the sea.
"Gurararara... What a thrill! Sengoku, you're a lot stronger than you were three years ago!"
Whitebeard laughed as he swung a horizontal slash. A fan-shaped Shockwave spread out, forcing Sengoku back a hundred meters.
The golden Buddha thrust out both palms in rapid succession, retaliating with dozens of shockwaves like a torrential downpour.
"You're no slouch either, Newgate!" Sengoku's voice was low. "But today, the Rocks Pirates must be wiped out!"
"Then come and try!"
The fierce battle resumed.
This time, neither man held back. As they unleashed their full power, the sky over the entire sea began to change color.
Elsewhere on the battlefield, the duel between Golden Lion Shiki and Black Arm Zephyr was just as fierce.
The sky was Shiki's domain.
The Float-Float Fruit let him move as freely as a fish in water. He flitted about like a phantom, his twin swords, Oto and Kogarashi, flashing in a blinding storm of silver. Every slash was viciously precise, aimed at a vital spot.
"Lion: Thousand-Cutting Flow!"
Shiki spun and slashed repeatedly, sending dozens of golden blades raining down and sealing off every escape route Zephyr had.
The slashes didn't travel in straight lines. They curved and twisted through the air in unnatural ways, attacking from impossible angles.
Zephyr used Geppo to streak through the sky, leaving seven afterimages in his wake.
Armament Haki had hardened Iron Arm to its utmost limit. Every block sparked with blinding light.
"Hmph... Golden Lion, is that supposed to tickle?"
Zephyr smashed through three slashes with a punch, its momentum carrying it straight toward Shiki's face.
The punch looked simple, but in truth, he had incorporated the principles of the Marines' Six Powers technique, Finger Pistol, into his fist. Before it could reach Shiki, a compressed air bullet shot ahead of it.
Shiki crossed his twin swords to block and was knocked back more than ten meters, but excitement flashed in his eyes.
"Now that's more like it!"
He licked his lips and gripped his swords tightly, his presence suddenly surging.
Golden Haki rose from his blades like flames.
"Let me show you what I've accomplished... after half a year of training!"
Shiki's expression turned serious. He raised both swords over his head, and they trembled with a deep, dragon-like hum.
The air swirled wildly within a hundred meters, and dozens of waterspouts rose from the sea.
"Lion Majesty: Sky Splitter!"
He brought both swords down with tremendous force.
The sky itself seemed to tear open, leaving a pitch-black fissure where his blades had passed!
Zephyr's pupils contracted.
He couldn't dodge.
The slash had locked onto not his body, but the entire space around him.
If that was the case—
"Black Arm: Secret Technique: City Breaker!"
Zephyr stopped trying to evade. He planted his feet and lowered his stance, drawing his right arm back like a fully strung bow.
Rather than coating his body, his Armament Haki swirled toward his fist. The blackness grew so deep it began to absorb the light, and the space around his fist warped slightly.
No reliance on Devil Fruits—just mastery of physical combat and Haki, taking the Marines' Six Powers and forging something new. That was the path of Black Arm Zephyr!
He threw a punch.
The instant his fist met the sword's slash, time seemed to slow.
BOOM! CRASH!!!
A chain of explosions bloomed in the sky.
The shockwave swept outward like a tsunami, flipping two ships below that had strayed too close. Pirates and Marines plunged into the sea like ants.
Amid the smoke, both figures were thrown backward.
Zephyr slammed into the flagship's deck like a cannonball. His feet carved a ten-meter-long furrow through the steel before he finally managed to steady himself.
On the other side, the impact sent Shiki flying a hundred meters, his twin swords trembling without pause.
He licked the blood from the corner of his mouth, his battle spirit burning even brighter.
"Interesting... Very interesting! Zephyr, you're even stronger than the rumors say!"
Meanwhile, the Marines and the Rocks Pirates had clashed across the main battlefield.
Buddha Sengoku against Whitebeard; Golden Lion Shiki against Black Arm Zephyr.
The shockwaves from four of the world's mightiest fighters left the surrounding sea in ruins.
On the next tier of the battlefield, more than a dozen division commanders from the Rocks Pirates were holding off four elite Marine Vice Admirals.
Luo Tian hovered in the air, sweeping the battlefield with Spatial Perception. His gaze finally settled on the Treasure Ship protected at the center of the formation.
It had a white hull, flew the World Government's flag, and sat low in the water.
It was obvious what it carried: the Heavenly Tribute offered by multiple Affiliated Nations, the source of the Celestial Dragons' extravagant lifestyle.
Before you continue