A towering figure walked steadily out of the cavern's darkness.
Whitebeard wore a heavy white cloak, and old scars crisscrossed his broad chest.
After he had taken the improved medicine formulated by Orochimaru, most of the toxins and hidden injuries accumulated in his body over decades had been cleared away.
Explosive muscles swelled across that mighty physique once more, and surging blood coursed through his meridians.
Whitebeard stopped and looked down at the young man before him.
The next moment, violent Conqueror's Haki erupted from his body.
The invisible pressure became a tangible gale, howling through the enormous cavern within the extinct volcano.
Stalactites hanging from the ceiling shook violently, and countless fragments of rock clattered to the ground.
The pirate sailors standing farther back were forced to retreat again and again by the pressure; some even struggled to breathe and collapsed onto the ground.
Faced with spiritual pressure of this magnitude, Zhao Hai's feet remained planted in the black sand.
A casual smile lingered on his lips as the power of the Storm Dragon Fruit roared into motion within him.
The heavy draconic might of an ancient Mythical Zoan spread out around him, together with the pure sea of chakra within his body.
Blue-black storm currents spun rapidly at his sides, colliding head-on with the gale of Conqueror's Haki bearing down on him.
Two utterly different yet powerful forces of presence clashed in the center of the cavern.
Their force scoured away three feet of volcanic ash underfoot, exposing the hard black basalt beneath.
Zhao Hai did not retreat even half a step, and his rear admiral's cloak snapped in the turbulent air.
A gleam appeared in Whitebeard's eyes, and the violent currents of Conqueror's Haki around him slowly withdrew into his body.
"Gurarararara!"
"That old bastard Garp actually