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Without a massive body weighing him down, he simply swung his naginata steadily, meeting the incoming black blade with precision.
The shrill clang of metal tore through the air.
Black rings of ripples erupted outward from the point where the two weapons met.
Crackling dark lightning coiled through them, disintegrating everything in its path.
And that was only the beginning-a far larger milky-white ring swept outward immediately afterward. The ground, the vegetation, the distant ridges-everything touched by the white light shattered silently like fragile glass.
Countless cracks suddenly split the ground. Like ice repeatedly struck by an invisible giant hammer, web-like fissures spread madly for kilometers.
Had this not been an uninhabited island, this probing exchange alone would have reduced an entire city to ruins.
"My turn."
The naginata named Ama no Murakumo pressed downward as Whitebeard took the offensive.
His moves lacked flourish, and he possessed none of his opponent's speed that defied the eye, but every slash struck precisely along Rossi's evasive path, forcing him to raise his blade and meet it.
Booms erupted one after another, as though invisible beasts were tearing the island apart.
Rossi moved so fast that only afterimages remained. Most of the Whitebeard Pirates could not even make out his movements, while every swing from Whitebeard was as steady as a mountain, his seemingly simple slashes always intercepting that elusive trajectory.
An indescribable tremor instantly swept across the island.
The earth twisted and rose like crumpled paper. Mountains collapsed amid the shaking, and sand and stone erupted outward in violent torrents, throwing the entire battlefield into chaos.
"This level..."
"It's unbelievable..."
The shock waves of their battle even reached the sea. The enormous whale-shaped warship pitched violently in the waves, forced to keep retreating.
Gasps rose across the deck.
Even these pirates,