"An Admiral was cut down by the Dragon King with a single slash!"
Cries of shock erupted from all around.
No one could believe what they were seeing. A Marine Admiral, the highest combat power of the Navy, had been slain so easily.
This was not some random officer promoted by luck. Kuzan was one of the Marines' legendary "Three Monster Vice Admirals," a man whose name alone inspired fear across the seas. He had captured countless high-bounty pirates, followed the Marine hero Garp in pursuit of the Pirate King, and chased Roger across the oceans. Step by step, through battle after battle, Kuzan had climbed from the bottom to the rank of Admiral.
And yet he had just been cut down so casually.
Everyone stared in disbelief. Was the Dragon King truly that terrifying?
Just as shock froze the crowd, the Kuzan who had been cut in half suddenly moved.
Icy mist erupted from his body. The severed halves rapidly froze over, thick ice forming and reconnecting the two sections. In the blink of an eye, Kuzan had turned into a man of ice once more, lunging forward to seize Rosinante in a crushing embrace.
Kuzan's embrace was death itself.
Ice surged wildly, spreading across Rosinante's body, attempting to freeze him solid.
Just as it seemed Rosinante was about to be sealed in ice, the air shattered like a smashed mirror. Kuzan's entire body cracked apart as if struck by an invisible force, breaking into countless fragments.
"Shattered?"
"The Marine Admiral was shattered?"
"He's really dead this time!"
"Dragon King Rosinante is invincible!"
It was no wonder they screamed. A body smashed to pieces could not possibly survive.
Yet in the next instant, a figure emerged from the freezing mist. A leg lashed out toward Rosinante.
Rosinante raised an arm to block, stopping the kick, but frost rapidly spread across his arm, freezing it solid.
"As expected of a man worthy of the title of Admiral. You really are troublesome," Rosinante said with a smile.
He gave a sharp shake of his arm. The ice shattered instantly, and with a follow-up motion he knocked the attacking leg aside.
The attacker flipped backward and landed on the ground.
The moment his foot touched down, the earth froze.
Ice spread outward at terrifying speed, instantly sealing everything in its path, including Rosinante himself.
But the frozen shell shattered almost immediately.
Rosinante burst out from the ice, long blade in hand, slashing straight toward his opponent.
An ice-forged blade appeared in the other man's hand, and the two clashed head-on.
Their figures flickered at extreme speed. Blades collided again and again in midair, sparks flying. The speed was so fast that only a handful of people in the entire Marine headquarters could follow their movements.
The two figures slammed into each other, and everyone finally saw clearly.
It was Kuzan, the same Kuzan who had just been smashed apart.
"You're really troublesome," Rosinante said, locking blades with him. "Excellent Observation Haki. But what about this?"
As those words fell, Kuzan's expression changed.
Rosinante was clearly standing right in front of him, yet Kuzan's Observation Haki could no longer sense him.
In Kuzan's perception, Rosinante had vanished.
He was standing there, plainly visible, yet to Kuzan's senses he no longer existed.
At the moment Kuzan's expression shifted, Rosinante's figure vanished from his sight entirely.
This time, it was a complete disappearance. Kuzan could no longer detect even the slightest trace of him.
Suddenly, Kuzan's face changed again. His ice blade slashed in a split second toward one direction, colliding perfectly with a blade that struck at him from nowhere.
"Good reaction," Rosinante's calm voice came from behind the blade. "But my Heaven-Crushing Slash isn't that easy to block."
As he spoke, a terrifying blade aura erupted from Rosinante's sword.
Over the past three years, Rosinante's swordsmanship had advanced by leaps and bounds, reaching the level of a high-grade swordmaster. His slashes were razor-sharp and overwhelmingly fierce.
Combined with the explosive force of Heaven-Crushing Slash, a technique born from his collapsing fist, its power had multiplied alongside the refinement of his punches.
Unmatched sharpness, coupled with devastating burst force. That was the true terror of Heaven-Crushing Slash.
A power far beyond Kuzan's expectations slammed into him. The ice blade cracked inch by inch before shattering completely, and the slash struck Kuzan squarely, sending him flying violently through the air.
Rosinante knew this blow alone would not kill Kuzan.
Just as he was about to press the attack, a scorching heat rushed in from the side.
Sakazuki had already closed the distance.
His entire body boiled with magma, like a man forged from molten rock itself. He surged forward, blocking Rosinante's path.
In the next instant, Sakazuki raised his arm.
It was as if a volcano had formed on his limb. With a single punch, molten lava erupted like a volcanic blast, intent on annihilating everything in its path.
"Hmph."
Rosinante snorted coldly and threw a punch of his own.
The two fists collided.
A violent shockwave exploded outward.
One side carried the collapsing fist's savage burst and penetrating force. The other unleashed the ferocity of a volcanic eruption.
For a brief moment, the power of their fists was evenly matched.
"So you really are a living volcano," Rosinante said with a hint of surprise. "Looks like I underestimated you a little, Sakazuki. Compared to three years ago, you've grown far stronger."
The surprise was not over.
Sakazuki's brows twitched upward. His fists began to fly like meteors, each punch erupting like a volcano in full eruption. One blazing magma fist after another slammed toward Rosinante.
"The volcano's erupting, huh. This move really does have some bite," Rosinante said calmly. "But if you think this is enough to deal with me, you're still far too weak, Sakazuki. Collapsing Fist Barrage!"
Rosinante drove his sword into the ground and unleashed a storm of punches. Every blow carried incomparable explosive force, smashing each magma fist to pieces.
The dense barrage of collapsing fists shattered the air itself. Everywhere the blows passed, the space seemed to twist and distort.
Explosions roared without pause, sweeping over everything, tearing everything apart.
The spectators could only stare in stunned silence, unable to believe that such power could truly belong to a human being.