"Pops!"
"Your Majesty!"
The moment the two figures appeared, the Whitebeard Pirates and the Oathblood Guards cried out simultaneously in relief.
Whitebeard ignored the crowd and instead stared gravely at the endless tsunamis rising one after another in the distance.
"Looks like today's battle can only end here," Whitebeard said heavily.
The tsunamis were incomparably massive. Normally, Whitebeard could simply unleash seaquakes and use one tsunami to cancel another.
But this time there were too many.
And even more waves continued forming behind them.
Even Whitebeard felt a tremendous headache coming on.
"That's your fault, isn't it?" Rosinante complained. "Why did you have to unleash such ridiculous Tremor-Tremor Fruit power? Look at this mess now. How are we supposed to clean it up?"
"Gurararara!" Whitebeard laughed loudly. "Those tsunamis aren't just my doing. Besides, your slash wasn't something half-hearted power could stop. If I hadn't gone all out just now, the one lying down right now might've been me, brat. Were you trying to kill me?"
Even now, Whitebeard still found Rosinante's previous slash terrifying.
If his instincts had not warned him at the last second, forcing him to unleash his full strength, the outcome might truly have become unpredictable.
Hearing Whitebeard's evaluation, everyone nearby was shaken.
This was the World's Strongest Man himself admitting that Rosinante's strike had threatened his life.
Just imagining that level of power was enough to make their scalps numb.
"Haha! It's rare to find someone I can really fight seriously against," Rosinante said casually. "I just got a little too excited."
The move Rosinante had used was called Heaven-Crushing Slash.
Even its name was simply the reverse of his old technique, Sky-Crushing Slash.
The core principle was also similar—
Compressing immense power to the absolute limit before releasing it as a blade strike.
The difference now was that Rosinante had become a true Great Swordsman.
With the addition of supreme sword intent, the compressed sword energy had become incomparably sharper than before.
Some might think that wasn't a big deal.
After all, had Whitebeard not seen Great Swordsmen before? Was the New World lacking in swordsmen?
Could the sword aura of a Great Swordsman really make Whitebeard fear for his life?
Then wouldn't Whitebeard's title as the World's Strongest Man become a joke?
But what if Rosinante's slash also compressed Sage Power, the Power of Annihilation, and Dust Release into a single strike?
Would you still think the same then?
Back in the Naruto world, Rosinante had started as an ordinary man.
He could not compare to those born with bloodline limits, and the Silent Fruit initially struggled to display its full capabilities there.
In order to catch up to monsters like Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha—both of whom grew stronger almost like they had cheats enabled—Rosinante devoted himself to researching countless secret techniques.
Naturally, he would never ignore Dust Release, the Bloodline Elimination that surpassed ordinary bloodline limits.
At that time, even the Land of Earth had not yet developed Dust Release.
But Rosinante possessed overwhelming spiritual power and top-tier Observation Haki.
As long as he understood the general principles and invested enough effort, he could eventually research almost any technique.
However, after finally developing Dust Release, he discovered it was nearly useless in practice.
Not only did it consume an absurd amount of chakra, but its activation was too obvious and far too slow.
Against any fast opponent, Dust Release would rarely land successfully.
It was only suitable as a finishing move after cornering an enemy completely.
Thus, after creating it, Rosinante had mostly abandoned the technique.
Later, while developing even stronger sword techniques, he suddenly had an idea—
What if he fused Dust Release into swordsmanship itself?
In the end, by combining Sage Power, the Power of Annihilation, and Dust Release, Heaven-Crushing Slash was born.
Heaven-Crushing.
True to its name.
A strike powerful enough to shatter even the heavens themselves.
"If nothing unexpected happens," Whitebeard admitted, "this battle would probably end with your victory. This island is simply too small to withstand us. Even without the tsunamis, another few exchanges and the island would've collapsed anyway."
"You already killed Golden Lion. In terms of aerial combat, there's probably nobody in this world who can match you."
Whitebeard's words shocked everyone even more than the giant tsunamis before them.
With a single sentence, Whitebeard had essentially acknowledged that the title of World's Strongest might no longer belong to him.
"Don't worry about things like that," Rosinante replied calmly. "You didn't lose either. You're a monster from the same era as Golden Lion. Don't tell me you don't have methods for aerial combat."
"In the end, the outcome is still uncertain."
Then Rosinante looked toward the incoming tsunamis again.
"But now isn't the time for this."
"The waves are about to hit."
"If we don't stop them, not only will everyone aboard the Moby Dick die, but this could trigger massive disasters across the surrounding seas."
"You do have a way to neutralize these tsunamis, right?" Rosinante asked.
Whitebeard frowned.
"The previous collision was too powerful. There are simply too many waves."
"If it were only a few, naturally I could handle it."
"But this many…"
What truly worried Whitebeard was not power, but endurance.
If he were younger, with seemingly endless stamina, suppressing all these tsunamis would not have been difficult.
But with his current aging body—
He was no longer certain he could extinguish them all.
"In that case," Rosinante said, "I'll suppress the momentum of the waves first. Then you can use seaquakes to cancel them out."
As he spoke, strands of red aura began rising from Rosinante's body.
"Eight Gates Release…"
"The Gate of Death—Open."