Vmmm.
Before the blades even met, Haki smashed together. Quakes and warped space clawed at each other.
Crack, crack, crack.
White fissures spidered through the water as if reality itself were shattering. Whole stretches of coral street buckled.
"If this keeps up, the island is going to split," Crocodile snapped. "Reckless." She whipped up a sandstorm, shaving the shockwaves down and locking the ground in place, exactly the contingency Ozz had told her to prepare.
Across the field the Whitebeard Pirates were doing the same, each using their own tricks to bleed off the backlash.
Only Mihawk stood at the Oro Jackson's prow with arms folded, hawk eyes fixed on the collision hanging in midwater.
So this is how the very top fights.
I want to measure the gap, between me and the peak.
Night quivered in its scabbard as if answering him, eager to carve a path toward the highest throne.
Above, Ozz. Below, Whitebeard. Ace and Murakumogiri ground against each other in the water between them.
The deadlock summoned an image from another sea and another time, when Roger and Whitebeard had split the sky in Wano. Back then Ozz had clung to a tree and prayed the backlash would not fling him into the ocean. Now he was one of the two at the center.
"Getting old, Whitebeard? Stalemated by the brat you remember," Ozz said lightly. Both hands tightened on Ace. Monster strength, a crown of Conqueror's, flowing ryuo, the newborn sink of space, he stacked everything, and only then did he hold the strongest man's peak stroke.
"Gurararara. Do not get ahead of yourself. Even Roger did not have the right to say that."
Veins stood out along Whitebeard's arms. Conqueror's wrapped Murakumogiri's edge. He poured raw power through it.
Crack crack crack crack.
Space crazed like broken glass.
Ozz's eyes narrowed. Pressure surged in his bones.
So this is the strongest man in the world.
On pure hard power he still trailed, youth setting a ceiling his will could not yet break. The clash shoved him back a hair. Then the awakening of his teleport fruit bit down, canceling momentum. He and Whitebeard each slid three steps before bracing.
Ozz felt a pinprick of disappointment. At twenty-two he had hoped to stand even with Whitebeard or Roger. Not yet.
To Whitebeard's crew it looked like sorcery.
You have got to be kidding.
That kid just went even with Pops?
He is younger than half the so-called supernovae.
When they weighed Fish-Man Island, the crew had feared Ozz's reach more than his hand. Cross him and the underground would bleed your islands out. Worse, a man who could be anywhere could menace any son who was not named Newgate.
They had not truly let themselves believe he could trade blows with the strongest man alive.
Yet here the two stood, eyes locked, battle-drunken light the same in both.
Whitebeard would not allow anyone to spit on his dignity or threaten his sons and the islands under his flag.
Ozz wanted the grindstone and a measuring stick. He wanted to feel how far the summit still stood.
They raised their weapons for a second exchange.
A voice boomed across the plaza.
"You two, please wait."
It carried cleanly through the water. Oddly, both men froze, then turned their heads.
"King Neptune," Ozz murmured, Observation rippling outward to find the source. He lifted one finger. Space bent. A giant figure popped into existence between them, easily ten meters from crown to tail.
A golden crown, a fanned beard, a powerful merman's tail.
The king of Fish-Man Island himself.
"Newgate. Ozz. I beg of you, grant me this favor. Do not fight on Fish-Man Island."
He did not understand how he had arrived here, but worry burned clear in his eyes. He used their names because he knew them both. Whitebeard had been a friend in youth. Ozz he had met through Roger's crew when they passed through for a prophecy, a quiet deckhand at the Pirate King's elbow.
"Neptune, the pirates hurting your country are not yet cleared out," Whitebeard said, implying with a glance that one of them floated behind the king.
"I would say a certain pirate came uninvited and threatened my waters," Ozz answered without blinking. "I am here to raise the Black Sun flag."
Neptune's head pounded. In truth either banner, Whitebeard's skull or Ozz's sun, would serve the same purpose. Fear would do the rest, as on Dramos and a dozen islands within Whitebeard's sway.
But then he looked down at the crack that ran like a scar across half the island.
Two emperors both laying claim made this impossible.
"Please, both of you. Fish-Man Island cannot bear your aftershocks. If you continue, the ground will break, the sea will pour in, and our home will be destroyed."
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The tides are shifting, and secrets linger in the dark... Step into the shadows early on P@treon, where the next chapter awaits before the world sees it.
[email protected]/_theon
Change @ to "a"