Call out—
Rosen raised his arm and bent his elbow, releasing the power of the Leopard King after returning to the blade. With a leopard-hook strike, he knocked Redfield back in a panic. After Redfield knelt on the ground and vomited blood, Rosen immediately turned, stepped forward, and closed in.
His figure moved like a ghost, leaving several afterimages in the air. His speed shattered the sound barrier, dragging a sharp gust behind him as he streaked through the sky in front of Redfield.
At this time—
Just as Redfield had steadied himself, a sudden flash filled his vision. Rosen leaped across the air in front of him like a nimble cheetah.
Without relying on Observation Haki to foresee the future, and without the pause of conscious thought, Redfield moved purely on combat instinct—honed from hundreds of past battles. Reflexively, he raised the black blade in his hand, coated it in Conqueror's Haki, and unleashed a devastating divine slash aimed straight at Rosen as he closed in.
Sniff—
Facing the Haki divine blade rushing toward him, Rosen didn't dodge or sidestep. His blackened palm came down like an indestructible blade, also wrapped in violent Haki, swinging fiercely to meet Redfield's slash.
Bang!
Bang!
Even before palm and blade physically met, the Haki clashing around them collided mid-air, driving back the raging impact. Hideous black-and-red lightning writhed like a nest of pythons, coiling and snapping in the air.
Boom—
With a deafening crash, Rosen's palm fell while Redfield's blade swept upward—one strike descending, the other rising. The force blasted them both back, sending each flying into the air, leaving their guards wide open.
However—
Redfield had only one blade. Rosen had two.
Maintaining the posture of his right hand flung skyward, his body still lifting into the air, Rosen suddenly opened his left hand and reached toward Redfield.
Because of the earlier mid-air Haki clash, both men were knocked apart. Even with his full reach, Rosen's palm couldn't physically touch Redfield's body.
But Rosen didn't care. Stretching his arm completely, he opened his palm wide, pointed at the ground below—at the falling Redfield—and curled his five fingers into a claw, exerting force.
Sniff—
With a roar like crackling thunder, dazzling blue light erupted from Rosen's left palm. Jagged arcs of electricity flared out, wrapping around the central sphere of light and distorting the surrounding air.
"Gran Rey Cero!"
Rosen glared down coldly at Redfield. The moment the flash condensed in his palm, it exploded.
Bang—
The blue radiance burst outward violently, a colossal curtain of light falling from the sky, swallowing Redfield and his sword whole.
Boom—
A violent blue torrent roared upward, rolling waves of dust along with it, piercing the heavens like a pillar of azure fire.
The entire sequence—from the forming of Gran Rey Cero, to Redfield being engulfed by the torrent, to the detonation—lasted only a heartbeat.
When the torrent faded and the dust dispersed, a lone figure was revealed in the crater carved into the shattered ground. One hand gripped a sword like a crutch, the blade stabbed into the rock for support.
Why only one hand?
It was simple—
From the left shoulder down, there was nothing but an empty, blood-stained sleeve clinging to the stump.
Phew—
Snap—
Suddenly, bright red, sticky blood spurted from the severed shoulder, splattering over the cracked earth beneath him. Each pulse of blood drained the color from his face.
At the same time, searing pain erupted from the broken arm, racing through every nerve in his body.
"As expected of the Aloof Red…"
"I planned to crush your head in a single blow, but I didn't expect you to take it."
"It's just a broken arm."
Rosen hovered in the air, looking down at the Aloof Red, whose left arm had been obliterated by Gran Rey Cero.
"...Snort!"
Redfield's face twisted as he glared up at Rosen. Though he held back a scream, a guttural groan escaped, and beads of sweat rolled down his cheeks like heavy rain.
"My... my hand!"
"No... impossible!"
"Even Steel Bone Kong couldn't withstand my blade. How could a mere navy junior push me this far?"
Compared to the agony and blood loss, what truly tore at Redfield was the fact that his arm had been severed in combat.
Even when Kong himself fought him for a day and night, Redfield had never been reduced to this state—in fact, he had slain the former Admiral. If Garp hadn't passed by that day, the Marine Headquarters would have witnessed the first Fleet Admiral in history fall to a pirate's sword.
"Don't you understand yet?"
"I've reached heights beyond you legends of the old era."
"Whether it's Kong—or you."
At that moment, Rosen's voice descended from above.
A red light flickered in Redfield's eyes as if recalling a horrifying vision. His body shuddered, and he broke free from the haze of pain and humiliation.
Looking upward, he saw Rosen floating steadily in the sky, arms relaxed, the fingers of his right hand slightly parted.
Immediately—
The scene he had glimpsed earlier with Observation Haki was playing out before him in reality.
Clang!
Clang!
From each of Rosen's five fingers, massive blue streaks of light erupted, stretching from his nails to the heavens.
The oppressive force churned the island's skies, stirring clouds into chaos and dimming both sun and moon.
Then—
The light from those streaks painted the darkened sky blue, even splitting apart the sea of clouds above.
They resembled the claws of a Leopard King—but their sheer size transformed them into a vast curtain of light that blotted out half the sky.
"Is this... truly a power the Navy can possess?"
Redfield stood on the island below, eyes wide in disbelief. Even without Haki, his naked sight told him these five colossal streaks were far more terrifying than the Gran Rey Cero that had just severed his arm.
"That's the gift you gave me back in Infinite Hell."
"I'll accept it."
"This is my return gift."
Rosen raised his right hand. Black-and-red lightning surged like dragons breaching from the sea, coiling around the sky-spanning blue light.
With a casual wave—using no more effort than swatting aside a branch—the sky-covering streaks of light descended, wrapped in crackling lightning.
The five lines interwove into the talons of the Leopard King.
They were so massive they could engulf Redfield—and the entire island beneath him—within their range.
"Desgarrón!"
...
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