Whitebeard watched the colossal foot descend and his face darkened. He lifted his naginata and slashed upward.
Clang.
Steel rang against flesh. Sparks fountained where blade met sole.
Pirates all along the fleet held their breath, nerves taut.
Hairline fractures crawled across the air. The ship bucked and groaned.
Many pirates panicked, ducking and covering their heads.
Boom.
Rakuya drove power from his whole frame into that one foot. The stomp's raw momentum crushed the deck beneath Whitebeard like tinder.
"Quake Punch."
Whitebeard opened his hands, tightened them into fists, then hammered forward.
Boom.
His fist struck empty air. In an instant, a web of fine cracks laced through space itself, spreading like a spiderweb. Ripples rolled out from his knuckles.
A heartbeat later, the tremor force slammed into the sole of Rakuya's foot. Rakuya paused, his toes lifting slightly, and then the quake dispersed.
Did it hurt?
Not at all.
With Body at Max Level, Rakuya could stand still and let Whitebeard swing away without so much as a bruise.
"Whitebeard, did you skip breakfast?"
Feeling out the strength in that quake punch, Rakuya chuckled.
"Damn it."
Whitebeard's face went iron-blue. The blow had had no effect.
He whipped the blade free again, kicked off the ruined deck, and vaulted high. Under a thousand watching eyes, he chopped.
Boom.
A ringed crescent of blade-aura howled up at Rakuya's head.
"Heh."
Rakuya's smile turned cold. Whitebeard thought the head was the weak point?
The air raged. The ring-blade tore the sea into chaos as if a storm had dropped from the sky. The Moby Dick shuddered from keel to mast.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
While the blade-aura raked upward, a dozen ships erupted with cannon fire. From the muzzles shot wide-mouthed bolts and nets woven from Sea Prism Stone, whistling up to wrap the giant.
"Pops, Seastone!"
Diamond Jozu bellowed a warning.
Whitebeard's eyes flashed and he backed off at once. He might be a Devil Fruit monster, but that did not mean he was eager to hug Seastone.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
The ring slash struck Rakuya, and a storm of Sea Prism Stone nets followed, latching all over him.
"Nice!"
"Hahaha, wrapped in Seastone. He's done!"
"No matter how strong a Devil Fruit user is, he cannot defy the sea or Seastone. Brat, you are not getting away today!"
"Hand Marco over!"
The instant the nets cinched tight, pirates popped up from cover, forgetting the terror from moments before, laughing and strutting.
"Release Marco. You will not escape!"
Jozu's upper body faceted to diamond as he charged.
Rakuya curled his lip. These little gnats thought far too simply.
Bang.
Before the pirates could blink, that seven or eight meter-long foot whipped out and kicked Jozu square on.
Caught flat-footed, Jozu's diamond plating shattered into glitter. He pinwheeled forty or fifty meters through the air.
One kick.
"What did I just see?"
"He sent him flying with a kick?"
"This terrifying? The Third Division Commander cannot even counter?"
"Is he playing soccer with us?"
Rakuya glanced across the deck at the noisy ones and began clearing the field. One kick per pirate. Screaming figures arced into the sky like balls off a boot.
In seconds, half the Moby Dick's deck was empty.
Those left behind stared at one another like they had seen a ghost.
"Wrapped in Seastone and he still has power? He can still boot people into the horizon?"
"What kind of Fruit is this? Seastone should drain him. He is not shrinking, he is even stronger!"
"Impossible. Seastone is the bane of all ability users. It never fails."
"Is the Seastone fake? Or maybe he is not a Fruit user at all?"
They muttered and guessed. Whitebeard stood grim on the deck and snapped, "Enough."
"Enough?"
Rakuya's laugh was edged with ice. "What do you take me for? You say enough and that is the end? A minute ago you were so loud and proud. What, no more jokes?"
"Flowing Cloud, if this keeps up we both bleed. How about we call it here?"
"Call it? Why?"
"If we do not, the Marines take the prize." Whitebeard's face went darker still. He had already felt them, warships a nautical mile out.
He had not expected the Marines to thrust into the New World. And from the weight of them, his scowl deepened. This was no token force. It was a full sortie.
"Marines?"
"Where?"
At the word, crews on more than forty ships burst into commotion. Telescopes snapped open and scanned the horizon.
Sails upon sails, white as bones, the blue seagull emblem crisp in the wind.
"The Marines! The Marines!"
"Pops! The Marines are coming! No fewer than fifty warships!"
"Damn it. Why so many?"
Whitebeard saw the far ranks of warships and roared, fury boiling over. "Brat, did you tip off the Marines? Did you call Headquarters down on us?"
Rakuya sneered. "Do not be ridiculous. I have no need of such cheap tricks."
"Damn it. Fine, call me unlucky. I will give you forty Devil Fruits. Hand Marco over and we wipe this clean."
"Not enough."
Rakuya did not even blink. This was the moment to squeeze. The Marine column was not far. And with Steel Bone Kong himself leading the fleet, even if Whitebeard turned tail now, getting clear would be a question mark.
"Sixty fruits," Whitebeard grated. "Release Marco. We stop here. I will not trouble you again."
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