Rocks moved extremely fast. He leaped through the air, and every step he took against the void sent a circle of transparent ripples bursting outward.
"Hehehehahaha! Can't wait anymore, Rocks?!" Harald threw his head back and laughed.
Rocks did not reply. His figure had already risen far above Harald. Looking down at that enormous body, he swung his long blade down, wrapped in Haki pushed to the extreme.
Harald was not slow either. The giant sword in his hand rose from below, its Haki-wrapped blade meeting Rocks's long sword.
The instant the two forces touched, a dull collision rang out, like two mountains crashing together.
Clang!
A muffled sound exploded in the sky above the Underworld. Shockwaves spread outward in layers from the point where blade and sword met, like ripples across water.
"Go, Ron! Beat him up!" Kaido shouted loudly.
Ron ignored Kaido. He controlled the golden Nine-Tails and suddenly accelerated into a mad run.
"We're going too, Zeus!" Linlin held Napoleon, Haki spreading across the blade.
"Yes, Mama!"
As Zeus answered, he suddenly sped up. The thundercloud shot toward Harald like an arrow released from a bowstring.
Tap, tap, tap.
The golden Nine-Tails leaped. In that instant, Whitebeard was ejected from inside its body. He gripped the naginata in his hand, twisted in midair, and poured both the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit and extreme Haki into the blade.
A white sphere condensed at the tip of the blade, and the surrounding air trembled into distorted ripples.
Then he slashed down.
At the same time, Kaido, who had been standing on the shoulder of the golden Nine-Tails, jumped out with the momentum. The kanabo in his hand drew an arc as he smashed it fiercely toward Harald's head.
The golden Nine-Tails followed immediately. It opened its giant mouth, and a medium-sized Tailed Beast Bomb formed inside. Holding the Tailed Beast Bomb in its mouth, it charged straight at Harald from the front.
Linlin was one step slower, but Napoleon had already swung with powerful Haki wrapped around it, and a sharp slash chased in from the side.
Harald's gaze darkened. He was currently clashing directly with Rocks and had no room to divide his attention.
Facing the attacks arriving one after another, his only choice was to dodge. But right now, he had nowhere to dodge.
Harald hardened his heart and made a ruthless decision. He abruptly withdrew his giant sword, allowing Rocks's attack to solidly smash into his shoulder.
Pfft!
A mouthful of blood sprayed from Harald's mouth, but his feet did not move. Using the angle of his backward lean at that instant, he swept the giant sword horizontally in a complete circle, trying to force back everyone closing in around him.
Bang!
The instant the attacks collided, dazzling light exploded in the sky of the Underworld, too bright to look at directly.
The light lasted less than a second before being swallowed by the smoke that followed.
Within the smoke, Harald's enormous body suddenly flew backward.
Rumble.
He rolled across the ground repeatedly, then quickly flipped over to adjust his posture. His feet plowed two deep tracks through the broken stone as he slid backward.
But no one waited for him to steady himself.
From within the rolling smoke, three medium-sized Tailed Beast Bombs pierced through the haze, blasting three neat holes through the gray-white curtain.
Immediately after, the entire cloud of smoke was torn apart. Ron, Rocks, Whitebeard, Linlin, and Kaido appeared at the same time on the other side, and a new round of attacks was already arriving.
"For Elbaf! For the giant kingdom!"
Harald's voice exploded from his chest, hoarse with a desperation that no longer cared about anything. "I, Harald, absolutely cannot fall here!"
He thrust the giant sword into the ground, using the blade as support to cancel the last of the impact.
Then he leaped high, dodging the fastest Tailed Beast Bomb. Facing Ron and the others, he once again swept his giant sword horizontally.
Rocks was the first to strike. It was the same attack wrapped in extreme Haki.
Blade and sword collided again with a dull, heavy boom.
Harald's sword was fixed in midair by that force, unable to advance even an inch.
Dong!
Whitebeard followed closely. His second blow stacked onto Rocks's blade momentum.
The giant sword seemed to be pressed down by a mountain and began to shrink back.
"I absolutely, absolutely will not fall!" Harald's roar surged from deep in his throat, carrying an obsession that seemed almost aflame.
He poured all his strength into both arms. Veins bulged, and his muscles tightened to the limit, but shouting could not change the result.
Even though he had used all his power, the sword still could not move forward. Instead, it was rapidly being forced back, like a gate slowly being closed.
"For Ron, for Rocks, for Newgate!" Kaido's voice exploded from the side. He copied Harald and yelled a string of names before swinging his kanabo, adding it onto the giant sword that was being forced backward.
But when the kanabo landed on the sword, it barely raised any waves.
"Zeus, shock him!" Linlin shouted from atop the thundercloud.
"All right, Mama!"
Crackle!
A golden bolt of lightning sprayed from Zeus's mouth and struck Harald with precision. Electric light spread across his body, releasing a series of tiny popping sounds, and a burnt smell scattered through the air.
At the same time, the golden Nine-Tails condensed a slightly larger Tailed Beast Bomb.
"Everyone, remember to dodge a little," Ron's voice came from inside the golden Nine-Tails.
Whoosh.
The Tailed Beast Bomb instantly launched.
Whitebeard, Rocks, and Kaido suddenly felt chills crawl up their backs.
All three faces changed at once, and they scattered to both sides simultaneously.
Harald's giant sword lost its obstruction and suddenly chopped forward.
Dong!
The giant sword collided head-on with the Tailed Beast Bomb. The explosion came without warning, like a heart compressed to its limit finally bursting.
A mushroom cloud rose into the sky, rushing straight toward the heavens and dyeing the entire sky dark red.
The shockwave spread along the ground in every direction. Rolling smoke filled the surroundings, swallowing everyone's vision into gray-white chaos.
"Idiot Ron. Who coordinates like that?!" Rocks landed on the shoulder of the golden Nine-Tails and cursed.
Whitebeard landed beside Rocks and did not speak. Mainly, this was not the first time. When they fought Sengoku last time, Ron had done the same kind of reckless thing. He was already a repeat offender.
Kaido did not speak either. Of course, it was not because he treated Ron as a brother and did not want to curse him. It was because he had been blown far away by the aftershock and could not come back for a while.
"Sorry, everyone," Ron's voice drifted from inside the golden Nine-Tails, carrying a hint of laughter. "As everyone knows, I am a mage."
"Mage your head!" Rocks cursed even harder. "Next time we coordinate, you're not invited!"
If he could enter the inside, he would already have given Ron a kick.
While they spoke, the smoke gradually settled.
Harald's figure slowly appeared within the gray-white curtain.
He knelt on one knee. The giant sword, broken in two, was stuck diagonally into the ground before him, like the final banner standing there.
His entire body was covered in blood. There was not a single intact wound to be found. There were too many injuries, making it impossible to tell which one the blood was flowing from.
Blood dripped down his chin, collecting into a dark-red puddle on the shattered stone beneath him.
His breathing was heavy and slow. Every rise and fall of his chest carried the strain of something dragging him downward.
He lowered his head. His voice was hoarse and exhausted.
"You win, Rocks."