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Whitebeard and Arthur lowered their hands, the intent to kill between them having vanished. Standing as two titans amidst the wreckage of the battlefield, they turned their collective gaze toward the ongoing duels between their Captains.
Under their watch, Marco the Phoenix descended from the heavens, the sheer kinetic force of his dive amplified by his azure flames.
However, at the precise moment of his impact, Shiryu, possessing the razor-sharp intuition of a master swordsman, reacted instantly.
SHING!!
The Seven-Star Sword shrieked as it was ripped from its deadlock with Vista's dual blades, trailing a long arc of sparks. Shiryu thrust the blade upward toward the descending Marco. The speed was blinding—the sword's light blurred into a phantom image, tearing through the sky with a high-pitched, piercing whistle.
Seeing Shiryu turn to engage Marco, Thatch, who had been momentarily suppressed, found his opening. Wielding his own twin blades, he mimicked Vista's style, snapping his arms together to trap Shiryu in a pincer strike aimed at his throat.
Vista moved in perfect synchronization, his swords slashing in a rhythmic follow-up. Having sailed under Whitebeard for decades, their coordination was flawless—they needed no words to execute a perfect triple-team maneuver.
"Gurarararara! Arthur, brat, your swordsman is formidable, but against three of my sons, he is destined for defeat!" Whitebeard raised a jug of ale, his voice booming with fatherly pride.
"On the contrary," Arthur replied calmly. "My crewman has already won."
While a normal man might have resigned himself to fate under such an onslaught, Whitebeard did not truly understand Shiryu's depth. Arthur had spent years fighting against overwhelming odds—in training, he often forced Shiryu to duel at least three Captains simultaneously. For Shiryu, this wasn't a crisis—it was his natural element.
True to Arthur's word, a bloodthirsty, ecstatic grin spread across Shiryu's face. The Seven-Star Sword pulsed with an eerie green glow. He retracted his upward thrust just enough to guard his vitals before erupting into a sword dance of terrifying speed.
A literal storm of sword light exploded in every direction, the sharp energy shattering the encirclement. Catching a split-second opening, Shiryu's eyes locked onto the weakest link: Thatch.
..............
High in the air, Stussy used Moonwalk to maintain her position.
She coiled her long legs—hidden beneath her skirt—and unleashed the full weight of her strength. Using the very air as a blade, she kicked out a cross-shaped Tempest Kick that spanned hundreds of meters.
Her movements were graceful, almost like a ballet in the clouds, but beneath her radiant beauty lay a lethal, uncompromising killing intent. Her kicks carried the weight of a master swordsman's strongest strike.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
Kingdew, Atmos, and Izo combined their strength to barely disperse the shockwave, only to find Stussy's second volley already bearing down on them.
"I will not lose to any woman!!" Hancock hissed, her brow glistening with sweat. Seeing Stussy's dominant performance and knowing Arthur was watching from a distance, her competitive spirit caught fire.
"Turn to stone, you wretched fishman!"
Her slender leg, imbued with the power to petrify all things, slammed toward Jinbe's head like a descending guillotine.
"How can the Pirate Empress be this powerful..." Jinbe muttered, struggling to parry as sweat poured down his face.
Hancock was only eighteen, having just taken command of the Kuja. To reach this level of strength without being a "natural-born monster" like Big Mom was, to Jinbe, utterly incomprehensible. He didn't even dare block her strikes with his bare hands—unlike the Slave Arrow, her physical kicks shattered whatever they touched into literal gravel.
The fragments of weapons and bodies littering the ground around them were grim proof of that.
..............
Deep in the shallows, the power behind Sanjuan Wolf's strikes grew ever more oppressive.
His sheer, unprecedented scale gave him an insurmountable advantage in raw strength. Despite carrying the blood of the "Continent Puller," Little Oars Jr. could not withstand the crushing weight of the "Colossal Battleship." He was soon forced to yield.
The other Captains fought with everything they had, the battles reaching a fever pitch where victory and loss were decided by hairsbreadth margins.
..............
A day and a night passed.
The nine Captains of the Thunder God Pirates eventually returned to Arthur's side, while the sixteen Division Captains of Whitebeard gathered around their "Father."
"My sons! Help the wounded board the ships! We are heading home!" Whitebeard's roar signaled the formal end of the conflict.
Under the watchful eyes of the two Emperors, the Captains' duel had resulted in many injuries, but no deaths. However, the same could not be said for the rank-and-file members of the grand fleets, who had suffered significant casualties.
Soon, the thousands of survivors from the Whitebeard Pirates assisted one another back onto their vessels. In moments, the Moby Dick began to pull away into the mist.
"Whitebeard, old man! From this day forward, the title of 'World's Strongest' officially belongs to me!" Arthur's voice echoed across the heavens.
"Talkative brat... the 'World's Strongest' doesn't even exist," Whitebeard retorted, his voice tinged with a mocking laugh. "And even if it did, I wouldn't be interested in it!"
"Pops... did he lose?"
"Shut up! Pops would never lose! He just said he wasn't interested!"
The crew of the Moby Dick cried out in shock and disbelief.
"Zehahahaha!" Teach stood to the side, his eyes narrowed as he watched the departing Thunder God fleet. "Pops really has grown old. He truly is a remnant of the old era."
His mind raced. 'Where did Arthur get three abilities? And when... when will the Yami Yami no Mi finally appear??'
..............
Aboard the Kuja ship, the Thunder God crew began their own journey home.
"Lord Arthur, why didn't you kill Whitebeard?" Hancock asked, her voice laced with confusion. She had seen clearly that Whitebeard was at a disadvantage toward the end.
Stussy and the other Captains leaned in, equally curious. Arthur was never known for mercy, and he had expressed his disdain for Whitebeard's current state many times.
"I may not like Whitebeard—he has lost the raw ambition of a true pirate—but a man who stood at the apex of an era deserves a dignified exit," Arthur said softly. "Whether I love him or hate him, it shouldn't end like this. He deserves a proper funeral... and most importantly, I refuse to kill a man who isn't at his peak."
Arthur remembered Sabaody. Whitebeard could have killed him then to avenge his "sons," but the man with the broadest chest in the world had chosen to look away, swallowing his grief for the sake of the bigger picture. Because of that, Arthur chose to let the weakened legend live.
The New World would be a much duller place without a man like Whitebeard.
"I will find a Time-related Devil Fruit," Arthur mused. "I'll restore him to his prime, and then... he will have his exit in the most glorious war the world has ever seen."
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