Apart from Rocks, the others were equally curious—whether Raiver Sky, whose first bounty had skyrocketed to 2.5 billion Belly, was truly as fearsome as the rumors suggested.
Especially Wang Zhi and Kaido, who had always been at odds with Raiver Sky, stared intently at his figure on the island, their gazes complex.
At that moment, in the center of the desolate island.
Raiver Sky and Shiki stood a hundred meters apart, facing each other from a distance.
The moment their eyes met, it was as if two invisible, immense forces of Haki collided mid-air, erupting in sharp, crackling sounds.
"Raiver Sky, you brat—!"
Golden Lion Shiki was the first to activate his ability, his entire body shooting into the sky like a golden streak of light, hovering a hundred meters above the ground.
Before his words faded, the earth began to tremble. The structure of the entire island loosened and groaned under the power of the Float-Float Fruit.
That's right—Shiki had already unleashed his full strength, placing the entire desolate island under his complete control.
He could make it float, flip, or even... completely disintegrate it at will.
"Bring it on!" Raiver Sky's fighting spirit surged within him as he slowly drew the Supreme Grade Sharp Blade "Black Dragon" from his waist.
Seeing this, Shiki pressed his hands to his waist and gradually unsheathed his beloved blades—the Great Grade Swords "Cherry Ten" and "Withered Tree."
The moment the twin blades left their scabbards, golden Advanced Armament Haki coiled around them like blazing flames.
He lowered his stance slightly, crossing the two swords in front of his chest, and roared:
"Lion's Might Earth Bind—!"
BOOM!!!
In an instant, the entire battlefield shook violently! Countless massive boulders tore free from the ground and rose into the air.
Each one was imbued with razor-sharp Sword Qi, spinning and reassembling at high speed.
"ROAR—!!!"
In the blink of an eye, three gigantic lions formed from hardened rock emerged, roaring fiercely.
Each stood over twenty meters tall, surrounding Raiver Sky from all sides, trapping him in the center.
"WHOOSH—!"
Shiki abruptly swung his twin blades downward, his Observation Haki firmly locking onto Raiver Sky.
A ferocious golden cross-shaped Wave Cut tore through the night sky, heading straight for Raiver Sky!
At the same moment, the three rock lions encircling Raiver Sky opened their ferocious maws, lunging to bite from behind, left, and right!
No escape above, no refuge below.
At this moment, Raiver Sky appeared to be a trapped beast.
A cold glint flashed in Raiver Sky's eyes.
Almighty Push!
HUM—!!!
An indescribable, terrifying repulsive force erupted from him, forming a hemispherical force field that expanded and crushed everything around it!
BOOM—!!!
A deafening roar swept across the entire island, even stirring massive waves in the surrounding sea.
The three rock lions shattered and disintegrated like sandcastles the moment they touched the repulsive force field, turning into clouds of dust.
The formidable golden cross-shaped Wave Cut, as if colliding with an invisible, absolute wall, fractured inch by inch and vanished without a trace.
Within a hundred-meter radius centered on Raiver Sky, the ground was completely "flattened."
All protrusions, rocks, and trees had vanished, leaving only a smooth, concave crater.
Dust and rubble shot skyward, forming a dense cloud of smoke that temporarily obscured the entire battlefield.
Amid the swirling dust, a pair of eyes glowing with crimson light suddenly ignited.
Raiver Sky had already activated his Observation Haki, "foreseeing" Shiki's next position the moment before the dust could clear.
Gripping the hilt of "Black Dragon" tightly in his right hand, he pushed off with his feet, his figure shooting forth like a black lightning bolt!
"Gehahaha... As expected of you, boy! To resolve it so easily!"
Shiki's Observation Haki similarly captured the trajectory of Raiver's assault. With a roaring laugh, the Sword Intent around him surged once more.
Golden Haki boiled like blazing flames over his twin blades as he executed several high-speed directional shifts mid-air.
Each flicker left behind an afterimage—seven phantoms blossoming like a lethal lotus of blades, slashing seven deadly strikes from completely different angles!
Seven slashes, seven trajectories, sealing off all evasion routes!
Raiver Sky pressed his left hand forward: "Space Refraction!"
In the next instant, the flight paths of those seven fierce slashes twisted and bent in bizarre contortions through the air.
Four of them actually collided with and canceled each other out.
But the remaining three, though their trajectories altered, still came attacking from tricky angles.
Shiki raised an eyebrow and immediately activated his Float-Float Fruit ability, forcibly fine-tuning the final landing points of the remaining three slashes.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The crisp ring of metal clashing erupted!
Raiver swung "Black Dragon," the blade light forming a curtain that precisely shattered the last three slashes before him.
The first exchange appeared evenly matched.
But the true fierce battle had only just begun.
Almost simultaneously, both moved!
Like two meteors, they charged head-on!
Two distinct yet equally brilliant sword lights collided violently once more in mid-air!
"CLANG——!!!"
The Supreme Grade Sharp Blade "Black Dragon" clashed fiercely with the twin blades "Cherry Ten" and "Withered Tree," their edges locking tightly, erupting with blinding sparks and chaotic energy currents!
Zzzzzzz——!!
Two terrifying Sword Qis madly tore at and consumed each other, Haki scattering like lightning in all directions, lashing the surroundings!
Centered on their collision point, the air within a hundred-meter radius churned into a boiling vortex, visible violent shockwaves expanding in frantic rings!
"N-No way?! Officer Raiver Sky and Officer Shiki... just the aftermath of their clash has completely altered the island's terrain!"
On a distant pirate ship, a crew member pointed at the island, exclaiming in disbelief.
They witnessed a small hill dozens of meters high having its peak smoothly sheared off by a stray, minuscule remnant of Sword Qi.
"It's not over! Look at the sky——!"
Someone trembled as they pointed upward.
In the thick sea of clouds, a massive rift hundreds of meters long, like a chasm in the heavens, clearly split the cloud layer in two!
"The sky... the sky has been cut open?!"
"Idiot! That's the clouds being completely cleaved apart!"
"This... this is officer-level, no, this is a battle at the pinnacle of the seas?!"
The pirates clung desperately to the ship's railings, eyes fixed on the battle unfolding on the deserted island, their scalps tingling with awe at the unimaginable spectacle. Exclamations rose one after another.
Those pirates who had never witnessed a true large-scale confrontation had never imagined combat could reach such cataclysmic proportions.
Their usual skirmishes, in comparison, seemed like mere child's play.
From the very first moment Raiver Sky and Shiki crossed blades, Wang Zhi and Kaido never once looked away.
They had to admit—the sheer energy level unleashed in that single clash was already terrifying enough.
But this clearly... was far from either side going all out!
The turbulent shockwaves continued to sweep across the area.
Mid-air, Raiver Sky and Shiki remained locked in their blade-to-blade stalemate, neither giving an inch of ground.
Where their blades met, dark red Haki violently collided, erupting with black lightning that spread across the night sky like a spiderweb.
Their gazes pierced through the chaotic energy currents, meeting once again in the air.