All the pirate ships in sight burned fiercely beneath the raging flames. The thirty-eight pirate crews that had followed the Moby Dick into battle were nearly wiped out.
Those lying in pools of blood and sinking into the burning sea were all his foolish sons.
Meanwhile, on the Moby Dick behind him, his sons continued to fall one after another. Even in their final moments, none of them dared cry out in pain or despair, afraid their voices would distract him during the battle.
But Whitebeard could still feel their eyes on him again and again.
Those gazes carried concern, attachment, and unwillingness to let him go.
For the first time in many years, Whitebeard felt anger toward his own aging body and frustration at his fading strength.
More than once, he had used reckless exchange attacks, even risking his own life, trying to force back the two pests in front of him so he could free himself to save his sons.
Yet these two brats were absurdly difficult to deal with.
"Slippery" and "durable" usually did not belong together, but Pini and Youki had somehow mastered both.
After years of brutal training and constant refinement, the brothers had fully developed their defensive abilities and recovery speed.
After fighting Whitebeard for so long, they had already grasped the rhythm and power behind most of his attacks.
Whitebeard was undoubtedly more lethal than Kaido, but compared to the current versions of themselves, he could no longer pose a truly fatal threat unless they foolishly allowed him to unleash a fully charged Gura Gura no Mi attack head-on.
Once they figured out Whitebeard's rhythm, Pini and Youki began switching between evasive combat and direct endurance tactics.
Whenever Whitebeard attempted an exchange attack, the brothers simply accepted the blows and retaliated immediately.
"You hit me once, I hit you back once."
No matter how monstrous you are, old man, you are still human.
Ash had said it before, humans have limits.
Whitebeard was a Paramecia user, while they were Mythical Zoan users. They could even rotate damage between themselves.
"So who would recover first?"
"Let's find out."
When Whitebeard launched suicidal attacks, the brothers would take advantage whenever possible and retreat whenever necessary.
But whenever Whitebeard attempted to charge a powerful quake attack, Pini and Youki immediately turned him into a moving target, launching rapid hit-and-run attacks from every angle.
Every few seconds of charging left Whitebeard bloodied and battered, while the attack he painstakingly prepared failed to hit anything at all.
By the time he finished charging, Pini and Youki had already escaped far away.
And if Whitebeard tried redirecting his attack toward the battlefield, Kirk standing at the bow of the Dawn was already prepared for him.
Several attempts ended with Whitebeard suffering additional injuries while achieving nothing.
Still, Whitebeard was not someone who had ruled the seas for over forty years by relying on brute force alone.
A few injuries meant nothing to him.
Nothing mattered more than his family.
After observing the brothers long enough, Whitebeard realized they feared only one thing, taking a fully charged quake attack directly.
Their strategy was obvious. They intended to slowly accumulate damage during the prolonged battle and drag him down through endurance.
Under normal circumstances, Whitebeard would have gladly entertained the younger generation.
But this was war.
Every second wasted meant another son dying.
After a brief moment of thought, Whitebeard suddenly began charging another attack.
Pini and Youki immediately frowned.
The old man could not possibly be senile.
He already knew charging invited free hits, so why repeat the same mistake?
The suspicion flashed through their minds, but neither brother intended to waste such a perfect opportunity. They instantly turned around and rushed back toward him.
Then both of them suddenly sensed something wrong.
Whitebeard's gaze had changed completely.
The next moment, the deck beneath Whitebeard exploded apart.
Pini and Youki's expressions changed immediately.
The old man had never intended to remain stationary.
He used the charging posture as bait, tricking them into staying close while he propelled himself forward using the shattered deck, charging during the movement itself.
"Who said Whitebeard could only charge attacks while standing still?"
"How could a pirate who dominated the seas for decades leave behind such an obvious weakness in his Devil Fruit mastery?"
The brothers instantly retreated at full speed.
Then they froze.
Whitebeard's target was never them.
He shot directly toward the other three Dawn ships beside the Moby Dick.
Pini and Youki immediately accelerated in pursuit.
Without even looking back, Whitebeard casually released the charged quake attack in his hand toward the sea below.
Boom!
The ocean erupted violently.
Standing at the bow of the Dawn, Kirk immediately stabilized the surrounding spatial distortions to prevent a tsunami while simultaneously transmitting his voice across the battlefield to warn everyone aboard the other ships.
Although Kirk neutralized the tsunami itself, the massive waves generated by the attack still slowed Pini and Youki's pursuit slightly.
Whitebeard had assumed all Devil Fruit users feared seawater.
In his mind, the sudden wave would force the brothers to evade carefully, buying him valuable time.
Unfortunately for him, the Dawn Faction's Devil Fruit users did not share the normal weakness toward seawater or Sea Prism Stone.
The waves only slowed them physically for a brief moment, nowhere near as much as Whitebeard had expected.
Meanwhile, after receiving Kirk's warning, the members aboard the other three ships reacted differently.
Ever since surviving Kaido's brutal "training session" last year, everyone in the Dawn Faction had undergone a complete transformation.
None of them feared getting beaten to death by Whitebeard.
Instead, several were actually excited at the chance to fight one of the Four Emperors personally.
After all, Whitebeard had abandoned his fight against Pini and Youki on his own.
And with so many people available, they were not worried about one person failing to withstand the pressure.
Just as several members prepared themselves eagerly, Whitebeard suddenly charged straight toward Daly Jason.
His Bisento slashed downward from a distance while his left fist simultaneously unleashed a quake shockwave toward Wyper further away.
Jason and Wyper were instantly blasted backward before either could react.
Wyper coughed up blood but remained mostly unharmed. Fortunately, the attack was not fully charged.
Jason, however, suffered terribly.
Caught completely off guard, he was struck directly by Whitebeard's Supreme King Haki-infused slash. His left arm was nearly severed from the shoulder.
For a moment, both Jason and Wyper were stunned.
They had heard Kirk's warning.
"But why specifically target the two of them, the only ones already occupied in battle, instead of attacking the idle fighters nearby?"
Then realization hit them.
All the other division commanders had already fallen.
Only the crews under Jason and Wyper still had surviving subordinates.
Whitebeard wanted to save his sons.