Fish-Man Island, which had only recently quieted down, violently trembled once again today.
Boom!
Dazzling red light, accompanied by terrifying Haki lightning, wildly roared and shook the island.
A horrifying light emanated from the island, illuminating a vast distance even in the boundless darkness of the deep, ten-thousand-meter seabed.
"Captain is angry, Kizaru is going to suffer for it."
"Yeah, it's rare to see Captain this angry."
"In front of Captain's Conqueror's Haki, even an Admiral is no match at all."
"Beckman, how long do you think it will take for Captain to defeat Kizaru?"
Facing their questions, Beckman looked indifferently towards the sky, where a red light was relentlessly pursuing a golden light. No matter how hard the golden light tried, it could not shake off the red light's pursuit.
Silently lighting a cigarette, Beckman, who didn't like cigars, took a deep puff and slowly exhaled rings of smoke.
This piqued the curiosity of everyone on board.
Lucky Roux became impatient, forgetting to eat the large piece of meat in his hand, and anxiously said, "Hurry up and tell us, Beckman. Do you want to kill us with anticipation?"
"Kizaru will lose within ten minutes." Beckman's tone was certain, as if stating a fact.
"Then I bet eight minutes."
"I bet nine minutes."
In this vast sea, few people had ever witnessed Shanks's full power.
Even during the Marineford War two years ago, which overturned the world's power structure, Beckman knew that Shanks had still held back his strength. Yet, even then, he was able to contend with the combined efforts of Garp and Sengoku.
If he were to truly unleash his full power, Beckman couldn't even imagine how powerful Shanks was now. At the very least, in Beckman's estimation, he was on par with Pirate King Roger from back then.
He even speculated that Shanks's mastery of Conqueror's Haki had surpassed Roger's, reaching a legendary realm.
Clang... Clang...
Sharp metallic clashes continuously rang out, sparking a multitude of flames, while the shockwaves from the two attacks even destroyed large sections of Fish-Man Island's buildings.
Even the extremely hard seabed reefs were as fragile as tofu before the incredibly sharp slashes. They crumbled upon impact.
"Shanks, your Haki seems to have grown even stronger than two years ago."
Kizaru's speech didn't maintain its usual slow pace, his face was now covered in sweat.
His battle with Shanks, though extremely brief, had consumed far more energy than he had anticipated.
"You're still as lackadaisical as ever, Kizaru."
Shanks's eyes were focused. Wielding Gryphon, each slash was infused with a massive amount of extremely dense Conqueror's Haki. Combined with his already masterful swordsmanship, it could be said that every attack Shanks unleashed at this moment was enough to cleave a mountain.
And under such high-intensity attacks, Shanks was still able to maintain an extremely fast offensive rhythm. Even when Kizaru tried his best to create distance, Shanks quickly caught up, sticking to him like a maggot, making it impossible for him to escape.
Clang!
The red blade, imbued with Conqueror's Haki, clashed once again with the golden ama no murakumo, erupting in an earth-shattering sound.
The ground cracked under the shockwave of this collision, and the sharp attack sliced through the coral reef mountains.
Shanks's face had a good amount of sweat, clearly indicating that this fighting style was also extremely taxing for him. But he did not give up. Instead, he maintained this attack intensity.
Shanks knew that to defeat Kizaru, only this fighting style would prevent him from escaping.
"Why did you come here? Isn't it good enough to be a Sea Emperor?"
Kizaru's face was now full of solemnity. He was constantly breathing heavily, and his yellow Admiral uniform was almost completely torn, with no intact areas. In fact, many parts were already stained crimson, slowly soaking through his clothes.
Shanks also had injuries, but his situation was clearly much better than Kizaru's.
"Marine, I told you, there would be severe consequences if you harmed my comrade."
"Is that so."
Beneath Kizaru's sunglasses, a strange look flashed in his eyes, and he managed a difficult smile.
"Renji's actions must have achieved great results."
"..."
Shanks was silent, his face frighteningly dark. When he looked up again, the anger in his eyes seemed to surge to the sky.
"Rest well, Kizaru."
As Shanks's cold voice fell, Kizaru's expression immediately changed. He could feel that within the man fighting him, there was a powerful Haki he had never witnessed before, roaring.
It was as if an ancient, long-slumbering beast had broken some seal and fully awakened at this moment.
Boom!
Shanks unleashed a punch, and the already peerless Conqueror's Haki entwined around him underwent another qualitative change.
Crack!
The orange-yellow sunglasses developed cracks and then instantly shattered into fragments, revealing Kizaru's shocked eyes.
Feeling the terrifying force coming from above, his arms, gripping ama no murakumo, began to tremble violently.
Under the suppression of the terrifying Conqueror's Haki, Kizaru coughed up a large amount of blood. No matter how he tried to activate his Devil Fruit ability to elementalize, he was horrified to discover that in front of Shanks's Conqueror's Haki, his Devil Fruit ability was completely suppressed.
This situation...
Two years ago, Shanks had not achieved this step. Yet now, he had truly and completely suppressed his Devil Fruit ability.
The next second, under Kizaru's wide-eyed gaze, ama no murakumo was sent flying by a slash from Gryphon, and a dazzling red light completely enveloped him.
"Sleep, Kizaru."