"You little brat, not bad! SHIRAHAHAHA!"
After the clash, Golden Lion, relying on the Float-Float Fruit's ability, blasted backward into midair, letting out a burst of wild laughter.
But behind that wild laughter, Golden Lion's astonishment was hidden.
His lion-like eyes stared dead at Rosse, who hadn't taken even a single step back. The caution in his gaze was already the best form of respect toward Rosse.
That strike just now seemed like nothing happened to him.
But in reality, he had already lost completely.
Rosse had remained standing to receive the blow and hadn't moved a single step in the end.
And he, the attacker, not to mention the churning blood and energy in his body, just the fact that he had to rely on his fruit ability to unload the impact already meant he had utterly lost.
Even though Golden Lion was unwilling to admit it, the fact was already in front of him.
His current strength was not as good as Rosse's.
'Damn it, if only I was still in his prime, it wouldn't have come to this.'
In Golden Lion's eyes, thick unwillingness shone.
Rosse's strength hadn't yet reached the level to make him feel despair.
Back in the day, his own strength wasn't inferior to Rosse's.
Maybe Rosse's future would surpass his peak, but definitely not today.
Maybe Rosse could kill him, but definitely not today.
"Come on, let's keep fighting!"
Golden Lion once again let out an arrogant laugh and charged toward Rosse.
Can't win so don't fight? That's impossible.
He was Golden Lion.
Even if he lost the fight, he had to tear a piece of flesh off the enemy.
"Then let's go," Rosse let out a light laugh, lifted the Sea God Trident, and leapt up, clashing with Golden Lion once again.
Both of them were extremely fast.
If someone's strength was a bit weaker, they'd only be able to see two streaks of light flashing constantly in the air.
One deep blue, one golden.
The two lights collided almost every second, and ripples like a hurricane's passing would spread out.
After the initial probing, Golden Lion changed tactics, wanting to use his rich experience and the convenience of his fruit in midair to prevent Rosse from gaining the advantage in strength.
Rosse didn't back off at all, nor did he have any intention of relying on his strengths to slowly wear Golden Lion down.
Instead, he also floated midair, battling on Golden Lion's home turf.
Fighting, it was one of the things he enjoyed most.
Since Golden Lion was no longer in his prime, then he'd take a small step back.
No matter what, Rosse didn't think he would lose.
BOOM!
Heaven-shaking, earth-shattering sounds constantly echoed across the entire sky of the Holy Land, as if heavenly thunder was rolling, completely engulfing the Holy Land.
"Madmen, fighting this intensely," Rayleigh frowned tightly, looking toward the sky. Just from the ripples caused by the two's clashes, he could tell that the two of them were recklessly unleashing their stamina.
He didn't know what Rosse's limit was, but he and Golden Lion had been old rivals.
With Golden Lion's body now, he wouldn't be able to hold out much longer.
When that time came, he might not even have the chance to escape.
"Hey hey hey, is it really okay to be this leisurely while fighting me?", Saint Sommers grumbled and swung a blade at Rayleigh.
Ding!
The two swords crossed in the air, emitting a crisp sound.
But the ripple from the clash was pitifully small, only affecting a few meters around.
This wasn't because the two controlled their power perfectly and focused it into a single point.
It was because the two weren't seriously fighting at all.
"Your fruit's too troublesome, I don't want to get injured," Rayleigh held his sword, looking rather relaxed.
After a few rounds of exchange, he had already given up on the idea of a quick win.
His strength was stronger than Saint Sommers, but Saint Sommers's Thorn Fruit laid thorns around himself.
Thorns were one thing, what was most disgusting was that these thorns caused reflected damage.
That is, however much damage Saint Sommers took, the opponent would also take the same.
For this kind of nasty fruit, Rayleigh only knew one way to break it.
Use Armament Haki and Conqueror's Haki to forcefully smash through.
And to brute-force break it, there needed to be a gap in strength. Otherwise, it would only become an exchange of injuries.
After trading blows, Rayleigh had confirmed that Saint Sommers's strength was not bad.
Weaker than him, but breaking through by force wasn't that simple either. And even if they exchanged injuries, the final result wouldn't be too good.
Although Saint Sommers looked older than all of them, he was still in his prime. Even if injured, he could last a long time in a prolonged battle.
And the Holy Land was the enemy's home turf, there was no need to do something like that.
After all, their strategic objective had already been achieved.
"What's this, you don't have a bit of fighting spirit,"
Saint Sommers said in frustration, his sword slashing symbolically.
What Rayleigh could see, he could more or less see too.
To be honest, the two of them could be considered old acquaintances. Over a decade ago, they had fought side by side in the God Valley.
In terms of pure strength, he was not as good as Rayleigh.
Just stalling Rayleigh was already his limit.
Anything more, even if forced, was impossible.
He wasn't Saint Garling, after all; he didn't have that kind of power.
'So… it really is only up to Rosse now…', Saint Sommers sighed inwardly and looked up at the battlefield in the sky.
Compared to their lousy bout here, the intensity of the fight above was at least dozens of levels higher.
Back when he saw Rosse stirring up trouble on the sea, he still had a dismissive attitude in his heart.
He thought that if it were him, he could also achieve that level.
But looking at it now, Rosse really had strength.
At the very least, way stronger than him.
———
And just as the battle on this side became more and more intense, Dragon's figure appeared within the palace complex of Jaygarcia.
This cluster of palaces was now mostly intact, forming a sharp contrast with the other family palaces around that had been completely destroyed.
The reason for this situation was also very simple.
There were only palaces here, no people at all. So other pirates didn't even want to come.
At the very beginning of the war, the Celestial Dragons of the Jaygarcia family, under CP0's coercion, had been forced to evacuate to the shelters.
Because of Rosse, the Jaygarcia family now had no slaves, and the other Celestial Dragons had no authority either.
So at the very beginning of the war, when faced with CP0's forceful escort, the family's Celestial Dragons didn't resist at all and were quickly taken away.
This also led to the palace cluster being evacuated immediately, with hardly any damage.
The pirates who could make it to the Holy Land all had at least some level of Observation Haki.
Once they sensed there was no one in this palace area, no one wanted to specifically come.
They didn't come here for treasure this time, they came to kill freely. Why would they go out of their way to a place with no people?
Besides, if they wanted to find treasure, going to a palace with no one to search couldn't compare to just grabbing a Celestial Dragon and asking directly.
And the reason Dragon came here was also very simple.
There was something here he wanted to find.
After Ohara was destroyed, the only two people who could read Poneglyphs lived in this palace cluster.
And the place where Olivia and her daughter lived, that was the target of his operation.
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