"Cough… That was terrifying, Fleet Admiral Kong!" Doberman coughed up blood, but a bright smile still lit up his battered face.
He had taken a heavy blow from Raelmann's full-powered "Divine Blast of Three Thousand," leaving him gravely injured. Yet, he refused to retreat for treatment and continued standing his ground.
"This is my first time seeing Fleet Admiral Kong in action... As expected of the man who stands at the very top of the Navy. With power like that, even Whitebeard might not be a match for him!" Doberman chuckled, half in awe.
"So strong… Captain, are you okay?!" Raelmann called out, clearly worried.
"Release! Limit Break – Crumbling Fist!" At that moment, a powerful voice roared from underground—it was Rosinante!
The ground trembled violently, and from the shattered earth where Rosinante had been buried, a towering blast of fist energy erupted, punching a hole straight through the layers of rock and debris.
Everything above the surface was blown to pieces by this shockwave. Though he had been struck with two devastating blows, Rosinante's awakened Silence powers had absorbed some of the force, storing that damage and now unleashing it in a furious counterattack.
Fleet Admiral Kong had sensed the surge of power before it erupted and instantly vanished from his original position. The shockwave missed him entirely.
Still, his expression turned even more serious.
From the fractured ground, Rosinante burst out. He looked utterly battered, his entire body a mess. Blood streamed endlessly from the corner of his mouth, and he clutched his side where Kong's punch had landed. Even with his healing seal and immense vitality, the pain and internal damage from that strike refused to go away.
Fleet Admiral Kong… He's even more dangerous than Garp!
Rosinante stared at Kong with grim determination, wiping away the blood from his lips.
"Shadow Flash!"
In a blur, Rosinante vanished.
The stronger the Silence, the weaker gravity became. Normally, Rosinante could silence gravitational pull to a degree—but with his awakened Silent Fruit, he could nullify even more of it. Now, in a self-unleashed state, he used the full power of his awakened fruit to erase gravity entirely.
His speed during Shadow Flash became unimaginably fast.
At such blinding speed, no one should've been able to catch his movements.
But Kong did.
With a single punch, he countered.
Rosinante was sent flying again, a streak across the battlefield.
"Tch... I don't believe this!" Rosinante snarled. "World Lock!"
Chains of space and silence formed from the twisted will of the world and crashed toward Kong like thunder.
Kong simply stretched his arm, cracked his knuckles, and—boom—charged forward again.
Rosinante rushed to meet him.
They clashed.
Fist, elbow, and knee met over and over again in a deadly dance. Each collision thundered with explosive force. The very ground shattered beneath their feet, ripping apart the battlefield with the force of titans.
The whole of Marineford trembled.
Kong slammed a fist into Rosinante's elbow, and the impact sent Rosinante skidding backward across the ruins.
"No wonder they call you 'Steel Bone.' Your punches really are made of steel!" Rosinante said, finally steadying himself, shaking out his trembling arms.
Even under the suppression of "Faded World," Kong still retained monstrous power.
His fists were terrifying—so hard they made iron fists seem like rubber. In just a few exchanges, Rosinante's arms had been cracked down to the bone.
Kong flexed his right wrist with his left hand, then scanned the world of faded colors around him.
"What an eerie power… This space cuts my strength by about thirty percent. That's just me—if it were someone else, they might not even be able to stand."
Rosinante shifted into a unique stance.
"Direct clashes are hard for me... So I'll have to try this instead. Let's call it… Silent Tai Chi!"
Was he about to use that strange move from earlier again? Kong narrowed his eyes but didn't hesitate.
"Let's see if that trick can stop my Iron Fist," he sneered.
Kong vanished.
Shave.
Without even seeming to move, he had already crossed the distance.
Shave, one of the Navy's Rokushiki techniques, required one to stomp the ground over a dozen times in an instant to propel the user forward. But Kong—who had mastered all six techniques to perfection—could achieve the same result simply by vibrating his leg muscles.
This allowed him to close in without a trace, faster than even a blink.
He appeared right in front of Rosinante and threw a punch.
As a master of hand-to-hand combat, Kong never cared who he was facing—he always attacked the same way. A single, overwhelming punch.
And there were few in the world who could take it head-on.
Especially now, as he activated his signature technique—Steel Bone Fist.
Danger alarms went off in Rosinante's mind.
His Observation Haki screamed: Don't take it directly!
Silence surged from his body, the Eternal Stillness Will condensing around his palms. He countered with his soft-force fist technique, trying to deflect Kong's blow.
"Damn, it's too hard!"
Rosinante's Silent Will managed to suppress a portion of the punch's power, but when he tried to redirect it—
Nothing happened.
Kong's arm was too hard, too heavy. Rosinante couldn't move it even a millimeter.
Kong's fist slammed directly into Rosinante's chest.
His chest caved in from the impact.
Rosinante shot straight into the ground.
BOOM!!!
The earth exploded with the force of the impact, cratering hundreds of meters wide. Cracks spiderwebbed outward, tearing through fortifications, through the harbor, even toward the Navy's command walls.
Everyone around was stunned silent.
Even seasoned Vice Admirals and veteran pirates of the New World stared in horror.
Was this really human strength?
"Is Marineford going to collapse?!" someone cried out in shock.
"See? This is why we never want Kong to take the field. If he levels Marineford himself, the pirates of the New World are gonna die laughing," Sengoku muttered grimly.
"If those sea rats die laughing, I'd say it's worth it," Kong said flatly.
The moment Rosinante was buried by that earth-shattering punch, his awakened ability—the Eternal Stillness—vanished.
The world returned to color.
And for the first time in this whole battle, Kong could speak freely again.