The moment Rosinante spoke, everyone present was stunned.
What had he just said?
This brutal, lightning-fast battle… was just a warm-up?
"You've got to be kidding me! That's not even remotely funny!" The members of the Red-Hair Pirates were all wide-eyed with shock.
"So it's true after all…" Shanks' eyes flashed with a sharp light as he spoke.
Having witnessed the world's strongest fighters firsthand, Shanks knew just how terrifying top-tier combatants really were.
If the rumors were true—that Rosinante had fought Fleet Admiral Sengoku to a standstill—then his strength definitely wasn't limited to what they'd seen so far.
Sengoku might not be quite as strong as Garp or as legendary as Roger, but he was undoubtedly a monster-class powerhouse.
Shanks had once been hunted relentlessly by Sengoku and Garp together alongside Roger's crew—he knew exactly how terrifying Sengoku was. That's why, when he first heard that Rosinante could fight Sengoku evenly, his first reaction was disbelief.
But after seeing Rosinante in action today, Shanks was starting to believe it.
Shanks' own strength had already reached the level of a top-tier vice admiral, yet the very first moment he laid eyes on Rosinante, he instinctively felt an oppressive pressure.
For someone at Shanks' level to feel such weight, there was only one explanation—Rosinante had already stepped into the realm of admiral-level power.
And for an admiral, what they had just witnessed really could have been just a warm-up.
"Your Majesty!" Kishuke's eyes shone with admiration.
"Oh my, how scary~ how scary!" Borsalino said lazily, smiling faintly. "That was just a warm-up? But I was using my real strength, you know?"
"Stop bluffing! Who's going to believe that?" Rosinante shot back.
"Borsalino," Rosinante said, his smile fading into a serious expression, "your strength must already be on par with Sakazuki's—you've stepped into the admiral-level realm, haven't you? No need to hide it. The moment I saw you, I could tell."
Two years had passed—not only Rosinante had grown stronger.
From the first moment Rosinante saw Borsalino today, he knew the man had already crossed that threshold. It wouldn't be long before he would officially sit in one of the Navy's admiral chairs.
"Who's to say~?" Borsalino said with a shrug, neither confirming nor denying it.
"No matter. If you've really reached that level, then today you might just be able to give me a good fight. But if you haven't reached that level and you dare posture in front of me—then the Marines are going to lose one of their future admirals today," Rosinante said, his tone now deadly serious.
"How scary~ Well, why don't we just find out?" Borsalino replied.
As he spoke, Borsalino's entire body flared with blinding light—then his sword thrust forward.
This thrust was as fast as a beam of light, so fast that the eye couldn't even follow.
The spectators only saw a flash of brilliance from Borsalino's body, and the next moment, the Ama-no-Murakumo Sword forged from light itself was already about to pierce through Rosinante.
"Rosinante!" Robin's face turned pale, her voice shrill with panic.
"Too fast!" Yasopp exclaimed, his pupils contracting.
"So that 'warm-up' talk wasn't a joke after all…" Lucky Roo muttered, momentarily forgetting to chew his chicken leg.
"Your Majesty!" Even Shaxia's heart tensed with worry.
That slash showed how far Borsalino had come in the past two years. The blow Rosinante dealt him back then had stripped away his excess arrogance, pushing him to train and develop his fruit abilities relentlessly—allowing him to reach admiral-level power much faster than in the original timeline.
He had fully elementalized his body and struck in one seamless motion—the sheer speed made it impossible to react, a perfect demonstration of an admiral's level of power.
"Vice Admiral Borsalino is incredible!" The nearby Marines were already cheering in excitement.
In their eyes, there was no way Rosinante could survive such a strike—they were already celebrating their impending victory.
Even Shanks' expression hardened as he saw that thrust.
With that kind of speed… even he would have trouble blocking it.
"Flowing Light," came Rosinante's calm voice.
In the next instant, Rosinante's entire body also turned into a streak of radiant light—he flickered away, dodging the thrust completely.
"Rosinante's speed… is on par with Borsalino's!" Benn Beckman said in shock.
"Yes!" Robin, Shaxia, and Laki all cried out in relief at once.
"I told you His Majesty wouldn't be beaten so easily!" Kishuke said proudly.
Clang! In the same motion that he dodged, Rosinante counterattacked, his blade cutting through the air.
Borsalino had no choice but to pull back the Ama-no-Murakumo Sword in a rush to parry. Sparks flew as the two blades clashed.
"He blocked it!" the Marine Rear Admiral gasped.
"In the blink of an eye, their roles flipped from attacker and defender!" Shanks said, stunned.
"Captain," Benn Beckman murmured quietly, "if you had to fight either of them right now… what would happen?"
"They haven't shown their full strength yet," Shanks replied with a frown. "But I could probably last a hundred moves."
"This isn't their full strength?!" Lucky Roo gaped, completely forgetting his chicken leg this time. It was the first time he'd seen a battle of such magnitude, and it left him utterly entranced.
"A hundred moves…" Benn Beckman murmured thoughtfully.
Don't be fooled—lasting a hundred moves might not sound like much, but in the world of top fighters, battles could rage for days and nights.
To be able to survive a hundred exchanges simply meant you wouldn't be crushed instantly—it didn't mean you'd win.
"Oh my~? Strange. I really thought that last thrust would finish you off," Borsalino said.
"You were overthinking it," Rosinante replied with a faint smile.
"And I thought that counter-slash of mine would have cut you down," Rosinante added lightly.
"You overthought it too," Borsalino said flatly.
"If this were two years ago, you might have fallen to that strike. Your progress these past two years has been extraordinary—even more than I expected," Rosinante said calmly.
"Likewise," Borsalino replied. "I already rated you very highly, yet you're still a little beyond what I imagined."
"But now…" Borsalino's smile turned almost sinister. "Now I'm done playing around. My next attack… will finish this."
Before anyone could react, Borsalino's body blurred and vanished into pure light.
In the next moment, light converged at Rosinante's left side—Borsalino reappeared in a flash, his sword already swinging down.
The light streaked like a comet, so fast it defied comprehension.