Everyone around only saw a flash of light, and in that split second, Borsalino's figure vanished. Almost simultaneously, he reappeared right next to Rosinante, his sword slicing down toward him with blinding speed.
It felt as though no time had passed at all—his speed had gone beyond human reaction. Before anyone could even process what had happened, he had already crossed the distance between where he had stood and where Rosinante was.
"Flowing Light!"
But Borsalino's strike hit nothing but air.
The moment his sword was about to connect, Rosinante's figure disappeared from where he had been standing as well.
Borsalino's speed was terrifying—almost like teleportation—yet Rosinante was just as fast. His body, too, had turned into a streak of light and vanished.
And this "Flowing Light" technique was even faster than before.
Seeing Rosinante's shocking speed, Borsalino's face betrayed rare surprise. But before he could even dwell on it, Rosinante appeared right by his side and countered with a slash of his own.
But his strike also failed to hit. Borsalino's body turned into light once again and blinked away from the attack.
The battlefield erupted into chaos as two beams of light zipped around like meteors, clashing again and again. Each strike gouged fresh marks into the ground—countless slashes cutting tree roots into neat pieces as the duel raged on.
"I didn't think it would turn into a speed battle like this… This kind of rapid-fire exchange is almost unheard of," Shanks said, wide-eyed.
And Shanks wasn't one to be easily impressed—he had seen the mightiest fighters in the world with his own eyes.
The Sovereign of the Seas, Gol D. Roger.
The storm that shook the world, Golden Lion Shiki.
The man who could shatter heaven and earth, Whitebeard.
The iron fist that split the skies, Garp.
The unstoppable force, Sengoku.
But when it came to sheer speed—this might already be the absolute limit of what was possible in the One Piece world.
And just as this thought crossed his mind, Rosinante and Borsalino's speed spiked again, their strikes becoming even sharper and more ferocious. Now, there was nothing to see except the violent clash of two beams of light, sparks exploding with every collision.
"Captain, their speed is insane! Even with Observation Haki, it's nearly impossible to keep up—and even if you can, the body just can't react fast enough!" Benn Beckman said grimly.
"They've both reached the level of admirals—it's no wonder they're so hard to deal with," Shanks said, his tone serious. "What really surprises me is that Rosinante's speed is this incredible… He's actually matching Borsalino, a Logia-type user of the Glint-Glint Fruit, in a speed duel—and he's not even falling behind!"
"Captain, we should leave while we have the chance. If Rosinante wins, we might be fine since he doesn't seem interested in fighting us—but if Borsalino wins… at his speed, we won't be able to escape." Yasopp urged nervously.
"It must be because of his gravity powers. I heard Rosinante can completely nullify gravity on himself—putting him in a state of zero gravity. I just didn't expect that accelerating in that state could produce this kind of terrifying speed," Benn Beckman mused, his eyes narrowing.
"It's not quite as terrifying as you think," Shanks replied calmly. "Rosinante's still slightly slower than Borsalino. What lets him keep up is his Observation Haki, letting him anticipate Borsalino's moves. And remember, the Glint-Glint Fruit, despite its speed, can only move in straight lines—making its trajectory easy to predict if you can sense it in time. If you guys ever run into Borsalino, remember that. He's fast, but if you can track him, his attacks can still be pre-read!"
On the other side, Robin and the others watched the clash with tense faces.
Laki's eyes, however, were sparkling—calculations running wild in her mind. For her, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gather battle data, and she wasn't going to waste it.
As a user of the Quick-Calc Fruit, as long as she had enough data, she could calculate any outcome she desired.
"Don't worry, His Majesty still looks completely at ease," Laki said reassuringly to Robin and the others.
Her neural processing speed was so fast that to her, the high-speed duel played out in slow motion.
What looked to everyone else like blindingly fast exchanges appeared to her as crisp, detailed scenes—she could even read the expressions on their faces mid-battle.
"Is Rosinante hurt?" Robin asked nervously.
"Nope—His Majesty's clothes aren't even scratched," Laki said with a small smile.
"I knew it! With His Majesty's strength, why would he ever fear Borsalino?" Raijin Kisu let out a sigh of relief.
The two beams of light crashed together again, sparks exploding before they broke apart in a dizzying display of speed.
Bang!
After another violent clash, both fighters stopped.
"Huh? Weird… did you eat the Glint-Glint Fruit too?" Borsalino teased, giving Rosinante a sideways look.
But inside, Borsalino was deeply shaken.
As the man who wielded the Glint-Glint Fruit, his confidence in his own speed had always been absolute. Yet here was someone who could match him blow for blow.
He understood why Rosinante was this fast, but he hadn't expected zero gravity to allow for such frightening acceleration.
Plenty of Devil Fruits could manipulate gravity—Shiki's Float-Float Fruit, the Gravity Fruit, the Kilo-Kilo Fruit, and others—but never had anyone used them to rival his speed.
"I ate the male Glint-Glint Fruit, and you ate the female one," Rosinante replied with a teasing grin.
Was such speed really impossible for others to reach?
Not at all.
Rosinante's speed wasn't something he simply "developed"—it was a natural consequence of completely erasing gravity, allowing him to move at full force without resistance.
Golden Lion Shiki, for example, could easily achieve this speed if he wanted to.
But for someone like Shiki, speed this extreme wasn't useful—it was too hard to control and would actually become a liability in battle.
Rosinante, however, had mastered it—thanks to his Observation Haki, the fine-tuned control of his Silence ability, and endless training and life-or-death battles.
Only with all three combined could he wield this kind of speed as a true weapon.