Under the disbelieving stares of everyone present, Charlotte Linlin was struck by the blood-red dragon. Driven by its charge, she slammed hard into one of the large pirate ships the Big Mom Pirates had brought to corner the Oathblood Guard. In an instant the great vessel burst apart under the force of the impact.
As the ship exploded, every man aboard was flung away by the shockwave, and Charlotte Linlin herself tore clean through the hull and was driven straight down into the sea.
At that, the faces of both the Big Mom Pirates and the Oathblood Guard changed. Both Charlotte Linlin and Rosinante were Devil Fruit users, and anyone who knew the first thing about Devil Fruits knew that no matter how great your power, seawater and Seastone were the bane of every last one of them. That held true for anyone, and Charlotte Linlin and Rosinante were no exception. Now both of them, the one struck and the one who'd struck, had plunged into the sea. For a Devil Fruit user that was a catastrophe of the highest order. One wrong moment, and the two of them might drown together.
"Fish out Mama, now! Where are the Fish-Men? Go check on Mama, this instant!" Perospero commanded.
Perospero wasn't one of the Big Mom Pirates' Sweet Commanders, but his position was a special one. First, he was Charlotte Linlin's eldest son, always at her side and the one who understood her best. Second, he was the eldest brother to the rest of the Charlotte Family. So although he held only the rank of Minister, whenever she was absent it was always he who gave the orders. The Big Mom Pirates had earned their place as a crew that ruled the New World, and among his men there were several Fish-Man pirates. At his command, a handful of them stepped forward at once, ready to dive into the sea and search for Charlotte Linlin.
At the same time, men of the Oathblood Guard came forward as well, moving to the rail and preparing to leap in after Rosinante. But before any of them could dive, a violent surge came tearing up out of the water at a slant, splitting the sea apart and rushing off into the distance at blinding speed.
As the surface parted, everyone saw a blood-red dragon clamped onto a single figure, racing forward faster than the eye could follow. From the silhouette, Perospero recognized at a glance that it was his mother, Charlotte Linlin.
No one had expected that even with seawater to weaken him, Rosinante's assault hadn't dulled in the slightest. Was he not a Devil Fruit user after all? Did seawater have no hold on him? They couldn't help but start to wonder.
The blood-red dragon surged on, faster than imagination could keep up with, and in the blink of an eye it had vanished from sight. Then, from far off, came an explosion that shook the heavens. A swell of blinding light carried across the distance, and an enormous mushroom cloud of dust rose up before them all.
"What was that?" Everyone stared at the far-off blast, utterly unable to believe it.
Anyone with Observation Haki could have heard it: in the distance, an uninhabited little island was crumbling violently apart. The reason was simple. A moment ago, Rosinante had kicked Charlotte Linlin onto that island, and the force of the impact had shattered the whole of it to ruin.
While everyone stood frozen in shock, a streak of light cut across the distant sky, and then a body crashed down hard onto the deck.
"Mama!" One look, and the cry went up from all of them.
The figure hurled onto the deck like a dead dog was none other than Charlotte Linlin, one of the Four Emperors, captain of their Big Mom Pirates. She was a wretched sight now, soaked through with seawater, gashes opened across her whole body. But those were only surface wounds, nothing serious. The worst of it was the blood seeping from her eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. Plainly, every organ inside her had been gravely wounded. Even so, Charlotte Linlin truly earned her name as the monster among monsters. She had taken Dragon King and lived.
"Charlotte Linlin, can you still tell me now whether their fates were sealed?" Rosinante dropped down out of the sky and set a foot on top of her, his voice cold.
"You bastard. How dare, how dare you do this to Mama!" Cracker, one of the Three Sweet Commanders, said in a fury. Even as he spoke he was already charging in, his long blade slashing viciously toward Rosinante.
"Mama!" Smoothie struck at him in the same moment.
The other members of the Charlotte Family bared their rage one after another and came rushing at Rosinante too.
Seeing the whole Charlotte Family charge in, the Oathblood Guard couldn't stand idle. Powerful as they knew Rosinante was, watching their Dragon King be swarmed was something they would never allow, and one by one they readied themselves to rush out and shield him.
"Hm." Just then Rosinante lifted his head coldly and swept a single glance over the charging Charlotte Family.
That one glance was all it took. A supreme, overbearing presence came surging out of him, and behind his back there formed the phantom of a great dragon. The apparition opened its jaws wide in a soundless roar, and in an instant everyone felt an overwhelming pressure crash outward.
It should have been nothing but presence, intangible, illusory, and yet they felt it strike them as something real and physical. The deck cracked and split in place after place, and many were thrown clear off their feet by the force. The pressure was so real that it felt as though a divine dragon, the kind that existed only in ancient myth, had appeared before them. A suffocating draconic might bore down on them, undeniable and total.
Beneath so tyrannical and overpowering a presence, many of the Big Mom Pirates and the Charlotte Family simply fainted away. Even the stronger crew members, the ones with iron wills, trembled now as if their nerve had been shattered, frozen where they stood, unable to move, let alone raise a hand against Rosinante.
"I'm busy right now. Don't disturb me. For Katakuri's sake I won't take your lives, but don't push me," Rosinante said evenly.
With that, he gave the Charlotte Family no further notice and turned his gaze back to Charlotte Linlin, beaten senseless now, her breath flickering in and out.
"Now then. How should I deal with you next?"