Among a group of rugged men, a single orange-yellow figure stood out prominently.
Nami, who had also been startled awake by Jozu's loud shout, looked utterly bewildered at Ace, who was about to fight Whitebeard again. She rolled her eyes in exasperation.
This was already his sixth challenge to Whitebeard in the past two months. Did he really not know in his own heart whether he was a match for the man or not?
He was making so much noise she couldn't even get her beauty sleep!
Likewise, the others around Nami were grinning as they watched Ace prepare to throw down with Pops Whitebeard once more.
Blackbeard in particular shook his head silently.
Why couldn't his little brother Ace learn from him? Since he couldn't beat Whitebeard, he should just obediently play the son and scheme behind the scenes.
Challenge him once today, challenge him again tomorrow—as if he was afraid no one would figure out he wanted to be captain of the Whitebeard Pirates!
But no matter what anyone else thought, Ace took off his cowboy hat and casually tossed it backward.
The hat spun round and round, as if controlled by Ace himself, and landed right on Nami's head.
The little thief cat pressed down on the hat atop her head and rolled another pretty, exasperated eye roll.
"Pops, here I come!"
Knowing that Whitebeard would never make the first move against his own son, Ace stomped his right foot heavily on the ground.
It looked like just an ordinary step, but in that instant, Ace's leg struck the ground thirty-six times in rapid succession, generating tremendous momentum. His slightly forward-leaning form vanished in a flash.
Soru, one of the Six Powers!
"Hm?"
With just that, Whitebeard narrowed his eyes.
Ace's speed was considerably faster than before!
He released his Observation Haki and, smiling, swept the Kumo Kirigane in his hand.
Clang!
The next moment, Ace's figure—which had vanished before Nami's eyes—suddenly reappeared midair.
His right fist, wrapped in Armament Haki and thrust forward, was blocked precisely by the blade of the Kumo Kirigane.
"But you're still far from enough!"
His crescent-shaped mustache curled upward. Whitebeard put force into his single hand, using about fifty percent of his strength, and thrust the Kumo Kirigane toward Ace, whose body was suspended in midair.
Just as always when facing Ace's challenges, this thrust used neither Armament Haki nor the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
So the blade would pass straight through the body of Ace, the Flame Man and a Logia-type user of the Flame-Flame Fruit, without causing him any real harm.
But to Whitebeard's surprise, facing the oncoming blade, Ace wrapped his hands in Armament Haki.
Relying on his powerful core strength, he twisted his body midair, dodging Whitebeard's thrust.
Then, pressing both hands onto the back of the Kumo Kirigane's blade, he suddenly exerted force, trying to wrench it out of Whitebeard's grasp.
"You want to match strength with me?!"
Seeing Ace's naive move, Whitebeard nearly laughed out loud.
Just from the difference in their builds, it was obvious the two were nowhere near the same weight class.
What was Ace thinking?
Still too young!
Whitebeard shook his head slightly and put force into his single hand, intending to drag Ace over.
His left fist was ready, clenched into a massive boulder of a fist—once Ace was pulled in, he'd give his little son a good "loving" lesson!
But to Whitebeard's astonishment, even though he had already exerted seventy percent of his strength, his body suddenly lurched, and he was yanked toward Ace.
"This kind of strength?!"
Whitebeard's expression stiffened, and his legs instinctively planted themselves into the ground, shifting his weight onto the blade.
Even so, his body was still slowly dragged toward Ace, his feet carving a thirty-centimeter-long trail across the earth.
The surrounding members of the Whitebeard Pirate Crew watched in utter disbelief.
"In terms of raw strength, Ace actually beat Dad?"
Jozu blinked, frozen in place.
Marco let out an equally astonished remark.
"Even if it was just Dad letting his guard down for a moment, that's still incredible!"
Having been shown up in front of his sons, Whitebeard couldn't help but flush with embarrassment.
He decided to get a little more serious.
Whitebeard pressed both hands onto Kumo Kirigane, and a tremor of power flowed from the hilt toward the blade, causing the entire weapon to vibrate at an extremely high frequency.
The rapid trembling force made it impossible for Ace to hold onto the back of the blade. He took two quick steps across the ground, putting distance between himself and Whitebeard.
"Ha!"
Sensing from every angle that Ace was no longer the man he once was, Whitebeard once again called upon the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
In the past, his aged and scar-ridden body—whenever he used the Tremor-Tremor Fruit's ability—would groan in agony not just physically, but almost in his very soul, begging him to stop this practice of further harming his own flesh.
But now, this exhilarated and healthy body told him that it only wanted to do what it did twenty years ago—to blast this trembling force out with reckless abandon!
The gathered tremor power formed a white sphere of light, enveloping the tip of Kumo Kirigane.
From several meters away, Whitebeard aimed the great naginata at Ace and swung it.
"Naginata—Sky Quake!"
Crackle, crackle!
A series of sounds like firecrackers rang out through the air. One after another, fractures spread rapidly along the direction Whitebeard's great naginata pointed.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Under the terrifying power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit, it wasn't just the air that cried out in anguish.
The ground shook, the land split apart, and even the very terrain was altered.
Ace's figure flickered as he used Soru and Geppo from the Six Powers to launch himself into the sky, dodging the strike.
Behind him, the members of the Whitebeard Pirate Crew scrambled in utter chaos, scattering like startled chickens and stampeding beasts.
"The attack is flying right at us!"
"Run!"
"Aaaaaah!!"
Boom!
That casual swing from Whitebeard traveled several hundred meters before finally detonating, leaving behind a massive crater dozens of meters wide and several meters deep in the earth.
Gale-force winds howled.
Even though she had witnessed this many times before, Nami—pressing down on the cowboy hat atop her head to keep it from being blown away—still stared with overwhelming shock, cold sweat running down her back.
Compared to Whitebeard, Arlong, who had once loomed over Cocoyasi Village, was nothing more than an ornamental fish!
An inch longer, an inch stronger; an inch shorter, an inch shallower.
Engaging in close-to-mid-range combat against Whitebeard—whose body was enormous and whose weapon was equally massive—would undoubtedly allow the opponent to bring out his full strength.
Even though Ace was confident he would win, showing his cunning in this battle was also important.
His left leg stomped repeatedly through the air as he used Soru to vanish once again.
"Using the same technique twice in front of me?"
Whitebeard's face turned cold, his eyes shifting toward the rear.
He pressed both hands onto Kumo Kirigane, raised it high above his head, and spun it rapidly.
"Ha!"
A layer of white light covered Kumo Kirigane, forming a white ring of radiance as it whirled at incredible speed.
"Drink!"
Whitebeard let out another light shout, flinging both hands outward as the white ring of light blasted toward the space behind him.
At that very moment, Ace's figure appeared exactly where the white ring detonated.
But what startled Whitebeard slightly was that when the white ring tore through Ace's silhouette, Ace simply dispersed into a scattering of flames.
His attack plunged straight into the ground, blasting up a shower of rubble and broken earth.
BOOM!
"A flame afterimage?!"
Whitebeard's expression tightened as he unleashed his Observation Haki at full power, uncertain and wary.
"Just now… did Ace use his flame clone to fool my Observation Haki? Has he already surpassed me in Observation Haki?"
Observation Haki — Precognition of the Future.
This was one of the abilities Ace had gained after his Observation Haki reached its pinnacle, honed through the mutual exchange of knowledge among the Su Yues.
Empowered by the foundational enhancements the Su Yues had granted him, Ace's precognition could even foresee events three seconds into the future.
So he had deliberately tricked Whitebeard's attack into striking his residual image, while he himself closed the distance, arriving less than a meter away from Whitebeard.
"Armament Haki — Rocket Barrage!"
With Ace's roar, torrents of flame erupted from behind his elbows, which had already turned pitch-black, like rockets igniting.
Propelled by the thrust of the flames, his arms became black blurs as he hammered into Whitebeard in an unbroken barrage!
BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!
In less than a second, Ace landed six consecutive blows to Whitebeard's abdomen. Even the cloak draped over Whitebeard's shoulders was blasted into a massive gaping hole.
Even Edward Newgate, strong as a small giant, couldn't help but have his face twist slightly under such ferocious assault.
Whitebeard lowered his head slightly.
A distance of one meter was not enough to give him room to wield his great bisento.
So, without hesitation, Whitebeard tossed aside the twelve Supreme Grade Blades and raised his millstone-sized fist, coating it in Armament Haki as well, then layering it with the power of tremor.
"Gurarararara!"
With a booming laugh, he met Ace head-on in a brutal exchange of blows — absolute violence, merciless toward both himself and his opponent!
"ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!"
Ace's powerful fists, accompanied by his furious roar, slammed into Whitebeard's body again and again, each strike wreathed in brilliant flames.
See that, old man?! I've grown strong enough to defeat you — strong enough to carry the Whitebeard Pirates on my back!
You old geezer, it's time to step down and rest!
"Gurarararara!"
Seeing Ace throw punches without the slightest hesitation, each blow carrying his iron will to defeat him, Whitebeard couldn't help but laugh aloud.
Though astonished by Ace's sudden surge in power, though his body was scorched, though blood sprayed from his mouth —
But I'm Whitebeard! There's no way I'll be surpassed by my son so easily!
He raised his millstone-sized fist, his arms transforming into terrifying steel pile drivers, and slammed them down just as fiercely onto Ace's head and chest.
But unlike Whitebeard's abdomen, which subtly deformed with every punch Ace landed, Ace's entire body was now cloaked in Armament Haki.
Even though Whitebeard's fists were coated in Armament Haki and imbued with tremor force, amplified by the Su Yues' fourfold Armament enhancement, they could no longer inflict significant damage upon Ace.
BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK!
No one had anticipated that the battle between Whitebeard and Ace would escalate to such a degree.
The two had completely abandoned any attempt to dodge, meeting each other head-on with unyielding, fist-to-fist clashes.
The scene was brutally intense, and while many worried for Whitebeard's aging frame, they couldn't help but feel their blood surge with excitement at the sight of this fight!
Their fists clenched tightly, hearts pounding wildly!
As for Ace, who could hold his own against Whitebeard to such an extent, the recognition he earned in their eyes only grew with each passing moment of the battle.