One Piece: The user of the Nen-Nen Fruit, who overturned the sea.

The training ground fell silent.

The silence wasn't deliberate; it was as if everyone was holding their breath at the same moment, and even their heartbeats were suppressed to the lowest possible level.

The wind stopped, and the sound of the ocean waves seemed to have been erased from the world by something.

Sunlight poured down from the gap in the clouds torn open by the Conqueror's Haki above the training ground, illuminating the area within a radius of several dozen meters in the center of the training ground in a dazzling silvery white.

The two people stood in that light.

Roy Shanks.

They were exactly twenty paces apart.

Shanks placed his right hand on Griffin's sword hilt and slowly drew it out.

The sound of the blade rubbing against the scabbard was exceptionally clear in the silent training ground, like the prelude to some kind of ritual.

The moment Griffin was fully drawn, jet-black Armament Haki spread from the hilt to the tip, turning the entire sword black.

Immediately afterwards, dark red arcs of electricity began to dance on the blade—a Conqueror's Haki-infused aura.

It started with a series of faint crackling sounds, then grew denser and brighter, until finally the entire griffin was enveloped in a layer of dark red lightning.

The crackling arc of electricity exploded in the air, causing fine cracks to appear on the stone floor beneath Shanks' feet.

Shanks raised his head, and in the shadow of his straw hat, his eyes burned with a pure, undisguised fighting spirit.

It is the excitement that wells up from the depths of a warrior's soul when he finally finds an opponent worthy of his full effort.

His lips parted into a wide grin, revealing his signature smile.

At the same moment, Roy also drew his black sword, Autumn Water.

The blade was covered in jet-black Armament Haki, followed by a burst of dark red electric arcs, and Conqueror's Haki condensed and took shape on the blade.

Two powerful auras collided in the center of the training ground, causing the air to vibrate and the fine pebbles on the ground to tremble and then float in the air.

The telekinetic field silently unfolded, enveloping the entire training ground.

In Roy's perception, Shanks, twenty paces away, was no longer a humanoid silhouette, but a burning flame—

The frequency of heartbeat, the rhythm of breathing, and every imperceptible contraction of muscles are all broken down into countless possible trajectories in the Observation Haki that foresees the future.

The two moved at the same time.

There was no signal, no countdown, and no agreement.

In a fleeting moment, they both sensed a subtle, almost imperceptible change in each other's aura.

The time to strike has come.

The next second, the two figures vanished from their original positions simultaneously.

It's not high-speed movement, it's pure spatial displacement.

The speed was so fast that even the battle-hardened officers around the training ground could only catch two blurry afterimages.

Griffin and Qiushui clashed violently in the center of the arena. The world fell silent the instant their blades met.

Then--

boom--!!!

A dark red shockwave exploded from the center of the collision between the two blades, spreading wildly in all directions.

The ground of the training ground suddenly collapsed from the point of impact, and spiderweb-like cracks spread outwards, with the largest cracks reaching half a meter in width.

The soldiers in the stands were blown about by the shockwave, and those who were weaker were knocked unconscious by the aftershocks of the Conqueror's Haki.

Yamato gripped the railing at the edge of the training ground with one hand, her legs billowing in the wind, but the excitement in her eyes was almost overflowing:

"Here it comes—this is the real showdown!"

Barrett stood motionless in the shockwave, arms crossed, but a large, frightening smile had spread across his face:

"These two guys... they went all out from the very first strike."

Beckman, a cigarette dangling from his lips, the embers flickering in the shockwave.

He squinted at the two figures in the center of the training ground, and slowly exhaled a puff of smoke.

"They are almost identical."

The first cut resulted in each side taking three steps back.

The stone slabs beneath their feet were crushed, each footprint deeply embedded in the ground.

Shanks glanced down at his right hand, which was gripping the sword—a small gash had appeared on his hand from the clash of the blades, and beads of blood were seeping from the wound, but his smile only grew wider.

Roy glanced at his hand; it wasn't bleeding, but his entire right arm was slightly numb from the impact of the knife.

He had already activated 70% of his Armament Haki and Haki Bond, yet the power of Shanks's slash was able to penetrate his defenses and reach his body.

This level of strength is more than one level higher than when he fought Garp three years ago.

"Roy!"

Shanks laughed loudly, took a step forward, and the ground beneath his feet cracked.

"This strike is my thank-you gift for these three years of venturing into a new world!"

What I learned from Shiki, what I gleaned from Whitebeard, what I was taught by Kaido—catch it!

Griffin raised his hand high above his head, and Shanks' entire aura changed.

It's no longer the relaxed and carefree smile of before, but a more profound, magnificent, and domineering aura.

Conqueror's Haki coalesced on Griffin's blade, forming a massive, dark red phantom. The phantom's shape constantly shifted, displaying the arrogance of Shiki, the domineering presence of Whitebeard, and the ferocity of Kaido—

Three distinct auras were merged together in that single strike.

"God's Avoidance and Change—The Four Emperors Hunt!"

The blade fell.

This strike was devoid of any fancy techniques; it was simply a pure, unadulterated slash.

But as it cleaved downwards, the space itself twisted and deformed under the blade, and dark red arcs of electricity extended from the blade, tearing a crack a hundred meters long in the ground.

Wherever the crack passed, the stone slab was not cut open, but directly vaporized by the domineering force, and even the fragments were shattered into dust before they could fly away.

A red light flashed in Roy's eyes.

With his Observation Haki fully activated, he clearly saw the trajectory, landing point, power distribution, energy spread range, and potential for future variations of the attack.

Holding the sword in both hands, Qiu Shui held it horizontally in front of him, and the psychic field beneath his feet suddenly contracted, condensing into a semi-transparent barrier in front of him.

At the same time, Qiu Shui wielded his blade, striking repeatedly over a very short distance, each strike carrying relatively little force.

However, the strikes were all precisely aimed at the weakest points of the Divine Evasion's power.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Seven consecutive strikes, each one exploding into a ring of dark red shockwave.

After seven strikes, Shen Bi's sword momentum was abruptly cut off in the middle, the sword shadow dissipated, and the blade stopped less than an arm's length above Roy's head, unable to advance any further.

Roy swung his sword backhand, and Shusui drew a dark arc in the air, sweeping towards Shanks' side with a full-force attack wrapped in Conqueror's Haki.

Shanks laughed and drew his sword to defend, while Griffin stood to his side and took the blow from Shusui.

clang--!!!

The two swords clashed again, but this time Roy attacked while Shanks defended.

Shanks was jolted sideways by the blow, his feet carving two furrows, each over ten meters long, into the stone slab.

Raki Lu, standing on the sidelines, had forgotten to gnaw on his bone; he stared wide-eyed at the two figures clashing on the training ground.

He muttered to himself, "They're only stopping short? They're clearly trying to destroy the entire island..."

No one answered him. Everyone was focused on the center of the training ground.

That could no longer be called a "duel". It was two dark red storms colliding violently.

Griffin and Qiushui's swords clashed in the air, each strike exploding into a blinding dark red light, shockwaves spreading outwards in waves.

The ground of the training ground had been plowed over and over again, and was covered with knife marks and cracks.

In the fierce battle of hundreds of rounds, Shanks' swordsmanship was expansive and powerful, combining the arrogance of Shiki, the domineering spirit of Whitebeard, the ferocity of Kaido, and the divine evasion inherited from Roger. Every strike was upright yet extremely domineering.

Roy's fighting style is more precise and efficient. His telekinetic field allows him to predict Shanks' every strike, and his gravity suppression disrupts Shanks' movement rhythm.

His spatial teleportation allowed him to switch between offense and defense without any openings, and each strike of his Overlord's Autumn Water technique precisely landed on the weakest point in Shanks's sword technique.

In the 150th round, Shanks made the first change of tactics. He suddenly took a step back, creating distance, and Griffin stood in front of him, unleashing his Conqueror's Haki to its fullest extent.

The air in the entire training ground seemed to freeze, and the oppressive atmosphere made it hard for those in the stands who were slightly weaker to breathe.

Shanks closed his eyes, then suddenly opened them again.

In that instant, it seemed as if Roy was standing not with Shanks, but with Roger from back then.

"Roy."

Shanks' voice wasn't loud, but everyone heard it clearly.

"This strike is my promise to Captain Roger."

It is also my vow to this sea.

Caught it—

This is the fusion of all my swordsmanship and willpower, the ultimate technique of Shanks!