While Cyrus was marveling at Rayleigh's mastery, Rayleigh kept a perfectly stoic face, though inwardly, he was swearing up a storm.
First of all, Cyrus was a Devil Fruit user.
A Logia, to be exact.
But he wasn't even using his powers. Yet, the raw kinetic force behind Cyrus's sword swings was devastating.
Even though Rayleigh hadn't held back and had immediately used Conqueror's Coating, the actual damage he was inflicting was minimal.
He had successfully knocked Cyrus back with that first invisible strike, but the collision had confirmed his worst fears.
As a legendary pirate who had sailed the deadliest seas and fought against the greatest powerhouses in history, the only other person who had ever made Rayleigh's arms ache like this was the Emperor currently ruling Totto Land.
CLANG!
An ear-splitting crash echoed across the sea. Cyrus brought his longsword crashing down with terrifying momentum, meeting Rayleigh's Conqueror-coated blade head-on.
A massive, spherical shockwave exploded outward, instantly sending Rayleigh skidding backward across the gravel.
It really is the same feeling, Rayleigh groaned internally as he gracefully flipped backward, landing smoothly to dispel the kinetic force of the impact.
'This kid's physical talent is completely unnatural.'
He really, really hated fighting genetic freaks!
Looking up at Cyrus—who was currently radiating a genuinely astonishing amount of Conqueror's Haki without breaking a sweat—Rayleigh sighed heavily in his heart.
Opponents like this were an absolute nightmare to deal with.
Not only was their base combat power completely unfair, but their growth rate in the middle of a battle was always terrifying.
You could fight them for ten minutes, and by the end of it, their strength would have doubled.
"I'm still not getting the feel for it. Again!"
Seeing Rayleigh standing in the distance watching him warily, Cyrus didn't give the old man a second to breathe.
He kicked off the ground and charged like a raging bull.
His sheer speed brought him right into Rayleigh's face in the blink of an eye.
Rayleigh didn't try to dodge. He braced his feet and swung his sword in a brutal horizontal arc.
Once again, the steel of their blades never touched.
The overwhelming repulsive force of the Conqueror's Coating created a barrier of black lightning between their swords.
Having already tasted the power of that invisible barrier, Cyrus held absolutely nothing back. He forced every ounce of his Armament Haki into his blade, violently wrestling against the Dark King's Conqueror's Haki.
Wave after wave of destructive force radiated from their clash, completely atomizing the surrounding bedrock and sending massive boulders flying into the sky.
The roaring shockwaves made their coats whip wildly in the wind.
Amidst the absolute chaos, Cyrus completely calmed his mind, closing his eyes for a fraction of a second to sense exactly how Rayleigh was manipulating the flow of his Conqueror's Haki.
Truthfully, back when he had activated Unyielding during his duel with Hawkeye, Cyrus had actually managed to use Conqueror's Coating.
But that was only because of an overpowered system buff.
It was like standing in a torrential downpour—it was incredibly easy to catch a handful of water.
But right now, in his base state, it was like trying to catch water in a light drizzle.
He had the raw capacity, but he completely lacked the fine control necessary to force his Conqueror King Haki to flow into his sword.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The two men turned into nothing but violently clashing afterimages, completely wreaking havoc across the entire island.
The apocalyptic booming of their Haki never ceased for a single second, and every few moments, the intensity of the shockwaves would violently spike.
Massive, stray flying slashes carved through the island, effortlessly slicing cliffs in half and parting the sea.
Some of the slashes even flew all the way to the distant Red Line, leaving massive, jagged scars etched into the indestructible red rock.
...
Out on the ship.
Hawkeye and Issho stood perfectly still, their weapons drawn.
Whenever a stray slash came hurtling toward the Dunn Rose, one of the two monsters would effortlessly step forward and deflect it into the ocean.
All three crewmates were using their Observation Haki to closely monitor the battle tearing the island apart.
Of course, Robin's Haki was leagues behind the other two, so she could only vaguely sense the terrifying silhouettes clashing in the dust.
Hawkeye and Issho, who could "see" perfectly, wore incredibly grave expressions.
"To still possess this kind of world-ending strength at his age..." Robin whispered, tying back her dark hair that was violently whipping around in the gale-force winds.
"That is the Dark King. The bounties the World Government handed out in the previous era were not just for show," Hawkeye replied, not taking his golden eyes off the island.
"Whether Marine or Pirate, anyone who carved their name into the history of the seas during the old era is an absolute monster," Issho agreed, his knuckles turning white as he gripped his cane sword.
His unseeing eyes were locked onto the epicenter of the destruction.
"Is Cyrus going to win?" Robin asked nervously.
"Do you not have faith in your captain?" Hawkeye asked, glancing at her from the corner of his eye.
If Cyrus simply activated that hidden power of his, Rayleigh would definitely lose.
Hawkeye had felt that power firsthand—it was a force of nature that no normal human could ever hope to stand against.
"Of course I have faith in him!" Robin replied quickly.
"Don't worry, Robin. He is not fighting to win or lose today," Issho reminded her gently. "His sole objective is to steal the technique of Conqueror's Coating from the Dark King."
When survival wasn't the goal, winning or losing the spar was completely irrelevant.
Robin nodded slowly, relaxing a bit.
Suddenly, with a heavy thud, a News Coo with completely ruffled, singed feathers fell directly out of the sky and crashed onto the ship's deck, completely knocked out by the Haki pressure.
High above them, despite the danger, a few of the bravest News Coos were actually lowering their altitude to get better pictures.
One could only admire their insane dedication.
The professionalism of Morgans's birds was easily on par with seasoned war correspondents.
BOOM!
At the absolute center of the island, a massive dome of black lightning erupted, and the two combatants finally broke apart, skidding away from each other.
Rayleigh stood up straight, panting heavily.
Thick beads of sweat were trickling down his forehead, and his chest heaved.
Cyrus, on the other hand, looked perfectly fine.
His aura hadn't diminished in the slightest; if anything, the suffocating weight of his Haki had grown even stronger.
"You know... if you just wanted to learn the trick to it, I could have just given you a verbal lesson!" Rayleigh suggested between heavy breaths, eyeing the completely unfazed monster standing across from him.
"Oh? Can you guarantee I'd actually learn it that way?" Cyrus asked, tilting his head.
Rayleigh's face stiffened.
How could he possibly guarantee that? In his decades on the sea, he had met plenty of Conqueror's Haki users.
But the number of people who could actually master the flow of Coating could be counted on two hands.
Every single one of them was an Emperor-class threat.
"Yeah, looks like you can't. So this method is definitely faster. Let's keep going! I'm actually starting to get a feel for it. I think I just figured out a little trick to the flow," Cyrus said seriously, casually spinning the sword in his hand.
He didn't know if Rayleigh was holding back or just too proud to dodge, but the old man had actually been meeting his heaviest strikes completely head-on.
Cyrus had rarely encountered an opponent willing to brawl like that; the only other person who fought with that kind of blunt-force stubbornness was Garp.
BOOM!
The bedrock beneath Cyrus's boots violently exploded as he lunged at Rayleigh yet again.
'Kids these days... have way too much damn energy,' Rayleigh cursed internally, tightening his grip on his sword and bracing for impact.
But deep down, Rayleigh could feel his stamina rapidly draining.
Since the Roger Pirates had disbanded, he rarely fought seriously, let alone went all out against a top-tier monster.
When he was just coating ships and drinking, he didn't feel his age.
But today, fighting an opponent whose physical strikes were as absurdly heavy as Cyrus's, the reality of his aging body was painfully obvious.
However, realizing he was old was one thing. Actually admitting defeat was entirely out of the question.
Besides, looking at the manic grin on Cyrus's face, surrendering wouldn't stop the kid anyway.
Their blades clashed once again.
The explosion of Conqueror's Haki violently ripped through the atmosphere, generating massive, spiderweb-like arcs of black lightning.
For a split second, the sun seemed to dim, as if the very world was suffocating under the weight of their combined wills.
The only light left was the dazzling, blinding flash of supreme Haki tearing the sky apart.
Out on the sea, the three spectators bore the brunt of the shockwave.
Under the crushing weight of a true Emperor-level Haki clash, Robin fell to her knees, genuinely struggling to stay conscious.
Beside her, Issho and Hawkeye planted their feet firmly, their expressions deeply solemn as they physically resisted the shockwave of the world's absolute pinnacle of power.
High above, the remaining News Coos completely lost their battle against the pressure, squawking in terror as they were violently blown out of the sky and sent spiraling into the horizon.
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