"Hahaha, looks like your monster Vice Admiral is about to be beaten down by our captain!" Raelmann burst into laughter.
While fending off Doberman's attack, Raelmann couldn't help but laugh heartily as he witnessed Sakazuki being slammed into the ground by Rosinante's devastating blow. The force of the strike cracked and collapsed the ground, forming a massive crater.
Raelmann bore a deep hatred for Sakazuki. It was Sakazuki's Meteor Volcano that had inflicted heavy casualties on the Second Division. Seeing him get thrashed was pure catharsis—Raelmann was absolutely thrilled.
"You'd better worry about yourself first! Sakazuki isn't someone that easy to defeat!" Doberman growled darkly.
"You guys aren't gonna do anything to me!" Raelmann retorted coldly.
Despite his bravado, facing two top-tier Vice Admirals was no easy task. Thankfully, with his wounds stabilized by the Silent Seal and boosted punching speed from the Jet Dial, he managed to hold his ground in a deadlock against Onigumo and Doberman.
The two Vice Admirals were also well aware that defeating Raelmann in a short time wasn't feasible. His explosive abilities were no joke—if they weren't careful, they could end up getting seriously hurt. So they approached the fight with great caution.
"Rosinante!!" came a furious roar from within the sunken crater caused by Rosinante's earlier attack.
With that voice, waves of scalding magma erupted upward. From within that molten torrent emerged a figure—his entire body formed of magma.
Sakazuki had truly been enraged by Rosinante's assault. Consumed by fury, he let go of all restraint, turning his whole body into molten rock. With a guttural roar, both of his magma fists launched an all-out Great Eruption.
The two magma-formed fists surged forward, blazing with explosive heat, slamming straight toward Rosinante.
Rosinante could feel it—the magma Sakazuki released now was even more scalding and intense than before.
"Sakazuki…" Rosinante chuckled coldly. He raised his arms, both reinforced with Armament Haki, and slammed his palms into the oncoming magma fists.
With the clash, waves of Silent Force surged from Rosinante's hands, neutralizing the raging magma on impact.
"Rosinante… I'm a Logia-type. You think I'd lose to a battle of endurance? Let's see which comes first—you taking me down, or me exhausting you!" Sakazuki's upper body emerged from the molten mass, his bloodshot eyes glaring hatefully at Rosinante.
Blood streamed from Sakazuki's forehead—a clear testament to the sheer power behind that earlier hammer blow.
"You are a Logia, sure… but I'm not just using my own strength." Rosinante smirked.
He raised his hands again. A massive surge of Silent Force swept outward, absorbing the violent energy of the magma and even the eruptive force behind it.
With a sudden push of both hands, Rosinante unleashed the absorbed power—now fused with his own strength—crashing it all back toward Sakazuki like a tidal wave.
The immense recoil shook Sakazuki's colossal magma body and knocked him backward.
"Don't even think about it!!" Sakazuki roared, forcing himself up again and charging once more at Rosinante.
That last hit had opened his mouth in another spurt of blood, but he powered forward nonetheless, relentlessly attacking.
Rosinante met him head-on with another explosive punch.
Fist met fist. Tremendous force rippled outward from their clash, shaking the ground around them even more violently.
Rosinante's footing cracked under the pressure as he resisted the overwhelming force transmitted from Sakazuki's fists.
"Logia-types really are troublesome," Rosinante muttered with a smile.
"I'm a Logia user—borrowing my power won't deal much damage to me," Sakazuki sneered.
"Yeah? Then what's that leaking from your mouth? Lava?" Rosinante smirked.
"That's just some excess magma, nothing more," Sakazuki stubbornly denied.
"Sure it is… your magma's looking awfully red today," Rosinante said, chuckling.
"You're not walking out of here alive today!" Sakazuki growled, lunging again.
"I don't plan to go head-to-head with you all day," Rosinante replied, shifting into a Tai Chi stance.
After all, Sakazuki wasn't the only enemy today. Behind him stood even stronger foes—Sengoku, Garp, and the Fleet Admiral Kong.
Rosinante knew he wasn't delusional enough to think he could defeat all of them. But if he could stall them, even for a while—then today would be a victory.
His hands flowed gently, slow and graceful, yet they parried Sakazuki's wild barrage of attacks.
With a deft twist, Rosinante opened a path through Sakazuki's guard and slammed a Crumbling Punch Critical Strike straight into his chest.
The attack's powerful penetration force pierced through Sakazuki's abdomen and shot out his back, making him vomit blood again and again.
Yet Sakazuki's durability was beyond anything Rosinante had expected.
Punch after punch, the Crumbling Strikes pounded his body, but they simply couldn't knock him down. With that monstrous physique of his, Rosinante began to realize—he could fight all day and still not bring Sakazuki down.
"What a headache... I should've known. Once someone reaches Admiral-level, their body has already surpassed normal human limits. Their physique and recovery are off the charts!" Rosinante muttered grimly.
In the world of One Piece, elite fighters often battled for days on end. That's because their bodies had evolved past ordinary human limits—their very life force had ascended to a higher tier.
Once someone reached that level, ordinary attacks did little to affect them.
Rosinante's Crumbling Punch Critical Strikes could easily leave a Vice Admiral half-dead, but against a monster like Sakazuki—whose life essence had clearly reached that next tier—the same attacks barely left a mark.
That's why there was such a massive gap between Admiral-level and those just below it.
After ascending to Admiral-level, Sakazuki's life force had undergone a qualitative leap. Not only had his body become tougher, but his regenerative power had multiplied several times over. He now had the vitality of a cockroach.
Though Rosinante's strikes were injuring him, Sakazuki's monstrous regeneration was healing much of the damage almost instantly.
"I can't keep dragging this out with you..." Rosinante murmured.
He instantly suppressed the self-imposed limits of his body with Silent Force.
"Crumbling Punch—Limit Break! Infinite Strikes!!"
He swatted Sakazuki's arm aside, clenched both fists, and launched a flurry of devastating punches.
Each and every strike was a Crumbling Punch Limit Break, hammering Sakazuki's magma body in rapid succession...