The battle between the Red Flag Pirates and the Roger Pirates lasted for the entire afternoon, and York also fought Roger in a deathmatch for the entire afternoon.
Roger panted heavily as he stood before York.
Using full-body Conqueror's Coating was still somewhat of a burden for him. After all, he wasn't a Zoan user, and his physical constitution hadn't reached the absurd level of Kaido, the future Strongest Creature.
Opposite Roger, York wasn't actually doing much better.
The stamina consumption of Fruit Awakening was no less than that of full-body Conqueror's Coating.
Moreover, York's fruit had only recently transformed from Paramecia to Zoan. The boost to his physique was still developing and couldn't provide much help yet.
Although York possessed the ability to absorb others' vitality to recover, Roger wouldn't just watch him recover.
Even if he couldn't prevent it beforehand, interrupting it was still doable.
Thus, after an afternoon of fighting, the two were evenly matched, neither possessing the ability to kill the other in a short time.
York's other awakening mode might have been able to do it, but the battleground was on his ship!
Even disregarding the damage to the ship, he had to consider the casualties of his crew.
Coincidentally.
The battle between Kaido and Gaban was much the same.
The current Kaido was still quite a bit weaker than Gaban, who was now in his prime.
But relying on the super-high HP, super-high defense, and self-healing ability granted by the Azure Dragon Fruit, Gaban couldn't do much to Kaido in a short time either.
In these two high-end battlefields, the two pirate crews were barely fighting to a draw.
Apart from these two high-end battlefields, on the other battlefields, the two sides were surprisingly also neck and neck.
Of course, this didn't mean the true combat power of both pirate crews was equal.
Although the Red Flag Pirates had numbers, with nearly 5,000 members on one ship.
To put it bluntly, among these 5,000 people, the only high-end combatants were York and Kaido.
The rest—Dragon, Stussy, Shakky, Ivankov, Kuma, Ginny, and the newly recruited Supernova Maga—were all a tier or even several tiers lower in strength.
In contrast, the Roger Pirates were approaching their peak strength.
Except for a few members like Shanks, Buggy, Bullet, Crocus, and Kozuki Oden, all other named crew members were basically present.
If the Roger Pirates really wanted to kill, probably only the officers and apprentices of the Red Flag Pirates could survive relying on Ginny's Barrier-Barrier Fruit; everyone else would die.
The reason it was a draw now was entirely because the Roger Pirates intended it to be so.
One reason was that this was the Roger Pirates' style.
Facing pirate crews they had friendly relations with, they generally wouldn't fight to the death unless Roger gave the order.
Another reason was Shakky.
Although Shakky had become a married woman, the charm of a mature woman was actually far more deadly than that of a young girl.
Even though they all knew they had no chance with her, they still couldn't help but be infatuated, willingly getting knocked out by her fragrant kicks.
And then there was Rayleigh.
After killing some Red Flag pirates to vent his resentment, he actively cooperated with Dragon to fight to a draw.
Otherwise, an unrestricted Rayleigh could single-handedly slaughter thousands of Red Flag pirates.
Roger glanced at the battle on the deck out of the corner of his eye and panted heavily as he said to York: "Let's stop here. What do you say? It's getting dark. It's dangerous to drift at sea without anchoring!"
York gave a soft snort, slightly displeased.
But he also knew that the current Red Flag Pirates were simply not a match for the Roger Pirates.
Even if he had a high probability of killing Roger in the end, if his crew all died, the loss would outweigh the gain.
So York accepted Roger's suggestion.
"Fine, let's leave it at this for now. The true victory will be decided later."
Just like that, under the orders of both captains, the fighting on the Red Flag gradually ceased.
Both sides gathered their wounded and arranged for ship doctors to treat them.
After a tally, surprisingly, not a single person had died on either side.
Needless to say for the Roger Pirates; they were an elite crew, few in number but individually fierce.
As for no one dying on the Red Flag Pirates' side, it was purely because the Roger Pirates deliberately didn't finish them off.
Regarding this, York and the entire upper echelon of the Red Flag Pirates truly felt the gap in strength between the two crews.
"Learn from shame and become brave!"
"One day, we will make others feel lucky that they and their comrades weren't killed by us!!"
Night.
The Red Flag and the Oro Jackson anchored together at a nearby uninhabited island.
Then, unsurprisingly.
The two pirate crews held a lively banquet on the island.
York had his left arm around Shakky and his right around Stussy, attracting gazes filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred.
Especially from Roger and Rayleigh.
The former gritted his teeth in hatred, constantly grinding his teeth on bone-in meat, crunching and swallowing even the bones.
The latter kept sighing and drinking alone in depression.
Blame it on being a step too late at God Valley. Sometimes, being a step slow means being a lifetime late.
Looking at their bitter faces, York's gloomy mood from his crew being inferior instantly vanished.
So what if my subordinates aren't as strong as yours!
I am the true winner in life!!
Subordinates' strength can be caught up, but missing out on the woman you love means missing out for a lifetime!!
...
A night passed without incident.
Early the next morning.
York woke up in the Mirror World with his arms around Shakky, and the depressed faces of Roger and Rayleigh inexplicably appeared in his mind again.
So he rolled over and once again pressed onto Shakky, who was still in a daze.
8:00 AM.
For York, who didn't have a habit of sleeping in, this was actually a bit late.
So when he reappeared in front of Roger, Rayleigh, and the others with his arm around Shakky, their faces instantly darkened again.
Obviously, as veteran pirates, they figured out the reason for York and Shakky's late rising.
And this reason caused them so much heartache.
To avoid suffering this torture any longer, and also out of 'out of sight, out of mind', Roger and his crew proposed to leave.
York naturally had no intention of keeping them.
Thus, the two pirate crews met hurriedly at sea, fought a hurried encounter battle, held a hurried banquet, and finally parted hurriedly.
It was as if the Roger Pirates had nothing better to do and made this trip on purpose.
After the Roger Pirates sailed away, the Red Flag Pirates set sail again as well.
After briefly visiting yesterday's wounded, York traveled through Stussy's Mirror World again, crossing countless distances to appear on the MADS research ship, which was still in the first half of the Grand Line.
Finding Vegapunk, York got straight to the point.
"Can you make me a light bulb that emits golden light?"
"Or amplify the light I release into golden light?"
<><><><><><>
Read Advanced Chapters on: patreon.com/Anna_N1
~Every 150 PS = Bonus Chapter!
~Push the Story forward with your [Power Stones]