'Why did it have to be this guy?!' I was gazing at the incredibly tall, slim, yet muscular man. He has black, curly hair cut to chin length that fans out at the tips, tanned skin, and an altogether lean, long build. He was wearing a dark blue bandana with a white Marine symbol on it, as well as a pair of black round sunglasses, as well as an indigo coat with the Marine emblem on the left chest.
Standing at around 3 meters tall, I was looking like a child in front of him.
"Hoi Shanks!...We're in trouble" I said, standing in my place while gripping one of my two swords tensely.
"I know…" Shanks was also looking nervous.
I could sense his strength. He is way stronger than both of us, but I wasn't going to run away, at least not until the crew prepare the ship and are safely away from this island.
"I hate to interrupt, but I have some orders to bring both of you back to the HQ with me" Kuzan calmly said with his hands in his pocket, he looked genuinely relaxed about the situation "Could you calmly turn yourselves?".
'That laid back attitude…He doesn't consider us a threat' I though as I unsheathed one of my swords. Shanks also proceeded to take out his weapon.
"Mah…I didn't except you to do that anyway" He said while scratching the back of his head "If I remember correctly one of you have a logia power, it was ahhhh…Let me think…I forgot…Never mind, I just have freeze both of you" He said while freezing the ground underneath him and lowering the temperature of the air, before he stretched his right arm towards us and solidified the cold air launching a fast wave of ice towards us.
"Ice Ball!"
"He did it!" Shanks quickly jumped back while Ashen stood in his place gathering fire inside his mouth and proceeded to breath it out into a huge conical fire blast.
The attack met Kuzan's ice, and they canceled each other.
"Arara! It was a fire logia, a match from heaven" Kuzan looked at the figure in front of him wrapped in fire, before Shanks appeared next to him swinging his sword at his neck.
The former effortlessly blocked the attack with his right arm and attempted to freeze him but luckily Shanks retracted his frozen sword in time and jumped back next to Ashen.
"He's also a logia you should use Haki" Ashen stated before he shot his flames around Shanks sword and melted the ice.
"Thanks!"
"Ototo! Did I hear Haki right there? You shouldn't be knowledgeable about that at this stage…Well, more reasons to capture you right here" Kuzan proceeded to create several spears of ice and then launched them towards them.
"Ice Block…Partisan!"
Shanks used his swords to redirect them and Ashen did the same while coating his with fire. Though the spears were very fast they had to use observation haki.
"It seems that this isn't going to be as simple as I thought" Kuzan said, before he suddenly disappeared and reappeared again in front of Shanks stretching both his hands in an attempt to grab him and freeze him, but the later used his haki coated sword to slash at him.
Kuzan dodged it easily and kick Shanks from the side, but Ashen quickly intersected the attack with his high speed and crossed both of his haki coated arms in front of him while imbuing them with fire at the same time.
He managed to avoid being frozen, but the kick was so strong that it sent him crashing at Shanks, eventually sending them both crashing into a building.
"That's Armament Haki…No wonder Sengoku-san is wary of you. this is the first time I see rookies with such a terrifying potential"
"Damn it! He's so strong!" Ashen exclaimed as he got on his feet. Shanks did the same and without wasting any time he lunged at Kuzan, thrusting his sword at his chest which the later dodged before he picked up a few rocks from the ground and froze them into a large sword.
"Now we're equal" Kuzan coated his ice sword with black armament, and they proceeded to clash with each other.
"*Clang*-*Clang*…*Clang*-*Clang*" The sound of their sword clash echoed through the empty street.
"You're pretty strong!...But, it's still early for you to fight against me" Kuzan said as he proceeded to quickly freeze the ground underneath them while slowly freezing Shanks legs at same time.
Unfortunately for him Ashen quickly interrupted him midway, releasing strong heat from his body causing the ice wrapping Shanks legs to melt, while gathering flames around him before he proceeded to launch a strong torrent of fire.
"Shanks watch out!"
"I know!" Shanks moved back to avoid being hit by Ashen's flames, waiting for the opportunity to strike again.
"Ice Block…Pheasant Beak!" Kuzan released a massive wave of ice in the shape of a pheasant in a single blast to meet Ashen's attack. Just before they collided Shanks took the opportunity to strike Kuzan while he was distracted.
He jumped in the air and threw a several fast consecutive projectile wind slashes at him before he landed behind him and thrusted his sword multiple times consecutively, aiming to stab his vital points.
*BOOOM* just as Kuzan's ice and Ashen flames clashed, they caused a huge explosion. The former had to quickly shift his attention to Shanks and his upcoming attacks. He sidestepped to avoid the projectile sword slashes and then used his observation to dodge the thrust attacks.
Ashen didn't stop right there and quickly used Soru with his fire to launch himself at Kuzan at an incredible speed.
"Take This!" Ashen screamed as he suddenly appeared behind Kuzan, which took him by surprise. He hardened his arms with Haki while imbuing them with fire and proceeded to throw a barrage of punches at him while using Tekkai before Impact to increase his power.
"Haaaaa!!!"
Shanks also used the opportunity since he got distracted and launched a fast thrust attack. Kuzan realized his mistake and sent a wave of ice along the ground forcing Shanks to back away after that.
"Oh my! That was close...It seems that I underestimated you so much, your teamwork is quite impressive" he said looking at the small cut in his lower left abdomen caused by Shanks.
"Ashen, let's work together!"
"Ah! we don't stand a chance otherwise"
"Kuzan-san!" A few marine soldiers appeared in the battlefield.
"You guys are here! Go tell the others to find and confiscate the ships of these two…I'll take care of them in the mean while" He ordered his man before turning back to us.
"Hai!"
"Now, shall we continue our little fight?...Unfortunately, I don't have the time to play with you anymore, so I'm going to have to get serious from now on!" He declared before launching himself at Ashen kicking him in the stomach the later tried to dodge but Kuzan's observation is in another level and easily predicted that and managed to hit him eventually, sending him flying a few meters back.
"*COUGH*-*COUGH*…Fuck!" Ashen threw a mouthful of blood while holding his stomach on his knees. The attack dealt a lot of damage to him, since it was imbued with a strong Armament Haki.
When Shanks saw that he quickly stepped in only to get his head smashed down on the ground as well. Ashen knew that Kuzan was going to freeze him after that, so he quickly gathered flames on his right fist and launched them as a dense fire column.
"Hiken!"
Kuzan easily countered by sending a huge wave of ice.
After that the battle turned from nearly equal to completely one sided, we didn't stand any chance and Kuzan destroyed us individually, and he didn't leave us the chance to work together. On top of that his haki is just too strong to be compared to us. Though we did manage to land a few hits but nothing serious.
Me and Shanks were both laying on the ground covered in injuries and bruises.
"Even both of us can't fight against him equally" Shanks looked in a deplorable condition.
"You did well getting this far. But, this is it for you"
"Don't make me laugh!...I'm not going down like this!" I shouted at him.
"You're going to have to do more than that if you want to take us down!" Shanks declared with a huge smirk in his face.
"Oh my! You still have some strength in you. I'll have to end this right now"
'I'm not going down like this!... I'm not going down like this!' I kept screaming this sentence in my head, as I was starting to get angry. Angry at my self for being such a weakling, angry at the situation and even more angry at the man in front of me who just humiliated us.
I was never pushed back like this, nor ever faced a danger like this before.
I clenched my teeth as I wiped the blood from my forehead.
"I, Ashen Captain of The Ashen Pirates, have a dream…One day, I will erase the remnant of the old era, and become the strongest pirate…The Emperors, the Admirals…" I slowly got on my feet again, soaked in blood "I'll use their corpses as a steppingstone to achieve my goals" I said as my bulging forehead veins became more visible.
"That's some big talk right there, but…can you even guaranty yourself leaving this place?"
"I will either do that, or die trying...and if I do, you better prepare yourselves" I said in deep tone of voice, as I gaze at Kuzan with a furious face.
"Because I will show you hell!" As I declared loudly, I felt a strong energy wrapping around my body before it burst out in all directions, causing both Shanks and Kuzan to look at me in complete shock.
"Haoshoku…Haki?"