On top of the ruins, icy cold and scorching flames tangled together, forming a warped curtain of white mist.
Kuzan's body lowered slightly as he slipped into a textbook fighting stance. Frost spread across the shattered ground at a speed visible to the naked eye, quickly forming a thick sheet of ice.
Those eyes of his that would one day look so lazy and half-asleep were now sharp as ice picks, nailed firmly onto Kael.
"Kael." Kuzan's voice was low, each word forced out between his teeth and steeped in bone-deep cold.
"Since we parted at Marineford, I have been training hard. Let me show you properly."
"Oh? If it isn't Kuzan." Kael finally lifted his gaze from the Den Den Mushi and casually tossed it back to the Marine captain who was still petrified with fear.
He wore his usual easygoing smile and even waved like he had just bumped into an old friend.
"Been a while. Still this hotheaded, huh. Young people really need to learn emotional control."
That one line was like a pot of hot oil thrown straight into the fire. A vein throbbed hard at Kuzan's temple.
At that moment, the sound of hurried footsteps came from all directions.
Hearing the commotion, more Marines in charge of "cleanup" converged on the spot, quickly surrounding the three of them.
When they saw the faces in the center of the encirclement, every last one of them sucked in a breath of cold air.
Fear is contagious.
Especially when the source of that fear is the man who had once turned Marineford upside down all by himself.
"It is… it is the Lord of Aura, Kael Grylls!"
"And Dracule 'Hawk Eyes' Mihawk and 'Shadow Magician' Gecko Moria!"
"What are they doing here?!"
Panic rippled through the ranks, but this time no one backed away.
The last time Kael crashed Marineford, he left many of the officers present with scars on their psyche. That humiliation had since been forged into fuel for brutal training.
To know shame and then grow from it. As elite Marines of Headquarters, they would not allow themselves to be as pathetic as they were back then.
"Everyone on guard! No one is allowed to retreat!" A Rear Admiral drew his sword with a ringing shing and barked the order, forcing down the cold sweat in his palms.
"There are only three of them. We have numbers, and Vice Admiral Kuzan is here. There is nothing to be afraid of!"
A colonel quietly slipped toward the rear and grabbed another Den Den Mushi, urgently contacting the flagship.
"Reporting, Vice Admiral Sakazuki! We have major hostile contact in the ruins of the west port! The Lord of Aura, Kael Grylls, Dracule 'Hawk Eyes' Mihawk, and 'Shadow Magician' Gecko Moria have all been confirmed present! I repeat, it is Kael and his group!"
Out on the sea, on the deck of the flagship, Sakazuki was coldly watching Ohara burn under the bombardment.
When he heard the urgent report through the Den Den Mushi, that rock-hard face of his finally twisted, expression shifting violently.
"Kael?" Sakazuki's voice rumbled like magma churning deep underground.
"Yes, sir. The information is confirmed!"
The instant the report was verified, a pressure even more massive and savage than the steel warship beneath his feet erupted from Sakazuki.
The nearby Marines were crushed by that sheer presence, nearly dropping to their knees.
Perfect.
He could use this Buster Call to purge this heinous criminal and his disruptive comrades in one stroke.
"All hands, heed my command. Maintain bombardment. Erase this 'island of demons' from the map."
Sakazuki issued his final order into the Den Den Mushi. Without another glance at those around him, his body detonated.
Boom.
His entire form turned into a roaring mass of magma, trailing black smoke like a living shell as he blasted off from the flagship. A burning tail of fire streaked across the sky, heading straight for the ruins of Ohara's west port.
On the island, the Rear Admiral's attempt at rousing morale was taking effect.
Officers shouted encouragement to one another. The fear in their eyes was slowly drowned beneath a fanatical battle lust.
"For justice!"
"Wipe out the evil of pirates!"
"Charge!"
Dozens of Marine officers roared, using their own voices to bolster their courage. Like a breached flood, they surged toward the three men.
Faced with this wave of charging "small fry," Kael did not even bother to raise an eyebrow.
Suddenly, a soaring streak of emerald sword aura flashed before the crowd.
Clang.
By the time they realized it, a deep, bottomless slash mark had already been carved into the ground between them and Kael. Wisps of razor-sharp sword energy still crackled along the scorched cut.
Mihawk had the black blade Yoru in hand without anyone noticing. He slowly sheathed the sword again, hawk-like gaze sweeping over the frozen Marines in front of him.
"Pathetic weaklings." His voice held no emotion at all.
"Try surviving my blade before you talk."
On the other side, facing the Marines attempting to flank from the opposite direction, Moria let out his signature eerie laugh.
"Gishishishishishi!"
He flung his arms out. The shadow at his feet seethed like boiling black water, surging outward in a frenzy. Countless twisted shadow bats and shadow soldiers rose from the darkness, forming a massive tide of living blackness.
Moria drew the long blade at his waist and stood amidst the churning shadows, like a demon god risen from the depths of hell.
"And what makes you mangy chickens and stray dogs think you are fit to even glimpse a king?"
With Mihawk and Moria guarding left and right, each blocking off one side of the Marine assault, the chaotic encirclement was forcibly cut apart by sheer power. In the blink of an eye, the battlefield split cleanly into three zones.
With all the pesky flies swatted aside, the center stage was left to just two men.
"Now we will not be disturbed," Kael tilted his head, smiling pleasantly. The expression only made Kuzan's fury burn hotter.
Kuzan said nothing. Haki gathered heavily on his right fist.
The next instant, both men vanished from where they stood.
Boom.
Two fists wrapped in jet-black Armament Haki collided like colliding meteors in the dead center of the ruins.
A deafening, ultra-heavy thud rang out, and a terrifying shockwave blasted outward from their point of impact in a perfectly circular wave.
The remaining stone beneath their feet was pulverized into dust. The already ruined walls and burning rubble around them were smashed to pieces a second time, hurled away in clouds of debris.
Their figures parted in an instant, only to clash again a heartbeat later.
Bang. Bang. Boom.
Within the ruins, only two blurred shadows could be seen weaving and slamming into each other again and again.
Every contact brought a thunderous boom and a violent tremor underfoot.
Kael's fists and feet were wide and open, his movements looking casual and unrestrained, yet somehow always arriving at the exact angle needed to shut down Kuzan's offense.
Kuzan's attacks, meanwhile, were like an eternal glacier bearing down. Heavy, relentless, and viciously precise, each strike carried a resolve to freeze Kael solid.
They fought from the shattered streets up onto piles of collapsed walls, then smashed straight through several crumbling buildings in a row. Stone and brick flew in all directions, leaving devastation in their wake.
"Ice Block: Partisan."
Kuzan seized on a tiny opening. Both hands flicked, and several gleaming ice spears formed in an instant, shooting at Kael from vicious angles.
Kael did not dodge. His body gave a slight tremor.
Condensed shockwaves gathered in front of him, forming an invisible wall of air.
The ice spears slammed into it one after another. With a crisp series of cracks, they all shattered into drifting shards.
Now.
Kuzan's figure flickered behind Kael like a ghost. His right fist, wrapped in a level of Armament Haki stronger than ever before and carrying bone-chilling cold, rocketed straight toward Kael's back with the weight of a mountain.
This punch carried years of Kuzan's blood and sweat.
Kael seemed to have predicted it. Before the icy fist reached him, his arms crossed in front of his chest.
Dong.
A deep, bell-like boom rang out.
Kael's body shot across the sky like a fired cannonball. He tumbled once in midair, then steadied himself.
His crossed forearms tingled slightly. A thin sheet of frost was creeping up his skin.
"Oh?"
Kael shook out his hands, scattering the cold, and a genuinely impressed grin flickered across his face.
"Not bad at all, Kuzan."
It sounded exactly like an elder praising a promising junior. Kuzan, just striding out of the dust cloud, went an even darker shade of black in response.
He did not waste his hard-won advantage. With a powerful stomp, he kicked off the ground and soared into the sky, drawing a cold blue arc as he chased after Kael to press the attack.
In an instant, the two had left the ruins of the port behind and risen into the air over Ohara's western shore.
Beneath them, the sea churned and roared. In the distance, the Buster Call fleet continued its relentless bombardment.
"Hoo…"
High in the air, Kuzan exhaled a long, visible stream of white vapor.
Crack… crack crack crack…
The sound of freezing water grinding against itself rose from the sea below and spread outward at terrifying speed.
In just a few breaths, with the space beneath them as the center, the surging waves for several kilometers around froze solid, turning into a vast, mirror-smooth sheet of ice.
Only after this did Kuzan's body begin to fall. Kael halted his retreat as well, descending toward the newly formed battlefield.
Thud. Thud.
Two heavy impacts sounded almost in unison as they landed on the ice. The surface beneath their feet was as hard as forged steel, not a single crack appearing.
No words. No pre-fight staredown.
The moment their boots touched ice, their bodies blurred again as they shot forward and crashed into one another with savage force.
This was a battle between men.
Every punch landed, every strike met flesh. Blood ran hot.
With every clash of fists, white shockwaves billowed across the vast ice field, rolling visibly over the frozen surface. Even the air around them seemed to whine under the strain.
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