chapter 85

"And you're supposed to be my match then?" I asked with a provocative smirk as I launched myself towards the rear admiral.

I quickly coated my blade with Haki again before meeting the rear admiral's own gigantic sword that similarly Haki-coated as well.

"Who the hell are you -Dara?" Bastille asked with a scowling expression, looking me in the eye as our blades met, pushing one another. "Why are you attacking us -Dara?" he added as we both began putting more strength into our swords, trying to break the stalemate.

"Some cp9 agents attacked my companions simply because they are related to me," I replied as I purposefully let his sword push mine back, using Kami-e to dodge his swing.

"So I'm venting my anger on you marines, simply because you're related to the cp9 agents as well since I couldn't find them," I lied shamelessly, trying to cover for Kumadori and Fukurou, successfully dodging his attack and retaliating with a diagonal slash from below.

"Are you trying to challenge the world government, you crazy bastard - Dara?" the rear admiral asked with a scowling expression as he hastily dodged my attack by taking a step backward.

"I'm not challenging the world government," I replied with a smirk as I jumped backward as well, retrieving my gun and firing three Haki-coated bullets in bastille's direction.

The rear admiral reacted quickly, putting his gigantic sword in front of him to shield his body from the bullets. Still, the shots were merely a distraction as I used Soru, arriving behind him, the sword in my hand already in a swinging motion, aiming at his side.

"The world's government is challenging me, and I'm only responding in kind," I concluded, a smirk still on my face as I swung my sword.

The rear admiral reacted just as fast this time as well, turning around and slashing his sword at me sideways thanks to his Observation Haki, causing me to have no choice but to use Kami-e to dodge again.

Still, the forceful way the rear admiral had turned around to swing his sword at me, combined with the centrifugal force generated by the weight of his sword, left his sides wide open for me to counter-attack.

I swing my sword at the Bastille's Haki-coated side at incredible speed, trying to cleave him in two, but his hardening Haki was strong enough to stop that, so I only ended up cutting deep enough to nick one of his kidneys.

To his credit, the masked vice-admiral merely grunted in pain as he swung his sword at me again, but I didn't dodge because I noticed something from the corner of my eye.

I Hastily met his sword with mine, taking a step backward to ease some of the pressure generated by my unsteady posture, resuming the stalemate as I looked the vice admiral in the eye, or mask hole in this case.

Suddenly, the rear admiral turned to the side with gritted teeth as Byron came soaring through the sky in his hybrid form, aiming straight for the marine ship's mainmast.

"Where the hell do you think you're looking?" I asked with a scowl as I removed one of my hands from Satori's hilt and took a step forward, channeling my impact fist through it and burying it in the rear admiral's stomach.

I quickly unleashed my Conquerors Haki, knocking out most of the marines on the ship that we're trying to shoot down Byron. Still, some of them remained standing, but they weren't enough to stop the blonde musician.

Watching as Byron cleanly cleaved through the marine ship's main mast with his flaming wings, I smirked as I charged towards the rear admiral, who steadied himself with blood leaking from his metallic mask.

"It seems that I have been too careless -Dara," the rear admiral remarked, wiping the blood leaking from his mask. "But now the ship is already crippled. There's no longer a need for me to hold back -Dara," he concluded, swinging his blade in Bryon's direction.

The air pressure from his swing alone created a transparent sword slash, heading directly towards the blonde musician, causing me to launch myself into the air, towards Byron, gripping his shoulder and tossing him away for the slash's trajectory.

"Go and guard the ship now, and tell Bob to make his way towards the island, just in case," I stated as I swung my blase at the flying sword slash. "It looks like I'll have to end this fight quicker than I'd liked," I concluded with a smirk as I pushed back the sword slash, sending it towards one of the ship's masts.

"Understood, captain," Byron replied with no hesitation as he turned around and began flying towards the black pearl.

"Now then," I remarked as I turned to look down at the vice-admiral standing on the marine ship's deck. "I can't have you destroy this ship since I intend to loot it after the fight," I said, activating berserk, my skin turned red, with steam coming out of my pores.

"So it looks like I'll have to cut this fight short," I concluded as I launched myself towards the masked rear admiral.

"I don't know what kind of trick you just used, but it won't do you any good -Dara," the rear admiral replied, launching himself into the air, gigantic sword in hand.

It only took us a couple of seconds to be within striking range of each other, and we both swung our blades at the same time, pushing ourselves forward with geppo.

The rear admiral lived up to both his soon-to-be rank and his size, managing to keep up with me in terms of brute strength despite his disadvantageous position.

Still, he did not last long as I began to rapidly increase the pace of my Geppo steps while putting more and more strength into my arms, sending him flying towards the ship's deck.

I quickly used a mixture of Soru and Geppo to appear on the ship's deck before the rear admiral crashed into it. I then channeled my impact fist through my hand, striking him squarely in the back before he impacted the ship's deck while holding him in place with the other hand.

The rear admiral grunted in pain as several of his back bones cracked with a sickening crunch, but he gritted his teeth and spun himself in the air to get rid of my grip and turned around to face, sending his a huge fist directly at my chest.

Looking at his approaching fists, I smirked, activating Tekkai and coating my chest with Haki to tank the incoming attack. The rear admiral's fist landed on my chest with the force of a truck, sending me sliding backward while driving out the air in my lungs.

Still, the force of his punch and the forceful way he spun himself in the air seemed to have put a lot of strain on his cracked back bones, causing him to stagger.

I took advantage of that, quickly appearing in front of him by using Soru, my hand shooting towards his face at incredible speeds, gripping his mask, and unleashing a Haki-infused impact wave.

The shock wave shot through the rear admiral's head, emerging from the other side and hitting the marine ship's last mast, causing it to collapse as well.

The force of the shock wave also injured the rear admiral, causing him to bleed from all of the orifices on his head and disorienting him, which left him open to further attacks.

I capitalized on that, hammering him with more Haki-infused shock waves until he ended up laying unconsciously on the crippled marine ship's deck.

The few remaining marine officers, who weren't knocked unconscious by my Haki earlier, threw themselves at me as well, trying to take advantage of an opening that honestly didn't exist.

I, of course, proceeded to beat them within an inch of their lives and then broke the marine ship's galver (steering wheel), just in case.

'I should go and check on how the others are doing on the island now,' I thought to myself after destroying the galver, picking up the unconscious rear admiral, and making my way towards the deserted island.

(Author's note: discord gg/sEtqmRs5y7 <—- the link to my discord server. It already has a couple of awesome guys with memes and constant discussions about one piece)