Chapter 49 Daz vs Mihawk

Hundreds of pirates that were in the boat and that managed to latch on to the boat jumped off and started charging towards the platform. Paul had to take a moment to gather his energy from shielding most of the pirates from Akainu's attack. He sat on top of the entrapment and gathered his energy back together. Nothing major should be happening until Ace is freed so he could just have front row seats to his favorite anime right here, of course he was also looking out for his crew members in case they need help but with their strength they shouldn't be seriously injured unless they face off against someone on the admiral level.

Things began to proceed like what happened in the cannon. Whitebeard has now officially joined the battle and is fighting against numerous elite navy soldiers as Luffy passes out and is being treated by the doctors as Ivankov gathers to his location. Paul moved closer to the ledge as he swung his legs in anticipation after all, this was his favorite arc to watch and the pivotal point in Luffy and his crew's life.

Things began to unfold slowly as he saw Luffy got up when Ivankov dosed him with another vitality boost and jumped back into the fight. It wasn't long after until Paul was quickly forgotten as the admirals found their respective opponents among the whitebeard pirates. Because of this and because he was starting to get bored, he pointed his finger at the elite navy soldiers and just started firing at random waiting for someone to come fight him too. He continued this for several minutes until the war finally escalated as Luffy used his conqueror's haki and was already making his way to Ace as the whitebeard captains started to make a safe pathway.

Once Ace and Luffy was free, they began to flee and quickly met Aokiji after going through several elite navy soldiers. Paul has been wanting a rematch with Aokiji for a while now so he jumped down and headed towards Aokiji.

Just as Ace was about to face off against Aokiji, Paul appeared before him and said, " I got this Ace. Since the two look tired and weak, I'll take this one and have you owe me another one."

As Paul was talking to the two, he heard Aokiji call out, " Pheasant Beak" And a huge ice bird started to form. Seeing this Paul laughed as he transformed and accumulated fire and lighting into his breath and then blew it towards the large ice bird.

Once the collision occurred, the breath attack quickly demolished the pheasant beak and hit Aokiji, causing him to guard against the attack and sliding a few feet back. Shaking his head, Paul said, " Aokiji, what's this? Is this the limit of your power? I guess you are getting too old and can't get any stronger than you are now. Since our last battle, my strength has grown. Pretty soon you won't be a match against me hahaha."

Aokiji frowned as he started to get serious, " Ara Ara~, That was only because I didn't want to harm any innocent bystanders. Are you sure you don't want help from your crew mates?"

Paul laughed, " Well, I am only here to assist the old whitebeard and Ace, so let me get an accurate gauge on my strength for now."

With that being said, the two dashed at each other with extreme speed. Even though Aokiji's specialty wasn't speed, with his physical strength and training, he wasn't far off from Kizaru.

With fire and lighting covering his body, Paul and Aokiji clashed for several minutes and with time going by, Aokiji was feeling some of the heat and was getting pushed back. If Ace could slightly have an advantage with just devil fruit power superiority then Paul could do the same.

During Paul's clash with Aokiji, Paul was trying to keep a look out on Ace because he knew he will soon confront with Akainu and tragic events will soon occur.

On cue as Whitebeard began his last stand as he stopped Squard's boat and crew from trying to sacrifice and buy time for their escape and yelled out, " I'm a remnant of the old times! There is no ship that can bear me in the new era!" With his arm hitting towards the Navy HQ and cracks appearing in the air, " Go, you guys!!"

With each attack between Paul and Aokiji, it blew back several elite marines who tried to sneak attack Paul. Even though Paul had an elemental advantage against Aokiji and was successfully pushing him back, Paul was going all out since the start and was getting tired, while Aokiji looks like he was still able to continue and was just waiting for Paul to slip up.

Paul jumped high into the air and then flew down at a fast speed as he punched the ground with his full strength causing several debris to fly everywhere hitting the surrounding marines, However, the debris just went through Aokiji, but this wasn't the main point of this attack. With the ground being smashed to pieces and the debris flying everywhere, it also caused dust to rise in the air and cover the area Aokiji and Paul were fighting at, Paul used this chance to conceal his intentions from Aokiji. He doesn't know how Aokiji's observation haki works and if he picks out people from certain intentions but Paul had to think of something or else he won't have enough stamina to save Ace.

Paul quickly deactivated his devil fruit transformation and hovered slightly in the air and began moving behind Aokiji who stood there trying to sense him. Standing slightly at a distance behind Aokiji, he noticed that Aokiji didn't look behind him so he saw that as his chance. He coated his arm in haki and flew towards Aokiji's back and swung his fist with his full strength. Once the attack landed, it blew Aokiji across the field freezing everything that he touched.

Paul smiled, " So that's the case."

He noticed that Aokiji barely made it in time when he coated his back with haki taking most of the blow but, still being caught from the back and not preparing enough to manage the power behind Paul's punch. From Paul's calculations, Aokiji is able to sense ill intent and fighting intent from a user. Paul erupted in fighting intent once his punch was about to hit Aokiji.

Aokiji slowly got up as blood trickled from his nose and mouth. He looked towards Paul who had a satisfied smile on his face and frowned as he wasn't able to take the punch fully. Paul's punched had indeed caught him off guard.

----

Daz and Mihawk was battling each other fiercely as sword flashes flew between the two. The fight between them has allowed Daz to see the slight disadvantage he had against Mihawk. During this whole time training his body and devil fruit, he was trying to learn what it truly meant to be a swordsman. Living his life as an assassin, it was hard trying to switch things up. Frankly being an assassin suited him best, but with learning the strength that a real swordsman had and was able to cut him has caused him to think carefully about his strength and how to also achieve that kind of strength. With his opponent being the strongest swordsman there is, he wanted to use this chance to gauge what it means to be the strongest swordsman.

Mihawk, " From being an assassin/bounty to a pirate, what made you join him. Is there something special about Bratley D. Paul besides his strength? "

Daz leaped back and crossed his arms together, transforming them into blades, " He let me see my limits and brought me to stronger world."

Mihawk, " I see."

The two went at it. Daz wanted to fight Mihawk in pure swordsmanship so he didn't use any special moves. In this, he also noticed that Mihawk was just fighting him with his sword and haki and besides sword waves, it was just a pure clash of sword fighting which made him glad.

However, as the fighting went on, more scars began to appear on his body. With the accumulating damage, he knew that Mihawk was going easy on him and his level of armament haki was a lot stronger than his. Even clad in haki and a body made of steel, it was no use against someone who doesn't need haki to cut his body in the first place.

Daz didn't want to prolong the fight longer as he knew that he stood no chance against Mihawk. He knew the war was near its peak and needed to gather his crew together and reunited with Paul. After all, their ship was still in the clouds and some of his crewmates can't fly yet.

Daz brought his bladed arms together and started to rub it against each like how chefs would sharpen their knives before cooking and cutting food. With each grinding his arms started to shine more and grow sharper and sharper. " Like steel, the more tempered it gets the sharper it becomes. When I as a sword grow and sharpen, so will my strength. Whatever stands before me, I will shred it to it's last atom. Black Atomic Blade!!"

Daz and Mihawk moved past each other as they made their move. Once the clashed occurred, everything behind the other, their move passed through and caused several navy soldiers and pirates to fall as they got cut by the aftermath of their attack. A few seconds later, Daz fell to the ground as he lost against the clash.

Mihawk looked closely at his blade and pondered about the clash that just occurred. " Welcome to the world of the strong, Dark Assassin Daz."