25 (Fire) Sabo vs Ace

Chapter 25

Title: (Fire) Sabo vs Ace

….

-Ace POV-

I release my Conquerors Haki, I know that it won't really affect Sabo in any way, he is not weak enough. But it will still make him think that I am serious and be more on edge and hopefully panic, that way his Observation Haki will get weaker, and I can have an opening to attack.

Damn… I don't remember the last time I had to use tactics when fighting against someone. This is really harder than expected. I guess fighting against people in east Blue and Sabo gave me the illusion that I am strong. When in reality I am unsure if I can even defeat a Vice Admiral. I have no clear view of my power and haven't fought someone stronger than me.

Sabo is currently stronger than me, I can't deny that, it seems like his new Devil Fruit has made him exponentially stronger. His power is something that can't be just shrugged off, after all, fire is no joke, even I was burned even though my Haki is stronger than Sabo's. 

This is how battles are supposed to be, Sabo has an advantage against me now when we fight, not the other way around. I could pull out my sword and send some wind slashes at him, but he is fast enough to dodge them even when I imbue them with Haki they still won't hit him so it would be useless. He knows <Soru> so he is still quick on his feet and probably knows how to fly by using his fire abilities now.

Hmmm… though I still am stronger than him physically, so how do I beat him? I have never fought against an opponent like Sabo so the experience is not on my side. Though it wouldn't be too much of a big deal, I still don't want to lose against Sabo for the first time. 

I see Sabo look at me and smile as he sings his palm and slaps the air.

"Fire Tsunami!!!" Yells out Sabo and a tsunami, I see everything that comes in contact with the giant fire wave, it burns to ashes. Trees, grass, sticks… everything burns.

I decide to take out my sword, and I imbue it with Armament Haki, turning it dark. I charge towards the fire wave and cut an opening for myself through it.

As I walk through the opening, the heat from the fire still affects me, even more so as I have concentrated all of my Armament Haki on my sword.

I wince a little as I feel the heat on my skin as it turns red. Thankfully I don't suffer any burns this time, so I charge at Sabo with full power, he uses <Soru> and kicks back while a sea of flames at me, not only was he attacking me, but he was also propelling himself backward even faster than I could reach him.

Damn, this is way more troublesome than I thought. That is when I get an idea and I use <Geppo> to kick off the air and dodge the flame attacks.

The ground is all on fire so it has now turned into Sabo's field advantage. I haven't seen him control the flames around him, but he probably can as they were technically created by him. So by going on air I negated that advantage of Sabo's and now I have more room to dodge his attacks.

{FIRE BLAST!!}

BOOOM!!!

A fire blast with a wide range shoots at me as I am mid-air, but I easily dodge this and charge at Sabo, and I am about to use my sword and point it at his neck.

"FLAME FENCE!!!" Yells out Sabo and a sphere of fire is created around him and it expands as he once again jumps back. This time a more serious look on his face as he can see that I am still dangerous to him in this form too.

If I wanted to, I could have injured him right there, but I am not here to injure him so I didn't slash. But he also likely knows that I could have too. 

"Fire Fist!" Says Sabo and a giant fire fist once again comes towards me. I dodge that attack of his and throw a couple of wind slashes at Sabo too.

Fwish!

Sabo dodges the attack, but not fully, as two small scratches appear on his cheek and a surprised look also appears on his face. 

I think I am getting the hang of fighting logias and opponents with dangerously wide range abilities. 

Sabo frowns as he sees me smiling at him. 

"Is that all you got?" I ask him.

His frown turns into a smile as he hears that. "No… not even close."

He then points his palms toward me and closes his eyes, fully concentrating. "Fire Machine Gun."

Small blasts of fire shoot towards me in a white range and there are instantly hundreds of them. 

Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!...

I don't even try to dodge all of these, as I can see that even with my Observation Haki, Sabo had arranged them as not to allow me to dodge in between them.

Well, that is smart of him. But not smart enough.

I close my eyes and concentrate, my Observation Haki goes at max concentration. The world around me disappears and only the attacks are in my 'vision'. I tighten the grip on my sword and use my full speed as the flame bullets approach me.

Fwish! Fwish! Fwish!...

I move my arm at top speeds that I can and slash every single fire bullet that is about to hit me. But as I do so, as I slash every single flame bullet, I send small wind slashes towards Sabo too. So that way he had to dodge the Haki imbued attacks also.

I smile at that and immediately use <Geppo> to charge straight through his attack. Sabo gets nervous at this, I can see it in his face. I on the other hand am smiling casually and making this look easy, which isn't, but I just wanna stress him out by thinking that I am not even going full out. This way his Observation Haki gets blurred too.

That is what I see him slip slightly and notice that he has a slight opening in his guard.

Fwish!

Before he can react, a thin cut appears along his torso and it starts spewing out blood. I slash at him again but Sabo pulls out his spear too.

Clang!

We clash our weapons, and we both know who will win in a strength competition between us. So Sabo immediately generates flames around his body, to which I respond by imbuing my foot with a part of my Armament Haki and I kick his stomach, using it as a foot stand to jump back.

I smirk as I didn't feel any burn from the flames as I kicked him.

"Fire Spear." Yells out Sabo once more as he throws two fire spears at me and I casually dodge those attacks. Sending my own wind slashes imbued with Haki, which hit him and caused two other thin cut lines on his arm that he uses to block slashes the attack.

I charge at him with full power but he uses conjures some palm-sized fireballs, dozens of them, I cut them to pieces but as I do so.

Baam!

Then one explodes and the flames that come out catch me on fire.

"Fire Storm!!" Yells out Sabo as I am once again engulfed in a big firestorm, this time, I can feel the burning on my skin and how some of it turns charred.

That is when I take the chance and decide to go all out. This is all bullsh*t, I can't beat Sabo without going all out.

So I put my sword back on my sheath and charged at him. My fist being imbued with all of the Armament Haki on my body, turning dark. 

When I get close enough, Sabo is about to dodge once again but I launch him, and my fist sinks on his stomach.

<Haki Shockwave>

Boom!

A violent shockwave passes through Sabo's body…

….

A/N: Ace is learning how to fight against Logia type devil fruits, he has never fought something like it before.

P.S: But he is learning...

P.P.S: The Flame-Flame Fruit gives Sabo a huge boost in power.