284 Chapter 284

284

A while back,

"Teach!" Ace yelled, bursting through the forest fist first right into the jaw of his former crewmate.

The Captain of the Blackbeard Pirates was clearly taken aback by the surprise attack, and he was flung off his feet and thrown back due to the attack.

His crewmates on the other hand were quick to react, Jesus Burgess jumped towards Ace's figure pulling out a dagger with an evil glint in his eyes, only for something to grab him by the fist.

"Dragon Claw Fist!" Sabo called out grabbing the large man by the face and smashing him face-first into the ground, making a crater where he fell.

At the same time when Burgess moved, another of the Blackbeard pirates reacted. And just as Sabo had caught the big guy, Van Augur fired off multiple shots from his long rifle, intending to free Burgess from Sabo's grip and skewer the blonde with bullets at the same time.

But he was surprised when his shots were slowed down and a kick in the gut sent him hurling backward. He had little time to react before he heard six bullets coming his way, but the man was fast enough to react in time and teleport out of its way. Teleporting multiple times to find a new vantage point. But even then, Sanji was on him darting from one possible location to another.

Laffitte and Shiryu, who were a bit far from the group, found two blade users stopping their way. Laffitte had to bring his cane up while Shiryu had his blade as a path of flames and frost crossed their path and blocked their way.

"You're not going anywhere," Zoro said with three blades already unsheathed, green flames lacing his blades. The swordsman took a low stance, ready to attack, and on his side so did Kuina.

"You will be fighting us instead," She said, her blade lacing frost.

Laffitte and Shiryu could only glare and stop, because they knew the opponents in front of them were strong and couldn't be ignored.

Doc Q, who was on his horse Stronger, jumped back, throwing explosive apples at the group along with a yellow powder-like substance. Wanting to use his Shiku Shiku no Mi to spread diseases.

But Doc Q instead found his whole body slowing down, before a shadowy arrowhead of all things stabbed him in the leg, stopping all of his movement. He was astonished as he knew he was in a bad position.

He couldn't even react as he felt small arms wrap around his face before, with a crack, his world turned. Only then did he realize that his neck had been snapped in the opposite direction. But the thing was he had yet to see the attacker.

An odd death, that his mind was still processing. The doctor also felt the invisible figure slip something into his clothes, but he didn't have any will to speak as his life started to slip away as the pain from the neck down rushed to his head.

"Doc!"

"You bastards!"

"Motherfuckers!"

But the first one to react was the Captain of the Blackbeard Pirates himself, as seemingly Teach appeared from right beneath Doc Q's shadow, and punched something invisible in the sky.

Sparky's form was revealed as Blackbeard used his fist crackling with red energy to punch him away from Doc Q's side.

The poor monkey was flung to the side, before Teach kicked Masked Deuce who was also at fault for killing his crewmate. Deuce didn't have the time to react and his body was flung toward Sabo's side, freeing Burgess from the revolutionary's grip.

As Deuce passed them, Burgess tackled Sabo while covering his body with Haki as he started running, going through trees and separating him from the group. Sabo started to pound his fist onto the man's back, trying to free himself. At the same time, two figures also ran towards them, intending to give Sabo a hand.

"Doc, talk to me…" Teach growled holding his crewmate's limp body, the next was twisted in a horrible way, but the doctor was still twitching, barely alive. He wanted to say something.

"B…omb."

"What?"

Teach was confused before an explosion covered the area, dismembering most of the doctor's body and Teach was covered in his crewmates' blood. "Uaghhh!" Teach roared in rage. "I will skin that monkey alive! That bastard planted a bomb on an already dead guy."

But Teach had little time to mourn for his crew, as someone had appeared nearby and attacked him.

"How did you get past me, bastard!"

It was Ace that appeared by Teach's side a moment later, brandishing Enma with Haki as he struck down. Teach growled as he used his Haki-clad fist to block the attack, a shockwave, and sparks of black electricity crackling in the air. Both of them using Advanced Armament Haki in their attacks.

"You are going to pay for what you did!" Teach growled, glaring at Ace, "All of you!"

"Don't start playing the victim Teach, you were the one that started this," Ace growled, taking back his sword and lacing it with his flames and Advanced Armament, and started swinging it left and right, up and down in a fury of blows that Teach matched with his own Advanced Armament and darkness.

Ace's attacks created a wave of flames that spread outwards, and Teach had matched it with his darkness that swallowed everything.

"Don't come near us, you guys can't handle him!" Teach called out when he saw Shiryu and Laffitte.

Both of them nodded before the fight between the fire and darkness users intensified.

Shiryu and Laffitte had to jump back to not get injured from their clash and fall behind. But they had their own set of problems as Zoro and Kuina threw themselves at the older pirates, trying to separate them from Teach.

"Fire Fist!"

The forest ground exploded into flames as the large volley of flames exploded onto Blackbeard's location. The darkness matched the fire for a few seconds before it started getting sucked into itself.

Ace frowned but didn't do anything as he rested Enma on his shoulder, looking at the scene.

Finally, Teach's figure was revealed unharmed and Ace saw something that made him raise his eyebrow.

"You are going to die here, Ace!" Teach growled as his right arm turned into pitch-black shadow and his left arm had red energy crackling around it. If it was any other time he might have been joking around, but now that one of his crewmates was dead he was forced to be dead serious. "And I'm going to put your head on a pike and see to it that the rest of the crew sees it. Pops would love seeing one of his sons like that." He grinned darkly.

"Keep pops' name out of your fucking mouth!" Ace growled, his figure blurring from his location and appearing right in front of Teach with his sword drawn.

"Zehahaha! Make me!"

Ace lashed out his blade, laced with Haki and flames while Teach punched with his left fist crackling with red energy.

Both of their attacks met, creating a large explosion of fire and will. Black lightning crackled as they clashed. As flames struggled against each other.

Ace backed off immediately when Teach tried to grab him, instead delivering a kick to the man's fat gut. Luffy had warned him of the Yami Yami no mi, and about its power to nullify devil fruit user powers.

But that wasn't why Ace backed off, "How are you using flames?" He demanded. "I didn't know the darkness fruit had that ability."

Teach grinned, "Would you believe me if I said I have more than one fruit?"

Ace snorted, "Fine, don't answer." He said rushing towards his opponents, "I will drag you to pops and get my answers after I'm done with you."

"Zehahaha!" Teach cackled as he met Ace's fire with his darkness, "Come on then!"

— — — —

A/N: Teach has another fruit. One given to him by Saint Camael himself.

I didn't want to give Teach Advanced Armament Haki, but then I looked at his age and his background. My man was in Whitebeard's crew for so long, and if he had Haki, he could find others in the crew and pester them to teach him Advanced Armament Haki.

But don't worry, I only gave him Ryo. External destruction, where one doesn't need to touch the target to damage it, I didn't give him Internal Destruction which destroys things from inside.

I gave Ace both 'cause he has Enma, and like with Zoro, Enma is teaching him the advanced forms, so he has both.

And I gave Sabo both cause if anyone has both forms of Advanced Armament, then it would be Dragon. Sure some downplay him because Blackbeard attacked Baltigo and the Rev. army had to pack up. But people did the same for Garp, and he has an attack that can flatten a city with just Haki alone.

My thing is, I won't underestimate any Monkey D(s) when it comes to Haki.

And if Dragon has both forms of Haki, I can see him teaching it to Sabo. And unlike Ace who's stubborn to train, Sabo isn't. As a boy all he did was train in the rev army.

Also, Sabo had shown off a technique with Dragon Fist (Ryu no Ibuki) which kind of is like Advanced Armament Haki because the destruction is spread out. Where he punches the ground and it destroyed everything around it, with what he calls hitting the 'core'. But then again it could be similar to Fishman karate, (which is a Shockbased technique) which negates durability.

Just a reminder that Shock-based techniques are quite OP on their own. But with haki they are far more stronger. 

Some people forget that armament haki also have an enhancement effect. That's the reason, Kuja pirates were able to break boulders with normal arrows. (A group of One Piece community also sees it as a reason why gun users can shook speed-blitz characters in the series.) Like Izo or Ben Beckmen. So any technique be it Rokushiki or other stuff, you pour haki into it, it boosts the destructive capacity of it. Almost like nen.