Second Months Results: Part One

Shanks Pov: As I approached the arena, my mind was filled with anticipation for a good fight. This fight would allow me to gauge my current abilities and how far I've grown since I started.  Not to mention,fighting the animals on the island and the sea kings on the sea was getting boring after a while , so this fight would be a new change of pace. As I thought about that, I saw the approaching gates that lead to the primitive arena. I took a moment to gauge the little changes that happened to the arena . The new moss and the increased me much didn't stand out the small trees growing. I started to walk again as I approached the middle of the arena. As I approached the arena, I thought about haki. 'Although much of it is shown and used in the series,its origins and its limits were never really shown or mentioned. The introduction of the advanced forms of haki only served to cement its mysteries more. Heck, the one piece community even started to make some outlandish theories about haki that made it seem to be a power that had limitless potential that with the  right mindset,environment and will could be drawn out'.As i thought about it,I saw Rayleigh's silhouette as he seemed to be dozing off again. I sighed at that before releasing a blast of conquerors haki towards him. That seemed to have alarmed his battle hardened mind as I had to flash step to the left to dodge a conqueror's coated silver slash that came from his cutlass which he swung so fast I almost couldn't keep with his speed. I sweat dropped before sighing as he seemed to be less vigilant once he saw it was me and just grabbed a bottle of wine that was near him and took a long sip before he seemed content. He took a moment to appreciate the morning sun before he then looked at me saying " Good morning. Fine weather we're  having today don't you think,brat".  I just sighed at his statement in resignation. " I should have seen that coming, though why you couldn't just send an armament haki coated attack instead or just use your observation  to know it's  me."  He took another long sip from the bottle before saying " Sorry,can't control instinct,anyways ,let's get down to business." As he said that he jumped back a little further away from me. He threw away the now empty bottle of wine as he unsheathed his cutlass sword for the second time this morning. He then said " Seeing as you have gotten stronger in different areas, today's sparring will consist of two parts. The first will be sword sparring. I will use about eight percent of my full power in both spars. The second sparring session will be all about hand to hand combat after a one hour break from the first spar. With that said ,let the first spar begin ,Hunting pheasant''. He slashed the air in a fashion that drew a pheasant which created a pheasant like wind slash that came at me at fast speeds and I responded with my own new attack. I coated my saber which created a wind slash shaped like a red hawk that canceled out the pheasant attack. Rayleigh disappeared from his initial position after sending fast and quick sword slashes that i dodged before i flashed stepped in his general direction at speeds that match his current output of speed which was very high compared to all our previous spars. He seemed surprised at my speed as we clashed in the middle which caused a shockwave that pushed both of us back. I stopped sliding back as i kept my observation and eye on Rayleigh who seemed to have gotten his shit together as he grinned before he shot twenty consecutive wind slashes at me at high speed  that i dodged before i jumped in the air and swung my haki coated saber while shouting " Shining red star" as a big red wind slash flew to him at fast speeds. He grinned again before he took a stance and a deep breath before he slashed out his sword which was covered in armament. His slash was silver in color and when it met mine, both attacks pushed each other for a moment before they blew up which caused a mini wind storm that died down as we flashed towards each other to clash. Our swords repelled each other the moment we met in the middle as we were both pushed back before we clashed again with the same results.I decided to switch things up a bit as I jumped in the air ,used semi-keiken to bulk up my arms for increased strength and I swung my saber while l imbuing it with  Ryou and emission to create a slash that was shaped into a red tiger that flew at Rayleigh at fast speeds. He smiled as he endured the attack and was pushed back with a couple of bruises and some blood as even though he coated himself in armament last minute, the force of the winds and the attacks was just devastating. Up in the air, I clicked my tongue in annoyance  as my attack dealt less damage than I hoped it would but I smiled a second later as I assumed a similar stance as before as my arms increased in size and I imbued my saber with haki. Instead of imbuing Ryou and emission into it this time, I only put emission into the attack which created a bigger tiger that resemble Might Guy's evening tiger attack but red in color. Rayleigh dodged the attack as he sensed its danger compared to the last one. Since this one only used emission, it created a larger shockwave so big that a portion of the arena behind Rayleigh disappeared. Rayleigh came out looking more serious than ever while I was grinding and we looked at each other before we disappeared only to reappear in the sky to clash once again. We were both pushed back but bounced back and started to attack each other in the sky. I dodged a parry before slashing at his neck which he dodged before he slashed at my left which I saw coming with my observation. I dodged and we continued to either dodge ,slash and parry in the sky for four hours.Our fight in the sky made continuous shockwaves that shook the island every time we clashed with our armament coated swords. We went down from the sky to land after the five hour mark and continued to fight for another six hours before we were both exhausted and we got ready to perform our final attacks for this spar.  If you looked closely, you could see some wounds on Rayleigh's arms and some on his face that would eventually heal out to be some small scars . I on the other hand sported a huge bleeding wound on my left eye and on my stomach. We were both breathing hard,although e more than him. We both took our stances as armament haki flowed into our swords as we both rushed at each other at the fastest speed possible while shooting " Ambitious sovereign /Dark king emergence". My eyes widened as the last before we clashed as  I sensed conquerors being imbued into his sword as our swords clashed and I was instantly sent flying as my eyes were white before I even landed on the ground. My last thought being " So that's how Oden felt".