Training Before The Hunt : Part Two

SHANKS POV: I swung my sword,covered in armament haki, to meet the beast at the front leading the charge. The beast seemed to instinctually dodge , but before it could readjust itself to attack me, it met my sword slash and didn't live to tell the tale. The other beasts seemed to pause for a moment in silence before they lunged at me with resolved looks. I dodged to the right, evading another tiger, and swung my sword which produced a red arc that cleanly split the tiger into two pieces. Only to dodge a haki coated fist from a large gorilla, take a step back and swing my sword and split the gorilla into two. A rabbit jumped up from using the momentum to become faster only to be met by a clean slash to the head. More and more started to attack me and some went into a mad frenzy. I had to constantly use my observation to make sure I wasn't caught lacking. Some monkeys hid in parts of the trees around the battlefield and tried sneak attacking me only to be met with a sword slasher the moment they gave away their location. Rabbits also used the trees to propel themselves at me in groups. Observation haki made sure they were taken care of. Some large bird-like creatures tried attacking from the sky ,but after getting used to their attack patterns in five minutes, they became more of a nuisance like the rabbits that propelled themselves at me in groups. After killing the strong creatures by targeting haki coated slashes at them, I focused on the rabbits and bird-like creatures. I evaded one and cut its wings off before I dodged two rabbits from the same direction. I quickly cut them up chef style before proceeding to mow down the rest. After thirty-minutes, I'm sure the bird and rabbit population decreased to a substantial degree. But then again, rabbits breed ,well, like rabbits. I then proceeded to slaughter the remaining animals which consisted of large snakes, some gorillas,lions, that somehow existed here, gorillas and I didn't forget to also reduce the monkey population. This all took roughly two hours so by the time I was done, the sun showed signs of starting to rise once again. I still took the two hours left to rest before my inevitable start to training. I woke up two hours later and did my morning business before I met up with Rayleigh who sported an amused smile when he greeted me. Although I did for two extra hours, getting interrupted at possibly the best time in the night did not bode well for me. I just glared at him before I sighed and started my training by running ten kilometers around the island. I wasn't that exhausted after I finished. I went on a little exploration around the island while occasionally fighting some beast until I found a good enough mountain. Then it started to punch until three hours passed. My hands were bleeding at that point. I was also a little exhausted but I was still strong enough to gather ingredients for breakfast. After hunting some bores and looking for bird eggs, I cooked up my breakfast before I got back to training. I resumed punching the mountain a while and before I knew it, two hours had passed. I took a rest period before hunting for lunch after enough rest. After a good lunch and rest I met up with Rayleigh once again for a sparring session. I found him dozing off in the primitive arena but the moment I stepped in the arena, I was greeted with a silver sword slash. I responded in kind with a red one and both slashes met in the middle only to cancel each other. He sported an amused smile for a second before appearing right in front of me with my observation that I could barely keep up with. I swung my sword to meet his and the clash was signified with a loud "Clang". It seemed he was holding back less than last time as I was pushed back a couple of meters. He disappeared again but I could keep up this time as our swords met in the middle for the second time today. We kept slashing and hacking at each other for five-minutes before Rayleigh caught me off guard by fainting an attack to the right. A gash appeared on my body and I jumped back to gain some space before Rayleigh released a huge silver slash. I moved to the right only to have to protect my head from death by a silver cutlass coated in strong armament haki. I coated armament haki on my saber and met his cutlass in a clash that resulted in silver and red sparks for a couple of seconds before we both jumped back from each other. Rayleigh seemed to be ready to charge once again as he released a flurry of silver slashes at the same time with incredible speed that only left after images of him swinging his cutlass. I jumped up, dodged to the right and swung my own saber to eliminate the five oncoming slashes. They turned out to be distractions as I had to jump back before I was cut into pieces like the ground and the forest behind me as Rayleigh seemed to hold back less then he was before. I would say he's using about thirty percent of his full power and that's only a rough estimate. This time I took the initiative to attack as I swung my haki coated saber and a huge red slash was released towards Raleigh who seemed to cancel it out with his own silver slash before he blocked my attack with his cutless that was flowing with stronger armament haki. Our swords clashed once again and I was pushed back once again before I had to avoid an attack aimed at my stomach. We clashed repeatedly for seven hours straight and in each clash , my armament haki got stronger in order to keep up with the increase in Rayleigh's strength and his greater armament haki. We neither spoke or yelled out our attacks as we fought in silence. Well. that was until our last clash for the day that would determine the winner of the spar. We both looked at each other. Rayleigh seemed to have some sweat although not much compared to me. I sported bruises cuts on my arms and legs with a small scar on my stomach. Raleigh only sported some sweat with little to no sweat which while irritating were not my main focus. My focus was on my opponent's stance. I took a similar stance as his armament haki was imbued into both his cutless. I observed the process with observation which had advanced in range due to Rayleigh's combat tactics. He would sometimes use speed I couldn't follow to attack from up close.But other times, he would use the environment to attack from a far. Anyways, I intently observed how his armament flowed into his sword in a serene manner equal to that of calm waves. I had been doing that every time he used You in his attacks. The first time he did it was shocking since I didn't think he would use it in our spars,much less on our second day of training since arriving on this island. Getting hit by a cutlass coated in Ryou was certainly not an experience I would recommend anyone to try unless you had kaidou and big mom type durability or a healing factor. He used it a couple more times before I slightly started getting used to it. I of course tried to imitate the way his armament haki flowed from his body into his attacks and the cutlass, but it seemed it wasn't that simple. I imbued my saber in armament haki for the last time today before we both moved . As we were mere moments away from each other, we both shouted at the same time " Red sovereign/ Eminent king". Our swords released huge amounts of silver and red lightning sparks for two minutes as we clashed before Rayleigh's overpowered mine and I was sent into trees unconscious , which concluded my second week in the one piece world and my second day of training with the dark king , Silvers Rayleigh himself.