Chapter 202

"Ice Block: Pheasant Beak."

A massive pheasant made out of ice flew towards the Elder wearing a hat. But he easily blocked the attack with his cane. However, that was only a distraction; the real attack was coming from behind him. Kuzan appeared behind him and extended his palms forward.

"Ice Vortex."

A giant vortex came out from Kuzan's palms and enveloped the Elder instantly. The vortex was made out of tiny sharp ice blades that started attacking the Elder. But he enveloped his whole body in Haki, stopping the ice blades from hurting him. However, that didn't seem to be the true purpose for the ice blades. Instead of them trying to cut him, they started attaching themselves to his body, quickly freezing his entire body. It didn't manage to do much though as the ice immediately started cracking.

"Ice Aura."

An ice-cold aura released from Kuzan's body and enveloped the Elder in an instant. All movement and ice cracking immediately stopped. The ice cracks started being repaired, and they became thicker. However, the ice suddenly exploded off the Elder and he escaped from the Ice. That was when a hand suddenly grabbed his right arm.

"Ice Time: Partial Absolute Zero."

The Elder's arm instantly froze, but instead of trying to break out of it like before, he unsheathed his cane which was actually a sword and immediately cut off his own right arm before jumping away.

"Absolute Zero. Vegapunk told us about that, and none of us think that it could actually be true. A temperature so low that it freezes everything in place, even the laws of this world. But to think that you would be capable of something close to it. So this is the power of his majesty."

"What does your owner have to do with my power?"

"Your power? Don't make me laugh. The powers of your fruits should have never reached this kind of level, not even with a million years of training. Every fruit has a limit, and no matter how hard you struggle, that limit will be impossible to break. Unless his majesty's power is involved that is."

"You're making no sense. Why would our enemy help us get stronger?"

"I've already said too much," said the Elder as he ran towards Kuzan without any fear in his eyes even though he just saw what Kuzan is capable of. The Elder swung his sword at Kuzan, who tried to block it with an Ice sword, only for it to be instantly shattered. The sword went right for his chest and stabbed him. The Elder immediately removed his sword and swung at him again.

Kuzan jumped back, dodging the attack, and the hole in his chest disappeared. Right before he got stabbed, he created a hole in his stomach, making the sword stab nothing but air. Kuzan created another Ice pheasant and sent it towards the Elder. The ice pheasant again got easily destroyed by the Elder, but this time a surprise was waiting for him. He looked surprised as he got covered in a giant shadow, but when he looked up, that look of surprise turned to a look of shock. An enormous block of ice that was at least one cubic kilometer in size was falling downwards.

"You crazy bastard!" screamed Tani and Ken simultaneously as they immediately started running. The 4 Elders also tried running, but Kuzan used his Ice to encase their bodies in ice and stop them from running.

The block of ice was coming down so fast that they didn't have time to get out and before they knew it, the block crashed into Mary Geoise, the Elders, and Kuzan. Tani and Ken just barely managed to escape the ice block and got sent flying by the shockwave. The impact was so strong that it created a magnitude 7 earthquake that shook Mary Geoise, destroying a lot of buildings.

The battlefield where the Azure Pirates and Blackbeard Pirates were fighting has been completely disrupted by the sudden crash. Shards of ice went flying everywhere, forcing everyone to dodge or block them. The attack's aftermath kept going on for almost a full minute, till it finally quieted down and the dust disappeared.

Tani immediately ran back to where Kuzan and the Elders were. He searched around till he found a piece of ice that was releasing some smoke. When he got closer, he could sense that it was part of Kuzan's face.

"Kuzan! Are you okay!"

"Cough, cough. Calm down, I'm fine. I just need some time to regenerate. I'm completely out of stamina."

"Sigh, you're such an idiot. Couldn't you have warned us or something before you did it?"

"That wouldn't have been fun, would it?"

"Tsk, wait till Captain gets ahold of you. Count yourself lucky that he hurried off to help Sabo and the rest."

"He does it to us all the time, so why can't I do it once in a while."

"I don't care if you want to go to war with Captain, but don't do it when I'm nearby!"

"But then it won't be as much fun."

"Are you sure that you want to talk to me like that with an incomplete head? Or do you think you can take my kicks?"

"Kicking a man when he's down is only something a coward would do."

Tani stomped his head down, and Kuzan barely managed to dodge it by rolling away. Tani immediately went after him, and Kuzan started rolling faster and faster while Tani was trying to stomp his head into tiny pieces.

"Only an idiot cares about being a coward!"

---

Back at the battle of Ace, Sabo, and Deuce vs. Blackbeard with the personality change, it was looking dire for one side. Blackbeard was standing still with not a single scratch on him, while the three Azure Pirates were panting and blood was leaking from their mouths. They might not have any external damage, but the Gura Gura no Mi is hurting them badly from the inside.

"Huff, huff. Ey Sabo, have you figured something out already? We can't keep attacking like this. We'll just tire ourselves out and end up defeating ourselves," said Ace.

"I'm trying, but no matter which way I look at him, I don't see any openings. He has perfectly mixed the power of destruction and nullification. And he can also keep up with Deuce's Lightning Zone movements. I guess this is what it looks like to be Ken's opponent," said Sabo.

"Tsk, you're so useless sometimes."

"Why don't you come up with a plan then, Mr smarty pants."

"What did you call me? Mr. hold him back for one minute while I figure out his weakness. It's already been ten damn minutes!"

"Kehaha! I still remember how those guys always argued like that. It was always so entertaining to watch," said Blackbeard.

"Yeah, it is entertaining. Especially when they start fighting. I can't count the amount of time that they've beaten each other into the ground over a small argument." It became silent once they heard the voice of the person that suddenly appeared behind Blackbeard. Blackbeard turned around and looked at the person.

"Who... are you?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anime Quotes:

"Falling down is not an embarrassment. True embarrassment is not standing after such a fall."

- Midorima Shintarou (Kuroko no Basket)

"I want you to be happy. I want you to laugh a lot. I don't know what exactly I'll be able to do for you, but I'll always be by your side."

- Kagome (Inuyasha)

"There's nothing wrong with being frustrated by defeat, but when you have fun making something, it really shows in the final product. That's the power of positivity at work."

- Ko Yagami (New Game)