Exchanges of Blows

And at that moment, when Blackbeard and Ace locked eyes, each staring into the soul of their enemy with eyes of excitement and resent, there cropped up yet again another sound of a great magnitude.

Whitebeard had unleashed his attack, and it was doing it's work perfectly.

A deadly earthquake whizzed past the terrain, and shortened the gap between it's caster and it's target.

In a few milliseconds Blackbeard had been caught in it, and he put his technique forth, to protect himself and his newfound crew.

"Black hole!!!" He cried out, and darkness itself spewed out from his dirt-laden fingertips.

A sea of darkness erupted and cleared the rubble below, and Blackbeard escaped through that hole which was created. The brunt of the impact hit the air right above the head of the enemy, and thus Blackbeard barely escaped.

With that earthquake, the entire outer face of the Marineford Fortress fell, and out emerged Blackbeard and his mighty crew, from under the wreckage and ruins.

Spitting out the spittle from his mouth, Blackbeard hence spoke, in an all-haughty voice.

"Thatch died. . . And soon Ace will, too! You've grown old, old man! I admired you from the bottom of my heart, but. . . You've gotten weak. You can't even save one member of your family from being executed, can you?!"

At the utterance of these arrogant words, the crewmates of Whitebeard were enraged.

Flower-sword Vista swirled and engaged himself to become ready to charge Blackbeard.

Marco too, enlarged his blue wings of fire, getting ready to take off. His eyes were trembling with frustration and rage, and concern for how that damned betrayer could talk back to his captain in that harsh manner.

But before anyone could make a move against the traitor, Whitebeard shouted out a prohibition. "Don't you make a move, Marco!!!" In all his fury, he rasped in a cold low voice. "In the name of fourth unit commander Thatch's name, I will take this idiot's life and end things myself!"

Meanwhile, the area of influence of Blackbeard's Black hole technique was slowly increasing. It was much like a bunch of waves advancing in all the directions, just that the waves were not of water, but of fine black darkness.

It caught many pirates in it's wake, and though many tried to escape, it engulfed them, as if it were a living substance.

The marines and pirates caught up in it , felt as though a force greater than what they could handle was acting upon them, and their legs gave up, and they sank to the ground.

Struggling to stand, the smoky darkness in which they were arrested seemed like quicksand.

And in that, a large number of pirates drowned in that pond of murk.

In that fury in which he found himself in, the great pirate Whitebeard surged forward in all his might, determined to end the job with one of his earthquakes.

He ran like a fully loaded elephant, and his strike shook the ground.

Contracting his elbow inwards, he let off the earthquake attack, but much to his surprise, nothing happened.

"Kurouzu~~!"

Blackbeard had unleashed yet one of his fell techniques. This one was a swirling black spiral that originated from the enclosed fist that he pointed towards Whitebeard.

The gloomy spiral, spinning at alarming speeds, had the ability to nullify all attacks from any devil-fruit in existence; it was a terrifying ability.

And of course, because this attack was way too strong, it had to have it's own drawbacks.

This attack, while nullifying the enemy's powers and attracting them towards the user, also leaves the user vulnerable to any melee attack.

And as quick as a fox Whitebeard adjusted to this new circumstance, and raising Murakumogiri, he slammed it hard against the shoulder of Blackbeard.

"Aghhhhh!!! It hurts! Dammit!!" Thus cried out Blackbeard in pain and anger, as blood poured out from a deep gash on his left shoulder. He rolled on the ground in pain, and he took out his anger by smashing his fist into the ground aimlessly, going berserk.

But there was literally nothing that he could do to protect himself. Before he could get up or regain stability, Whitebeard swooped down and grabbed his adversary by the neck, and pressed down on the trachea.

Having trouble to breathe itself, Blackbeard was lost. He struggled incessantly, and wrung about his limbs in all the directions. But this flailing caused no problem, or even irritation to Whitebeard, who was focused on ending the wretched life of this man who evilly killed one of his sons.

Then as a last resort, Blackbeard started begging Shirohige, with a cracked and quailing voice.

"Old man! Are you really gonna kill me? Your own son?! How could you!!"

Nevertheless Whitebeard proved himself deaf to all of the things that he heard out of Blackbeard's stinking mouth, and he proceeded to go for the kill.

By now, the effects of Kurouzu had almost been completely taken away. Ergo, Whitebeard could now use without hesitation the air-quakes of his.

And so, still hand gripping the stout throat of Blackbeard, he created a dome of an air-quake, and demolished the face of his opponent then and there.

And all this while, staring without expression, Portgas. D. Ace stood in a wide stance, without any sort of movement. His eyes showed the epitome of hunger; hunger for revenge. But his hands and legs would not move. It was partially because of his exhaustion from all this running here and there, and fighting abruptly. But it was more than that. His anger was so great that his nerves became shot , and his body would not move how much ever his mind commanded it to move. All his focus was concentrated towards that one fat man, the one he wanted to burn a hole through very badly.

Taking this as a singular opportunity, Aokiji turned towards Ace and turned on the aggressive side. Running towards him, the Admiral muttered under his breath in a low voice, not wanting to alert the enemy by chance.

"Ice Block: Pheasant Beak."

Just as it's name suggests, the attack took upon the form of a ravishing giant white pheasant, fully made of chill ice. It was completely made with flight capabilities, and the powerful blast was meant to obliterate Ace at the very moment it met with it's target.

Ha, but things never go as intended. Just as the massive pheasant neared Ace, the face of it melted from the beaked end, as if it had struck some invisible hot wall.

It was just a few yards away from Ace, that the pheasant completely liquefied.

Ace had not done anything. Ace had just now even recognised the attack.

Then what had caused the great bird to melt like the attack was nothing but puny?

Ace turned his head sideways, to glare at an astonished Aokiji. The Admiral was wholly perplexed, for he had no idea as to how his great attack had been dissolved. Surely it had to have been some technique of Ace's. But how had he become so strong, in just a matter of hours? Was it just adrenaline and the searing rage that provided him with this strength, or what?

It was indeed, that.

The air in front of Ace' face was boiling, causing there to be formed heatwaves that made even the wind tremble.

It was Blackbeard who had done this, who had defeated him and given him to the Marines. But were it not the Marines who then later violated him and the honour of the Crew of Whitebeard?

They too needed their punishment.

But later. All those things come after Blackbeard. He deserves to knock on the gates of hell first. Thinking that, Ace turned aside, and sticking his arms perpendicular to the ground and straight, somehow used his fire-powers to propel himself off the Earth. His torpedo like power caused him to speed towards Blackbeard at very high speeds, and he crashed into the ground right beside Whitebeard.

This was the first time he had tried this technique; this caused it to be a very rugged one, and Ace could barely control and manoeuvre. But he managed somehow to land beside his captain with the least injuries. He did not know how else to go there in the fastest way. Just out of instinct this happened, and suddenly he was whizzing past dozens of pirates in a very high speed.

The crash into the ground slightly startled Whitebeard, and he loosened his grip on Blackbeard and let him escape. Blackbeard, seeing this to be his only chance at escape, silently sneaked away from his former captain and quickly ran towards his crew, seeking protection there. On the way he clutched at his throat, and massaged it vaguely, and spoke to himself as a test to wether his vocal chords were still functioning.

With a croaky voice, he bellowed out to his crewmates, "LET HIM HAVE IT!!!"

All of a sudden, a large group of rifles and pistols were taken out and pointed; at Whitebeard. The crew of Blackbeard had heard their captain's command, and were ready to execute it.

The shotguns and rifles shot at Whitebeard, and the sound of the launch rattled still in the ears of the pirates. It was a frightening moment for the Whitebeard pirates; for they had hope but even more fear. Whitebeard had indeed gotten old, and they were afraid of how much he could handle in this age.

Whitebeard himself did not really care. He had already known that this was going to happen. He would die in this battle, but he would ensure with all of his might that Ace, and his beloved sons will escape safely. That had been his plan from the beginning.

But now, instantly, Ace had cropped up out of nowhere, and he was in the range of fire..