Resilience, Swordsman's Plight and PUNK

_________ POV Narration _________ 

Shiki scowled as he watched the clones of his deceased former captain struggle to come out of the dirt he had buried them under.

"The dead really don't want to stay buried today." 

That scene was repeated numerous times, as Shiki crushed, slashed and chewed at the Seraphims numerous times, only for them to get back up.

One was missing a leg, the other was missing an arm. But they were still standing strong, looking at him stoically. 

Meanwhile, there were only minor wounds on the Golden Lion's body, despite him facing two genetically improved versions of his captain.

Them being younger and lacking his captain's overwhelming willpower was really the only reason that Enel's troops were faring so well against the Seraphims in general.

Momonga had managed to cut one of his opponent's wings off, causing his control over flames to dwindle greatly.

The fight still continued, and the 'Noble Killer' was still greatly annoyed by his opponent's insane durability, but he was faring quite well. 

The same could be said for Wyper, who was pretty much stuck in a stalemate with the Seraphim he had picked out.

He had an advantage in most aspects aside from durability and endurance. The Xebec clones were simply on another level when it came to that.

It was to be noted that Xebec's durability in general was monstrous even when he couldn't use his Lunarian flame to enhance his durability because of his lack of wings. 

So it wasn't just the Lunarian bloodline that made things difficult, had it only been that Shiki would have slaughtered all of the Seraphims already. 

It was just that Xebec's DNA was superior overall. 

Now Oven was quite different, as he was unaffected by the heat of the blue flames the Seraphims produced.

Instead, he countered with his own even hotter devil fruit, the temperatures made all of their surroundings turn into a hellscape.

'Fighting Fire with Heat.' Was not what most would call practical. 

But at some point, Oven started turning up the heat to such a degree that the very oxygen around them was becoming scarcer.

The Seraphim's flame flickered for an instant, which led to it losing its sword arm and almost dying.

It survived, and the fight continued, but it was not going to continue for long...

Out of them all, Oven was well on track to being the first one to finish his fight. 

Meanwhile, what remained of the Elders continued to struggle against the opponents they were facing.

They had pretty much ran out of tricks, and were doing their best to hang on as long as possible until IMU finished off Enel and Luffy... 

Nusjuro was masterful in swordsmanship, but against three swordsmen of similar skill to his, and a genetically modified human with enough strength to break his bones, he was being suppressed effectively.

Shanks, Mihawk and Zoro's combined blades were enough to give him trouble, adding Sanji to the mix was just making things a lot worse.

In a desperate bid, Nusjuro did something none of them truly expected... He aimed squarely for Sanji, deciding to focus on him from that point on.

In a flurry of countless slashes, Sanji was eventually injured... Right where it mattered. 

One of his legs was cut off. But it was a severe trade-off, as Nusjuro was almost decapitated by Zoro, and lost all of his legs against Mihawk and Shanks, making him lose his balance.

He was then turned into cubes, by countless slashes from all of the swordsmen present.

And to the Elder's dismay, the now one-legged Sanji also dashed towards him, twirling in the air and kicking his skull in. The cook had chosen to not run away as Nusjuro had hoped.

Even worse was that by the time Nusjuro's body brought its pieces back together, Sanji was still there and continuing to fight with only one leg... And he had nabbed the Elder's blade. 

"You're pretty fond of this piece of junk... I'll take it with me then!" The Cook only turned tail to run at that point.

Nusjuro wasn't going to let that slide, he immediately tried to rush towards Sanji and retrieve his blade. But he quickly tumbled to the ground as his hind legs were cut off by Mihawk.

"Did turning your back to us really seem like such a good idea to you?" Zoro's voice could be heard, as a powerful flying slash hit the Elder on the side and sent him tumbling further away. 

The others were not faring much better, with Warcury being stuck, pitted against the recovered Big Mom, whilst Peter was still trying his best to fight back against Dragon, who was fully dominating him in all aspects. 

The Marine situation was still the most volatile, with Aramaki still able to put up a good fight.

The fact that he was immune to Akainu's Magma was not a good sign, unfortunately. And soon enough even Kizaru's lasers reflected off of him, as they were not quite able to reach a heat high enough to pierce through. 

Garp's punches had also gotten weaker due to his damaged heart. They were able to somewhat avoid grievous injuries thanks to Law's interference.

And eventually, someone else rolled onto the field to help them.

"I've been gathering up some scrap just for this..." It was none other than Eustass Kid, one of the supernovas that had tried to help against Kaido previously.

Countless pieces of tech were dragged in towards Kid, all culminating and gathering into a large cannon that came out of his metallic hand.

Some wooden roots did try to stop Kid, kill him where he stood. But Fujitora protected him, cutting away all of the roots and pressing down the dirt heavily with his gravitational powers. 

The cannon charged up fast, with Kid taking out a strange container storing a violet stone. 

'A dyna stone?! Did this brat raid what remained of the Holy Land's defences?' Garp gasped, he immediately turned to rush further out of the way of Kid's laser. 

All of the others seemed to mimic his movements, realizing exactly what Kid was doing. 

"Damned Punk!" 

The red-haired pirate howled in laughter as he released a powerful purplish laser straight at Aramaki.

Countless roots rose from the ground in a bit to stop or divert the attack, but the laser passed right through them.

Only at the last one did it struggle. For a second it almost looked like it wasn't going to be able to even reach Aramaki.

It was only then that Kid's chest shone, a plate sliding to the side to reveal something that looked like an energy core, one so advanced that none of the Marines present could make out just how much energy it generated.

One thing was for certain... It was a lot stronger than the Dyna Stone. 

And how couldn't it be? It was, after all, the weapon that Vegapunk had devised. Something to give them an advantage against the World government.

And it was now being used by none other than Kid. Or more aptly named Ragnarok, Vegapunk's 7th Satellite, the one who embodied the aspect of Wrath and Destruction alike. 

He had long since broken away from Vegapunk, starting his journey in the South Blue as a pirate not long after he cut off his connection to the Punk Records.

His expansive journey did eventually lead him right back to Vegapunk, though this time they were participating in a war, so they were forced to put their differences aside. 

It certainly helped that Kid wanted to take all of the advantages he could, and Vegapunk was the only one capable of making him stronger in such a short period of time. 

He was more than willing to throw away his pride to get strong enough to contend with the likes of Luffy.

The only real condition he had to be a test subject for Vegapunk was to not be connected to the Punk Records again. He wished to retain all of his individuality. 

Now, armed with Vegapunk's latest technology, Kid was grinning from ear to ear as he got the chance to point his fangs at a God Fruit user. 

Kid roared as his 'Damned Punk' cut through the last vines and finally reached Aramaki, who scowled and dashed to the side.

But Kid's arm followed his movements perfectly, forcing the Wooden God to block the attack with his body. 

The laser parted ways when coming in contact with Aramaki's body, but Kid didn't stop, he kept up the pressure, more and more, even as his body steamed and the core in his chest sparked. 

Unlike with Kizaru's lasers, Aramaki was being pushed back constantly now. 

The Damned Punk only came to an end when Kid himself was almost knocked unconscious due to how much the core had been heating his body.

He stopped the attack and breathed out a lot of steam. Steam was coming from every pore of his skin. 

The dust eventually settled, to reveal the half-dead form of Aramaki, who was currently more charred than even when Akainu had turned him into a Lava sculpture. 

He was essentially turned into charcoal, and his arms were both blown off. 

"Shit, he's still standing?!? What the hell..." Kid fell to one knee, as the gears on his mechanical arm continued to turn.

The cannon he had formed turned into a bunch of rubble, as he lost control over his devil fruit powers momentarily.

"No... You did well." Sengoku nodded, before looking at Garp with narrowed eyes.

'One last charge...' 

_____________________________________________

Hope you liked the chapter!

The Useless Captain Mid/Vegapunk 7 thing is more of a fan theory with some very interesting but very little substance, but I thought it was cool so I added it ;)

In essence, it's kinda basing on how he names all his attacks, and how his Punk Rotten has a Punk 7 on it for no reason. And yep, that's all she wrote

Anyway, I'm off to sleep 

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