Chapter 97

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Chapter 97

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Rayleigh was ready to die here, everyone could see that he was desperate now.

After all, his captain's son had just died. He had been too late to save Ace. Even with the strength to his level, he could be late for some things. The world didn't wait for anyone.

So with that in mind, Rayleigh kicked off the ground, cracking the stone below him. Instantly he was in front of Sengoku's face, ready to cut off the giant buddha's head. 

Fwish!

Clang!

But the hit was met with resistance as Sengoku wasn't a  slouch either. In his giant body, he had still moved fast enough to have his Haki-infused palm halt Rayleigh's sword.

Dark clouds settled above. Unlike many marines, Sengoku had Conqueror's Haki and so did Rayleigh. 

But the clash didn't last long, as an angry Garp appeared next to Rayleigh and punched the old man straight in the face. A nasty crack rang out.

BOOOOOM!!!

Rayleigh crashed on the ground, creating a giant explosion. But he got up quite fast, the left side which Garp had punched was a little swollen. 

Through all that, Rayleigh seemed unbothered. His eyes didn't show even an ounce of fear. "What happened to you, Garp? Seems like age has caught up even to the best of us. A punch from you in the past was something even mountains couldn't handle."

Garp though didn't answer, he too was angry. From what Rayleigh said, it was safe to assume that something bad had happened to Ace. 

Rayleigh was honorable enough to not lie about something like this, and Garp knew it too.

"Today will be the day you die," Sengoku stated in a domineering voice. The war had gone disastrously as not only Whitebeard but Kaido too had appeared.

Thankfully due to Max, those two monsters were fighting each other. But for how long would that even last? Hell, for all he knew, Sengoku wouldn't be surprised if they even allied together suddenly. Pirates like them were very unpredictable.

…

-Max POV-

Things were going quite well for me. The war had played out a little unexpectedly well. Usually, plans would always have some holes in them that needed a little patching up, but due to being prepared, everything went alright. Thankfully Big Mom didn't appear too, since then the plan would have been to run away. Having that old hag and the World Government after me would be too much of a risk, one I wasn't willing to take.

Whitebeard now had only around 15,000 soldiers left; they had started with 45 thousand. The Marines started with a hundred thousand, now 85 thousand Marines are left. 

This battle was already over, Whitebeard had lost. Now a new problem has developed. What if Kaido started a new war right now? The Marines were exhausted, and Kaido's new army would catch them off guard. 

I knew that since Kaido was here with King, it meant that at least some more of the Beast Pirates were around. They haven't arrived here yet, but they are probably close by.

Whitebeard was still overwhelming Kaido or at least holding the man down. Because while the shocks seem to be doing damage, Whitebeard himself wasn't in the best of shapes and only had access to one arm as I had destroyed the other one.

Sooner or later the old man will get tired, Whitebeard no longer had the power to kill Kaido quickly. Even while the beast was heavily injured and held down, Kaido's eye was very dominating and busting Conqueror's Haki showed that he was still ready to fight.

"Amazing isn't it?" Asked Negan as he blitzed right next to me. Raynare wasn't far either as she landed at my side. Both of them looked after my back, making sure that no one would stick a blade in it. 

"Be careful not to die," I warned them one last time, before darting towards another side of the battlefield. This was a code for them to execute another plan. Just in case anyone was hearing, it would seem like I just told them to be careful.

..

It didn't take long for me to catch sight of my next target… Blackbeard. He had appeared and was terrorizing some Vice Admirals, his iconic laugh rang through as he slaughtered Vice Admirals that were too weak to resist his attacks. None of them had any experience fighting against someone that could cancel Devil Fruit powers. The ones without Devil Fruits weren't strong enough to do anything either.

As I was rushing, Blackbeard turned towards me, but it was already too late for him. 

By his burn scars and blinded eye, it seemed like Ace had done quite some damage to him. Helping him back then hadn't been a bad idea.

Fwish!

A dark slobbering object flew in the air and slumped down on the ground.

"Aaagh!!" Blackbeard yelled out in pain, clutching at his arm… or more correctly, where his arm used to be.

He looked at me with a hateful gaze. "Max…" he muttered, clenching his jaw. His whisper was filled with maliciousness. I didn't mind any of that and just smirked.

"Yo!" Waving at him casually seemed to anger him even more. Blackbeard extended his arm toward me.

{Black Hole}

Whirls of darkness appeared in his palm, drawing me towards him. I couldn't stop myself as I flew towards him. Well, I didn't even try stopping myself either. 

Instead, I grabbed some metallic shells from my pocket and flickered them at Blackbeard. The man looked at the attack in shock, trying to stop the metal from landing on his flesh; he instinctively tried to use his other hand to create a wall of shadow. For that split moment, he had forgotten that he no longer had two arms. And that was going to cost him dearly.

Though in a flash, a skinny man appeared in front of Blackbeard he had a purple cane in his hand. He pulled on it, revealing a hidden sword.

Clang! Clang! Clang!...

With expert speed, he cut down or deflected the metal pellets. Laffitte was quite a skillful swordsman, it seems like he had gotten even better from the last time we fought.

"C'mon now, don't leave me outside like this!" Jesus Burgess yelled out, attempting to punch me. 

In that instant, I changed into my Awakened Form. Taking no chances, I used my claws like a sword and my claws dug into his neck like a hot knife into butter. The sound of bone-crunching rang out as I pulled Jesus Burgess' head off his shoulders and casually threw it aside. 

His head, which still had an excited smile on his face, landed on the ground before his body did. Blackbeard was surprised at this, but his shock didn't last long as darkness enveloped the ground and I stopped using my Devil Fruit.

"You are quite an annoying opponent," Blackbeard complained. "And here I thought that we could be friends."

Only Laffitte and Doctor Q were left in his crew. Unlike canon, the rest of the Blackbeard Pirates' main crew were already killed off when Whitebeard sank Impel Down.

I kicked off the ground, and while mid-air, Blackbeard's darkness couldn't touch me. In an instant, I was in front of him.

<Finger Pistol>

With surprising speed, Doc Q and his white horse appeared in front of Blackbeard, stopping my finger which had a claw and covered in Haki from piercing their captain. Though within less than a second, over a hundred holes appeared in Doc Q's body. I even made sure to blind him and pierce his skull, scrambling the man's brains. 

In that instant, the world around me seemed to slow down. Everything seemed to move so fast and Laffitte's sword sunk into my belly.

"What?" I asked out loud, sounding confused.

"Zehahaha, Doc Q's sacrifice wasn't in vain. What you just dug your finger into was some of the worst poison to exist in the world." Blackbeard gloated over me, his smile which showed his missing teeth was so big that it almost seemed like it split his face.

I only smirked at him as a dark figure suddenly came from the ground and picked me up. Shedding a metallic suit, the person revealed itself. 

It was Reiju with her pink raid suit on and she had a playful smirk on her face. "It's quite scary how you predicted that poison would be involved in this fight."

Well, I didn't exactly bother to try and predict a scenario from the infinite ones out there. Instead, I just took a precaution against poison, and Reiju was the best at dealing with poisons.

.

She kissed me on the lips tenderly and even used a little tongue. I could feel all of the poison leaving my body. After the deed was done, she smiled at me and winked. 

"Can't you just do this normally?" I asked her as we separated. I had seen Reiju be able to remove poison without the need for a kiss before.

"C'mon now captain," she pouted. "Can't you let a girl have some fun once in a while?"

She then let me down before I could answer her. Laffitte was chasing us and had already caught up, but by now the poison in my body was already home and I could move normally.

Laffitte immediately noticed that something was wrong and tried to stop himself from flying into me.

Fwish!

Kicking off the ground over a hundred times, I blitzed past him in an instant and had his detached head in my hand. 

"You Blackbeard Pirates are quite reckless," I said out loud, looking at Blackbeard as he tried to run towards me. "Then again, you guys believe in destiny and all that. So I shouldn't be surprised at your reckless behavior."

Blackbeard clenched his teeth in anger as he looked at Laffitte's head in my hand. I dropped the round object on the ground and smirked, unbothered by all the blood. 

"Are you angry?" I taunted him. 

I had to keep him angry because that wouldn't have him be able to use his Observation Haki.

Suddenly darkness came out of his body like a torrent, his Conqueror's Haku burst out. The sky seemed to darken too, and a curtain of darkness surrounded both of us, cutting us off from the outside world.

Blackbeard smirked maliciously. "You can try and run. But from now on, you are trapped here with me."

Well, I never planned to run, to begin with. Plus if I wanted to run… I was very good at it, even Blackbeard wouldn't be able to stop me.

I didn't say any of that and instead made myself seem a little nervous on the outside and looked around worryingly.

It was good to have Blackbeard's ego inflated a little. He was too dangerous otherwise.

"Why don't you try using your Devil Fruit?" He asked me jokingly. And immediately I tried to see if I could transform, but as expected, I couldn't change into my bear form.

Damn, well, this was troublesome. But still, not something that I hadn't planned against.

After all, a Devil Fruit was a power that could be stopped, with my knowledge of this world it would have been ignorant of me to not plan for a situation where I couldn't use its power.

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A/N: Normally we don't see Max's planning side, especially from his perspective. But Max is quite articulate and will use any small opportunity to his advantage. Also, he knows quite a lot of characters' weaknesses due to reading the Manga and watching the One Piece Anime. That combination makes him very dangerous, whether he has a Devil Fruit or not doesn't matter.

P.S: It is canon that Sengoku has Conqueror's Haki.