Expected Assault and Face Offs

___________ POV Kong___________

We were already told to expect something big.

And it wasn't like I had to be told that in order to expect it. Garp, Sengoku, Sakazuki and the rest, all of them are gone from the marines.

It's clear that the elders used 'that' on Baltigo, knowing that most of the marines would die. It's Sakazuki's fault for making his intentions to depart from the World Government so obvious.

Kong didn't agree with the decision, but he also didn't agree with the way the Elders were treating the Marines, to begin with, he could understand that decision.

He expected to see Kaido or Big Mom at the gates of the Holy Land, he was not afraid by any stretch of the imagination. He actually expected them.

He wouldn't even have been afraid of them together, though he wouldn't have been able to fight them by himself.

Kong still had Aramaki after all. The Green Fleet Admiral was nowhere near close to having the strength to back his title.

Fleet Admirals were supposed to go toe to toe with Yonko. Even if they couldn't win by themselves, they could still fight them. But the marines had really fallen off at that point.

Kong didn't want to say it, but they were really scraping the bottom of the barrel when it came to powerful people in the marines. Especially with Z and Tsuru departing with a large number of talents.

Kong didn't stop them though, he knew that the World Government was the one that had pushed them away. And he didn't want to raise his hand at old friends.

He was also against Garp being imprisoned initially, knowing that it was a fool's game. Garp was going to be rescued no matter what happened. No one listened to him, unfortunately.

The result was that Garp was now in the fold with Sky King Enel, a person that Kong didn't have a very high opinion of...

And not only Garp had escaped Impel Down's Level 0...

'Francisco...'

Kong looked at the swordsman in front of him with his beastly blue eyes.

He hadn't expected that such a day would come, for him to have to face someone that should already have died decades ago.

He wasn't stupid, he knew that the former First Mate of the Rocks Pirates was a dangerous individual. He had even tried to plead for him to simply be executed instead of kept and tortured.

It wasn't due to any form of pity for the legendary pirate, it was merely fear of him getting out.

Alas, Kong was nothing more than a Vice Admiral at the time. And his pleas went ignored.

The fear also vanished after a few years. But Kong hadn't forgotten the Rocks Pirates, who still remained the most dangerous pirate crew in history.

He was a bit afraid when hearing word that Francisco had also escaped. But he didn't think much of it since the former First Mate was already old and crippled...

Now, Kong had to face him. Returned to his prime and more powerful than ever before. Probably having finally reached the level of his former captain.

It was a rather bleak situation for anyone that had any notion of how powerful the Rocks Pirates had been.

The fact that he was with Shiki was even more annoying. It was only a matter of time before Shiki took control of the Holy Land with his ability... Though they had already prepared for that.

They expected either Enel, Kaido or Big Mom to attack them earnestly after the fiasco at Baltigo. So they had made preparations for devil fruit users...

'Aramaki can certainly handle Shiki without the fruit... Right? Well, he better. Other agents can help him, but I need to focus on this man.'

The only problem was the non-devil fruit user in front of Kong, someone that they hadn't prepared anywhere near enough for.

'I can still fight him... I am much stronger than back then! Someone like Xebec won't be able to just ignore me again!'

___________ POV Narration ___________

Immediately, Kong growled, and Francisco noticed the determination emanating from his beastly blue eyes.

It was only a matter of seconds before the next blow was thrown.

Kong this time calmed himself down, cooling his mind and kicking towards the legendary swordsman.

A white flying slash came barreling towards the swordsman, splitting the ground in front of it.

Francisco simply smiled, meeting the slash with one of his own. The tip of his blade touched the ground, and he let off a red flying slash that was just as big.

The two met in the middle, and the shockwave of their meeting managed to blow away all of the dust that had risen up.

All of the unconscious people on the ground were also sent flying in the distance, banging through a few buildings in the process and further collapsing the nearby infrastructure as the 'ring' of the two legendary figures became a bit more well-defined.

Kong looked around the wrecked part of the Holy Land, scowling slightly. Glad that they evacuated the Celestial Dragons to an undisclosed location not long after the Baltigo Incident...

Francisco also noticed that there weren't any Celestial Dragons, it was obvious due to how calm and collected Kong was acting.

'I guess it does make sense for them to be expecting an attack... Let's just hope they didn't bother moving the slaves as well.'

"I don't get what you two are trying to achieve here... Not even coming here with a proper sword... But I'll make sure neither of you leaves this island alive!"

The Commander in Chief still was half the size of a regular giant, even in his Hybrid form. His deep voice sent tremors through the ground.

Kong instantly dug his leg into the ground and kicked up again, this time he didn't release a Rankyaku, instead, his massive leg shot up hundreds of small rocks and debris towards Francisco.

The swordsman jumped instantly, the rocks shooting through his previous position in the very next second, going much faster than bullets and banging into the ground with heavy tremors.

Francisco was still forced to block some of the rocks with his blade, taking his hilt in the other hand and using it to bat away rocks as well.

'It's always annoying to use Future Sight against an enemy that also has future sight... A lot of the battle is done internally, but only annoying moves end up being used!'

Francisco couldn't help but complain internally as his hands trembled slightly while he batted away the blackened dirt projectiles.

The Swordsman wasn't about to just be passive in the fight though, it was his job to finish things quickly and assist Shiki, their mission was to find a hostage, not fight.

He used one of the rocks as a foothold in mid-air and immediately appeared in front of the giant monster, blunt cutlass already raised, blackened and ready to cut.

Kong was prepared for him however, just as Francisco prepared to swing, he opened his mouth and let off a powerful roar.

"FREEZING BLAST!" It was somewhat similar to what Kaido was using, just of a completely different nature.

Francisco was currently suspended in the air, forced to watch a giant ray of cold air and frozen wind crash into him at blinding speeds.

The Swordsman was immediately flung backwards, ice patches settling on his body instantly. He was still undeterred though, even when he felt his back hit the red line in the distance, reaching the edge of the Holy Land.

The Cold Breath froze everything in its path, all the way to the wall of the red line, which was completely frozen over, with Francisco crushed somewhere underneath all of the ice.

'Good thing he doesn't know all of my techniques yet... Still, he really does live up to his reputation...'

The giant white-furred monster looked down with a scowl, a red line spanning from one side of its chest to the other side of its lower abdomen.

'Even when being flung away, he managed to slash my chest at such blinding speeds...'

Kong wasn't deterred by such injuries either though, he simply took a deep breath and flexed his chest muscles, stopping the bleeding with pure pressure.

The cut was not all that deep anyway, so Kong could just ignore it.

'Still, to think he can even cut me despite using such a shoddy blade... How much have his skills improved?'

The Commander in Chief didn't get much time to think, unfortunately. The frozen wall in front of him started cracking just as quickly as it was formed, and the ice was blown backwards like shrapnel from a grenade.

Kong ignored it, his eyes fixated on his opponent, who was still looking uninjured.

'I guess it's going to take a lot more than that to take him down...'

Francisco himself looked towards Kong with narrowed eyes.

'That cut... So shallow... Maybe I should've listened to Shiki's advice and gotten a better blade after all. At this point, a battle between me and Kong will take days to finish up... I just hope he can find the hostages quickly so we can get the hell out of here.'

The stalemate between the two legendary figures was bound to continue.

On the other side of the island, Shiki was flying everywhere and trying to find any sign of either Celestial Dragons. He was hoping to be able to put some of them in coffins before rescuing the slaves.

Alas, fate had other plans by the looks of it, and the Golden Lion was disappointedly forced to only focus on finding the slaves.

And just as his observation haki spotted an entire warehouse filled with different auras, a gigantic tree sprouted out of the ground and blocked his path.

Spiked branches immediately extended themselves towards him and forced him to pull back and slash at the tree.

4 golden flying slashes cut into the tree with ease, collapsing it on the nearby buildings and making Shiki curse a bit, as he realised that if he got too close to his rescue targets then he'd also get them implicated in the fight.

"Golden Lion Shiki! A relic from an old era... Well, your legend ends here, today!" Aramaki stood in front of the Golden Lion, hopping in the air as his turned into branches and extended towards the pirate.

"Puh! Marines and their stupid posturing!" Shiki swung one of his bladed legs, cutting into the branches and aiming to split the Fleet Admiral in half.

Aramaki wasn't exactly a pushover though, the slash stopped halfway through, and the branches continued heading towards Shiki, this time from 4 sides.

The Golden Lion scowled as he flew through them and dodged each branch with ease.

More and more rose from Aramaki's extended arms and eventually forced Shiki to swing his blades madly, creating a deadly circle of flying blades and severing all of the nearby branches.

Aramaki also scowled a bit, as all of the severed branches continued moving, turning into spikes and rushing towards the legendary pirate.

"Tsk! Annoying logia fruits and their stupid control! You're just some lucky brat! Don't get cocky on me now!" Shiki batted away most of the spikes, dodging the rest and ending up in a stalemate of sorts for a few seconds.

"Hmph! For a legendary pirate, you aren't all that much..." Aramaki commented as he crossed his arms, raising a few tree branches from the ground and standing on them, looking the flying lion in the eye.

'I bet I'm making sir Sakazuki proud... I must live up to his standards at the very least! With my victory over this man, the marines will rise once more!'

Aramaki was hopeful, he wanted a chance to prove himself and strengthen the marines. He had never wanted for the Baltigo incident to happen, he had never been in the know.

He also would never have agreed with it. He had madly respected Akainu ever since he was a recruit! How could he ever wish for his death?

Still, his excitement at the prospect of proving himself to his predecessors made him blind to one thing... He was currently not facing a figure known for swordsmanship or brute strength.

He now had a slight advantage... But things were about to change.

Some veins bulged in Shiki's forehead as he looked at the greenhorn Fleet Admiral in front of him.

'No mastery over Conquerors, his haki isn't anything special either... Who the hell does he think he is?!'

Immediately, Shiki went over to one of the Red Line walls nearby, his anger boiling as he cooked something up.

'I can't just float out the entire red line... But I can certainly do something similar.

Standing at the base of the wall, Shiki drew all of his swords and let out a huge flying slash, cutting out a large piece of the red line diagonally with a very clean cut.

The red rock immediately started slipping towards the Holy Land, and Aramaki was shocked, he rushed to catch it, only for Shiki to hold out his hand and touch it.

Aramaki watched with horror as he looked at the large rock, half as big as the Holy Land itself, float up to the sky.

Shiki then clenched his fist, his knuckles cracking as he did so, and the almost triangle-shaped rock mountain turned into a large floating sphere.

"Let's see how chatty you are now, you little shit!" The Golden Lion roared in laughter as his two swords floated by his side and started spinning in the air.

Aramaki could only gulp at that point.

'... I hope backup comes soon...'

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Hope you liked the chapter! I have an exam tomorrow, so I hope I'll be able to upload, but I can't make any promises :))

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