Chapter 147

Ace quickly regained his composure and pleasantly smiled at me while rubbing his fist. "I could say the same thing about you and my friend here..." He remarked while gesturing with his hand as a man walked over from behind his crewmates, and things suddenly started making sense.

"That's right!" The man exclaimed in an obnoxious imitation of grief. "I was merely content to sit in my castle, taking care of my people when this demon suddenly showed up!" he added, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye.

"He used a strange devil's fruit power and began massacring my soldiers and even beat me to an inch of my life for no reason!" The man exclaimed, closing his eyes in pain as if remembering a traumatic event.

"And even then, he wasn't satisfied as he began viciously kicking me when I fell to the ground!" The man explained, sounding even more obnoxious somehow.

"He even conspired with several traitors from my kingdom and threw me in a dungeon with no food or water so they can execute me later!" He added, seemingly shivering in grief and horror at his experience.

"Please take down this demon, and save my people from his evil grasp!" The man concluded, pointing his finger at me as he looked at Ace with a pleading look.

"There you have it, so make it easy on yourselves and leave the island immediately!" Ace exclaimed, nodding in satisfaction after hearing Wapol's words.

"You're here to help this guy?" Johnny asked as he looked at ace with a neutral expression, earning a nod from the latter. "And it hasn't occurred to you that he might be lying?" Johnny asked again, his tone flat as he clenched his fist.

"Not one bit," Ace said with a smile, shaking his head. "Wapol offered us food when my crew and I were starving and on the verge of death after some marine captain ambushed us and we lost our way!" he added, walking towards Wapol and patting his shoulder.

"I see..." Johnny said, his eyes alternating between Wapol and Ace. "I knew letting go of you was a mistake," he added, his eyes settling at Wapol, causing the latter to flinch.

"But you're here now, and I won't repeat the same mistake," Johnny concluded as signs of anger finally began appearing on his face. "As for you, you dumb motherfucker..." he remarked as he turned to look at Ace, his face losing all sign of calm as he vanished and appeared right in front of the latter.

Ace's eyes widened at Johnny's display of speed. However, he relaxed again, not showing any reaction as he believed in the strength of his devil fruit, forgetting the fact Johnny managed to catch his fist earlier, assuming he did notice that in the first place.

Johnny's expression turned even worse after noticing Ace's lack of reaction, and so he covered his fist in Haki, channeling as much impact into it as he could as he punched Ace in the stomach, making him fly backward.

Ace grunted in pain, his expression a mix of shock and confusion as he flew backward, hitting a tree and splitting it in half. He quickly jumped off the ground holding his stomach, leaking a thin trail of blood from his mouth.

Ace immediately began looking around, trying to locate Johnny only for his frown to deepen as he failed to do so. However, he suddenly jumped to the right as Johnny appeared on his left, swinging an oversized sword.

"God Fire: Unknown Fire!" Ace exclaimed once he dodged, hurling two fiery javelins in Johnny's direction from both of his hands.

Johnny quickly regained his balance and resumed charging Ace, merely blocking the two fire lances with his left prosthetic arm, shrugging them away.

Looking at this scene, Ace was surprised once more as he activated his devil fruit ability to boast his mobility and jumped backward to create some space.

"Fire Gun!" Ace exclaimed through gritted teeth as he landed a distance away, pointing his index finger at Johnny, and unleashing a hail of fiery bullets as he noticed the latter was still hot on his trail.

Johnny still looked unphased as he nonchalantly shrugged off the flaming bullets without even bothering to dodge or block the attacks, thanks to his fire resistance cyperware, something Ace didn't know, making him even more confused.

Realizing his attack had little effect on Johnny, Ace decided to go with a more concentrated and faster attack in hopes of surprising the latter.

"Cross Fire!" Ace exclaimed, crossing his fingers together as he unleashed a thin beam of fire aiming straight at Johnny's chest. Johnny finally showed a reaction to Ace's attack, frowning as he strangely swayed to the side to dodge the attack without stopping.

Robbed of what little distance he managed to create and left with no other choice, Ace panicked and met Johnny's charge head as the latter was finally upon him.

"Fire Fist!" Ace exclaimed, swinging a fire-covered fist at Johnny as he was finally within swinging distance.

"Flaming Impact Fist!" Johnny replied with a fiery fist of his own, without forgetting to coat his hand in hake.

Fire Fist and Flaming Impact Fist met each other with a thundering bang, creating a flaming shock wave that melted all the snow in a twenty-meter radius, and burned all greenery to ashes.

Ace and Johnny pushed each other for several seconds in a contest of power and stamina, which Johnny ultimately won due to his advantage in brute strength and the fact he was using Haki.

Johnny's fist pushed away Ace's fist, causing the latter to stagger as Johnny delivered the punch to his abdomen once again.

However, it didn't end there as Johnny didn't let ace fly away and make distance again, horizontally swinging his sword at Ace's torso, only managing to cut a thin bloody line, starting from right below the latter's neck all the way down to his belly button as he dodged last second.

"Captain!" a man with light blue hair and a decorative, dark blue bandit mask exclaimed as he began running towards ace with a worried expression.

"Stay out of it!" Ace exclaimed as he struggled to his feet with some difficulty, causing the man to hesitate for a second, which was all the time Ace needed as he shouted, "Blaze Net," creating a flaming wall, which isolated Johnny and himself from the rest of the world.

"Do you think you can protect your crewmates by doing this?" Johnny flatly asked, swinging his sword to the side and causing Ace's blood to fly from its blade, evaporating before even hitting the ground.

"This is my fight. My crewmates have nothing to do with this!" Ace remarked as he stood on shaky feet, glaring at Johnny.

"You know, there's a saying that a child should not carry the burden of the parent's sins, no matter how big they are..." Johnny indifferently remarked as he looked at Ace, causing the latter to frown.

"But pirates are not free from the sins of their captain no matter how small," Johnny added as he began walking towards Ace, seemingly radiating coldness that brought a chill to ace's heart despite the infernal heat surrounding them.