Meanwhile..

[ Ken POV ]

Mariejois

"Critical Impact"

Former Fleet Admiral Kong swung his fist with intense vigor as his blackened fist made contact with the lightning wolf. 

What followed simultaneously happened too quickly for me even to begin to comprehend. 

To my right, a baleful roar that reminded me of the commander whenever he turned into his animal form echoed out throughout the city, followed by an intense wave of Conqurer's Haki that took every fiber of my being to take out. 

To my left, a bright silver and neon green light bloomed from the top of the Red Line. That was where the Commander had been fighting the two Elders who had appeared earlier when we had just arrived on the Red Line. A humongous explosion immediately followed it.

All these three things happened all at once. The shockwaves following it could only send me flying right back into the ground. My vision was blurry, and I was on the cusp of losing consciousness.

I tried to get out of the crater I had formed as a result of getting flung into the ground, but Former Fleet Admiral Kong landed square on my chest. I coughed out a mouthful of blood before my head landed back on the ground.

"Don't think you're going to be able to run around scott-free. You're still under arrest," Former Fleet Admiral Kong remarked. "Things have escalated far more than anticipated; I'm going to need to take care of the Celestial Dragons before they get wrapped up in this conflict. Something big's going to happen..."

The man kept on rambling to himself for a while longer. I could barely breathe; my body remained limp as I tried to stay awake.

Former Fleet Admiral Kong slowly looked down at me after a while longer of ranting. 

"I suppose I'll bring you in for now, but where should we keep you held?" Kong scratched his head while he looked at me.

Once again, another baleful roar came from my right, this time even attracting Kong's attention away from me and looking right at the source of where the roars were coming from.

"What an absurd amount of Conqurer's Haki....I can barely keep standing. What's happening over there?" Kong remarked as his eyes narrowed.

Then, I decided to take that opportunity to let out a burst of lightning to push him away. Reflexively, Kong leaped out of the way before landing on the ground that hadn't sunk near the crater.

My chest had caved in a bit as a result of Kong's attack, but it wasn't anything that a few days of rest wouldn't heal. 

Kong didn't even say anything about it; he stomped the ground and reappeared right in front of me, his hand curled back into a fist. 

I had long recognized that using Observation Haki wasn't going to be enough to keep up with him. So I ended up using some lightning to stimulate my nerves and senses so that I could react almost as quickly as I sensed him coming.

However, thanks to my damaged state, it was taking time for me to control my breathing, an essential technique in order for me to move around with my heightened senses. In other words, I couldn't dodge him in time.

I quickly coated my forearms with Armament Haki and crossed them in front of me before his fist landed. 

The impact sent me flying through the walls of the crater, and I found myself digging into the ground. However, I quickly turned into lightning and dispersed before Kong landed another blow right where I was previously lying.

"This much is to be expected from a Rumble-Rumble fruit user, but it's unfortunate that you aren't strong enough to keep up with me," Kong admitted.

"It's a work in progress," I growled.

The former Fleet Admiral was about to say something back. However, before he could, he suddenly jumped back and landed further away from me. He coated his forearms with Armament Haki and seemed to be dodging and deflecting something. From an outside perspective like mine, it looked like he had finally lost his mind and was trying to fight the air, but the small marks that the ground would make after every move would tell me otherwise.

"It seems that you aren't too injured. Good," A familiar voice suddenly said.

"I didn't think that I would be taking on a former Fleet Admiral, but I was lucky." I gritted my teeth as I turned to look at Dragon.

An explosion suddenly rang out, and the both of us immediately assumed our fighting stance. If we wanted to beat the former Fleet Admiral, it looked like we were going to have to join forces.

"Well, if it isn't the Marine turned Revolutionary," Kong remarked, "If it weren't for the fact that you're Garp's son, you would have been hunted down a long time ago."

"I'm always thankful for the opportunity within the Marines, but we both know that what you're fighting for is not justice," Dragon respectfully replied, "there is no justice being the World Government's attack dogs."

Kong's brows furrowed slightly before he cracked his thick neck. 

"That's not for you to decide, traitor."

Kong then kicked the ground and rushed right at us. I channeled some lightning spears before flinging some at him. Meanwhile, it seemed that Dragon had completely disappeared from the battle scene.

Kong deflected all the lightning spears that came his way and rushed right at me head-on. I matched his energy by summoning a short spear and rushing at him as well. This was no time to play chicken; I dodged the first punch that he threw at me by ducking to the ground. 

I wanted to stab his ankles with the short lightning spear in my hands, but he suddenly leaped back before launching another punch in a completely random direction. 

Dragon appeared where Kong had punched, but he immediately disappeared again before Kong ended up having to dodge some more invisible attacks. He landed on the ground and immediately leaped right back into the air. Right after, a huge crater appeared where he had been standing.

I chased him and primed my short spear right to where I predicted he would land. However, right as I threw my spear at the predicted location. Kong reached out and grabbed something before pulling it towards him.

The thing, or person, he had grabbed was a stunned Dragon who immediately began taking evasive maneuvers to avoid the lightning spear.

He grabbed Kong's hand before performing a backflip and landing a good kick right at his jaw. Then, Dragon swung his body upwards before kicking his feet back to the ground to create a downward force and performing a Judo-like move to throw Kong right in front of the spear.

On a side note, it was impressive how much we could do in a matter of seconds.

Kong's body didn't resist the sudden force that propelled him to flip forward. However, he had already coated his back with Armament Haki so that he would have tanked the blow, and naturally, the spear didn't even leave so much as a scratch on the former Fleet Admiral.

Seeing that the attack didn't work, Dragon kicked him before doing a flip and vanishing mid-air. I was beginning to get used to his mannerisms whenever he would disappear; although I couldn't exactly tell where he was, I was slowly beginning to develop a feeling of where he would appear.

Hopefully, this also meant that my proficiency with Observation Haki was growing.