Exploding Lotus Dragon flame blades

Marineford. 21:00 last night.

" And you're sure about this?" Kong asked Brannew, the newly appointed commodore in charge of bounties and information.

" Yes sir. We confirmed it with the marines on the island and our scouts near the area say they spotted one of his flagships. It's heading straight towards them." Brannew explained.

Kong was feeling a sense of dread. This was meant to be a test to see if they could survive, which is why Kong had stationed them in paradise and not the new world. but now things are unfolding in unforeseen ways.

" Who's the closest vice admiral in that area?" Kong asked.

" Vice Admiral Borsalino, sir. But it's still a-"

" I don't care, send him. Immediately!" Kong shouted.

" Yes, sir." Brannew saluted Kong and quickly escaped the fleet admiral's office.

Kong himself placed his hand over his face and rubbed his eyebrows intensely. " What a mess. How could I know he'd run into one of Kaido's allies in his first real fight? This may very well be my last time sending the recruits off, and I may have sent this one to his death." Kong sighed in frustration and sat back up and looked down at the photo in front of him. " I hope Garp trained you well boy."

.....

Two nights ago.

* Boom! Boom! Boom!

[ Giant stronghold takeoff]

The city was devastated by continuous explosions, resulting in a thick bog of smoke. Brago and ghastly erupted from the smoke swinging their blades at one another, both of them had suffered multiple tiny scratches, but nothing serious enough to be considered life threatening or even an injury.

Ghastly would try to hit Brago with one of his scythes, and Brago would smack it away with his own, resulting in another large explosion.

Ghastly eventually needed to escape from the confrontation to get his bearings.

" Damn! Those blades! What's going on with them? They keep blowing up in my face. Even with Haki I can't push them aside." Ghastly stated. He was getting frustrated with the constant back and forth. He wasn't making any bit of progress.

" Not going to get anywhere trying to play things safe. You're moving way too slow." Brago told the man. He exploded forward and, in an instant, he was behind Ghastly. " You should try something more like this." Brago told the man. He swung both of his blades at Ghastly's neck and Ghastly managed just in time to raise one of his scythes.

The contact of the three weapons caused another explosion.

Ghastly and Brago continued swinging at each other, slashing at one another and parrying the blade of the other at speeds no one else could follow.

" HRaaah! Screw this guy! Black Sabbath!" Ghastly screamed and spun one of his scythes vertically, causing it to send a flying slash hurtling through the air.

Brago spun his swords around fast and cut the twisted black slash in half. He then jumped at Ghastly.

" Twin blade dragon Cross!" Brago raised his swords together in the shape of an X and cut the air in front of him, sending out a flying slash of his own straight for Ghastly.

The large X shaped slashes tore up the ground in front of Ghastly. The slim man raised his two scythes to block the attack but found himself slowly getting overwhelmed by the pressure.

Ghastly ended up being sent skidding backwards, and though he was pushed back, he was still unharmed.

Ghastly panted for air, and then he looked at Brago and smirked. " Looks like neither of us is getting anywhere fast." Ghastly told the man.

' Damn it. He's right. With how things are going, we're evenly matched. My observation's pretty good, but I'm not as skilled with armaments as Markus. I've at the very least got him beat on the physical aspect. But that won't matter if we just keep cancelling each other's attacks out, and I still need some time to figure out his rhythm. What to do?' Brago asked himself.

There was so much going for him. Ghastly couldn't overpower him, and he was proving to be faster, if only by a little. But his attacks didn't necessarily have the finishing power he needed to put Ghastly down. " Guess there's one way of doing this. But that's gonna be such a pain in the ass." Brago muttered.

" What are muttering about over there, huh?"

" Oh well. Just gonna do it! No point in hesitating! Let's go!" Brago exclaimed. He exploded forward spinning his blades on either side of him fast. " Flying dragon talons!" twin bursts of bright red and blue light shot off of Brago's swords in the shape of a dragon's claw.

" Nice try. Wailing Darkness!" Ghastly channeled his haki into his two scythes and shot it outwards in one widespread blast.

The two attacks hit each other together creating a smoke cloud in front of Ghastly that briefly obscured his vision.

" Ah damnit!" Ghastly cursed. He couldn't see him, so he braced himself for the oncoming attack.

A moment later, Brago suddenly appears in a flash right in front of Ghastly. Brago's swing was wide and it left him wide open.

This is what Ghastly was waiting for.

Ghastly swung his right scythe straight down, cutting Brago from his left shoulder down to his torso.

The blow was heavy and deep. Blood sprayed from Brago's body splattering on the ground. Brago slowly dropped to his knees.

" Ha! I told you! That's what you get for acting like you're hot shit." Ghastly stated. " Now then, any last words before I cut your head off?"

Brago was gritting his teeth. The pain from his wound was quite severe, but it was a necessary risk. But just as Ghastly raised his blade and prepared to kill Brago.

But then he suddenly smiled.

" Rotating Dragon Twister." Brago muttered.

Suddenly a sharp blade like whirlwind slammed into Ghastly's back, throwing him off balance and cutting his back open.

" Gah!!!"

Brago jumped up straight, this was his moment. Haki flowed into his blades, turning the silver black as coal, and the sharpening the blue and red colors. " Twin Dragon Fangs!" Brago dashed ahead of Ghastly swinging his two swords downwards and cutting Ghastly across his chest leaving two giant wounds, each spanning from his shoulders down to his hips in a cross pattern.

Ghastly was aghast. He didn't see the attack coming. " H-How?" Ghastly asked the man.

" It's simple. I saw there was no way to land the blow I needed to end you without having to take the risk of getting injured myself. So, when I launched that last attack and you countered it, I immediately sent out another one. I jumped in front of you in order to distract you from the slash moving over the top of the smoke. And you know the rest."

" Damn... You..." Ghastly gasped. He collapsed face first onto the ground and Brago finally breathed a breath of relief.

" Still gotta handle the rest of these pirates." Brago muttered. He grabbed his chest wound and started to walk away.

" Hah.... Hah.... Did you think.... I would just roll over and die?"

Brago looked back just as Ghastly got back up and saw a black blade right in his face. Brago jumped back, ignoring the pain in his chest and just barely managed to avoid having his eyes cut out. But he couldn't avoid the other blade cutting across his chest.

" Gah!" Brago shouted.

" YEAAAAAAAH!!" Ghastly wailed. He lunged at Brago with his scythes.

" HAAAAAAAAAH!" Brago brought Shaw forward and the collision of the two weapons caused another explosion, followed by a chain of more explosions as the two raced around the town, going back and forth with one another.

The two men rushed through the town, cutting through the streets and buildings. Brago was beginning to get winded as was Ghastly. The wounds the two of them suffered were deep and it was clear they were taking their toll.

' Damn! I can't keep this up much longer. We've been fighting for hours and... I'm losing too much blood. At this rate we'll both die. I'll have to take a gambit and use that move!'

" I will kill you, and every last man, woman and child on this island do you hear me, because my Name is Demon Bane Ghastly, the twin scythes GHASTLY! Two Scythe Ultimate move! Demon wind scythes of destruction!" Ghastly spun his scythes around viciously, whipping up the wind around him and creating a vortex that sucked Brago towards him.

Brago looked at Ghastly and for a moment his image changed into that of the Grim reaper himself.

" Damn it! If I don't who will?!" Brago exclaimed. He jumped towards Ghastly, and started channeling all of his haki, as much of it as he could handle into his blades.

Ghastly couldn't tell if it was all the fire around them, or perhaps it was his imagination, but the amount of heat building up was unreal, and then he saw it.

" Two sword style secret technique! Exploding Lotus Dragon Flame Blades!" Bragos visage became that of a black dragon.

For those watching, the dragon and the reaper collided and started trading blows with one another. The reaper would push against the dragon and slash at it with one of his scythes, while the dragon would evade around the scythes and bit back at the reaper.

For a while it seemed even, but eventually one of the men had to give out. And in a moment of utter radiance and flash, the Dragon bit through one of the reapers scythes and, in an instant, swallowed the reaper whole.

A massive explosion overtook most of the town, blowing away many of the buildings in the area, smoke fumes filled the air, turning the previously lavish vacation island into ruins.

" What happened?"

" Did the boss get him?"

" That attack was so fast; I couldn't even see it."

" Wait! There in the smoke!"

As the smoke started to clear away Brago was standing behind Ghastly with both of his blades brought together, with the two sharp edges touching each other.

Ghastly had the entire right side of his torso blown away, his arm was hanging on by a small thread.

[ After eating grand line part 2]

" Markus... There is still so much I have to learn until I can shine as brightly as you. But tonight, I did it. The people, the pirates of the world, all of them are standing in our way to the top. But my blades will not fail either of us. At least not tonight. Because tonight my fangs pierced through the darkness!" Brago exclaimed.

Blood exploded from Ghastly's wound and he quickly dropped to the ground, dead.

Brago turned around and faced the pirates remaining. He placed his right blade over the back of his shoulder and stood atop of Ghastly's dead body. " Your captain is dead. Your goals have been prevented. Your dreams are over."

" I don't believe it. That Ghastly. The man worth 695 million berries. Is dead."

" BOSS!"

" CAPTAIN!"

" You bastard! You'll pay for that. He's already tired and exhausted. Finish him off boys!"

" YEEEEAH!"

Brago prepared for the oncoming swath of pirates, but as the kill frenzied group rushed him, he raised his blades.

" FIRE!"

A volley of gunshots rang out loud and clear, dropping many of the pirates in front of Brago.

Brago grinned and looked back at them all, all two hundred Marine soldiers. Having finally escaped their base, where they were held down, the Marine's finally arrived to help put a stop to the rampaging pirates.

" Now then. Do you still wanna play this game?" Brago asked.

The pirates looked around, they were surrounded on all sides by soldiers with guns and with nowhere to go.

Seeing that there was nothing else they could do, the pirates dropped their weapons and held their hands up above their heads.

" We surrender."

Yes! Finally! After a long siege, and hours of fighting, Brago and the Marines finally let out a loud shout of victory.

" HAAAAAAAAH!"

Brago and the Marines quickly took in the remaining pirates. However, as the Marine soldiers carted off the last of the living pirates away to their prison hold, Brago collapsed.

" Finally, done, huh? Looks like I can finally... Rest. Nghhhh." Brago groaned. He landed square on his back. Passing out from the cumulative exhaustion.

" Hey? Hey?! Get me a medic over here! We got one down!"

" Step aside, I'm a doctor." A man spoke. He was the same man Brago had saved hours ago, the little girl's father, John. " Don't worry, I won't let him die."

It was a long night for the Marines, and though he had been hurt, with the combined help of the Marines and John, the father of little Kana and a well-known doctor himself, Brago would thankfully awake in the infirmary a few days later.

.....

Now. On Banaro Island in Paradies, however, Markus was facing quite a real and very dangerous problem.

" Hmmmm! This is Vice Admiral Borsalino. Is this Markus-Kun?"

" Yes, Borsalino. It's me. I'm kind of busy right now. What can I do for you?" Markus was given a den-den Mushi by one of the marines from the Banaro island base and was currently speaking to Vice Admiral Borsalino.

" I'm on my way to Banaro Island Markus-kun. I just wanted to warn you that there was some trouble coming your way."

" Heh! Oh yeah! I'm about to have my hands full alright." Markus had a look of both excitement and aggravation on his face.

" Hm?"

" Well, you see... It's just that... I'm staring right at one of the Beast pirates Flagships, Borsalino-San." Markus told the man.

" Hm? Already? Well.... Do your best to stay alive. I will be there shortly, okay?"

" Yeah, I'm gonna need to get back to you on that one. See you soon, Borsalino." Markus hung up the Den Den Mushi just as a large and overwhelming aura bore down on him. Up above, on the very large ship, a giant elephant with long blonde hair and large tusks reared its ugly head. " The beast Pirates huh? I better get a damn hefty promotion for this. Captain, rally your men and evacuate the city. All hells about to break loose."

And that's that, pick up next time when the iron fist meets the Plague. Also Leave me a comment, telling me what you thought of the chapter. And if you'd like for me to try and make some of the fights a little longer.